Blood Debt (Kingdom of Blood #1) - Callie Rose Page 0,74

too quick for me to see, she seizes his face in her hands and forces his mouth open.

“Tribute—by the magic of the Cruor Chalice and the traditions of the Vampire Court, I hereby bind you to Althea Antoinette Andreanakis, your mistress and one love from this moment until your last mortal breath.”

As she speaks, Lizbeth pours the liquid into his mouth. He’s fighting, not swallowing, but nothing splashes out of his mouth. She empties the chalice into him, every last drop. I can see it moving down his throat even though he’s doing nothing to help it along.

When the chalice is empty, Lizbeth steps back. Althea takes her place and kneels in front of Nathan, a posture that would almost seem lovingly submissive if it weren’t for the killer gleam in her eye. She bares her teeth, tilting her head dramatically back, then sinks her fangs into him.

She isn’t gentle. Not even close. She gnaws on him, letting blood spill messily down his neck to his shoulder, making disgusting animal grunts the whole time.

I can’t breathe. My chest has locked up so tight that my lungs will no longer accept air. I don’t even know if my heart is beating.

Nathan isn’t fighting anymore. There’s a blissful haze over his features, and all the fight is gone from his eyes.

She has him.

She’s won.

Now there’s no one to stop her from killing him or torturing him as she pleases. I expect her to do it here and now, right in front of me, but she doesn’t. Instead, she closes him up—though not with the same care or compassion that I’ve felt and seen from others, just a swipe of her tongue—then leans away from him.

“Who do you serve, Nathan?”

“Althea,” he breathes.

My blood runs like ice. I’ve heard him sound like that before, when he’s in the middle of a bad spell and he finally gets his hands on a fix.

“Who do you love?” Althea asks, narrowing her eyes at me before shooting a hostile glance at the doorway. Maureen must still be watching.

“Only Althea,” Nathan murmurs. “Althea, my mistress.”

She grins. “Good boy,” she purrs, patting him on the head. “Come along now, there’s nothing interesting left to do—in here.”

With blood still coating her lips and chin, she gives him a hooded look that sends shivers down my spine. I squeeze my eyes shut against the unwelcome imagery of what she could do to him in private, but open them again as she starts to drag him from the room. He’s not even looking at me, too focused on his new mistress, but I force myself to watch him go. To witness the full brunt of my failure.

Once Nathan and Althea are gone, the atmosphere of the entire room seems to shift as, one by one, all eyes turn to me. Now I’m the center of attention, and it makes my blood feel like ice water.

“A hunter,” the old man growls between his teeth, leaning toward me. “The same punishment cannot be meted out to her. Hunters cannot be permitted to live.”

Lizbeth nods grimly. “On this we agree, Tyresius.”

The rest of the Elders at the table, the ones who haven’t yet spoken, voice their own agreements. It’s unanimous—except for Bastian, who still hasn’t said a word.

I search for his eyes, and he finally allows me to see them, meeting my gaze. His face is hard. Impassive. That’s all it takes for me to realize he won’t go against the Elders in this. Even if he could, he wouldn’t. I can see the pain in his eyes, the resolve in his spine when his gaze brushes over my weapons.

His parents were slaughtered in front of him by the likes of me. I wonder if the weapons they used were the same.

I breathe, calling on my hunter zen. I’m not planning to hunt, but I’ve seen enough death to know that I don’t want to die panicking. I straighten, battered and bruised, and meet Bastian’s gaze defiantly. The least I can do is make sure this memory sticks with him for the next couple hundred years.

“Did you not hear, tribute?” Tyresius demands. “You are to be put to death for your crimes.”

“To me and mine, I have committed no crimes,” I shoot back, letting the truth of it ring through my voice. “I took my life in my hands the moment I chose to defend humanity from the likes of you.”

He snarls at me and makes a sharp gesture in the air. Vampires move in