The king’s eye twitched. “A rule has been broken. You’ve most boldly entered into a relationship with a human. Would you have us ignore your insubordination?”
“Who will make the ruling on what you have done?” Jonas shouted. “Leaving her in a position to die is the same as killing her. So is sending another vampire to put her in harm’s way.”
“Ah yes, Seymour. He agreed to the mission in exchange for his mate’s freedom. When he didn’t report back with his progress, I assumed he’d failed and executed her for the crime of feeding from a human.” He tapped his lips. “Though I can’t imagine what happened to Seymour. Care to fill me in?”
Jonas stared back unflinchingly, intuition telling him to leave the question unanswered. The longer he could keep his new abilities to himself, the better off he would be if he needed to fight. “Don’t distract from the issue. You’ve tried to kill my mate, too. Twice.”
The smallest dash of regret bloomed in Clarence’s eyes, but it was masked immediately. “I wondered if you’d figure it out. Well done.”
“Why?” Jonas worked to steady his voice. How easily his sire admitted to subjecting him to unimaginable pain. “Why kill her and not me?”
“Is it so outlandish that I desire to have my only son reign at my side?” shouted the king. “That you would covet the accolade so many would kill for?”
Jonas hid his shock over Clarence’s vehemence. “If that is so, if you are being truthful and you care anything for me, please accept my vow of fealty in exchange for…a life with her. A life out of this Order’s reach.”
The king’s eyes widened just slightly, enough to let Jonas know he’d surprised him. “First you choose your precious conscience over the life I offered you. Now you choose a human girl over the honor of sitting on the High Order? How many times do you think I’ll allow you to humiliate me?”
“I do not seek to humiliate.”
“It matters not. Perhaps I’ll give you what you want, my son. Perhaps I’ll sentence you to death. Once you’re gone, I’ll no longer have a reason to fear a challenge.” He cast a look just beyond Jonas’s shoulder. “Isn’t that right, Larissa?”
Jonas reeled from the shock of Ginny’s stepmother waltzing past him in a crimson robe, her movements so smooth, she didn’t seem to touch the ground at all. She curtseyed to the High Order and folded her hands at her waist. She’d just opened her mouth to speak when the suited vampire who’d greeted Jonas at the elevator reentered the room. “King, we have visitors.”
The king’s mouth turned down at the corners. He beckoned the suited servant forward, gesturing for him to come closer. The vampire whispered in Clarence’s ear and he started to laugh, quietly at first, then louder and louder.
Fear prickled Jonas’s skin for the first time. He watched the staircase with the anxiety writhing in his bones. It couldn’t be Ginny. It couldn’t be. But he didn’t like the way his sire watched and waited for his reaction, almost gleeful in his anticipation.
God no. What was this?
The pure scent of Ginny reached him and a bellowed denial ripped out of his throat with such force, he tasted blood. And when she came into view, he could barely register what his eyes were telling him, the scene was such an abomination to his senses. Elias dragged—dragged—his Ginny into the gigantic hall by her hair.
“Oh my God. What is this?” she screamed, twisting in Elias’s grip. “Why are you doing this? Please let me go, let me go, let me go. I just want to go home.”
Jonas’s vision tripled and swarmed back together, his equilibrium diminished almost entirely. Somehow he remained standing under the weight of denial. Ginny in this place. His mate surrounded by beings that could break her neck with the snap of a finger. Vulnerable. Scared. Brought here by a man he’d considered his best friend. No. No.
Was she hurt? Jesus Christ. This betrayal couldn’t be happening.
He’d been prepared to exchange his life for her safety and now she was in the midst of wolves. Exposed. No. Please God no.
“Elias,” Jonas shouted, sounding and feeling like a wounded animal. “What have you done?” Elias threw Ginny down to the ground and she looked up at Jonas…
…as if she didn’t know him. Had never met him in her life. Her gaze went right through him like a sword cutting into water, her pulse erratic and wild, like it had been when she fell from the bridge. “Ginny?” With a shaking hand extended, he went toward her, intending to pick her up, cradle her, find the injuries and try to heal them. Now now now. It was his duty and he craved them, even in the midst of his utter terror. “Come to me, love. I’ll make it all right. I won’t let them hurt you.”