“That’s what I thought,” he snickered. “So you’re
not
some godlike queen that these people feel duty-bound to follow. You simply bribe them with gifts of freedom and pink paper hearts. They're not loyal, they're playing to the highest bidder, and the same can be said about your soldiers.”
“Hey, my soldiers are the most loyal and—”
“Ask them to fight for free.”
“Ex
cuse
me?” I said, folding my arms.
“Ask them. To fight. For free,” he said slowly. “That is the true test of loyalty.”
Em and I exchanged glances. What was this guy’s problem? “And I suppose Drake’s warriors fight for free?” I asked.
“No, they fight for the common good.”
My brows shot up and I scoffed. “And what common good would that be?”
He stood slightly taller. “For a vampire kingdom free of weaklings such as
your
kind.” He looked down his nose at me, his lip lifting on one side. “If you can even call yourselves vampires.”
I didn't even check my immediate surroundings for onlookers before I stepped forward and thrust my hand into his crotch, taking a solid hold of his balls. Mathias gave a small but concealed yelp and folded over a little, his chin resting against my crown, as if we were merely exchanging a friendly embrace. “Need I remind you that
I
am your queen? There is
no
other kingdom but mine, and you will do well to remember that.” I let his balls go and he exhaled, curling a fist just in front of his lips. “And you should also remember that my kind are not
mere
vampires. We are vampire hunters! Our bite is lethal to those without immunity.”
His Adam’s apple shifted in his throat and I caught the tiniest sparkle of water in his eye. “Apologies, my Queen.”
“Accepted,” I said smugly and walked away, turning back to add, “Be sure you’re a good little vampire now, and don’t forget your cup of Lilithian blood before bed tonight.”
He bowed his head, his hands edging toward his crotch, and walked away.
Emily grabbed my arm and spun me to face her. “I can't believe you just did that.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.” She stopped for a second. “I guess I just expected you to … be polite.”
“I
was
polite,” I stated. “I didn't bite him, did I?”
***
The twentieth hour of the day arrived with a barely-concealable bout of dizziness. I left the last two or three polite conversations until later, grabbed a plate from the magically resupplied buffet table and loaded it with hot chicken and plums, avoiding the cold meat and the soft cheese. But it all just looked so deliciously filling and tasty I wanted to eat one of everything.
“Can a vampire’s baby die from listeria?” I asked Dad, who looked up at me over the food mountain.
He drew his tall grey mask down his face and a frown replaced it. “I’m not sure, honey.”
I eyed the cheese in all its delicious glory and shook my head. “Not worth the risk.”
“Wise decision.”
“So…” I started, walking casually around to stand beside him. “Where’d you put the bitch?”
“Ara. Language.”
“Sorry.” I rolled my eyes. “I meant, where’d you put the female dog?” Bitch suited her so much better.
“She’s in the kill suites.”
“What?” I nearly dropped my plate. “Why?”
“Not to meet her end, I assure you,” he said, with one eye scanning for eavesdroppers. “The repercussions of that would be … damning.”
“Repercussions?”
He sipped his blood, saluting with his glass after. “Drake.”
“Oh.” I nodded knowingly. “So, why the kill suites?”
“Because the doors can be locked from both the inside as well as the out.”
“And?”
“And she needs to be protected from David right now as much as she needs to be punished.”
“He won’t hurt her…will he?”
“Where do you think he’s been all night?”
“He’s been hunting—for humans,” I corrected him.
“No.” He turned and laid his plate down on the table behind him. “He’s been hunting for Morgana.”
I put my plate down too, then thought better and grabbed a leg of chicken off it. “Do you know where he is now?”
“No.” He grimaced at my face. “And chew with your mouth closed.”
My gaze moved sideways to the person Dad looked at apologetically, who showed obvious disgust at my open-mouthed gorging. “Excuse me, but…” I swallowed the chicken so I could talk properly. “I’m building a child and I haven't eaten
all day
. I don't care if I look like a slob.”
Dad just groaned, but his eyes smiled.
I stood there taking everything in for a moment, while Dad quietly sipped from his heavy silver goblet. It took a few visits of the cup to his mouth, and his tongue moving forward to lick the remnants of blood from his lips, before it truly sunk in exactly what my dad, a man who was human to me my whole life, was actually drinking. I put my chicken leg down and held onto my stomach. His overnight return to youth was one sign of his immortality, but blood on his lips just totally cemented it! “Um, Da—I mean, Lord Eden?” I said.
“Careful,” he reminded me sternly.
I ducked my head apologetically. “Did it hurt—to deny yourself all these years?” I said, suggestively nodding at the blood.
“Sometimes.”
“Only
sometimes
?” I thought about the state David had been in after being bloodless for only a few weeks. “How come you didn't get thin, like David?”
“I’m a difference species, to begin with.”
“Really?” I almost fell over in shock, but then I realised … of
course
he would be. He was the first vampire. Drake was his son, and David was Drakarian. “Are there a lot of differences between Vampirians and the Drakarian kind?”
“Some.” His eyes wandered slowly away from our conversation then, taking with it his will to continue.
“Like?” I prompted anyway.
He looked back at me, took a breath, and planted his goblet down on the table. “Well, for one, the way I create vampires, and also their abilities thereafter, differ.”
“In what way?”
His shoulders dropped with frustration. “I guess, without being too specific, my kind do not need to drink venom in order to turn.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
“So you just…” I covered my neck absentmindedly. “You just bite them.”
“And leave them alive, yes,” he said with a nod.
“Cool. And … so, blood denial affects you differently to what it does Drakarians—like with David.”
“It does.” He nodded again. “My Created can hibernate.”
“Seriously?”
He just smiled.
“And … so … that means they can go without blood?”
He shook his head. “If they choose to hibernate, they mummify.”
“Mummify?” I cringed. “Gross.”
Dad laughed and we both broke apart for a moment when some guests walked past.
“So, the effects of blood denial, when I was growing up, did you ever—”
“I counteracted the more obvious physical side effects with an awful lot of sugar and fat.”
“And lack of exercise?”
“Precisely.”
“Did you ever want to, like … did you ever wanna kill … anyone … at school?” I whispered the last bit so low no one would have heard. It even took Dad a second to catch on.
“Oh.” He leaned back again, crossing his arms loosely. “Uh. Yes.”
“Vicki?”
He smiled fondly. “More often than you’d know.”
“Mum?”
His eyes closed at mention of her. “No. I was still…” He glanced over his shoulder, pausing until a couple walked away. “I was still drinking until shortly after I left you in Australia with her.”
The way he said Australia, with a tiny hint of an Aussie accent, took me back home to the past—to a past where he and Mum were together, supposedly married, and we were happy. I was happy. “You shouldn’t have left her, you know.”
“I had to be there for Sam.” Dad took in our surroundings and assessed them before adding, “He needed me more than you did, Ara.”
“No.
I
needed you. Mum needed you. At least if she could've pretended to be married to you, she wouldn't have dragged me my entire life through a myriad of
sample
fathers.” I folded my arms, simmering down with a careful glance around the room. “Look, I’m sorry, Lord Eden. I do understand why you left. I completely do. But my life would've been so different if Vicki had’ve let you stay in Oz.”
“She had a job here, Ara.”
“And you had a daughter there.”
He laid a hand to my shoulder, his eyes sternly reminding me where we were. “I love you. And no matter where I live in the world, that will never change.”
“That’s what you said to me the day you left.” I wiped my eye. “I may have been young, but I remember it. And it didn’t change what I believed in my heart.”
“I know,” he said solemnly. “I’m not perfect, Ara. Even someone as old as I still makes mistakes.”
I nodded.
“But I am, and always will be, your dad.” He whispered the last bit.
I nodded again, not making eye contact until a thought about dads and daughters and boys snuck into my head. “Did you know?”
“Know what?” he asked.
“All those times David jumped through my window. Did you—”
His laughter cut me off. “Yes. Of course I did.”
“How come you didn’t say anything—you know, burst in and kick him out.”
“Because, my dear, the less I interacted with David, the better.”
“Because you were worried he might figure you out?”
“Yes.”
“Was it hard keeping track of your thoughts, like, to make him think he was reading your mind?”
“Sometimes.” He nodded, picking up his mask from the table. “It was a bit harder to maintain control of my
actions
, though, when I’d hear the things
he
was thinking.”
“Like what?”
“Just stuff boys think,” he said.
“Like what stuff?”
“Just … stuff. And I can tell you—” He positioned his mask over his face and fastened the ribbon. “The stuff a vampire boy thinks in relation to his girlfriend is a hell of a lot worse than what any regular boy could come up with.”
I giggled into my hand.
“Lord Eden?” Emily hummed, gliding over and seizing my father. “I believe you owe me a dance.”
Dad bowed and kissed her hand, and Emily’s cheeks flushed, making them pink. I wasn't really sure I'd ever seen a vampire blush before, but there it was in black and white, plain as day. Well, more like pink and white.
My extra-critical eye focused harder on her than usual then, assessing her every move with Lord Eden, wondering if she still had feelings for him. I mean, he wasn't her teacher anymore and he also wasn't an old man. But he was still my dad, and any feelings she had for him would not only be unforgivable but … downright creepy.
“You’ve nothing to worry about,” Blade said softly over my shoulder.
I managed to look away from them long enough to see Blade’s dark stubble and jet black eyes above me, his jaw moving around something crunchy and sweet smelling. “
You’re
not worried?”
He used the dagger from his hip belt to carve out a circle of apple, a simple smile thinning his lips. “No. Em and I have talked about it all. She will always love your d—Lord Eden, but not in the way you think.”
As he looked down at me, I moved my attention to the pretty blond in a yellow dress, comfortable in the arms of a tall, slightly tanned man, the couple circling gracefully around the dance floor surrounded by a collection of beautiful immortals.
“Besides,” Blade added, his English accent sounding more American. “Your father would never touch Emily that way. He might not be an old man now, but he still very much views her as a child, and as his student.”
“How do you know?”
Blade’s eyes sparkled with mischief. “I may or may not have spoken to him about it—without Em’s knowledge, I should add.”
“Okay.” I nodded. “I won’t say anything to her.”
“I appreciate it,” he said, and walked across the room to steal Em away as the song ended and another began. Dad cast a glance across at Mike and Falcon and headed over there, blending among the crowd until I could no longer see him or the other guards. I stood on my toes and tried to search above the heads for them, but my short little legs forbade it, and when I looked back at the dance floor even Blade was gone, leaving Em in the arms of a politician.
My brow tightened in the middle. Where’d they all go?