Chained - Zara Novak Page 0,33

thought it would be good to know.” I swallowed at the knots tying my throat.

“You thought correct. It was my intention to tell you before meeting them. Xavier Vigliati is a powerful ally, one that each of the five families desperately would like to affiliate with. Right now, the Cartello family is the strongest presence in our world, and Vigliati knows this is. We are also the least volatile.”

“Volatile?” I asked.

“You might think me a psychopathic degenerate, slave, and on some counts you are right, but you do not know my contemporaries. The heads of the other vampire families, those that like to call themselves my equals, they are barbarians when compared to me.”

“If you are the obvious choice then why would Vigliati not make the alliance with you?”

A few moments passed before he answered. We turned onto a grand staircase and descended. “I am not sure. I believe it is some sort of personal grudge. I am obviously the best candidate to lead our world forward. The other families would have us all at war, I am the only one that can guarantee peace, profit and power for us all. Vigliati doesn’t like me though, he never has.”

“So, he has sent his three daughters to interrogate you.”

“Something like that,” he said. “I imagine they have a request. An impossible task that cannot be met. Vigliati will use this task as another reason to discount my empire. I expected a meeting at some point, but not now, and I did not expect to accommodate his daughters. That part bewilders me the most.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Because his eldest son is the heir to the Vigliati family. Eric Vigliati. He is the one I would deal with, so why not let me forge the relationship with him?”

Maybe Vincent couldn’t see the answer, but it was obvious to me as soon as he asked the question. “Because you don’t send a man to do a woman’s job,” I said, actually stopping this time as we reached the bottom of the stairs. Vincent might not have realized it, but I could already tell that he was walking into this meeting at a disadvantage.

“What do you mean?” he said, turning and looking at me with a note of sincerity in his red eyes. It was a side I hadn’t seen to him so far. He genuinely needed me for something other than just sex. He needed my mind.

“Who would you rather argue against, a man or a woman?” I asked.

“A man,” he answered.

“Why?”

He shrugged as if the question was stupid. “There aren’t many out there that scare me, but even I know better to go picking a fight with a woman. Behind every great man…”

“Exactly,” I said. “God might have given man strength, but he gave women brains. What better way to use that power than to keep those hunter-gatherers in line?”

“This is a trap,” Vincent said in realization. “Vigliati has sent three assassins to cut me down with words. I have already lost.”

“Is that why you wanted me here?” I said. “So you had a woman on your side?”

“I wanted you here because appearance is everything. Vigliati is very old-fashioned. He doesn’t respect vampire leaders without female slaves.”

Odd. Very odd. “What, why?”

“Eyes forward. They are only moments away. They aren’t ordinary women, remember that. I doubt we have any chance of coming out of this without a straight loss. Let’s just try and minimize the damage. Vigliati’s daughters are the personification of the word bitch.” I just smirked. Vincent glanced at me. “Something funny, slave?”

“Let’s just see,” I said. Vincent might have been cautious. What chance did one man have against three banshees? I on the other hand felt right at home. These women might have been vampires, but deep down we were communicating on the same level. I talked their language, but I had one added vantage.

Several long years of arguing as a profession.

Let the baptism of fire begin.

I stared at the room around us as we waited. It appeared to be another entrance to the castle, not the one Vincent had brought me through when we first arrived here. Two giant doors stood twenty feet ahead of us, both at least three-stories tall. Vincent and I waited in silence for a moment and then the doors opened. The giant hinges whistled under the weight of the wood.

A small group of Vincent’s men walked through, and behind them were the daughters. The three of them were remarkably beautiful, in ways that inspired fear and