Blood Trial Supernatural Battle (Vampire Towers #1) - Kelly St. Clare Page 0,44
slumped forward, my entire body trembling. The first burst of the adrenaline injection had dissipated, but the uncomfortable wired feeling under my skin was still present.
“I think she’s telling the truth,” the same man said.
Kyros stood before me, his stance wide. “We can’t know that. She could be under their blood compulsion. Unless we break through it, we won’t know for sure.”
Angelica hovered just behind him. “Sir, if Miss Tetley is telling the truth, and she has only just discovered we exist, she’ll need to be compelled by blood regardless. Or be dealt with.”
There it was. The declaration of my doom from the same fucking woman who’d hired me.
My ragged inhales and exhales disturbed the pregnant silence.
You will always succeed.
I had to try.
For my grandmother’s sake. For Tommy. They’d never know what happened to me.
“I won’t say anything,” I managed, the lingering adrenaline shaking my voice.
Everyone but Angelica laughed quietly.
“Why do they always say that?” Business Shoes asked.
My head snapped up. I glowered at the sandy blond. “Because I want to live, you fucking dumbass.”
The room hushed.
Angelica hummed. “They don’t usually say that.”
The man scowled at her, and she smirked.
Kyros stepped closer, and I slammed back against the chair, fully craning my neck as he approached. He was a demon. A beast. A soulless evil. He—
“There has been a mistake, Miss Tetley,” he said, crouching to undo my shackles. He took my shaking hands in his after. “If not for your own mistakes, and for a disobedient young member of my clan, you would not be in this position. Yet here you are, and now we must proceed. You have said that you wish to survive. Noting that, there’s one path forward. Blood compulsion is a permanent insurance that you won’t bring harm to my people. If you go through with the compulsion, it will guarantee you don’t share the secret of our kind. You’ll live, with restrictions.”
“Which are?” I found myself asking the monster.
Business Shoes snickered. “Is she negotiating?”
Angelica’s brows were climbing too.
“You will work for me until I determine whether you’re trustworthy or not. If not, you will undergo a further compulsion to mute you regarding anything to do with Kyros Sky and Live Right—not only your knowledge about our race. Let me tell you from experience, Miss Tetley, secrets can destroy relationships unlike anything else and so destroy you in the doing.”
Angelica and Business Shoes exchanged a glance.
Kyros’s eyes remained locked with mine, but he didn’t seize control of me as before. “You will stay in this tower for the duration of your trial. Those are the restrictions.”
The choice wasn’t hard. I was strapped to a chair and the alternative was death. “What is the duration of the trial?”
Business Shoes cracked another smirk.
“However long I decide.” Kyros reached over and undid my restraints.
I rubbed my raw wrists. “I accept.”
“Very wise,” he said drily.
Angelica cleared her throat. “Twenty minutes until the dice roll, sir.”
What that meant, I had no clue. Maybe all vampires gathered for Yahtzee on a Sunday night. High-pitched laughter caught in my throat. I doubled over, snorting and choking.
Vampires playing Yahtzee. It was in my head now. Shit.
Ringing hoots erupted from my lips, and I cradled my stomach, slithering down on the chair until my head rested on the back.
“Is she okay in the head, Kyros?”
“No.”
It wasn’t enough to hunt me and torture me. No. He had to insult me too. Loathing ripped through my weary body as the laughter siphoned away.
“Fifteen minutes,” Angelica announced.
“Let’s get this over with.” Kyros bent down.
I slapped at his hands as he made to pick me up. Unsurprisingly, that stopped him not one single bit. His arm circled my back, the other beneath my knees.
“Sir,” Angelica said slowly. “Surely you don’t mean to complete the blood compulsion yourself.”
“She’s right, Kyros. That’s a job for someone else. You need your head in the game tonight.”
“I can try to smooth the incident over in her mind,” Angelica said, darting a look at me.
The vampire holding me considered her words. “There is none more skilled to do the job, but the incident is traumatic. Her mind won’t let go of what happened.”
“Let one of your seconds do it.” The sandy blond cut in.
“If someone from Fyrlia has compelled her to be here, then my blood will break through all holds but one.”
Both vampires bowed.
I kind of felt like a fox pelt or something. Kyros wasn’t affected by my weight in the slightest.