Nine
Bo came into her room as soon as dusk hit. He’d woken from his slumber early, and Gracie frowned. Maybe he was gaining a talent like hers—staying awake during the day. Maybe she’d get company during these long hours of summer.
Two weeks ago, she’d have been happy to spend extra time with Bo.
Now she just wanted him to go boil his shirt, as Clive used to say when he wanted someone to get lost.
“All right,” he said, slapping his hands together. “Where’s the best place to grab him?”
“Grab…him?” Gracie asked.
“Yeah, your shifter boyfriend. We’re gonna knock him off, so where does he go alone?”
“I don’t know,” Gracie said. “I don’t stalk him or anything. I’ve just seen him those two times.”
And oh, she’d seen a lot of him. She wanted to see more—take off his shirt and watch his muscles ripple as he moved and bent his body to her pleasure.
She felt a flush on her cheeks, and suddenly felt thirsty. She’d have to hunt soon. Taking a little bit from each human meant she had to hunt every night. Inconvenient, but it was better than draining someone by accident, or taking so much their memories were impossible to adjust.
“You’re hiding something,” Bo said, his voice accusatory. “You never hid anything from me before.”
“It’s nothing,” she said. “Let’s plan this. But…I think we’re going about it wrong.”
He leveled a stare at her. “Really.”
“Really. We want to, what, kill him? That’s gonna be quick.”
“Don’t have to be,” Bo said.
“Even if we drag it out for days,” Gracie said, “then at the end of it he’s dead, right?”
He nodded.
She took a step nearer to him. Maybe they didn’t have to kill Fraze. Maybe she could—hell, how selfish was this?—maybe she could keep him. “What’s your biggest regret?” she asked Bo. “Your whole life now, what’s your biggest ever regret?”
“Easy.” He looked down. “Becomin’ what I am.”
“That’s right. We’re demons.”
“So, what do you wanna do?” he asked. “Get to the point, Gracie.”
“I think we should make him a demon,” she said. “He’ll never get to eat a meal again. Never see the sunrise.”
Bo scoffed. “You think it’ll even work? He’s already a shifter. Does that…happen?”
Gracie didn’t know. She just knew that a world without Fraze Rhees in it was worse than the one she was living in now. She couldn’t bear the thought of purposefully taking him out of it.
“It’s worth a try,” she said.
“What’s worth a try?”
The voice came from the hallway outside Gracie’s room. Ana. A cold fear filled Gracie’s body and gripped her neck. She hadn’t heard Ana approach—she hadn’t heard anything.
Ana’s silence was just one of the indicators of how powerful she was. Gracie’s vampire instincts had her bending her head as Ana walked into the room. From the corner of her eye, she could see Bo bending his head, too. Exposing the back of the neck—where a well-placed slice of a sword would easily remove them from the world. Reduce them to dust. As her subjects, they gave that opportunity to the queen at every turn.
Just by existing beneath her, it could be their fate at any time.
“I asked you a question,” Ana said. “And as you know, I’m not a very patient queen.”
“We’re discussing how to turn one of the Corona lions into a vampire,” Gracie said.
“That.” Ana was quiet for a moment. The queen didn’t sputter, she didn’t act shocked. “That’s an interesting plot. I approve.”
“Have you ever heard of it done?” Bo asked. “A shifter turning into a vampire?”
“Yes, I have. My maker had two former shifters in her service. There’s a short period of madness as the shifter loses access to his animal, but then,” she touched her chin, “then they’re just like the rest of us.”
Gracie lifted her head to look at the queen. She stood regally in front of them. Ana’s hair was almost as dark as her eyes. Other than her pale, pale skin, Ana looked like midnight. She looked like a beautiful demon, the kind who would smile while she was sucking out a person’s soul.
“So you’ll capture this shifter somehow,” Ana said. “Then exchange blood, give him the final kiss.”
“Thank you, Ana,” Gracie said. She knew it wasn’t right, the idea of taking Fraze’s animal. She knew it wasn’t fair. But wasn’t this better than killing him, like Bo wanted to do? Like the rest of the court would do if given half a chance?
Ana turned to go.
“Wait, please ma’am,” Bo said.
“Bo,” Gracie hissed. “Hush.”
Ana spun back around, her face curiously blank. “What is it?”
Bo cleared his throat. “I just was hopin’ we could do it on Saturday. Not tonight.”
“Why Saturday?” Ana asked. Instead of looking at Bo for a response, though, she looked at Gracie.
Gracie bit her lip, drew blood. It hurt, but it gave her some measure of confidence. “Because that’s the day his ancestor took my lover from me, and Bo’s brother.”
Ana’s laughter was tinkling chimes. “That is perfect, then. Saturday it is.”
Feeling as if she’d lost more than she won, Gracie watched Ana turn to leave.
Ana looked over her shoulder. “This is something you probably know already, but not a word. To anyone outside the court. If I find out anyone is talking to those shifters, there will be hell to pay in the form of the sun.”
Gracie nodded. How had she gotten herself into this?
Ana left, and Gracie looked at Bo. “I’ll see you later. I’m goin’ hunting.”
“Want company?” he asked, looking at her for the first time like they might be on the same side again.
She hated to take that conviction from him, but she just couldn’t be around anyone. “No, thanks. I don’t want to…I don’t want to talk to anyone right now.”
“You still need to come to the cliff. I set up a stone there the other night. We could go together if you want, plant some flowers.”
“Blanketflower,” she murmured. “He loved that one.” He’d always talked about how happy the yellow blossoms looked.
“So?” Bo said. “You gonna come with me, finally?”
She shook her head. “Not tonight.”
His shoulders fell. It wasn’t the first time he’d asked her, and it wouldn’t be the last. Without another word, he turned around and left her little room.
Gracie waited until he had time to fly off on his own, then she went outside to hunt. She didn’t feel good about not paying her respects to Clive.
She felt even worse about helping the court give Fraze the final kiss.