Wicked Deal (Shadow Guild: The Rebel 2)

“I was strong and clever. For some reason, after I’d been turned, I retained parts of myself. My cunning, my charm.” He shook his head, regret in every movement. “It makes it worse, somehow. That my mind was still partially there, even as I committed terrible atrocities.”

“Did you like it?”

“Like it?” He met my gaze, confusion in his eyes. “I…don’t know. I hated myself even then. Hated what I was doing. But I couldn’t control it. The need would come over me like a black mist.”

“Yet you survived,” I said again.

“My skills helped me evade capture for years. Eventually, I created a small empire here in Transylvania.”

All the myths were true, and I was sitting across from the man himself. The murderer.

I drew in a shaky breath. “What happened?”

“As the years went on, I shook off the effects of the turning. I was able to force the bloodlust down deep, far away to a place where it couldn’t influence me. But before that happened, I made an alliance.”

“With this Ivan.”

“You’re perceptive.”

“It’s the only direction this could possibly go.”

“Ivan was worse than me, if possible. Not a vampire, but a mage out of control with power. Once I’d regained my senses, I no longer wanted to kill.” His gaze met mine. “Don’t think that means I’m not still a monster. I manipulate and threaten and compel others to get what I want. But I no longer murder senselessly.”

“Oh, don’t worry. I don’t think you’re a saint.”

The corner of his lips quirked in a small, wry smile. “I don’t know why I ever thought I had a chance at you.”

Shock lanced me, and I stilled.

His gaze shuttered, as if he hadn’t meant to say that. He continued speaking. “Ivan and I had a gang of supernaturals who fought for us.” He touched his shoulder. “All were marked as I was. As Ivan was. The only way to stop them was to take out Ivan

.”

“But he’s alive.”

“Now he is. He was immortal—rare among supernaturals—and impossibly strong. Even harder to kill than I am. I incapacitated him and trapped him in a tomb at the bottom of the sea.”

I could feel my eyes widen.

“I knew he’d be there a long time,” he said. “But I’d hoped it would be for longer. It appears he managed to rise recently.”

“And he’s restarted your empire.”

He nodded.

“But why attack Guild City?”

“To get back at me. He said he’d take everything I love.”

“You love Guild City?”

“What else do I have?”

Shoot. He had a point. From what I’d seen, he lived a shadowy, lonely life. Wealth and power of unimaginable scale, sure, but it wasn’t a life I would want. Especially now that this Ivan was back from the dead. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Would you want to tell the worst of your past?”

“If it was like yours, no.”