Death Game: Supernatural Battle (Vampire Towers #3) - Kelly St. Clare Page 0,29

things went to plan, the Indebted could expect more experiences like this. Cruises, private island parties, gambling nights, musicals, and outside cinemas. My life was falling to pieces around me, but their lives had been chaos for decades and centuries. I’d give them as many first experiences—or happy memories—as I could.

“Despite what this turned into,” I said quietly, “you know I intended this night just for their happiness only. There are already more activities in the works.”

She glanced at me. “More?”

“Oh, yeah.” I grinned into my passionfruit elixir.

The vampire sighed, crossing her long legs. “You aren’t entirely to blame for how events unfolded. You were right with one of the observations made in your office.”

The part about Kyros going berserk if I died? “You did gloss over the consequences.”

“You don’t know who I was, do you?” she asked. “Before I was Indebted.”

I pulled a face. “Does it matter?”

She studied me for a long time. “Not usually. Not for a long time. In this instance, it explains the glossing. My mother and father were mates. Not true mates, but when they met, mating was still the mode, so they completed all seven exchanges, and even received two mating gifts.”

“I’ve never heard of anyone else being mated,” I told her.

“Mostly only the very old or the poor do so now.” The vampire swallowed.

“Your mother was killed and your father went berserk?”

She cast me a surprised look. “Correct. He was a king—alpha—and old, so very powerful. His control couldn’t hold after her murder. It took three other kings to kill him. And I inherited his debt. The rest you know.”

Laurel was a princess. Or had been.

Her life was changed forever because her father lost control. Then I’d walked into Fyrlia territory and nearly triggered the same mindless rage in Kyros.

I rubbed my forehead. “Whenever I think I’ve grasped the depth of Kyros’s struggle to control his power, the reality hits me all over again.”

Maybe I really should apologise for putting Kyros in that position. And Safina. And his whole damn family.

“I need to apologise again for placing you guys in that situation,” I told her, lifting my gaze to hers. “It must have opened old wounds.”

The vampire nodded, her black hair slithering forward. “Yes. It also highlighted my weakness in letting painful memories dictate me in small ways after so long. I should have told you.”

I doubted a person could ever get over such a tragic end to their family. “Do you miss your parents, Loz?”

She shot me a look. “I do. They loved each other. Their people loved them.”

Tilting my head to the dancing Indebted, I said, “Much like your people love you.”

Blood welled in her eyes and she blinked rapidly.

“I hope the sick fuck who killed your mother got their reckoning,” I added.

“King Julius let me kill them.”

He had a heart in there somewhere, I knew it. He showed it half as regularly as Christmas, but it was in there.

Still didn’t like him.

Laurel leaned in as I slurped back some more tart, sweet, alcohol goodness.

“You understand Kyros’s power better now. Maybe you understand why some didn’t wish for your union though your combined blood sings. Kyros already rivals some kings for power now with another seventy years until he is fully matured. His power was even evident in the womb, I’ve been told.”

I set down my drink, reading her glimmering expression.

That’s why Mikael was fighting for him? Not because he’d wanted the son of his union with Queen Titania, but because Kyros’s power could be felt before he was born?

Cold, cold bastard.

He wanted to use Kyros.

“He’s going to be really powerful one day, isn’t he?” I asked after an explosion of laughter from the dance floor.

In seventy years, he’d reach maturity. I’d be ninety-two. Surviving that long was something I hoped for while knowing I’d be dead at seventy-five like a good little statistic. The only way to be with Kyros when he matured was to become a Vissimo. If I died, he’d go berserk and be killed too. Yet seeing as my various sources of guilt wouldn’t let me consider our relationship as anything long term, turning into a vampire was still something I refused to contemplate.

Laurel regarded me through hard blue eyes. “One day, he’ll rule all Vissimo, Basi.”

I jerked, frowning at her. Was she serious?

She continued, “He’ll rule us. Or he’ll destroy us. And which path he takes is entirely up to you.”

9

“You’re kidding. Eight percent?” I stared at the screen which currently showed my Churchill team on