Vampire Debt - Supernatural Battle (Vampire Towers #2) - Kelly St. Clare Page 0,105
the real estate is gone,” she said, shooting me an amused look.
I smiled, smoothing my blood-red wrap-around dress. “Sounds good to me.”
My phone chimed as I stepped off the elevator.
“Go ahead.” I searched in my Lili handbag, pulling out my phone.
The message was from Gina.
My eyes narrowed. Tonight was King Julius’s roll. Her timing, yet again, was impeccable.
I clicked on the message.
Do you remember our deal?
Shit.
I typed back.
I remember.
She had an answer already?
I couldn’t be on this level if the news about Grandmother was bad. Or good. Rushing back into the elevator, I pushed Level 65 and paced inside as the lift lurched down a level.
I ran to Kyros’s office as fast as my heels would let me and burst through the doors, taking up my pacing there instead. Shit, shit, shit.
My phone rang.
“What’s happening?” Kyros asked.
I released a pent-up breath. “Nothing. I’m okay. I just got a message from her. I think she has something.”
“… I see. I’ll be right down.”
“No.” I glanced at my watch. 11:56 p.m. “She’ll message back just before the roll. I’ll wait to look until you give your debrief.”
I could feel his frustration. Oddly, that meant something.
“Truly,” I told him. “I’ll wait.”
There were things I wanted to handle by myself—most things. There were others I knew I couldn’t without Tommy. Clearly, I didn’t want to do this without Kyros.
“I’ll be there as soon as I can,” he said.
I nodded—because that made sense on a phone call—and disconnected.
I set the phone on his desk and resumed pacing, trying to keep calm, both for myself and for him.
My phone chimed, and I glanced at my watch.
11:58 p.m.
Yep. I’d called it.
If Gina wasn’t using information about my grandmother’s death to affect Kyros through me, I might’ve admired the tactic.
The phone chimed again.
11:59 p.m.
And again.
00:00 a.m.
I squeezed my eyes closed, perching on the seat in the middle of the room. Fuck me, it was the torture chair.
Oh well. There were worse things in the world. My phone chimed again, and I gripped either side of my head, focusing on my breathing.
Was it good?
Did Grandmother die a natural death? Was there an undiagnosed problem with her heart? Or did the Tonyi triplets visit her that day? Maybe someone else from Clan Fyrlia. Or … I lifted my head, from Clan Sundulus? This clan knew who I really was—most of them anyway. What if someone I liked had gone to see her? What if I’d joked and laughed with them for the last month? What if it was Lionel? Or Angelica… one of my Indebted.
The door hit the wall as Kyros arrived. He strode to the desk and flipped back the panel, entering his code. I crossed the room and grabbed my phone, heading up to his lair.
“I’ll be quick,” I said.
“My seconds have their orders for the night,” he said. “I’ll join my siblings at 2:00 a.m.”
“You don’t have to—”
He leaned down. “Basilia. I’m staying with you.”
I stared into his eyes, my last attempt at bravado melting away before him. “Thank you.”
Kyros took my hand in his and drew me up the stairs to his lair. I drew in a breath that did absolutely nothing to calm me.
“Check it,” he said, giving me space. “Delaying won’t help.”
He was right, but I was so scared to reopen the grief I held over my grandmother. I’d lost my parents to traumatic deaths. But murder. How did a person get over that? How could you ever be okay again?
I was afraid of what knowing would do to me.
“I’m with you,” Kyros said, placing his hands on my shoulders.
Latching onto his steady strength, I slid open the first text from Gina.
I broke into their trophy room
Are any of these your grandmother’s?
The next two texts were images.
Despite the wording of the text, I mentally prepared myself to see my grandmother dying on the bathroom floor. She was out of pain now. I had to remember that.
I opened the first image and my legs buckled with relief. Kyros led me to the couch and I sank down upon it.
“It’s some kind of cat pin,” I whispered even though Kyros was looking over my shoulder. “My grandmother said cats were the devil’s toenails given life. That’s not hers.”
Emboldened, I opened the second.
Blood drained from my face and the phone toppled from my shaking hands. Kyros grabbed the phone, looking at the picture.
“You recognise that?”
Grandmother always smelled like lavender because she kept pouches of dried leaves in her wardrobe. Pouches identical to the one in the picture.