Kane
“What do you want, brother?” I ask as I take in my younger brother’s cocky grin. He clearly has something up his ass or else he wouldn’t be over here bothering with me at all. Most of the time, he is out chasing women or feeding on whores in the human village nearby, which means, of course, that he’s killing. He does so with absolutely no moral reservations.
“Just came to check on the wedding planning,” Lex says with a smooth chuckle. His blond locks dance around his pretty face as he does so. He’s slender, with delicate features that used to make others mistake him for a girl when he was younger. If he wasn’t such a womanizer, it would be easy to see him liking men, not just because of the way he looks but because he often acts effeminate, as well as… emotional.
But he’ll be the first one to tell you he only swings one way, and I don’t think it’s a matter of him protesting too much.
“She’s on the warpath, as usual,” I reply with a sigh.
“I know. I could hear her screaming from my room on the top floor,” he replies. “I had my window open, but still….”
“I’ve taken care of it,” I tell him, but he doesn’t look like he believes me. He’s probably right. It’s just a matter of time before she starts screaming again.
He adjust his weight and says, “I bet you’re super glad you made the decision you did, brother. Marrying her is definitely going to help the clan out, and ultimately, it will be worth it. That way, when you decide to retire in a couple of hundred years, you’ll have a child to take your place and won’t have to worry about leaving the kingdom to a shithead like me.”
A chuckle catches in my throat. I know what he’s getting at. He’s jealous. He wanted me to let him be king at some point, the way our father’s older brother abdicated the throne to him before the Great Vampire War, which started before either of us was even born and ended when I was about thirty, which is when our father was killed. I took over then, won the war, and established Crimson Peak as the kind of kingdom people know not to fuck with.
Still… that could all be ruined if the right asshole was left in charge, and I’m pretty sure the asshole standing right in front of me could undo all of my hard work in a matter of minutes if he wanted to.
“You? As king, Lex?” Rainer asks, his chuckle flying freely. “That sounds like a horror story yet to be written.”
“Fuck you, Rainer.” Lex pushes up off of the wall, clearly ready to fight. The two of them have never gotten along.
I’m not in the mood for any fighting today, though. “All right. That’s enough,” I say, and they both back down immediately. Rainer because he knows the mood I’m in; Lex because he knows Rainer could rip his head off with one hand if he really wanted to. “I need to go check on our guest.”
“Guest?” Lex repeats, perking up. “Who’s that now?”
“She’s off limits,” I tell him, using my most authoritative tone. “That prick Alpha Bernard brought me his daughter instead of the money he owns me.”
“What?” Lex’s eyes widen. “Seriously? I mean, I know it was only, like, five million drakes, which is pocket change to you, but still. What the fuck would you want with his daughter?”
“He thought she’d make a good feeder.” I don’t even want to get into how he’d meant the other daughter. Lex doesn’t need to know all of that bullshit. “I need to find Clark and see what room he put her in.”
“Clark?” Lex echoes. Apparently, listening is not his strong suit today. “Oh, I ran into him a few seconds ago. He said he was on an errand for you, but he wasn’t coming from the guest suits.”
My heart wants to race at just the mention of Clark potentially doing something different than what I told him to do. The old cuss was my father’s advisor first, and I’m not always sure I can trust him. Still, my instructions were pretty simple—find her a room. “Where was he coming from?” I ask.
Thoughts of something happening to Emory Moonraker when she just got here flood my mind, but I remind myself I’m overreacting. She’s a strong, brave woman, and I’m sure she’s fine. Perhaps he just found her a room in a different wing of the house, away from the vampire guests we have staying in the usual wing—like Opal.
What Opal would do to Emory, given the chance, I didn’t even want to know….
“He was coming up the stairs when I met him,” Lex says, running his fingernails along the shoulder of his yellow velvet jacket.
“The stairs?” Rainer repeats for me. “What stairs?”
Lex takes a deep breath and slowly lets it out, clearly looking for a dramatic effect, before he says, “The dungeon.”
“The… dungeon?” I repeat, wanting to shout every swear word I’ve ever heard in my life.
“He’s just fucking with you,” Rainer says, but I’m already moving down the hallway. I don’t know if Lex is just trying to get a rise out of me or if it’s true, but I did not intend for Emory to be taken to the dungeon.
I hurry toward the door, thinking about all of the awful things that can happen to a new girl in the feeder’s dungeon. The wolf shifters down there are usually prisoners of war, criminals, or people who have decided they’d rather come here than try to repay their debts. A large swath of Moonraker pack’s lands have become mine lately, and while I try to make sure those people can remain free, collecting taxes is an important part of any kingdom’s functionality.
I don’t typically allow people to sell their offspring to pay for their debts, so most of the people that are there for that reason have decided it would be best to be a feeder for a few years and then be released—debt free. If they survive.
Ahead of me, I see the door to the main dungeon and order the guards to open it as I dart forward. They do so, and I fly down the stairs, headed for the next door, the next set of stairs, and the next level down.
I haven’t been in either dungeon for years, especially not the feeder one. Most of the time, the blood I consume is drained via needle, cleaned, flavored, and served to me in a goblet. It’s not that I don’t like biting people, but it seems a little undignified to me. I like to have my blood as a meal with rare meat and fruit. Contrary to what most humans believe, vampires can eat other food, but we need blood to function. If we go too long without it, we will shut down. We can’t die without it. Only a beheading or a stake to the heart can do that, but we can feel the effects of a human death over and over again until we are able to get the liquid that sustains our ability to function.
I will have to explain to Rainer and Lex later why I am in such a hurry. They will not understand my need to make sure that Emory is okay. But after the courage I saw her display earlier in the day, I am worried for her. She doesn’t deserve to be tormented by the guards or chastised by the other feeders. I only hope she hasn’t been down here too long, and when I find her, she’s safe.
Rainer is behind me, but he’s not in such a hurry. I can hear his boots echoing off of the steps at the top of the stairs when I demand that the guards open the door at the bottom. I have my keys, but they should be ready for this.
They’re not. They fumble with the keys, and I want to tear both of their heads off.
Finally, the door opens, and a pungent smell hits my nostrils. I recoil, knowing exactly what it is and praying I’m not too late.
It’s the smell of death.
I step into the main room and have a quick look around. I see dozens of feeders dressed in white gowns, mulling around, the vacant looks in their eyes alarming. My eyes flash over their sullen face. They look like shit. They look like they are mostly dead already.
A million questions flash through my mind. Clark is in charge of the conditions down here. How the fuck did he let it get this bad? The last time I was down here, it was well-lit, with lots of activities, games, laughter. The feeders were well cared for. They were dressed in their regular clothes, clean, and fairly happy. But these people look like they would rather just have it all ended for them, and the thought of it makes me disgusted—not to mention the smell.
It smells like piss, shit, vomit, old rotten blood, sweat, and dead bodies, not to mention the dampness of the dungeon.
I don’t have time to stop and try to fix all of these problems at the moment, though, as I rush to the guard at the station that leads to most of the cells. “Where’s the new girl?” I demand, wanting to grab him and shake him.
“Your Majesty!” he declares, dropping into a bow at the waist. “It is an honor—”
“I don’t have time for that, goddamn it. Where is she?” I was alarmed before just at the idea that something might happen to Emory, but now that I’m standing down here, I know I was right to follow my instincts.
This is bad… really bad.
“I’m sorry, Sir,” he says, looking at his clipboard. “I just came on for my shift, and I am not aware of a new girl. What’s her name, please?”
“Fuck,” I mutter. “Emory Moonraker.”
He looks down at the paper, still taking his time. “Emory… Emory… Emory….”
“For the love of all things holy!” I shout, abandoning him. “I’ll find her myself!”
I take off down the hall, looking in every cell, praying I get to her in time before anything bad happens.
When I hear a commotion in the distance, my instincts tell me that’s her. I pick up speed, hoping that I don’t get there too late.
If something happens to Emory Moonraker before I even get the opportunity to figure out what it is about her I find so intriguing, heads will roll—and Clark’s will be first, regardless of how he served my father.
And that’s a promise.