He drew closer, and I didn’t attempt to step back. I couldn’t move and at the moment I was perfectly fine with that. He’d influenced me to be calm and I was calm, even face-to-face with the vampire who’d told me he’d personally ripped the hearts of traitors out of their chests. Side by side, he didn’t look as dangerous as Declan. But he was.
“Where is she?” he asked evenly.
“I don’t know.”
“Declan took her somewhere and didn’t tell you where.”
“That’s right.” I now understood all too well why Declan hadn’t told me anything about this. It was because my mind was too easily influenced. I would have blurted out her location to Matthias already if I’d known the truth. “But Sara’s safe. I know she is.”
His pale brows drew together. “Sara?”
“Yes.”
“You named my daughter?”
I nodded slowly, studying his face, which looked so tired it made me think he hadn’t slept much in the past week. “Sara means princess. I thought it was a suitable name for a vampire princess.”
“Half-vampire.”
His eyes were the same pale gray as every vampire’s. A dhampyr’s were a couple shades darker, but still colorless. I wondered what color Matthias’s eyes had been when he was human.
“Jillian,” he said sharply, drawing me a little out of my trance.
“You—you can name her something else, of course. I just wanted to call her something other than
baby
.”
“Sara’s a fine name.” He studied me closely for a moment, then stroked a line down the side of my face, over my throat where the fang marks were. I leaned against his cool touch, enjoying it more than I wanted to. “Did you miss me when I was gone, Jillian?”
It felt as if I was floating in warm water. “Yes.”
He smiled at that answer.
I hadn’t meant to say that. I’d felt badly that I’d been to blame for his death—or my blood had been, anyway. But as far as him being gone after all the trouble he’d caused . . .
I
hadn’t
missed him. I didn’t even like him.
“Are you working with Declan to destroy me now that you know I’m still alive?” He took my chin firmly between his cool fingers so he could hold my gaze.
“No.”
“And your blood—Noah doesn’t know where all this
will lead. Do you think you’re going to die from the poison in your veins?”
“Yes, I’m dying.” I couldn’t lie even if I wanted to.
His expression was as unreadable as Declan’s usually was. “How long do you think you have left?”
“When the fusing potion wears off I don’t think I’ll survive it. I might mentally be able to handle the pain, but I don’t think my body can. It’s going to give out. I figure I have a couple of weeks. If that.” My throat felt thick as I spoke about my own death sentence. I tried not to think about it much, but it was the truth.
“How does the dhampyr feel about that?”
“He doesn’t like to talk about it.”
“He hurt you.” His gaze moved to my throat that showed fresh bruises from Declan’s crushing grip on me earlier. “Do you want to leave him?”
“No.”
“He’s dangerous. And he’ll only become more dangerous.”
I shook my head. “The scent of my blood triggered something bad in him earlier, but it wasn’t his fault.”
His lips pressed together. “What happened has little to do with your blood.”
“You’re wrong. My blood sparked the violence in Declan. He would never hurt me.”
He smiled humorlessly. “Don’t be so sure about that. He’s a dhampyr, and because of that he’s automatically a threat to anyone who gets too close to him.” He hissed out a breath. “There’s no time to worry about these peripheral issues right now. My questions have been answered. Good night, Jillian.”
He stepped back, and his mental influence over me vanished and the calm I’d felt disappeared like an icy wash of water had been thrown at me. Anger at having him mess with my mind shot forth.
“Wait.” I grabbed his arm before he walked away. “Declan isn’t a threat. It’s my blood and his serum that’s messing him up, it’s not him.”
He eyed me. “You’ve seen other dhampyrs, haven’t you? The other kind?”
Just the mention of them sent a shiver through me. Declan was a very rare kind of dhampyr. The more common ones were hunched-over monsters that weren’t capable of human reasoning or thought. They were more savage than a pure vampire and once they got the taste of blood, they were completely deadly. It was the reason that most human women who became pregnant by a vampire got an abortion. If they didn’t and they bore a monster dhamp, they never survived the birth. The dhampyr clawed its way out of its mother’s womb, ready to feed on her before it moved on.
“Declan’s nothing like that,” I said under my breath.
“For now.” Matthias turned and began walking away, throwing a glance at me over his shoulder. “Just be careful with him or your two-week estimate for living may be drastically reduced.”
I followed him out into the deserted parking lot, drawing my sweater closer to me, chilled despite the hot night. “What are you talking about?”
His gaze swept me. “The dhampyr is dangerous. I sensed something earlier at the bar from him. It was one of the reasons I followed you immediately. He is ... close to the edge of his control. And I was right.”
“You were spying on us earlier, weren’t you?”
He didn’t flinch at the accusation. “You once accused me of being violent toward women. I hope by now you see that’s not true.”
“I saw you kill a woman.”
“A traitor who meant to kill me and was conspiring behind my back.”
I couldn’t argue with that. “Declan is a good man.”
“But he scares you, doesn’t he?”
I looked up at him. “You scare me more.”
His lips curled. “Your loyalty to him is admirable. But that”—he nodded toward the motel room—“is just the beginning of the troubles you’ll have with him. All dhampyrs descend into violence or insanity at his age. I know the original drugs he took curbed this, but that’s the past and what happened earlier is what the future holds.”
I didn’t want to believe what he was telling me. It was my blood. It was the new serum that was messing him up. This wasn’t anything other than that.
But what if Matthias was right?
“So what am I supposed to do?” I whispered.
“Leave him.”
I shook my head. “There has to be another way.”
His jaw clenched. “This wasn’t my purpose in coming here tonight. What happens with that vampire hunter is not my concern.”
Something in the way he said it made my breath catch. “There is a way to help him, isn’t there? And you know what it is.”
“Yes, there is a way. The only way. But you won’t like it very much.”
“What is it?”
He studied me for a moment. “Why would I tell you?”
“Because I—I’m asking you nicely.”
He laughed out loud at that. “Jillian, I don’t think you’re capable of asking for anything nicely.” I could have sworn I saw some irritation and impatience in his gaze before his expression softened a fraction. “Find out where my daughter is being kept and I will tell you how to save your dhampyr lover. I’ll be in touch soon.”
“Matthias, wait!” I chased after him as he began walking away again. Suddenly, he turned and grabbed me hard, dragging me backward. I shrieked out loud.
“Someone’s here.” He pulled me around the corner of the motel before releasing me. “Go back to your room. Don’t come out or they’ll be able to smell you.”
Before I could ask another question he stalked back around to the empty parking lot. He was twenty feet away from me when I saw the dark shadows of three men stretch across the pavement.
I pressed back against the wall, but I didn’t leave. Not yet. I needed to know who they were and what they wanted. Maybe they were after Declan and me. He’d said they could smell me, so that meant they were vampires.
It was the small man wearing glasses and a three-piece suit, flanked by two larger ones, who spoke first. “Your majesty.”
“Meyers.” Matthias’s back was to me. He stood as if blocking my location. “How did you find me?”
He didn’t sound totally surprised to see these people. His voice was curt and lacked friendliness. This wasn’t a welcome visit.
Meyers ignored the question. “We’ve come for the key, your majesty. It’s time.”
The line of Matthias’s back stiffened. “You were a loyal blood servant to me. I trusted you above all the others.”
“The key, your majesty.”
“Twenty years. I was about to finally sire you, give you eternal life. And this is what you do? Betray me along with all the others?”
There was some strain visible in Meyers’s face. He removed his glasses and cleaned them on the corner of his shirt before putting them back on. “I have no choice.”
“Kristoff cannot be released. I locked him away with very good reason. You know this.”
“Kristoff will be awakened and returned to the throne that you stole from him. Your majesty, it’s always been a matter of time before this day would come. You must have seen that.” Meyers scanned the area. “The woman is here, isn’t she? The one rumored to have poisonous blood.”
“She’s not here.”
“No one understands why you’d continue to protect someone like her. It only alienates you more from your former subjects. They demand that Kristoff permanently take your place. You will never be king again.”
“Don’t be so sure about that.”
Meyers smiled. “Your optimism is admirable, if unwise. There’s no other way this will go. It’s too late to make amends. And your dealings with the woman is only another sign of your growing weakness.”
“Meyers,” Matthias said evenly. “You said yourself this woman is likely a rumor. Very few claim to have seen her. It’s merely a myth created to unsettle us by a group of human hunters—a ruse to shake confidence in my ability to rule. She doesn’t exist.”
Meyers flicked his chin at his two hulking companions. “Hold him in place.”
They moved so quickly I could barely follow it, each grabbing one of Matthias’s arms. My fingers dug into the brick. I expected him to slough them off easily, to pound them into the ground. I knew he was strong and dangerous and I’d seen him kill several people without a moment’s hesitation.
But he didn’t.
Meyers produced a knife and brought it up to Matthias’s throat. “I only know where you keep the key because you told me yourself.”
“Consider my confidence in you now at an end.”
“I don’t enjoy this, your majesty. Don’t think I do.”
I didn’t understand why he wasn’t making mincemeat of these people. What the hell was he waiting for? This wasn’t right.
“Why do you need the key?” Matthias said. “You’re one of the few who knows where he’s being kept. You can just break in and let him out.”
Meyers smiled. “Breaking the lock will cause the room Kristoff is being kept in to be destroyed, including those who attempt to release him. There are no secrets, Matthias. I know all, and I’ll use my knowledge to free the rightful king. His gratitude to me will be endless.”
“You have no idea what monster you’ll be unleashing upon the world,” Matthias growled.
“Quiet him,” Meyers instructed.
One of the thugs plowed his fist into Matthias’s gut, then drove an uppercut into his jaw. Matthias spat blood and snarled at him like a cornered wild animal.
Meyers walked a slow circle around the vampire king. “There was a rumor you’d been weakened from drinking some of the Nightshade-tainted blood when you had the woman in your bedroom before you disappeared. Your weakness tonight proves it’s true.”
Matthias clenched his teeth. “I’m just having an off night.”
The rumor that he’d drunk my blood was true. The rumor that it had been in his bedroom was not. I looked around frantically for someone to help, someone other than me to witness this, but there was no one around.
“You should have sired me years ago,” Meyers said. “Maybe then my loyalties wouldn’t have shifted.”
Matthias jerked his chin at the vampires who held him in place. “Why don’t you get one of your new friends to sire you?”
“I wanted the blood of a king so I’d be stronger than the others. And I’ll get it. But first, I need that key.” Meyers sliced the knife down the front of Matthias’s shirt, splitting it open, then pushed the thin material down over the vampire king’s shoulders so his pale chest and abdomen were bared.
“How did you find me, Meyers? You didn’t answer my question earlier.”
“There’s a tracking device I had placed under your skin by one of your more amorous consorts six months ago. Perhaps you thought she only scored your back with her sharp fingernails in a moment of passion. For a random whore she was very adept at her job, don’t you think?”