Meal tonight,” he said and was gone, moving with that strange, almost supernatural speed which always made Alli feel like she was seeing things.
But right now, all she was seeing were tears. They blurred her vision and blinded her. So much for loving the big Kru’ell One. No matter how many pretty things Kane said to her, it was clear she was nothing but sustenance to him. Then again, what else should she have expected from an emotional vampire, Alli asked herself.
She’d been a fool to ever let herself care for him.
Well, from now until the end of her stay, she was going to keep to her room and see Kane as little as possible. She was determined to keep to herself and ignore him.
At least, those were her intentions. But that was before the Summons…
Twenty-Three
Kane frowned at the piece of parchment unrolled before him. Alli could tell whatever was written on it was bothering him, though she didn’t know why. It had been delivered by special messenger—a sub-space drone which had come all the way from Earth and brought it to the door of his fortress just as they were sitting down to eat.
Reluctantly, she decided to break her silence, though she had been determined not to speak to the big Kru’ell One through the entire dinner.
“What is it?” she asked, nodding at the parchment. “And why didn’t they just send you an email or whatever? Why the need for a drone to come all the way from Earth?”
Kane’s face creased into a grim expression.
“It’s a Summons,” he said shortly and went back to perusing the elaborately scripted parchment.
“Well that makes everything as clear as mud,” Alli said dryly. “A Summons from who? What does it mean?”
At last, Kane looked up at her. Alli saw that his eyes were hard.
“A Summons from the Overlord,” he growled. “The head of my kind—the leader of the Kru’ell Ones. And he doesn’t fuck around with electronic communications—not with a feast of this importance.”
“A feast?” Alli raised her eyebrows. “Is it something you have to go to?”
“I do,” Kane said. “And you do as well—I’m supposed to bring my current concubine.” He shook his head. “Gods damn it—this is going to be fucking dangerous.”
“Dangerous?” Alli felt a chill skitter down her spine. “Dangerous how? What are you talking about?”
“Dangerous in that the Overlord is notoriously unpredictable,” Kane growled. “That’s how he’s remained Overlord for as long as he has—it’s not an elected position. He killed twenty other warriors to get to where he is today.”
Alli didn’t like the sound of that at all.
“Do you really have to go? Can’t you make some kind of excuse?”
Kane frowned.
“If you had ever met the Overlord, you’d know that no excuse would be good enough to miss an event he has personally invited you to. No…” He shook his head. “We’ll have to make an appearance.” He stabbed a finger at Alli. “But you are going to have to keep a low profile, Allisandra. I don’t want you drawing any unwanted attention to yourself.”
Alli frowned.
“Unwanted attention? From who? And how can I keep a low profile?”
“You’ll have to act like all the other concubines,” Kane told her.
“But…how do they act?” Alli shook her head. “I don’t understand.”
“You’ll see,” he said darkly. “Gods, I hate to subject you to this, but I have no choice.” He shook his head. “At least it’s only one event. We should be able to get through a single feast with no incident…I hope.”
Alli hoped so too, but she had a bad feeling about the upcoming feast. A very bad feeling indeed.
Twenty-Four
The Earth of Kane’s universe was a gray and colorless place.
Part of that was because of the thick layer of clouds which blanketed the entire planet. Kane had explained that the sensitive eyes of the Kru’ell Ones, which were capable of seeing into another person’s soul, were ill-adapted to stand direct sunlight. Using terraforming machines, the Kru’ell Ones had covered the Earth in clouds, remaking the planet in their own image and better suiting it to their needs.
They had bent the humans who lived there to their will as well. Alli saw that first-hand as Kane drove his shuttle through the streets of Washington DC. In her world, the US government still had its buildings and institutions in the capital city. On Kane’s Earth, these had been removed or rebuilt for the use of the Kru’ell One Kindred who had taken over.
The streets which led to the Overlord’s palace—which was located where