Alaric pushed up from his sprawl and leaned toward Wesley, his chartreuse eyes filled with rage. “Think about it, Wesley. What did you forget?”
It was hard to sit there and not back away from the intimidating man in front of him, but Wesley held his ground. There wasn’t a damn thing he’d overlooked, and they could talk to Oklin until they were blue in the face, but they had nothing on him. “It’s probably not polite to mention it, but you’re embarrassing yourself, Lich Sentinel,” Wesley managed in an unsteady voice.
Alaric’s grin was full of unholy amusement. “You’re a smart man, Wesley. I know you can do this.”
“Leave me alone.”
“What did you give Oklin? Besides the money, what did you give him?”
Not sure why, Wesley shook his head. No longer caring if it was weak, Wesley pushed his chair back away from the Lich Sentinel. “I don’t know Oklin.”
“You really need to stop lying to me,” Alaric stated calmly. He fished into his pocket and slapped something onto the table beside him. When he lifted his hand and Wesley saw that it was a vial with crimson stains, terror swam through his veins. Inside Wesley, everything went ice cold and shattered into a million pieces. It was the knowledge of his fate sinking in. If they had the evidence, his life was over.
“Let me out of here,” he whispered.
“You sent Oklin your blood. That’s how he made the potion. Lucky for me he only used a tiny fraction of what you sent. You look surprised. Did you expect him to use it all?” Alaric shook his head. “You really should’ve known better.”
“I don’t have any clue what you’re talking about.”
Alaric stood and snatched the vial. “Vampyr Lord Grigori Volkov-D’Vaire tested the blood, and it belongs to you.”
“That’s impossible. I never donated my blood to anyone.”
“Come on, Wesley. Don’t you watch television? Your place of employment was worked over by fallen knights and sentinels. We got DNA from all of the staff once we narrowed it down and knew it had to be at least one of you.”
“That’s a lie. You never asked me to donate shit.”
“We didn’t have to. It’s an office. DNA is everywhere. Keyboards. Papers. Mugs. Did you actually think the Emperor would get attacked, and we wouldn’t cover all the bases? Of course we’re going to send a nurse in here to take more samples. We must solidify our evidence.”
“You have no evidence. I did nothing wrong.”
Alaric’s laugh was demonic. “Even if I wasn’t a sentinel, I’d know that was a lie. May Fate have mercy on your soul, Wesley. No one else will,” the Lich Sentinel retorted, then stalked out of the interview room.
Aware he was being watched by whoever was behind the glass Wesley didn’t move a muscle, but he wanted to fall onto the ground and scream in fright and defeat. Oklin told him he needed a great deal of blood to produce the potion, so Wesley had assumed he’d used it all. One detail—he’d overlookedonedetail, and it was going to be his doom.
Chapter 22
For one tantalizing moment, Chrysander contemplated smashing the glass in front of him, so he could jump through the opening to throttle Wesley, but he managed to refrain. His fate wasn’t in Chrysander’s hands; it would be four men who had honor imprinted not only into every cell in their bodies but down to their very souls. He could trust them to follow the letter of the law, and he’d live with whatever sentence they chose for Wesley.
It didn’t stop his dragon from wanting to roast the fucker, but some things would just have to take time to work through. Chrysander could only assume that once Ellery was returned to normal, both man and beast would see eye-to-eye. Frustration rippled through him that they were no closer to that goal. Desperate for a diversion from staring at his former office manager, Chrysander turned his head.
At his side were two men he’d personally made sure became legends. Drystan and Conley understood firsthand what happened when you expected the people around you to not resort to treachery. It was ironic that Chrysander had been given their title, and like them he was watching one of his own hurt his mate. The only difference was that Wesley hadn’t killed anyone, and Sorcery D’Vaire would fix this. Too bad it didn’t lessen the horrible taste in Chrysander’s mouth over being made a fool of.
“I never thought less of you,” he said into the silence.
Drystan cocked his head and studied Chrysander for a moment. “You mean because we died in Castle Draconis?”
“Yes, there were too many of them for you to ever win that battle.”
“Are you talking about the humans pouring into our bedroom that night or the dukes we shouldn’t have trusted?” Drystan asked.
“Technically we didn’t trust their asses. We got to the castle and there they were. We couldn’t very well saddle some poor king with those assholes. Drys and I understood them, or we thought we did. I can honestly say I never saw our deaths coming though,” Conley added.
“Bernal would’ve killed any emperor who arrived at that castle. I survived because I was lucky enough to have Damian and Costas with me.”
“Our kingdom was too small to bring any of the men we trusted with us,” Drystan revealed. “It was something we wished could be different, but we thought we were capable enough to handle it on our own.”
“I picked him. I hired Wesley. I brought the viper in myself.”
