“What are you talking about, servant?” His eyes narrowed in a glare. “Have you no respect for your betters?” His head snapped to one of the door guards behind Eva. “Wedge,” he said with a snap of his fingers, “find out what that smell is.”
“No need,” Eva said. “It is the smell of one of your vampires, dead in the bathroom.”
Serena moved next to Eva, placing a hand on her shoulder. “There may be more vampires in this coven,” she whispered, her cold lips so close that they brushed against Eva’s ear, “ones not present that are lacking your blood. Be careful, we do not need more enemies.”
“Treachery,” Kuvon snarled, looking around the room. “Lucas? Where is Lucas–”
He kicked the table in front of him.
Serena had to grab hold of both Eva and Nel to jerk them out of the way.
It was a good thing she had done so. With how nauseous Eva felt, there was no way she would have done anything on her own. The heavy wooden table would have crashed straight into her.
The bartender pulled something out from beneath the counter. Judging by the clicking sound and how he was holding it, it was a shotgun. The guard who had not been ordered to search around walked up behind the group while the other seated vampire moved up as well.
Some of the thralls joined their masters in encircling Eva, Serena, and Nel. The rest fell back to give them more room to fight.
“Lucas is dead, boss!” the absent guard said. “Torn in two!”
Kuvon gnashed his teeth. “What did you shits do?” he growled out.
“We met you out of courtesy, Lord Kuvon,” Serena said, keeping her voice neutral. “If you are allied with our enemy, you are our enemy.”
“No one here would dare–”
“Your deceased vampire,” Eva cut in. “He dared. He slipped away to call his real master and inform him of our presence. Sawyer did not answer, but I imagine it won’t be long before he tries to call back.
“Why else would a vampire be in the bathroom, alone and with a cellphone lying near his corpse?”
She hoped that she was right in that vampires did not use bathrooms. It would help cast more suspicion on the dead vampire.
Not that she really cared. All the posturing and hidden politics during their meeting tonight was
Serena was alright on her own, but if she never had to interact with a group of vampires again, it would be too soon.
“You killed him. How? You didn’t–” His eyes widened mid sentence. “The blood. You’ve done something to the blood.”
Eva shook her head. “The blood is perfectly normal. For its source, anyway. It will not harm you… so long as you do not betray us.”
“Betray you?” he shouted. “You are the ones who have betrayed us! Violating the sanctity of the dwelling you were invited into?”
Serena winced. Perhaps some sort of unwritten rules for vampires. It was probably a big deal, but then, Eva wasn’t a vampire.
Maybe it was time to reveal that fact.
Pulling off her gloves, Eva stretched her fingers out before removing her blindfold.
With a slight sigh, Eva just shook her head. Seeing with her own eyes had started the double-vision up again. She tried to keep the nausea from showing on her face as she spoke.
“I am no vampire. Your rules are beneath me. My only concern is the necromancer.”
“You’re a demon.”
Eva smiled, licking her lips with her tongue. It was another inhuman part of her. She might as well show it off for the intimidation factor.
Kuvon glowered, but his fists were no longer clenched in fury. The vampires around him didn’t look quite so sure of how to act. The bartender still held his shotgun, pointing it at them. Both guards glanced at each other after the second walked up. The extra vampire just shifted, one foot moving backwards but still looking ready to fight at a single word from Kuvon.
“Here is my question to you, the one that will determine who leaves here alive. Were you lying earlier, when you said that necromancers were ‘bad business’?”
“I was not,” he said in a slow, calm voice.
“Excellent. We can all be friends.”
“You killed Lucas,” he said, fists clenched again.
“I did. And I will kill
“That said,” Eva smiled again, “if anyone wants to help attack the necromancer, we do have more stores of that blood as payment.”
