“Come again?” I asked, closing my eyes and wishing today would just end.

“I’d be delighted. All you have to do is ask, love,” Gareth replied with a grin that made me want to smack it off of his face.

The Vampyre Ethan had been communicating with was none other than the very one I wanted to avoid. Awesome.

“Enough,” Ethan reprimanded, shifting his focus from chastising his brother back to the paperwork on his desk. “If you have nothing to add other than offensive sexual innuendos, you may leave.”

“Someone has his panties in a wad this evening,” Gareth muttered with a chuckle as he sat back in the leather chair and made the international zip the lip motion.

“And someone is his usual douchenozzle self,” Astrid added with a raised brow to Gareth as she made herself comfortable on the couch.

“Touché,” Gareth said.

Ignoring the Vampyre in the chair who was burning holes in the ass of my pants with his lecherous eyes, I got back to the matter at hand. I was tired and hungry—never a good combination.

“There’s a Vampyre television network?” I asked, sure I’d heard Ethan incorrectly. “How do I not know about this?”

“Do you watch TV?” Astrid asked.

“Um… not much.”

“Bingo,” she said. “I, on the other hand do. And the Vamp Network is one totally fucked up shitshow—except for the fact they show reruns of True Blood. I freakin’ love that show. Anyhoo, I’m not a bit surprised Vlad is addicted to the channel. It’s violent, weird and creepy. Very much like him.”

“They have wonderful porn,” Gareth chimed in to no one’s great surprise.

“Define fucked up,” I said, blocking Gareth out and doing my best not to pull a knife from my boot and plant it in the middle of his forehead.

“Well, as Gareth so helpfully pointed out, there’s porn,” Astrid confirmed with an eye roll. “Also news, weather, undead style shows, and freakin’ cooking shows, which I call total bullshit on since we can’t eat.”

“Vlad is addicted to cooking shows?” I asked, getting more confused as to why this had any baring on finding the bastard who needed a silver stake plunged into his undead heart.

“No.” Ethan ran his hands through his hair and then pressed the bridge of his nose. “He’s addicted to beauty pageants.”

“And this helps us find him how?” I asked wanting to cut to the chase and get the hell out.

As much as I adored my prince, Ethan and Astrid, I didn’t have time for useless information. Not to mention, being in the same room with Gareth wasn’t my idea of fun. We were oil and water, and he was getting on my very last nerve. All I wanted was my bed and eight hours alone.

And after my performance earlier tonight, I didn’t think Ethan would be too pleased if I removed Gareth’s fangs.

“He’s reportedly been seen in person at several of the televised pageants—in disguise of course. There’s a woman that looks like Juliette among the competitors and he’s become obsessed with her,” Ethan informed me with very little emotion.

“Isn’t Juliette still here in solitary confinement?” Gareth questioned with even less feeling than his brother. There was very little love or concern for Juliette from her family at this point.

Ethan nodded curtly and Gareth relaxed.

Astrid shuddered with disgust. “She’s locked down so tight, no one can get to her.”

Juliette was Ethan and Gareth’s sister and in the strangest twist of fate, she was Astrid’s sister as well. Ethan and Juliette shared the same father but different mothers. Astrid and Juliette shared the same mother but had different fathers. There had been a massive freak out on Astrid’s part until she realized she and Ethan were in no way related by blood. That wrinkle still took me by surprise… and really, very little surprised me anymore.

Juliette was the one who turned Astrid and then tried to kill her, along with just about every other family member she had. She was the only royal sibling without a ruling territory. She was a dangerous rogue. To make matters uglier—if that were possible—she’d teamed up with Vlad. Juliette was his lover, as well as partner in many horrific and deadly crimes against our race. What she wanted above everything else was power. Redemption for Juliette was no longer an option.

I wondered why she was still being kept alive, but that was none of my business. Vampyre punishment held little to no compassion. It was normally swift, vicious, and over quickly. We were a violent race. Brutality was something that we all understood.

Astrid coming into our world as the Chosen One had changed our modus operandi, much to the displeasure of the Old Guard, but she was a force to be reckoned with and had more power in her pinky that the entire Old Guard combined. Astrid’s compulsion for compassion made her far more powerful than the evil bastards.

“Is Vlad daft?” I asked, doubtful of the intel. “He’s being hunted by every known Vampyre in the world and he’s attending beauty pageants?”

“Love—or rather obsession—can make a man do strange things,” Ethan replied with a shrug. “If the data is correct, he’s given us an opening and we’re going to take it.”

“Where did the information come from?” Gareth asked, no longer the snarky, obnoxious man chuckling on the couch.

He was now in full badass Vampyre mode and it was as frightening as it was hot. The muscles in his jaw worked rapidly and fists clenched in anger at his sides. His jet-black hair was laced with grey at the temples—unheard of for a Vampyre since we stopped aging at thirty, but Gareth had been cursed by Vlad and was slowly dying. However, the stupid grey in his hair made him even more appealing. At this point, Vlad was the missing key needed to save him.

Three of the other eleven royal siblings had been cursed as well and were faring about the same as Gareth. Lelia, Alexander and Nathan were on their own missions to bring down Vlad, but so far no one had been successful.

“Roberto,” Ethan said in a clipped tone. “The Angel wants Vlad as badly as we do.”

“Yet the Angel gave us this information?” Gareth demanded with a raised brow.

“He wants the fucker, but doesn’t want to get his hands dirty,” Astrid said. “It’s tidier if we get him.”

“I have no problem with that,” Gareth snapped. “Well, I do have a slight concern. If I see him, I’ll kill him.”

“His ashes will do us no good at all,” Ethan reminded his brother. “We need him alive to break the curse. As much as I want to beat the hell out of you on a daily basis, your death is unacceptable to me.”

“Compliments will get you nowhere,” Gareth quipped with a hollow laugh.

“Alive not dead. A dead Vlad cannot break the curse,” Ethan repeated.

“If he can break it,” Gareth said, pacing the large office like a caged tiger.

“Roberto reports he’s boiled it down to three Angels who might have betrayed him and worked with Vlad. He’ll find the Angel and we’ll find Vlad. Alive,” Ethan said in a tone that brooked very little need for a response.

“May I speak?” I asked.

“Please do,” Ethan said, motioning for Astrid to come to him.

Their need and respect for each other humbled me. It made me long for the same, but I knew it wasn’t in the cards for me. I was too set in my ways. If I hadn’t come across my True Mate in over two hundred years on this earth, there was very little chance I would do so now.

“Bringing Vlad in alive is more than likely impossible. His power alone makes trapping and holding him inconceivable,” I said.

“While you might be correct, I have a plan,” Ethan said with a grin on his face that made my own grin pull at my lips. My Prince was brilliant, deadly, and never liked to lose.

“God, that’s so hot when you get all Vampyre-y,” Astrid said as she laid a big wet one on him.

“With all due respect,” Gareth cut in with an eye roll and groan. “I’d rather not witness any royal foreplay at the moment. I have no real clue how much time I have left. If you have a plan, spit it out.”

“Party pooper,” Astrid mumbled.

“Under other circumstances, I’d take you out for a comment like that.” Ethan glanced sharply at his brother. “But in this case I agree.”

“Plan?” Gareth snapped.

“Venus will be punished for defanging a guest in our Domain. She will be put in solitary,” Ethan explained, pulling up a document on his computer.

Wait. What?

“You removed his fangs?” Gareth asked with delight.

“Yes. You’ve read the Twilight series?” I shot back momentarily forgetting what Ethan had just decreed.

“Yes. Very interesting books,” Gareth replied unapologetically with a wide grin. “Quite sparkly.”

“I loved those books,” Astrid chimed in with a clap of her hands. “And Venus didn’t just remove his fangs. He’s completely toothless and flying home as we speak with one arm, one leg and a nose residing in his hairline.”

“Very intriguing,” Gareth said, winking at me.

I closed my eyes and shook my head. My instincts were to laugh, but then I’d be giving the imbecile permission to butt into my life again. I could clean up my own messes without any help from a Vamp who wanted to get in my pants—again. I had enough problems already without adding Gareth back to the list.

“And your reasoning for putting me in solitary?” I asked Ethan, willing to go, but needing to know why.

“You’ll be caged next to Juliette,” he replied evenly. “She doesn’t know you. You’ll be on death row—so to speak. You’ll have nothing to lose—feel free to trash talk all of us. She’ll hear this and hopefully you can get information on Vlad. Anything will do at this point. She’s stopped talking to the interrogators and my gut says she has useful knowledge.”

“No,” Gareth hissed.

Ethan’s fangs dropped and his eyes blazed green. “I’m sorry. What?”

“I said no,”’ Gareth shot back, his own fangs dropping and his eyes going from crystal blue to menacing green. “Venus will have no part of this.”

The power dancing around the room was suffocating. The two brothers went toe-to-toe and for a moment I forgot Gareth was dying. His anger was terrifying.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Astrid squealed, jumping between the two men. “While undead testosterone is all kinds of smexy, you boys are being ridiculous. No one here wants me to get involved because there’s a fine chance we’ll lose a good portion of the compound. I’m quite good at ending violence, but I’m also wildly fucking adept at blowing out walls. SIT!” she yelled at the vibrating Vampyres.

Turning away in fury, Ethan went back behind his desk and punched a hole in it. “This is my territory. I am the undisputed leader here. Venus is my top general—deadlier than anyone else in my Dominion. I’m trying to save your goddamned life. Explain yourself now, or I’ll put you out of my misery and call it a day,” Ethan roared.

“I need to speak with you alone,” Gareth ground out through clenched teeth to his equally fuming brother.

“Oh my hell,” Astrid griped as Ethan nodded his head at his mate and me, clearly indicating that we should leave. “I call no motherhumpin’ fair.”

I wholeheartedly agreed with Astrid. Did the bastard think I wasn’t qualified? My anger bubbled beneath the surface, but before being dismissed I needed a few more pieces of the puzzle.

“With all due respect, I deserve to know more about the plan. I’ll follow your orders without question, but it’s only fair that I know what I’m doing,” I said, trying not to flinch at the litany of swear words coming from Gareth.

The man didn’t own me. He had no say over what my Prince demanded of me. And if he kept cursing at me, I was going to go Rambo on his ass. I didn’t care who was present.

“Enough, Gareth,” Ethan shouted. “You will get your privacy with me momentarily. Venus is not out of line.”

“Thank you, sire.” I bowed my head to him, avoiding eye contact with Gareth at all costs.

“The plan is for you to get information from Juliette. We will then register you for the next pageant that the object of Vlad’s obsession will be competing in. If the woman is agreeable, we’ll use her as bait. If not, we go with plan B.”

“That’s the worst damn plan I ever heard,” Gareth yelled and further defaced Ethan’s office by putting his fist through the wall. “What the fuck is plan B? We invite him back to the house for tea and crumpets?”

“Plan B is to dismember him—arms and legs—so we can take him alive,” Ethan went on ignoring the destruction to his office. “Actually, that’s also part of plan A. It’ll just be easier if we have a decoy.”

The sound of lamps crashing and furniture being thrown was difficult to ignore—difficult but doable.

“I won’t have Venus put at risk that way,” Gareth said taking a short break from demolishing Ethan’s office. “Not happening.”

“Not your call,” I shot back angrily, but baffled as to why he was throwing such a fit. It almost seemed like the jerk cared. Wishful thinking was going to get me in trouble. Not going there.

“Enough,” Ethan said to Gareth. “Venus, are you agreeable?”

“I am,” I said, accepting the flimsy proposal. “Do you have a likeness of this female Vamp from the pageant?”

“I do,” Ethan said reaching into a stack of drawings and handing me one.

The ringing in my ears as I looked at the face of the woman blocked out Gareth’s tantrum. However, it was her name printed below the likeness that was a deadly punch to my dead heart. The room spun and my gut burned like it had been knifed with silver. My body shook and I grabbed Astrid by the shoulder for purchase. How was this possible? There was a slight resemblance to Juliette, but not as much as I’d expected. I could never forget this particular face. Ever. It was burned into my memories.

“Are you all right?” Astrid was alarmed as she wrapped her arms around me.

“I am,” I replied, but my voice seemed to come from somewhere far away. “No, I’m not.”

“Talk to me,” Astrid urged.

“May I have permission to end the woman after we capture Vlad?”

Ethan glanced at me sharply in confusion and surprise. “Why would you want to kill the Vamp? She has nothing to do with Vlad.”

“Call it an old vendetta,” I said tonelessly. I slipped gently from Astrid’s embrace and stood on my own two feet. “She’ll be the bait. I can guarantee it. She owes me a life—several, in fact. But I want to be granted full permission to end hers.”

Gareth was now silent and I felt all eyes in the room boring into me.

“You ask for very little, Venus,” Ethan said in a measured tone. “I know you wouldn’t ask for a life without reason. I grant and support your request. However, as your Prince I have the right to know why.”

Nodding my head and trying to find words instead of the scream that wanted to leave my lips took more effort than killing Trolls or Demons.

“Her name is Claudia. I had no idea she’d been turned or she’d be ash already. She was the wife of my master,” I spat.

“Your master?” Gareth asked, not following.

It wasn’t a surprise he didn’t understand. Master could mean several things to a Vampyre—a sire, a leader… but that wasn’t what I meant. Gareth didn’t know my history. Honestly, I didn’t want him to know my past. It was mine and I wanted no pity for it. I’d taken care of the man who’d murdered my mother, sisters and brothers in cold blood with a whip. The image of their broken bodies covered in bloody stripes where the whip had torn their skin away from the bone was branded into my brain for eternity.

I’d tried to end my own life after their deaths, but the memory of my family and my need for vengeance wouldn’t allow me to do something so selfish. It took me many decades to let go of the guilt of not being with them when they died.

Much to my genuine surprise and serious shock, the wives’ tale that had always terrified me as a child about the walking dead turned out to be very real. I’d been hiding in the woods and living like an animal for weeks when I happened upon the beautiful man whose sparkling green eyes and sharp teeth I would never forget. I begged him to make me like him. His ethereal skin was pale and he glowed like what I’d always imagined an Angel would look like.

Initially I was unsure if I was hallucinating from starvation or if I’d gone insane—it was neither of those things. He was very real and I was drawn to him like a moth to a flame. I’d expected him to spit on me—the only way I’d ever known whites to treat blacks—but he didn’t. He told me he’d watched me for many years and it would be his honor to gift me the strength to do right by my family.

After I’d been turned, I saw my benefactor only once more. He stood and watched me destroy those that had destroyed me. Afterward, I’d pleaded with him to take me with him, but he told me that was impossible. He promised to watch over me when he could and urged me to find the Vampyre Prince named Ethan. It took me a few years, but I followed his orders. I eventually became one of Ethan’s people—loved, cared for, and trained to be a killer. Often I’d searched for my undead guardian Angel, but no one knew of a Vampyre by his description. I thanked the man daily in my prayers and hoped to one day come across my savior again.

As for my master, I killed him. I killed the man whose name I would never utter again as brutally as he’d killed those I had loved. I’d also taken out the foreman, and everyone else who looked the other way, or enjoyed the horrifying death of my indentured family. The only one I’d missed was the wife. I had missed killing Claudia.

Somehow, she’d gotten away. But this time she wouldn’t.

Maybe that’s why I was still here when the rest of my family was long gone

The risks I’d taken with my undead life suddenly bothered me. I could have perished and Claudia would have gone on living—me never knowing she did. Although, the risks I’d taken had made me the killing machine I was today… so perhaps things had worked as they were meant to.

“Claudia was the wife of my master,” I repeated flatly. “I was a slave during my human years. He’s dead by my hand, and if I could kill him again, I would.”

The silence in the room was as thick as the power still floating around.

“This might be a bad idea,” Ethan said, staring at me and trying to gage my reactions. “This is too important to risk mixing it with vengeance. Perhaps it hits you too close to home.”

“But…” I started, only to be halted by his hand.

“You have my blessing and permission to go after her. She’s yours after we have Vlad. But you will have nothing to do with the mission.”

“Finally some sense,” Gareth snapped.

“Sire, you’re wrong,” I said, imploring Ethan with every cell in my body. “By Vampyre law, she owes me many lives for what she was complicit with in her human years. She will be our bait, but you need me to make that happen. She was, and I assume is still, a woman who is only out for herself. The only way to make her play is to play her… and I know how.”

“Not liking this,” Ethan said, pressing his temples and thinking it through.

“I’m your best bet and I want the job. While it’s not something to brag about, if I catch Vlad from behind, I can take his arms and legs in a heartbeat.”

“No, no, no,” Gareth said, approaching me with narrowed eyes.

“Stop,” I hissed, halting him with my glare. “You are not my Prince. You are a dying man, along with three of your siblings. If Vlad and an Angel were able to curse the four of you, they can curse more. Ending Vlad is the only way to stop his idea that he can kill off the entire Royal Family. And unless you have a better plan, I’d suggest you shut your overbearing, macho, jackass cakehole, and let some qualified people save your worthless damn life.”

Again the silence was thick. Astrid’s eyes were wide and Ethan’s proud smile could not be contained. It was only Gareth who still fumed.

“Guess she told you,” Astrid told Gareth with a solid poke to his ribs.

With a grunt, he moved right to his brother. “Fine. Venus goes, but I go with her. I know Vlad. I’ll know him in disguise. She doesn’t leave this compound unless I’m with her.”

“You’re dying. You’re a liability,” Ethan said bluntly. “Venus is safer alone than with you.”

“Not if I get a little stay on my illness,” Gareth countered.

“How in the ever loving hell are you going to do that?” Astrid demanded, with her hands on her slim hips.

It was a very good question.

“Funny you should mention hell,” Gareth said with a devastating grin. “Can you get ahold of Satan?”

“Oh, hell to the no,” I muttered, knowing for sure the Vampyre had lost his mind.

“You’re joking,” Ethan said, pressing the bridge of his nose and shuddering.

“Not one bit,” Gareth assured him.

“You’ll owe him a favor,” Astrid warned.

“Bring it on,” Gareth said, completely uncaring that he would be indebted to the King of the Underworld.

I didn’t think this day could get any worse.

I was wrong.