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

a person they’d loved. Some joked, some cried, and some said nothing at all.

Yet there was no artifice during my grandmother’s farewell, and that felt like the first right thing to happen in a long time.

Agatha Le Spyre had deserved no less.

“Basil, the hearse is waiting.” Tommy’s soft voice drifted to me.

My forevermore love, Grandmother.

“I’m ready,” I said around the lump in my throat.

A leaden weight dragged me down as six of us slid her coffin into the funeral car, and as the few guests ambled away to find their chauffeurs, my heart began to pound. It took my palms slickening to identify the cause.

I’d learned to compartmentalise the natural fear Vissimo induced in humans after a month in Kyros Sky. My body reacted, but unless the vampire was unmuted, I could generally think and act through the fear.

“I can follow behind the hearse if you’d like to ride with your grandmother,” Laurel said from behind me.

I faced the Indebted, dread filling me despite knowing this route was inevitable.

She knew who I was—who I really was. Not Basilia Tetley, born and raised in Orange. Basilia Le Spyre, the new head of a hundred-and-fourteen-billion-dollar estate—at the last count.

“I know you can’t keep things from him.” I squared my shoulders. After swapping blood with Kyros three times, I wasn’t sure I could either. But Laurel was in debt, a slave, to pay off her father’s crimes, and Kyros was her master.

Laurel’s blue eyes burned brighter than usual, a rare lapse in control.

“I can keep this between us,” she stated, muting her gaze again.

My mouth dried. “That can’t be without consequences.”

Her lips pressed together.

Yep, called it.

“I appreciate your loyalty, Laurel,” I said, my eyes trailing toward the hearse. “I won’t risk adding to your burden. This is my shitshow, not yours.”

I stepped in the direction of the funeral car.

“Are you aware of what Kyros will do if he discovers who you really are, Miss Le Spyre? Are you aware of what it would mean for Ingenium?”

Hearing my real name on a Vissimo’s lips was… foreign. My heart hammered at the thought of standing before Kyros when he learned the truth. And yet part of me just didn’t care. My grandmother was dead.

I halted, my gaze darting where Tommy lingered just out of listening distance. She watched us with keen eyes.

“A fair idea,” I answered quietly. He’ll drain me until I’m dry—whether for my money, assets, or connections.

Maybe he’d literally drain me dry.

Hell, if I had a family and their lives were under threat, I’d use Kyros to help save them in a heartbeat. I understood why he’d fuck me over even if I hated him for it.

But perhaps I shouldn’t be so quick to dismiss Laurel’s help. I was so far out of my depth, I didn’t know up from down.

She spoke again. “I’ll follow you to the cemetery so you can ride with your grandmother, Miss Tetley. And you can count on my discretion.”

2

My ears popped as the elevator shot down from Level 61 where I slept to Level 44 where I worked.

Live Right Realty was the human face of Kyros’s operations. He controlled the realty, rental, and leasing industry for Clan Sundulus in the game.

Once a human knew the secrets of this vampire tower, there was no going back. But I was still Miss Tetley, thanks to Laurel. That meant I wasn’t being taken advantage of because of who I was.

Yet.

It did present an entirely different set of problems that my grief-numbed mind didn’t want to work through.

For instance, when I’d agreed to the second blood exchange, it wasn’t in the knowledge that Kyros would then feel my location for the rest of my life. Anywhere in the world. Anger thrummed deep in my stomach as Kyros’s dishonesty hit me for the umpteenth time in the last week.

I couldn’t run. He’d always find me.

That meant that without good reason, I couldn’t return to the estate as Miss Tetley either.

Kyros lied and placed me in a cage I’d never be free of. With my grandmother’s death, I hadn’t processed just how much that had fucked my life. At all.

Ding!

I glared at the elevator as the doors slid open, smoothing my loose white tee, tucked into high-waisted, straight-leg trousers—also white. I really needed to get my own fucking clothes. Stat.

Head down, I beelined for my office.

“Miss Tetley?”

Nearly made it to the corner today. Dammit.

Angelica, Kyros’s matchmaking aunt, was about to request I take the day off. Again. She’d done it every day since