Varro snarled, the noise so deep and threatening it sounded like it should come from an animal rather than a man.
“Seraphics are not just rare. They aredivine,” Varro said. “Only a few thousand are estimated to exist, and only a handful have an ancestry as recent as hers. Potentiallynone. She’s so much more than justrare.”
Dominic faked a yawn. When he first got to the estate, he’d been interested in Evelyn for her beauty and her uniqueness. He’d requested her several times, curious about how a human with a few drops of angelic blood in her veins could possibly be so special.
At the thought, he glanced at his slaves with a sneer. Half-bloods most of them. Impure and unimpressive. They had been fine in the beginning, but over the years those prizes of his had withered in value. He’d been building his menagerie for over twenty years. And he wanted it perfect. Looking at the slaves, sitting hunched and mortal, it was clear it wasn’t that.
Only his shadow was unbroken. Even after the decades of pain he’d put her through. He wanted more of that power. He wanted his treasures as coveted as possible.
It seemed Varro was of a similar mindset. Except, for him, there was no greater treasure than sweet Evelyn.
“Your insistence on focusing on her rather than Chicago is not part of the deal we made,” Dominic said.
“My focus is unwavering,” Varro snarled. “The Chains took a city from me. They eat away at the Heartlands territory every year, taking more and more miles that belong tome. They killed my progenies, both my oldest and youngest, and thelawsof their damn vampire King and his cursed demon whore are a slap in the face to my rule.”
“Evelyn is a bigger slap in the face,” Dominic countered. “She distracts you. That means she’s a problem. And if you want to reclaim Chicago, there shouldn’t be unnecessaryproblems.”
“I’ll send some of my most trusted officers to deal with it. Unlike Stefano, they won’t disappoint.”
“And if they’re captured and they talk? What then?”
“Then they’ll talk. And they’ll only say what I’ve told them to say. But they won’t fail. They’ve done similar work for me before.”
“Are you saying you have soldiers familiar with fucking with the Chains? Trained in reclaiming stolen slaves with stripping backgrounds?” Dominic smirked with the words. Varro glared at him, more enraged than Dominic had ever seen him. Then, surprisingly, Varro lowered his eyes.
“She tastes like sunlight.”
That provided context that had been missing until then. Evelyn was an alluring, beautiful, and apparently delicious slave. That would be enough for most masters. But Varro was a being of darkness and he had been so for centuries. If the blood of the little Seraphic was like sunlight in a bottle, Dominic was shockedshe hadn’t been accidentally drained to death over the course of her indenture.
More compulsive vampires would probably have done just that. It made sense that Varro didn’t want others playing with his precious Evelyn. She might get hurt.
“Fine, King.Alive. As long as I get my prize in the end, I don’t care what you do with the slave.”
He eyed his now scarlet-eyed fiend. He didn’t like sending her so far away and into such a dangerous den of demons, wolves, and other mystical denizens. But he’d do it.
The Chains had something he desired. And Dominic would doanythingto get what he wanted.
Chapter 11
Natalya looked down at the torn-up floorboards. The ground beneath was overturned, and a tarp was tucked partially into the earth. A vampire had rested here.
They had been close.Soclose. According to Cassius and Diana, who found the place, it had only been about a day or two since Stefano was in the area. Natalya felt like she’d been cheated out of a meal.
“Tracks lead south.” Aleksander walked up next to her. “I’m sending the Lucans to follow, but I’m guessing he’s long gone. Even slowed down by fiend blood.”
“Well, he’s satiated.” Natalya glanced at the corpse of an old man lying crumpled in the corner. “That would certainly help.”
The man had been dead for a few days, and the secluded cabin they were in belonged to him. The timeline matched with the night Evie was attacked, and Stefano had run off. Poisoned by fiendish ichor, he’d needed time to recuperate. He’d holed up inthe cabin until he was ready to run home to Varro, tail between his legs.
“This is a crime even by Night standards,” Aleksander said. “Killing humans outside your territory. Especially after the agreement we made with the Heartlands. Varro won’t be popular after this.”
“If we could prove it. We only have the word of our own trackers Stefano was here, and that isn’t considered a reliable source to most other Courts.”
Aleksander made a dissatisfied noise. “There were other tracks too. Unknown vampires. I suspect Night affiliated.”
He glanced at Natalya’s shoulder, where black ichor produced a faint trail of smoke. A Night vampire was present when they arrived, one with a happy trigger finger and silver bullets in her gun. Probably a scout left behind by Stefano.
They couldn’t be certain. Drago had accompanied them out of the high-rise, and he’d ripped the vampire’s head off as soon as she fired the gun. He’d never seen Natalya be attacked, or even injured, and his reaction would almost be sweet if it wasn’t so impractical. The vampire could have had information.
