The demon named Wroth says nothing as Kinley and I pass him, both of us splattered in blood. That smirk of his is a telling sign he knows what happened and that he knows what it means for the vampire community. Damian's death will lead to the destruction of the council. It is going to be an all out war for the throne.

Kinley's short legs make it hard for her to keep up with my long strides, yet I don't give her a choice. I have her by the wrist and I am not letting go until we are out of this place.

Serena's brow lifts when she spots us before the others, her drink pausing at her lips. Dorian's stopping mid-sentence and Kalista's widening eyes cause Kerrien to turn around. He doesn't need to turn around to know someone is drenched in vampire blood. He could smell it on me the moment I stepped foot into the open bar area. The thing is he didn't care until the others in the room went silent along with Dorian, Kalista, and my sisters.

Kerrien's eyes narrow into slits when he picks up on the familiar scent that covers my right arm.

"We are leaving," I command, not stopping as I continue to haul Kinley toward the exit, grabbing Kalista's arm on the way out.

I'm forced to stop when Kerrien appears in front of the exit doors. "Where is Damian?" he asks, venom gathering in his mouth making his words thick as the overflow of it coats his throat. I have far too much of his brother's blood on me for his comfort.

"He's in the alley lying right next to the heart I ripped from his chest." I release my hold of Kinley's wrist and Kalista's arm, straightening my shoulders as I step to Kerrien. "I made myself clear when I said this one's flesh isn't for the taking. If your brother had listened, he'd still be here."

At this point, I'm daring Kerrien Norvak to do something. The best-case scenario is we fight, and I send him to join his brother in the afterlife. I'd have grounds then as I was protecting myself and there would be witnesses to back me up.

Kerrien may be similar in age, but he isn't as strong as me and he knows it.

"You killed Damian over a human?" Kerrien's voice goes low.

"The encouragements state we are to turn virgin humans over or compel them to forget. Your brother was a half second away from feasting on this human's heart. That is a violation of the new encouragements and a violation of Kalista's claim on her as a future chalice."

"I guess it is a good thing soon enough all those new encouragements won't matter." Kerrien steps to the side, the vein in his forehead rearing its ugly head as it pulses in his anger. "I'd hold on tight to the princess, Tristan, because if I get to her, that means I get both of them. I can think of a lot of ways I could have fun with the chalice my brother died trying to taste."

Kerrie's threat is unmistakable, but it's what he doesn't say that is more worrisome. He knows something we don't. He's too confident in his words and too unaffected by Damian's death. He isn't worried about vengeance because he knows it's already coming our way.

Whatever excuse the Norvak needed to convince the others on the fence about joining their revolt to overthrow the Vondarrie, I just hand delivered to them.

Placing a hand on Kinley's and Kalista's back, I shove them through the door first. I keep my eyes locked on Kerrien's as I encourage my sisters to go in front of me as well. I don't trust Kerrien with them. He's liable to kill both of them as I have now killed two of his siblings.

Dorian ushers Maya outside. I follow behind them swiftly, bypassing them to reach Kinley's and Kalista's side.

"Get in the car," I order Kinley after opening the door before the Shadow driver can get out of the limo I called to pick us up.

She climbs in quickly, the others following suit as they can tell by the black aura radiating off me I am in no mood to be tested.

Before I can get in, Kerrien catches me by the shoulder.

"I almost forgot to tell you, we've taken Valderanna. Next, we will infiltrate the castle Alekos has kept himself held up in. Vaden Kazimier's sons have decided to join us as have the majority of the Zoric bloodline. Please tell the princess if she wants her father to stay alive, all she has to do is agree to become my mate. You may hail from the warrior bloodline, but your family alone can't save Alekos when even some of his bastard sons and daughters have been swayed to join us."

I climb into the car, not granting Kerrien any type of reaction. The limo rocks as I slam the door shut behind me. I tap the roof, signaling the driver to take off. The loud thumping and hard-hitting music of Deviant House Seven fades into the clamor of city nightlife as we take to the streets, weaving our way into the smog of traffic and the intoxicated humans crawling all over these parts of town looking to make the most of their short lives.

"What did he say?" Sabrina asks, her voice heightened with unease.

"Nothing that mattered."

If Kerrien is telling the truth, it won't matter if I hand over Kalista to him. He will take the castle with or without her. Alekos would rather die than have me hand over the child his mate gave her life for. Kalista is the future he wants for the Vampirie. I can only hope my parents make it out alive.

The lights of buildings go by, obscured by the tinted windows of the limo as we merge onto the freeway. An unsettling fills my stomach like spoiled blood left out in the heat. It's foul odor and rotten taste found among the truth that lies within the heritage that runs in my veins.

Death and power.

Blood and Privilege.

Too long the Darkos bloodline has known Alekos's favor. Too long has a ruler of bias treatment been allowed to sit on the throne.

Loyalty has a price, and it is probably my parents' heads.

"Take the next exit," I say to the driver.

"Yes, Mr. Darkos." He doesn't need more explanation. This exit leads to one place.

"Are we going somewhere?" Serena asks as the limo rolls up to the passenger drop off at the airport.

I don't answer. I open the door, ordering Maya to get out of the car. She obeys without hesitation. I slam the car door in Kinley's face when she attempts to follow her friend.

Maya looks alarmed as I grab her by the shoulders rather roughly. "I am releasing you. You will not remember me, you will not remember my family, and you will not remember anything you have seen. All you will remember is coming to visit Kinley. You two went shopping, to the zoo, and ate dinner on the pier every night. You spent your nights laughing out on the balcony enjoying the ocean breeze and your days soaking in the sun down on the beach."

Letting go of Maya's shoulders, I pull the wallet out of my back pocket and hand her a thousand dollars cash. "Book yourself a one-way flight home. By the time you board, I'll have your things here to make the journey back home with you. As the days pass, Kinley Shea Rylan will fade from your memory and, in three months from now, she will be but a distant memory of your past as you continue to live out your life going to school and partying like the young hellion you are."

Maya clutches the cash I handed her tightly to her hand-held purse, a single tear slipping down her cheek before her face goes completely blank. She blinks a few times, her head tilting when she looks back up at me, this time with no recognition in her brown eyes.

"Whoa, you're like super good looking. Are you famous by chance? I was really hoping to see a movie star down here as I've been here visiting a friend but I never did. It's one of the things on my bucket list—meet a famous person and take a picture with them. You look famous. Actually"—Maya looks down at my blood stained clothes and skin—"you look like you just came off of working on a set. OMG, Is there an action thriller being filmed here right now?" Maya squeals excitedly.

"I'd put that cash in your purse before it catches the wrong person's attention."

"Hey, wait!" she hollers after me as I walk off toward the limo. When she sees me open the door, I hear her say, "I knew it! I just met a movie star and the asshole didn't even let me take a picture with him. LA blows."

When I get into the car, Kinley is right there, her neck stretching to see around me. "Where's—" she snaps her mouth shut, biting her lip as she looks down at the floorboard. She's remembering where's isn't a word in the two-word vocabulary I have allotted her.

"She's soon to be on a flight home."

If I didn't send Maya away this second, I would have ripped her heart out in my fury and as punishment for Kinley not minding. I shouldn't care about that either, but after seeing Kinley so broken in the alleyway over a loss that happened three years ago, I couldn't bear the thought of seeing her cry tears over Maya.

That thought makes me draw blood as I bite hard on the inside of my cheek. Clearly, I need to go hunting. I need to rip some human throats open and sink my teeth into a warm, beating heart. Yes, that is what I need. I need the blood and guts of my prey all around me. I'm not made to feel.

I need to stop feeling. Feeling is what caused me to rip Damian Norvak's heart out. Old Tristan would have ripped Damian away and taken the heart for himself. Instead, I protected it like some freaking guardian angel.

My stomach churns at the thought of me being anything like one of those winged, invisible bastards.

There was a time during the Dark Prince's reign when guardian angels walked among the humans. After the Great War, so much blood was spilled that light can no longer exist as it once had on Earth. The smattering of the guardian angels that survived are so weak now they may as well not be here.

Humans think they all have one watching over them. They don't. I've only felt a guardian angel's presence twice. Once was beside a nun and the other was near a little village girl who had wandered too far into the woods. You know when you are in the presence of one because the air around you gets all tingly and the whites of your eyes go black even if you aren't thirsty.

Kinley touches the window as the limo pulls away from the curb. I can tell by the way she watches Maya while we go by her emotions are crawling up into her throat.

"Good bye, friend," Kinley whispers to herself, and I swear by the humans' god herself, a bolt of electricity sears my insides as a small smile slips to Kinley's face.

The ice that thrives inside the pathway of my veins squashes the sensation. I'm worried about the war outside, but I should be more concerned about the war happening inside me. The beasts that reside in me as a dark being are fighting. One is after her cinnamon blood and the other is after Kinley's heart, but not so he can sink his teeth into the tasty life-giving organ. He wants to possess it like he wants to possess her body.

It's clear I've lost my damn mind. Tonight is proof of that. I've been trying to find answers for weeks, and I have none. All I have is a human I want to eat and take to my bed, a race on the brink of war, and a body my grandfather may be trying to take from me.

Once we get to the house, the questions start. The others gave me the car ride to cool down, but they can't keep quiet any longer.

"What happened?" Sabrina screeches. "You couldn't have just broken his neck? You had to take his heart!"

"Yes, brother. Please tell us all how saving the princess's chalice is worth causing a war? We could have found her another one. She can't be the only human out there. I'm sure they're others. How asinine can you be? It wasn't enough for you to cause the death of their sibling but you go and do it again!" Serena fumes.

"Ek!" Kinley shrieks as I sling her up over my shoulder without warning. "I'm going to bed. Only wake me if the house is on fire or Kerrien Norvak is banging on our door." I head toward my room, ignoring the snarls and growls of frustrations of my sisters.

I'm not in a rational headspace nor am I going to sit here and let them berate me for a decision I can no longer undo. What is done is done. Izzy made her choice and I made mine. She chose to kill herself, and I chose to kill Damian Norvak.

Shit happens.

I set Kinley down on the counter of the bathroom sink.

"Tristan..."

Warmth shoots down my spine at the way she says my name so soft and timid. I turn to face her while the water I turned on in the shower warms.

Her gaze drops from me while she grips the edge of the marble countertop. "Thank you for...letting her go." She phrases her words carefully as I have forbidden her to say Maya's name in my presence.

When Kinley opens her eyes that shut momentarily when she looked down, I'm right in front of her.

"No thank you for saving your life?"

Kinley gulps, too afraid to look me in the eyes but also too afraid not to. "Thank you for that as well. I know by saving me, you saved her. I also know my actions could have ended with you killing her because I didn't listen. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I know I messed up. It's just I thought I saw...Never mind, it doesn't matter." Kinley covers her face with her hands.

"What did you think you saw?" I speak deep from my chest because it is a tone Kinley responds best to as it is also laced with the evil that resides in me as a dark being.

My captive human folds, concealing her face from me by hiding behind her hands and burying her head in her lap. "I thought I saw the vampire who killed my parents."

"And you went after him?" I grab Kinley's chin, raising it till she is staring directly into my ice-blue irises after pulling her hands from her face.

"I...I wanted to know if he was real or if I was seeing things. For a full year after the attack, I saw him everywhere I went. He was in every shadow, every nightmare. The only reason I didn't get put in a psychiatric care facility is because Maya's parents took me in and I had to go to mandatory therapy sessions three times a week. I don't know how to process any of this: you, him, what happened back there in the alley. You just tore them apart like their bodies were made of paper and the female...she...she ripped into you like a wild beast. I can't...I just can't." Kinley squeezes her eyes shut and covers her ears as she tucks her chin to her chest.

Her mind is so broken from the things she has seen. This would be the time I would compel her to forget, but I can't. I can't help her heal what is broken in her. I'd have to kill her, and I don't want to kill her.

"Was it him?" I ask.

Kinley erupts in an unhinged burst of scoffing laughter. "No, it wasn't. It wasn't anyone. My mind made him up like it always does. I tried to go back. I kept my head down like you said but I bumped into someone who came out of a room. I tried to go around yet the female vamp wouldn't let me. That's when the other one whose heart you tore out showed up. The male vampire, Damian, he knew I came in with you and the others. I tried to fake them out by saying I saw you and that you were waiting for me, but I wasn't fast enough. They saw me go out the exit doors." Kinley's vocal cords pinch near the end, her mind moving on to the rest of what took place in that alleyway.

"Lesson one, human. You will never be able to outrun one of my kind."

I lift Kinley's face again. "And if you were in trouble, all you had to do was yell. I have excellent hearing. I could hear you yell even if you were in a soundproof room buried twenty feet underground.

"I know. It's just I knew you would be mad and I didn't want Maya to pay the price for my mistake."

My jaw tics at her saying her friend's name. "You don't have to worry about her being in harms way anymore." And I don't have to worry about the stupid things protecting Maya makes Kinley do.

Kinley reaches out and grabs my arm mid me removing my shirt as I'm heading for the shower that is past the point of warm by now. She immediately lets go of my arm.

"Can I...can I see?" Kinley's gaze stays fixed on the side of my neck that is covered in caked on dried blood.

"It is healed already."

I let my shirt drop to the floor, forgoing the shower as I turn my neck so she can continue her inspection of me. She's trying to make sense of everything. Her mind is struggling to deal with the powers and abilities of my kind. It's one thing to read about them. It is another to see them in real life.

Kinley leans forward to get a closer look. "Did it hurt?" she asks, running a finger over the blood because she doesn't believe the wound is completely healed over.

"Yes."

Her gaze snaps to mine as her brow creases. She was expecting me to say something different.

"But you staked yourself in the heart? I thought maybe...your kind didn't feel pain." Her gaze drops to my chest to the exact place I helped her drive a stake into me.

"We are not the walking undead."

"Yes, but your heart doesn't beat. It's like you're not living but you're not dead..." Kinley's voice drifts a bit, her gaze now roaming over my built chest to my broad shoulders and up my neck to where the caked on dried blood is. Next, her gaze moves over to my mouth. Subconsciously, she raises her hand and touches her mouth, feeling the flat edge of her teeth.

She's been here for a while, and this is the first time I think she has ever let herself really look at me, at what I am. She is exploring our differences. My releasing Maya from being the house meirru and hurting myself to protect her has caused her to let her guard down unknowingly.

That's not a bad thing, except it means she is now susceptible to my pheromones and the energy that surrounds me. It's causing her to be way more relaxed than she normally would be. That's what vampires are designed to do. We lull humans into thinking we are safe, non-threating creatures before we strike. We use biology warfare to deceive humans among many other things.

This is very dangerous ground I am on. I could easily ramp up my energy output and pheromone levels like Dorian did with Maya.

"You are so human like but then, at the same time, you're not." Kinley is so lost in her world and exploration of what should only exist in the realm of fiction and dreams she must have forgotten that I am actually real and not some figment of her imagination.

Her fingertips softly pry at my lips. She sucks in a deep breath when she exposes my teeth, the same teeth I have sunk into her flesh and the same type of teeth that helped tear her loved ones apart.

Her warm hands feel so good against my cold skin. A groan escapes me despite my efforts to keep it at bay.

Sometimes it feels like Kinley has her own powers. Only her powers consist of luring vampires in with her deliciously spicy, oh so tempting scent.

The unexpected sound from me causes Kinley's hand to falter, which results in her finger getting pricked on the bottom canine she was running her finger over.

She goes to pull her hand away. She isn't quick enough.

Instinctively, my mouth closes and I suck at the drop of blood she accidentally freed. I don't think she realized how sharp our teeth really are.

Panic highlights Kinley's eyes. I release her finger when I have extracted all the blood there is to be had.