Blood Veil

Blood Veil

Prologue

Idris

I stalked through Bite, the deep bass vibrating the walls and pounding into my head. The club was packed—the dance floor filled with writhing vampires thirsty for blood, and humans eager to give it up. I made my way deeper into the club, where carefully selected humans—ones who promised to keep quiet about the existence of vampires—came to give up their blood in exchange for cash. It was a transaction that worked for humans and the Gregorie vampire clan. We didn’t take what we needed by force, and they let us be—living beneath their city in old subway tunnels.

Not all vampire clans respected human autonomy. Some wanted to rule over humans, reducing them to mere blood slaves. In fact, that was the very reason why I was being summoned to a private room at Bite to have a sit-down with my brother—the newly crowned king of the Gregorie vampires.

The high from sinking my fangs into a human a mere ten minutes ago, the rush of fresh blood through my veins, was wearing off. I wasn’t happy about Athan deigning to sweep in from our family’s hidden compound outside Mission to make sure I was staying on task. Yeah, I wasn’t happy about it at all.

Moans filled my ears as I surged through the crowd. I’d made it to the greeting room, which was filled with couches full of humans and vampires in various states of undress. A woman riding a vampire turned to look at me as I passed, her mouth open in ecstasy, eyes glassy.

I hadn’t had time for any of that. I’d fed, then received word my brother was here. My human hadn’t been happy. She wanted some of her own vampire dick. Too bad; she’d find it elsewhere. Hell, she was probably here now. I hadn’t planned to screw her anyway. Unlike what my brother thought, I was here to feed and feed only because I had to. I was fully focused on my mission.

I walked down a hallway, then turned a corner and headed down another, going deeper into Bite where only employees of the club and members of the royal family—me—and our guards were allowed. Finally, I came to the correct door and shoved it open.

Athan sat at the table, large and imposing, his dark eyes taking me in as I sank into the chair across from him.
He didn’t speak, so I did. “Why are you here?”

Athan’s jaw clenched at my question, and just like that, the room filled with his energy. It’d been that way since he’d drunk from the Sanguivita. Athan was larger than life now, a true king who was strong as ten vampires combined, had goddamn wings, and could let the sun fall on his face without being burned.

My hand—the one with the maimed finger—twitched in my lap.

“I’m here to make sure you don’t do something stupid, brother,” Athan said.

“You weren’t so worried when you sent me on this mission.”

“I’m reconsidering.”

I narrowed my eyes at him, wondering where the heck this was coming from. Then I knew. “Zeb.”

“I’m having him keep an eye on you—”

“Screw that,” I said, slashing my hand through the air. “Really? Spying on me?”

“I thought your anger would cool,” Athan explained, but there was no remorse in his tone. “I thought you’d focus on the mission and—”

“I’m focused. The only reason I’m not watching her right now is because I needed to feed, and then you herded me into a room to give me a talking-to.”

“That’s my point,” Athan snapped. “There’s a difference between focusing on the mission with the end game in sight, and being so damned lost in it that you can’t see what’s best for the clan.”

I stared at him, speechless, and when I spoke, I barely recognized my toneless voice. “Are you saying I’m not doing what’s best for the family?”

Athan flinched on the last word, and for the first time since he cornered me at Bite, I saw a bit of my brother and not the stone-faced king. “I didn’t say—”

I held up my left hand, where my middle finger was missing down to the first knuckle. It was barely noticeable, and to anyone who didn’t know, a minor injury. But to me, it was a pain I’d never forget, a constant reminder of what my father had been willing to do, and just how worthless he thought I was. I shook my hand at Athan, and his gaze narrowed in on my finger. “Don’t tell me I won’t do what’s best for my clan. I stood on our damned roof prepared to let our father burn me one inch at a time to save your precious Tendra. Don’t tell me I’m not willing to do what’s best for us.” I hissed the last word, beyond pissed. Beyond.

Athan knew it, too. My anger had always burned bright in a way that singed everything around me. Athan was the controlled one. The steady one. The king.