Vampire Debt - Supernatural Battle (Vampire Towers #2) - Kelly St. Clare Page 0,31

would remain by my bed for Snake purposes, but otherwise…

I slipped my 21st-century phone into my back pocket, snagging the charger too. I snatched the recorder up. Today was a list-making day.

“Time to get shit done,” I told the empty room.

Leaving the doors to my suite open for the cleaning staff, I strode to the central stairs, looking around the place for what felt like the first time in years.

All of this was mine now.

Mine to care for the next generations. Which would theoretically come from me.

Wow, I felt so ill-equipped.

I hadn’t even wanted this. Yet my stint outside of the estate taught me there were worse things in life. To be out of that tower, I’d put up with a lot more than a net worth of one hundred and fourteen billion dollars.

Plus, the thought of someone else caring for the estate finances if I relinquished the position, made me feel… possessive. For centuries a Le Spyre had cared for our assets. Apparently that did mean something to me.

Like my grandmother, I’d make this life what I wanted, maybe even relocate to one of the estate’s other properties if I could bear to leave the memories of this house behind. Kyros could find me, yes, but a ten-hour plane trip between us sounded fucking idyllic.

I passed through the ballroom and across the sweeping balcony, past the pool and outside entertainment pagodas, and wound between the towering hedge-way that extended to the west boundary of the estate. Turning left at the break in the hedges, I clicked down the paved path, stopping short when the path opened into the circular lavender tiers.

Rings of lavender bushes rose around a small glass table and wrought iron chairs in the centre.

I sat in one of the cold chairs, my bloodshot gaze trickling over the surrounding purple plants. Only the towering tips of the main house and the tops of the hedge-way were visible.

Did my grandmother sit here the day she died? Did she think of me or miss me in those moments?

Blinking several times, I inhaled, the lavender cutting through my self-inflicted headache.

“Miss Le Spyre?”

Glancing up, I smiled at the head maid.

She set the breakfast tray in front of me.

“Thank you, Rosie. Are the eggs soft but not too soft?”

“I hope everything is to your satisfaction, Miss Le Spyre.”

Rosie had been around too long to fall for my mind fuckery. “I’m sure it will be. Thank you.”

She bobbed and retreated.

I drew out the phone that could take pictures and stay awake longer than thirty minutes at a time, plugging it into the portable charger. I picked up the voice recorder next.

List time.

I was out of the tower, but that didn’t mean I’d escaped Ingenium—not with the Tonyi triplets after me. They hadn’t discovered my new location yet, which I assumed by the fact I wasn’t dead, but I couldn’t rely on that. I needed protection.

Shovelling eggs into my mouth, I pressed the buttons on the voice recorder at random.

“How the fuck does this work, Angie? I wasn’t born in the damn 12th century.” This thing was on par with a Walkman, aka did not compute.

I clicked the middle button, jolting when Angelica’s voice blared out. Fumbling, I cradled the recorder in both hands, freezing.

“... Vampires. Or Vissimo, as we call ourselves, are recorded to have existed from 4500BC.”

Eyes widening, I clicked the button with a square on top.

The sound cut off.

This couldn’t be what I thought it was.

Mouth bone dry, I clicked the play button again.

Her voice rang out. “We exist in clans formed of one core clan and many sub-clans. Clans are led by a king and his queen, and often the sub-clans are headed by their children or other family members.”

My heart thudded, cold shock coursing through me as Angelica detailed Ingenium and everything from my arrival at Kyros Sky to the blood compulsion and the attack by Clan Fyrlia.

I reached for the stop button as her voice trailed off, jolting when she spoke again.

“I am trusting you with this recording, Miss Tetley, because I think you feel very alone right now. In return, all I ask is that you take care of whom you trust with this knowledge. You know what will happen if you err in this.”

“Whoa,” I hushed.

Whoa, whoa, whoa! Angelica gave me proof Vissimo existed—while still upholding the Miss Tetley lie and neglecting to mention the first time she compelled me, but—

Fuck.

This was huge.

I didn’t hesitate.

My phone took far too long to turn on, but she was