The Vampire Gift 2: Kingdom of(54)
“That was before Bradley’s murder,” Phillip points out.
“Which is even more of a deterrent not to go against the Queen,” Raul says.
“You don’t think Bradley had friends?”
“April wouldn’t be their target. Mother considers her unimportant.” Raul’s eyes sweep over me. “Only Eleira matters to her.”
“But April matters to me,” I say. “Everybody knows she’s my friend. I’m strong enough to protect myself. April isn’t! She’s only human. What if Phillip’s right, what if she’s been taken hostage, what if they mean this as a warning, what if this is somebody getting back at us…”
I trail off. I’m going in circles.
“We still have to find her,” I finish lamely.
“What’s to say she didn’t just walk out of the infirmary on her own?” Raul asks.
Phillip shakes his head. “She couldn’t have. Not in the condition she was in when I saw her last.”
“Fine,” Raul says. “We’ll look for her. But the three of us stay together. We can’t risk being seen apart. With Mother acting so impetuously, we have to present a unified front. We don’t yet know which of the other vampires is on our side. And if Phillip’s right, and April’s been taken hostage… that means we do not have much time.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
SMITHSON
I drag the cuffed human girl behind me through the dank, underground tunnels of The Haven. When I came across her alone, unprotected, and unguarded in the infirmary, I couldn’t believe my luck. April was exactly the one I needed to get an “in” with Eleira.
A few rare, precious, gold coins from a bygone era slipped to the doctor was all it took to get him to turn a blind eye.
I shove April into a chair and rip the tape off her mouth. Her eyes are red and bloodshot. She’s trembling from the cold. Her entire body seems weak, fragile, and pale.
Few humans can lose as much blood as she has and still remain standing. The fact she is conscious is a testament to her internal strength. Usually, I’d respect that—find it attractive, even.
But there’s nothing attractive about the murderous way she glares at me with those eyes.
“What do you want?” she demands. Her voice is stronger than I would have thought possible. “Are you trying to frighten me? If you think I haven’t seen this before—” she glances around the dark and enclosed dirt space, “—you’re sorely mistaken. I’ve seen this, and experienced worse, at the hands of your guards. You don’t scare me, Smithson. For you to scare me, I’d need to be afraid of death.” She laughs. “Right now, I’d welcome it.”
“Is that why you let Phillip feed?” I ask. I lower my voice. “You don’t know what that cost me.”
“I don’t care to know. You’re a nobody.”
“You forget yourself, little girl.” I rise up. “I am Captain Commander of the Queen’s Royal Guard.”
She snickers. “You’ve been here less than a month. You come from the Outside and strut about like you own the place. Yet you know nothing. You think you intimidate me? I’m under the Queen’s protection. Dragging me underground, chaining me to a chair? Cheap tactics. I’m unimpressed.”
“Are you, now?” I ask softly. I pull up a stool beside her and sit so our eyes are level. “What if I told you that I know who you are? Not who you pretend to be—but who you really are.”
Her eyes narrow a fraction of an inch. “I’d call you a liar. And a fraud.”
“Is that so?” I clamp a hand on her leg, pressing my claws into her thigh just short of drawing blood. “I know you’re no ordinary girl. I know you belong to a long line of humans, all of whom were born into an ancient cult called the Fang Chasers. Isn’t that right?”
Her sharp intake of breath is all I need to confirm my suspicions.
“The Fang Chasers are an obsessive cult devoted to one thing,” I continue. “Falling into the hands of vampires and being given the Gift of eternal life.”
April’s eyes widen in horror. She shies back.
The grin on my face is nothing short of maniacal. “You see, dear girl? I know more than you think. Certainly more than the vampires who’ve been sheltering you above ground do. But tell me—not one of them has offered you what you seek. Have they? And you know as well as I do… your time is running out.”
I press my claws into her skin and sidle a tiny bit closer. “The Fang Chasers have a strict series of rules. No human can be turned after the age of twenty-four. They don’t believe in, ahem…” I clear my throat maliciously, “…wasting the Gift on someone who’s already peaked, in human years.”