House of Royals(65)

I look up at him, surprised at his statement. I take the glass from him and down half of it. “Did you have a Bloodletting?” I ask.

Samuel shakes his head. “Our father used to rule the house before Jasmine. He was a friend of Elijah Conrath’s, had been for a long time. So when Elijah was killed, my father took over. He wanted to grow the House, so he slept around, a lot. Christian and I were the only ones to take. But he always planned to kill us when we reached our prime. We knew it was coming.”

“That’s awful,” I say, shaking my head. And I down the rest of my drink.

“Dying’s not so bad,” he says with a flirtatious smile. “It’s the resurrecting part that’s a bitch.”

I want to demand he explain what he means by that, but he walks off. The party is making its way throughout the House.

“He’s right,” someone whispers into my ear. I turn to see Christian leaning in close. “The resurrection isn’t all that pleasant, but it’s a small second in the grand scheme of an immortal life.”

I swallow hard. As if I wasn’t nervous enough before. “How long have you been a vampire?” I ask instead of looking scared and weak.

“I’m about to hit my sixty-seventh anniversary,” he says with a smile. “Forever twenty-six. My brother forever twenty-four.”

“How did your father die?” I ask. I try not to look at Trinity biting into the neck of a teenage boy in the corner of the room. Or the blood that drips to the floor. Or the glazed-over look in his eyes.

“There’s a reason everyone is afraid of the King,” Christian says as his voice grows darker. “Cyrus came for a visit fifteen years ago. I think he was investigating why we no longer had a Royal. I guess in his multiple millennia lifespan, two hundred years wasn’t so long to get around to it. He’d gone to see Henry, who acted very Henry. Cyrus was mildly annoyed. And so he called a game. If my father could defend himself against two dozen humans—armed humans—the King would instate my father as a fully fledged Royal.”

“He didn’t survive,” I fill in when Christian falters in his story.

He shakes his head. “The King shamed my brother and I. Said our family’s blood had grown weak. That we didn’t deserve leadership of the House. Jasmine took over a week later.”

This House should be mine, but in a way, it should also be Christian or Samuel’s. But there are deep politics in this world, and the demented King controls all.

No wonder everyone is so afraid of him coming here.

“This world is messed up,” I say as a human pours me more wine.

And I mentally slap myself for the thought. I’m already separating myself from my own species. She’s just a person. I’m a human, too.

For the next hour.

A woman walks up to Christian, her hands all over him. She leans in seductively, whispering in his ear. A coy smile forms on his lips. “You’ll have to excuse me. Bianca here has needs I must attend to.”

“You’re disgusting.” Anna walks up and Christian smiles at her as Bianca leads them away.

“They’re both man whores,” Anna says with a shake of her head. “Don’t let their charms fool you.” And the way she says it, I suspect there’s history between her and one of the brothers, maybe even both.

“Samuel has already tried and failed,” I say, remembering the Summer Ball. “Trust me, neither of them holds any attraction to me.”

“Good,” she says with disgust in her voice.

“Can you explain something to me?” I ask as I watch Christian disappear through a door. Cameron is watching Trinity, even as he sinks his fangs into a woman’s neck.

“Of course,” Anna responds.

“These people are here willingly,” I say. “They even seem to be enjoying what’s going on. The House appears to have a constant rotation of Bitten. There’s a connection there, isn’t there?”

Anna nods. “Jasmine has the entire house recruit ‘feeders.’ People who are willing to be fed upon at any time they’re called. We only recruit a few people from Silent Bend, otherwise we cause too much of a stir. Some are from surrounding towns, one or two are even from across the river. But they let us feed on them in exchange for the promise that one day we will turn them.”

“They want to become a Bitten?” I ask in disbelief.

“Humans have long had a fascination with the supernatural,” she continues to explain. “Anything beyond what is their mundane lives. Each of these people here are willing to trade possibly years of servitude in exchange for what little benefits being a Bitten gives them.”