Vampire Debt - Supernatural Battle (Vampire Towers #2) - Kelly St. Clare Page 0,123

cry.

I couldn’t fathom anything through the agony.

I had to force away the sound, but I couldn’t remember how.

I thrashed in the barrel, breaking from my crouch as I tried to force the lid off. My nails scratched at the inside, and I threw my body against the walls in a bid to push the barrel over.

No more!

I shoved my fingers in my ears and submerged under the water to no effect. Knives were stabbing into my ears over and over. It had to end.

Breaking the surface for air, my vision began to blacken.

So much pain.

“Enough,” a voice said.

The lid was removed. I couldn’t have lifted a finger to resist as two of the triplets hauled me out. They threw me to the ground and I rolled, drawing my legs underneath me. My hands shook either side of my ears. They felt blistered and raw—a pulpy mess.

“Father,” the triplet behind me said.

“Theodore, Gina has informed me that you have Kyros’s human embarrassment down here.”

Gina was here.

I lowered my hands, raising my head gradually so I didn’t pass out.

A hazel gaze, not Gina’s, slammed into me and I immediately lowered mine.

Gina stood next to her father, along with five other Vissimo who I assumed were the other royal siblings. I recognised one of the sisters and one of the brothers from the basement.

The king’s eyes were heavy on me, and I sagged as his gaze shifted. “Who is the other human?”

“Her best friend, Father,” Tynan replied. “It’s how we lured her here.”

King Mikhail ambled closer. “Why is it that you lured her here?”

I glanced at Trenit, catching the flicker in his eyes before he dropped his head in a small bow.

“Because she killed our beloved youngest brother, my king.”

Gina’s gaze flicked to me and away.

My head hurt like shit, but I couldn’t afford to stand here. Gina had brought her father to this chamber. Assuming she was trying to help, I had to figure out how to work his presence to my advantage. The stone-cold truth was that she couldn’t and wouldn’t protect me against her family.

Whatever hand Gina was playing, it didn’t include championing me.

The king was able to keep the triplets in check. I knew that he wanted to win the game.

Think, Basi.

“What is your name?” the king demanded. My body seized, but I was already on the ground.

I craned my head. “Basilia Le Spyre.” Like he didn’t already know.

“The richest woman in Bluff City, Father,” the triplet answered.

Why was the king pretending he knew nothing about me? It was as though he and the triplets were playing some kind of game—the wink-wink-nudge-nudge kind of conversations adults had when kids were in the room.

Theodore stepped forward. “We began collecting information on this human several months ago. The staff lives onsite, making them hard to approach, but we discovered the daughter and heiress of the Le Spyre fortune only had one friend. I took the liberty of getting to know her.”

I tensed, rage splicing me.

He’d had sex with Tommy. He’d utterly played her and used her body while digging for information on me. I felt fucking sick at the thought of her happy face and our conversation the night before.

“There’s no online information about Miss Le Spyre,” he continued.

Daniel was fucking amazing at his job and he’d been around since my parents died. There weren’t pictures or records of me online whatsoever. People knew my name, but I was a mystery to anyone who hadn’t met me in person.

“When we had enough information from her human friend, we went to pay her grandmother a visit.”

A quick peek told me that news surprised the king not one bit. My jaw clenched. The king already knew all of this. Which meant he was playing dumb. He had some kind of deal with the triplets. They did his dirty work, and in turn, they took the rap when it came to light?

Gina exchanged a dark look with another of her siblings.

Yep, I was on to something.

Which meant the king ordered the triplets to kill me. How the fuck was I meant to work around that?

“Unfortunately, the grandmother’s old heart couldn’t hack our interrogation. If we’d known that, we would have compelled her at the start and saved time,” Theodore said, smirking at me.

I’d said I didn’t want to kill again.

How wrong I was.

I might not even be above torture.

Trenit took over, hand on his machete. “Agatha Le Spyre told us her granddaughter was away at finishing school, but we knew she’d be back for