To Kill a Vampire - A.K. Koonce Page 0,5

across my chest as my fists clench uncontrollably. Outrage shakes through me at his simple explanation.

“And you work closely with Michael?”

My attention darts back to the plotting hybrid across from me. He knows. Declan knows Michael is Fallon’s father. How does he know that? Did she tell him?

“Yes. He trained me in the department.” Hesitation fills Ayden’s voice. He looks skeptically at the hybrid.

“I think it would be nice if Fallon toured the Capitol,” I finally say, the forced smile falling back into place against my lips. I hate the words coming from my mouth right now. But Fallon told me what she wants, and I’ll do anything she asks right now; anything to get to Atticus a little faster. Even if a war is a minor detour along the way.

“They give tours there, right?”

Ayden’s brows lower impossibly further, shadowing his dark eyes into a black depthless pool of inky color. “No. They don’t.”

I hold his gaze, my ridiculous smiling demeanor staring down into his anger-shrouded confusion.

“Too bad. Fallon was just telling me this morning how much she missed you,” Luca tells him. The confusion in the man shifts from angry to hopeful in an instant. The lines around his speculating eyes smooth into a look of optimism. He looks to Luca as she says, “I think she misses her old life more than she lets on.”

For a moment I’m staring wide eyed at Luca. How much of this is a game and how much of it is honesty?

“If you asked Michael, do you think he’d allow her to visit?” Luca asks him with a sweet and innocent look touching her smooth caramel features. “Or you could always sneak her in, right?”

Ayden swallows hard before nodding slowly. “Michael would have to put in a request with President Docile. His day for visitation was last month, but he never takes it. We’ll figure it out.”

“Perfect,” Luca says with a shining white smile.

We’re taking a vampire into the mortal’s Capitol.

Perfect.

Four

You Shouldn’t Have Come

Fallon

The endlessly smooth and perfect planes of wood that stretch along the frame of the ship are the most artistically man-made piece of perfection I’ve ever seen. The restless waves of the ocean sway the structure ever so subtly as my fingers run along the sturdy and smooth boards

“What do you use this for?”

Kaino folds his large arms across his chest as his features become impossibly more tense. The white moonlight is eaten up in his dark shining eyes.

“We—have a use for naval ships.” His gaze avoids mine as he assesses the white sails against the dark sky.

I study the werewolf for a few moments. The mystics have a “use for naval ships”… What kind of use?

“If you’d like to use it for a short period of time, no one will notice its absence. Shane and I will escort you on your journey, of course.”

“You don’t have to do that,” I reply with haste.

He cocks an eyebrow at me in doubt. Turning upwind, he keeps his scent safely away from me. “Do you know how to sail, Princess?”

My jaw clenches tight, my incisors biting into the inside of my lip at the sound of the nickname. So much has changed, and yet I’m still the same to them.

“No.”

“Shane’s an excellent sailor.” A small proud smile pulls at Kaino’s tense mouth. Almost nervously he glances at me, and the near happiness is smothered out before it progresses any further. He shifts his bulky weight before replying, “I’ll tell my father we’re doing another sweep of the coast for other mystics. He won’t look into our trip or notice the missing ship. We can leave tomorrow just before dawn.”

A split second is all that needs to slip through my hungry mind for me to know that the two of them joining me is two too many. Will I be able to control the burning need for blood, or will the beautiful ship meet the sandy shores of the Capitol with only a ghost crew where Kaino and Shane once stood?

I swallow hard as I look out at the inky shifting waves. “How long is the trip?”

“Two days at the most.”

Two long and insufferable days.

The werewolves’ normally soundless steps land hurriedly and harshly against the deck of the ship. From my cabin below, I turn with discomfort in my bed with my eyes glued to the small, locked door across from me. If I just keep myself locked away for two days, everyone will be safe.

Maybe I’ll do this for the rest of