Death Game: Supernatural Battle (Vampire Towers #3) - Kelly St. Clare Page 0,84

a meeting.”

Dame Burke grinned as the others glared at her.

I placed my hands on the armrests. “So what’s it going to be?”

Mr Hothen stroked his jaw.

I hadn’t spoken to him since delivering the news of Sandra’s death. He looked the same as ever, but that meant nothing.

“Some of us have been victims of the beasts for nearly thirty years,” he said. “Our view of the creatures is unlikely to ever change. Which, from my reckoning, is going to become a regular obstacle in our meetings even if we’re united in our overall goal.”

I waited. There was more.

“Our larger concern.” Lady Treena took over. “Is that you’ve been forced into a horrible situation. As such, our new goal with regards to these meetings is to free you from this mating ritual you find yourself trapped in.”

My anger swelled at her comment, but I tempered it as Mr Dithis spoke.

“From what you’ve told us, the end cascade will be triggered in two days. Bitter though it makes us feel, it is time to admit the game is lost. The new focus needs to be protecting you. Your grandmother would have wanted that.”

They wanted to keep me safe.

I inhaled to restore my own perspective. In their shoes, I would be thinking the same thing. They’d watched me grow from baby to child to teen and into adulthood. As they shoved away their families and severed ties to keep them safe from Vissimo, I was always here—their substitute child.

“I know what Grandmother would have wanted,” I said. “To see me happy. Safety doesn’t always equate to happiness. Look at the way she chose to live her life, fighting a more powerful race while living in daily fear. She did that because anything less would have made her unhappy.”

Dame Burke frowned. “That’s what we want too.”

“Your assumption is the belief that freeing me from Kyros will make me happy,” I said gently.

She reeled back.

I regarded the occupants of the table. “I love him.”

Lady Treena covered her mouth, the horror in her eyes plain.

Their shocked disbelief buzzed heavy around the table.

Shrugging a shoulder, I said, “I love a Vissimo.”

Sir Olythieu jolted. “What did you just say?”

“I love Kyros,” I repeated, frowning.

“No,” he whispered. “You said, I love a—” He cut off, staring pointedly at me.

A gasp fled my lips.

I shot to my feet. “Vissimo. Vampires.”

“Sundulus. Fyrlia. Ingenium!” My mouth dried as I met their stares.

I clutched my cheeks with my gloved hands.

“What’s happening?” Mr Hothen said. “Why can you suddenly say everything?”

I struggled to control my harsh breaths.

“He freed her,” Sir Olythieu said. His brows drew together.

I hadn’t felt him doing it—but I was kind of distracted at the time. And maybe releasing a compulsion didn’t feel the same as putting one in place.

“He must have,” I said, my voice faint.

Sitting heavily, I dropped my wide-eyed gaze to the table, my mind working frantically.

“He didn’t tell you?” Mrs Syrre asked.

I wet my lips. “He said I needed to get on a plane with everyone I cared about in two days. Then he said I needed to purchase Indebted to protect myself. He gave me the details to do so.”

“He… gave you an army?” Lady Treena asked.

Closing my eyes, I gathered all my surprise and gratitude and love, pushing it to Kyros. I felt his jolt, followed by a searing warmth tinged with regret.

In some ways, I couldn’t wait to read his mind. Because what the fuck did that mean?

“Are you speaking to him?” Mr Dithis said.

Opening my eyes, I glanced at the man my grandmother had called Pie. “We can hear each other’s thoughts now we’ve completed the sixth exchange, but not from this distance. We haven’t tested that part yet. But we can feel what the other feels, and I can sense where he is.”

Dame Burke leaned forward. “What else?”

“One of your butlers is taking a piss forty metres away,” I said to Sir Olythieu, then jerked my chin to the far wall. “There is a bug flying in the next room.” Inhaling, I sighed. “One of you uses sandalwood body wash.”

Mr Hothen made a small noise.

“I can rip a door off its hinges and run one-hundred metres in seven seconds. A small cut in my skin will heal completely within twelve hours.” I finished. “These are changes that occurred in the fourth and fifth exchanges.”

“And the sixth?” Lady Treena asked.

I tapped my head. “The telepathy.”

As they absorbed that, I collected my thoughts. “Now I know where you all stand, I’d like to make the