Vampire Debt - Supernatural Battle (Vampire Towers #2) - Kelly St. Clare Page 0,127

screams, big brother.”

I fixed him with a flat look. “Get on with it, little boy. Kyros isn’t going to love you any more for the narration.”

Behind the camera, his hazel eyes flashed, but he forced a laugh. “That’s not what you were saying before when you were calling yourself a stupid whore.”

I let his words wash over me, glancing at Theodore, who’d pulled out a small blade from his boot.

Gina stepped forward. “The magnanimous King Mikhail decrees that despite the declaration of war from our eldest brother’s true mate, she shall be given a fighting chance. Prince Theodore, if you fight with a blade, she does too.”

I blinked as my vision adjusted and blurred, lifting the bottom of my top to wipe at the blood on my face.

He’d cut me to ribbons.

Unless I pissed one of them off enough for them to end it quick.

“Kyros hating you could be blamed on the game, I suppose,” I spoke to the triplets. “Which is stupid, by the way, everyone can see he’s King Julius’s child. But your actual brothers and sisters hate the three of you. It must feel shit to be unwanted and detested by your entire family.”

Talk was all I had, and they knew it, but the words were still getting to them, and the insults made me feel like I wasn’t going down without a fight.

“You will scream as you die,” Theodore said coolly.

I shrugged. “I’ll probably cry and vomit too.”

His eyes darkened, the muscles in his neck cording.

Tynan spoke. “Calm, brother. She’ll be dead by your hand soon.” He turned to me. “Each of you has a bomb around your neck.”

Well, fuck.

Not a dog collar then.

I resisted the urge to tear at it, fear pulsing through me.

His lips curved and he held up two clickers. “Leave the red circle and you’ll die.”

I grimaced. Not for my fate. For what Kyros was about to see.

Look away, please.

I didn’t want this to be his last memory of me.

Holding the camera steady with one hand, Trenit freed his machete and threw it at my feet. “A fighting chance,” he sneered.

Bending, I swiped up the blade. Jesus, I’d kill myself by landing on this thing. Or Theodore would take it and slice me.

I’d rather be sliced with a small dagger.

“Piece of junk.” I chucked the blade from the circle.

Trenit snarled.

“A present from Daddy?” My voice wobbled.

Yep, I had a bomb strapped to my neck, and I was about to die.

The camera hadn’t left my face, but it was shoved closer. “Any last words to your true mate?” Tynan said with glee.

Anger found me. “If I knew you all talked this much, I would have just drowned myself in that fucking barrel.”

The death metal fan of the trio smirked. “Some talk like this before the end. But everyone wants to live.”

Oh, I wanted to live. That wasn’t in question.

Trenit set the camera on the table and strode to stand beside Tynan, who held up the two bomb controls.

Nausea churned in my gut.

I heard my grandmother’s friends talk about dignity and death all the time, but now I understood why the elderly feared dying in their own shit. That’s why the triplets were streaming this. It was the worst part of the situation—worse even than the end result.

I strode to the middle of the circle, a mere three metres from Theodore. Perhaps standing on the edge would give me more time to react, but the thought of reacting in time was laughable, really. I’d start farthest from the edge.

Theodore entered the circle and his growl surrounded me.

I focused on him, blinking several times. My ears were shot, and maybe that was ideal. There wasn’t any competition between my two main senses anymore.

I just needed one good punch for Grandmother, then I was happy to go.

“Begin,” Gina called.

Theodore didn’t budge.

He sang, “Rich girl, rich girl, sitting all alone. Rich girl, rich girl, sad in her home. Rich girl, rich girl, dead behind her smile. Rich girl, rich girl, dead in just a while.”

Any number of poetic replies occurred to me. I shoved them down.

He moved.

I saw him.

And what could my human body do about it?

Absolutely fucking nothing.

Theodore kissed me hard, hands pressing against my damaged ears.

I couldn’t scream. Black filled my vision and I fell to my knees, rolling in agony. Fresh blood dripped from them.

But I hadn’t got my shot in yet.

Head squeezing to the point of unconsciousness, I slowly sat, then crouched.

His knee was coming for my face. I threw myself to the