Big old TW for sexual violence on this chapter.

Karhi Emelyn

The Staetman Estate, otherwise known as Casa Vampiria to the locals, was in a wealthy neighbourhood filled with criminals and politicians alike. Sometimes they were even different people.

The property dwarfed every other in the neighbourhood and had its own concrete wall and guardhouse. It sat on seven acres through black iron gates.

They drove along a cobblestone road that led from the gatehouse to the front of the mansion where there was a turnabout. Karhi didn’t often come to the desert, and it always shocked him with its beauty, especially in the morning. There was a mesh of green and gold from grasses to rocks to trees to sand. The landscape was almost like a cross section of Arizona itself from the mountains to the green.

The mansion loomed over them like a white ghost as they approached. The front doors were at least two stories high with a portico. Marble steps led up to the doors.

They didn’t pull up in the front. They went where the road wound around the mansion to a four-car garage on the side.

The chauffeur parked inside and opened their door for them. Karhi, Onyx, and Carry slid out, and he closed the door.

He turned to them and bowed. “Mister Carrick has left instructions for you to be in the main drawing room.” He opened the door into the house for them.

There was no threshold as they walked in. They came into a marble kitchen with three cooks working at the six stoves in the room. They continued through the kitchen and a long hallway until they entered the drawing room.

The room was floored in white marble like the rest of the building, with walls painted creamy brown. The furniture was all Baroque, with intricate scrollwork decorating gold-painted wood. The cushions were in rich purples and reds. There were couches and loveseats centring around a black ebony table where there was a silver platter with wine glasses of blood.

Two other vampires, a man and a woman, sat on separate loveseats near each other. Lunette and Zeren.

Zeren stood up when they walked in, and Carry ran to him. He wrapped his arms around her and spun her around.

Karhi always felt a twinge of jealousy when he saw Zeren and Carry interact. There was a small bit of him that wished he and his own brother were that close.

Vampires who shared the same sire referred to each other as siblings. However, Zeren and Carry were actual siblings by blood from before they were turned. Carry had been older by a couple years.

Zeren looked just like his sister, with brown skin and light eyes that practically shone. His brow was heavy, and his nose was broad and straight, much like his sister’s. They could have been twins in everything except body type. Zeren was more broad-shouldered and towered over Carry by almost a head.

They had both died in the Ottoman uprising in Istanbul in the 1800s. They were the youngest of the five of them.

Karhi moved to sit with Lunette.

She was petite with corn silk blonde hair that went down to her waist. Her skin was pale, with a straight nose and a sharp chin. She looked like a doll with huge russet-coloured eyes.

“Nice dress,” he remarked as he sat down. It was purple with lace, adding to her doll look. Especially with the lace-up black leather boots and the purple gloves on her hands.

“Bite me,” she responded, sitting back and folding her arms over her chest.

“Nice to see you, too.”

“Luna, you big grouch,” Onyx said as she picked up a glass of blood. Karhi took a glass of blood, too.

Luna took his glass from his hand and took a sip. He scowled at her and got a new one.

“Where’s your useless fledgling?” she asked.

His scowl deepened and he didn’t answer, opting to drink instead.

“She disappeared,” Onyx volunteered.

Zeren’s head jerked from where he sat next to his sister, talking to her in Turkish. “What?”

Lunette’s eyes widened and a sharp smile unfurled across her face. “She what?” He could hear how much pleasure she was taking in his misfortune, and it made him want to knock the glass out of her hand.

But he wouldn’t. Because her powers were a lot more painful than his were, and he didn’t want to deal with that on top of being in Phoenix at Ilona’s summons.

“She stole his car,” Carry smirked. “And robbed him blind.”

He resisted the urge to throw his blood on Carry. She was wearing a white linen blouse with light-coloured jeans. It would have ruined her outfit at the very least.

Instead, he set down his glass, and folded his hands in his lap to keep from using them for evil. His siblings truly, truly brought out the worst in him.

Carry went on to relay to Zeren and Lunette what had happened with Sloane. Karhi found himself more and more grateful that he had had the foresight to set down his drink.

When she was done, Zeren was the only one to look properly horrified. “She’s just . . . gone?”

Karhi nodded, choosing not to say anything. He didn’t want to give Carry, Onyx, and Lunette more ammunition.

“Ilona is going to have a cow,” Lunette said.

That sentence sobered the room and the smiles disappeared.

Ilona.

Lunette’s words seemed to have summoned her because a sudden, bone-deep chill fell across the room. They heard the click of heels in the hallway outside.

The scent of parchment and roses permeated the air just before the door to the room opened and she entered. She was alone. His heart fell as he realized Carrick wouldn’t be here to soothe her tonight.

Her beauty was ageless and indescribable. She moved with a fluid grace that called attention to the curve of her hips and strain of a red lace bra against the white button-up shirt she wore. High, strappy stilettos crisscrossed up her calves, accentuating endless legs that disappeared under a short black skirt. Pale orange-red hair, like carnelian, flowed down her back in waves. Her skin was flawless, like polished peach moonstone.

Karhi immediately stood to attention as she entered, partly out of habit, partly out of fear. All five of them being together meant that he had to be very careful about how he acted around her. The others would pay the price if he didn’t. She didn’t normally require that he stand when she entered, but he knew things were different when they were all together.

She stopped in front of them. Her emerald gaze was cold over them, appraising, like they were cattle. He kept his eyes down, but he saw the way she moved to look them each over.

Her gaze stayed on Lunette the longest before she moved to Karhi. “Hello, my children,” she said.

Her words were like ice against his back. He fought the urge to straighten up at the sound of it. He wanted to move forward and embrace her. He could feel her against him, trying to pry inside of his mind. It was intoxicating.

But it was a trap. This was a game she liked to play. Who would be the first to break against her? She would be doing the same thing to the others. She liked to play a game to see who could fight her will. Break and you would be punished.

Minutes passed before the pressure eased and she smiled, ruby lips parting in satisfaction. “Excellent. I’m so glad to see that I truly did pick the best of all my children to be by my side during this year’s festival.”

Karhi wouldn’t point out that they were the strongest out of all her dozens of children. Of course she would want them. Though he was surprised those whack jobs weren’t here—Ava and Angus. The butcher twins. Ilona loved to party with them.

Ilona looked around the room. “But . . . where is the little one?”

Even though Ilona barely reached five feet without heels, she meant Sloane when she said “little one”.

No one spoke, leaving it to Karhi.

“She . . . is missing.”

Ilona paused, her gaze like a ray of heat on him. He wanted to squirm, but he clamped down the urge and stayed still.

After a moment, she looked at the others. “You are dismissed. I will catch up with each of you as the week progresses, and then we will attend the festival together.” She looked at Karhi. “You and I have some things to discuss.”

Karhi saw Lunette look up when Ilona’s back was turned, eyes wide with horror. She started to open her mouth to speak, but Karhi locked eyes with her.

The horror disappeared from her features, confusion replacing it. After a moment, she looked back down, eyes searching the carpet uncertainly.

They shuffled out of the room. Onyx glanced back at him guiltily, but the others didn’t look at him. They left.

Karhi stayed where he was until the last echoes of their footsteps disappeared behind the closing of the front door. Then he took a risk and looked up at Ilona.

“That was smart,” she said, nodding to the door through which the others had left. “Using your powers to force Lunette to forget what she was going to say. It would not have ended well if she had spoken out against me.”

He knew that. It was why he had done it. “I know you hate her. I didn’t want to watch you punish her.”

She turned to him, stepping to the table and picking up a glass of blood. “You’ve always had a soft spot for her. Why did you never take her as a lover?”

“I doubt that would have made you easier on her,” Karhi replied, reaching for his own glass of blood. He was beginning to feel the weight of the fatigue that Ilona always brought him. Blood would ease it. “Plus, I was never interested in her in that way.”

She smiled. It was a smile sharper than a razor’s edge. “Of course not. You were too busy with your other trysts. And you know, you became so boring after that girl’s grandmother.”

“Maybe I just became tired of being your toy,” he said, taking a sip of his drink. Now that it was just the two of them, he could be a bit more flippant than he otherwise would be. “I’ve become tired of being your little playmate to hurt Carrick.” The fact that he wasn’t here spoke volumes about what Ilona was expecting tonight. Karhi resisted the urge to click his piercing against his teeth.

Ilona waved him off, downing the rest of her blood. “You don’t hurt Carrick. He has his lovers.”

“That you kill if you find out about.”

“Only when they’re disrespectful!” she defended herself. “He’s had one for a few years now. Laurie. She’s a human.”

“I thought you set her on fire.”

“No, that was Laura. And that was a decade ago.”

“The point is, Ilona, you can kill his lovers and he can’t kill me. That’s not fair to him.”

She waved him off. “You’re so serious, Karhi.”

“Where is he?” he asked. “He was the one to call us here.”

“He’s on some errands for me,” she shrugged, setting her glass down.

Of course, he was.

“And where is your fledgling?” she asked, stepping forward until her breasts almost touched his stomach. She was looking up at him, but her gaze had him rooted to the floor. He may as well have been shorter than her for all the authority his height gave him here.

“I don’t know,” he answered through gritted teeth, downing the rest of his blood.

“Yes, you said that. But why do you not know?” He could feel a harsh heat kindling behind her words.

He pushed against the feeling of her emotions in his head. “She stole my car, cut the GPS out, and there has been no sign of her. I have everyone I can searching for her, but she is nowhere to be found.”

She clucked her tongue angrily, turning away from him. “That insolent, repulsive little girl. She thinks she can hide from me?”

“I don’t believe it was on her mind. I believe she’s trying to hide from everyone.”

Ilona turned to look at him. Her perfect mouth had contorted into a vicious image of fury. It was a black cold fire against him that made his muscles tense, ready to run. But, of course, he couldn’t run. She wouldn’t let him.

“I will find her,” she growled. “I will find her, and she will be punished for this insolence. I will make sure that every one of my other children is on the lookout for her. I—”

“Ilona,” he said quietly.

She looked at him.

“Why do you want her here so badly?” He had an awful feeling in the pit of his stomach that he already knew the answer. But he almost felt compelled to ask. She wanted him to ask.

She turned back to him, motioning for him to lean over. He did so almost without thinking.

“Sloane has some lessons to learn,” she whispered in his ear.

His blood ran cold. Memories of Lunette’s screams filled his head. Echoes of his own screams joined her, a chorus of agony, bloodlust, and fear.

His mouth was dry, and he swallowed, straightening.

Ilona tilted her head at him curiously. It wasn’t a human gesture. It wasn’t even a vampire gesture. It reminded him of a praying mantis, tilting her head in search of her next victim.

Finally, she said, “You don’t want me to find her. You want to protect her. To keep your fledgling from me.”

He didn’t say anything

“She’s mine, Karhi,” she snarled.

“Why are you so fascinated with her?” Karhi asked. He had to redirect her.

“She is your child. She takes you from me. How could I not be?”

“She is gone,” Karhi said. “If she’s gone forever, you can ignore her. You will have me back.”

She paused, looking up at the ceiling. She was contemplating this.

“Without Sloane in the picture, I will be here, and we can be alone.” Every word he spoke tasted like bile. He had never even been interested in Sloane beyond keeping her alive. Nor did he want Ilona in any way. But he hoped that she would only be searching for the truth in his words that she wanted to hear: he didn’t want Sloane.

Finally, she smiled, and he felt a fire ignite in his chest and race down. Nausea rose into the back of his throat, but desire quickly swallowed it.

He had successfully avoided her wrath.

She reached up and shoved him. He grabbed her as he fell back, pulling her on top of him. She giggled, wrapping her arms around his neck and straddling him.

She was cold to the touch, like a corpse. There was no real life behind her touch. Only the cold embrace of painful, inevitable death.

His claws grew out before he knew it and he ran one down the centre of her blouse, cutting through the thread that held the buttons. He tore the fabric off of her, pressing his mouth to the area between her shoulder and her neck, biting down until he tasted blood.

She hissed, twisting one hand into his hair and yanking back. He growled, sliding his other hand up her skirt.

“You’re going to ruin my nice new clothes,” she hissed into his ear.

He turned his hand and shredded her skirt. “They only get in the way,” he growled back hungrily, putting his free hand around her waist and turning her, pushing her onto the couch.

In the back of his mind, he felt a repulsion to what he was doing. But his desire for Ilona all but drowned it out. She wanted him, which meant that he, of course, wanted her.

He didn’t get a choice.