Kingly Bitten by Lexi C. Foss
Calina
King Jace.
The title suited the vampire before me, his icy blue irises and perfectly chiseled features the epitome of regality. Age and experience radiated from him as well, telling me without words that he was one of the ancients.
Lilith had never provided names for the royals or alphas that she put in charge of the various regions. However, I suspected this handsome vampire was one of the royals. He was too powerful and old to be anything other than a leader of his kind. And the way he openly evaluated me and this situation told me everything I needed to know about his strategic abilities.
He would be a worthy chess opponent.
So let’s play,I thought, waiting for him to make his move. I’d played my cards on the proverbial table. Now it was his turn.
“How do I even know your information is valuable?” he asked.
“If you didn’t think I was valuable, you wouldn’t have fed me your blood.” I recognized the aftereffects of imbibing a vampire’s essence. And the potency of his impact on my senses had confirmed his age, too.
“I only saved you because I want answers. But if you’re not willing to give them to me, then I’ll just finish you off like the snack you are meant to be.”
I shrugged. “If that’s what you need to do to assert your dominance, then so be it.” I tilted my head to offer my vein. “It’s what Lilith would do and has done countless times.”
What she had never done was offer me her blood to bring me back. That Jace had done so made him… different. And I wasn’t sure if I liked that difference or not.
“An immortal blood bag,” he mused. “And a tasty one at that.” He lifted his ankle off his opposite knee and leaned forward to rest his forearms against his thighs.
Dressed in all black, he was an opposing presence. Yet his eyes held a twinkle of amusement in their depths, one that made me feel more at ease, like we were just verbally sparring.
Oh, I had no doubt this predator would devour me. And unlike what his earlier accusation had suggested, I didn’t consider myself superior to him.
But I clearly possessed something he desired.
Information.
What I didn’t understand was why he desired it. He’d mentioned a Cam—a name I didn’t know. But he hadn’t given much else away.
“What do you really want to know?” I asked, curious. “Threatening me is moot—I’m naked, tied to a chair, and sitting opposite a millennia-old vampire; I’m very aware of your superiority in this situation. So rather than posture, tell me what you want. I’ll tell you if I can give it to you. Then we’ll negotiate from there.”
“You’re making assumptions about my need to negotiate anything. As you said, you’re clearly in an inferior position.”
“Yes. But I’ve endured over a century of torture, King Jace. There’s not much you can do to me that hasn’t already been done.” I attempted to relax into my chair as well as I could with my wrists strapped to the arms and my ankles chained to the legs. “But feel free to give it your best shot.”
“Jace,” he replied. “I’m not Lilith. I don’t need a title like ‘God’ or ‘King’ to feel important.”
No, I imagined he didn’t. Confidence radiated from him with that constant undercurrent of age and experience.
“And I don’t want to torture you, Calina. But I do need answers, and I will do what it takes to acquire them.”
“Interesting, as you’ve yet to truly ask me anything of import,” I murmured. “You want me to prove my worth but haven’t offered me an opportunity to.”
“Because you want to negotiate.”
“I do. But I also want all our pieces on the board. You don’t work for Lilith, yet you showed up at her bunker. How?”
“How did you come to be in that bunker?” he countered, avoiding my query.
I’d allow it because this answer wasn’t valuable. “Lilith created me and put me in charge of Bunker 47. A top-secret location, I might add, that you mysteriously found. Yet you claim not to work for her.”
“I don’t work for her.”
“Do you work with her?” I rephrased. “Are you assuming the mantle of her legacy now that she’s dead? Is that why the other vampire calls you King Jace?”
His gaze narrowed. “How do you know she’s dead?”
“Doomsday protocol was only to be engaged upon her death. And as I’m still mostly unharmed after ignoring her directives, I can safely assume she’s truly gone. Which leads me to wonder if you’re her replacement. That would explain my healthy state—you need me alive and coherent to pass on the necessary research details.” I spoke the words as I thought them, only my lips curled down at the end.
Because no, that couldn’t be right. He hadn’t known enough upon his arrival at Bunker 47.
Lilith would never leave her counterpart or successor without at least a few key details.
“Hmm, well, if you don’t work for or with her,” I continued, puzzling through the facts out loud, “then you would be against her. An adversary of some kind. In which case, you want to steal the research to use for yourself. A power move? A way to take over the board?”
Maybe he wasn’t a true king but a future one.
I scrutinized his features, searching for a clue.
But he merely smiled.
“You’re quite something,” he mused. “What if I told you I intend to replace Lilith and revolutionize the way the world works?”
“I would ask you what that has to do with me,” I replied.
“That depends on how much you can tell me about Lilith’s operations. As her lead researcher, I imagine you know a lot. Which makes you decidedly useful to me. Particularly as the files you transmitted were lacking in real details.”
I stiffened. “How do you know that?” Only Lilith’s intended recipient would have deciphered the files to find them filled with outdated, extraneous data. Which redirected me to my earlier thought about him being a replacement of some kind.
“We intercepted them,” he explained. “That’s also how we found the lab.”
My lips parted. “So it was my fault…” The words came out unbidden in a breath. “You were the intruder the system detected, creating the updated procedure… because of my unsecure file transfer.”
I blinked, my heart giving a swift, agonized throb.
Shit. All those lives lost…
My chest squeezed, and I squashed the rising emotion with my next inhale.
Blaming myself is impractical.Lilith had designed those safeguards, not me. And I’d been trying to help the researchers under my supervision, not hurt them.
Lilith had just circumvented me with her countermeasures.
And how was I to know there were others searching for our location?
I frowned at that. “How did you even know to look?” As I asked it, the rest of the puzzle pieces fell into place, causing my eyes to widen. “Because you killed Lilith. That’s why the other vampire calls you King. So you were searching for the labs… to… to take Lilith’s place.”
Making him my new master.
I met his gaze. “You’re a revolutionary.” I’d heard the term a few times in the lab, mostly during Lilith’s visits when she’d taunted some of the test subjects with news of the failed revolution. “But you all died.” That was what Lilith had told Louis, constantly reminding him of some female named Lydia.
“Her screams still get me off,” she would say. “I fucked Michael in a pool of her blood. There are photos. I’ll show you sometime.”
“You know about the revolution?” Jace asked, bringing me back to him and our present situation.
“Only what Lilith used to say to the test subjects.”
His expression darkened. “You mean Louis. And maybe Cam?”
That name seemed to be important to him. I could use that as a bargaining chip, but I could also use it as a show of good faith.
Sometimes the key to negotiating was to give a little to hook the subject. And knowing that Jace didn’t work for or with Lilith helped my charitable mood.
“There were no subjects in my bunker named Cam,” I promised him.
His gaze narrowed. “You’d better not be lying to me.”
“I don’t need to lie,” I countered. “And besides, I can prove it.”
His eyebrows lifted. “Yeah? How?”
“By downloading the log records,” I replied.
“They’re gibberish.”
“The files I sent via the protocol are, yes. But I backed up our records daily to a server farm.” Something he would know if he worked with Lilith, but his features registered surprise. “Take me there and I’ll give you proof, as well as a whole wealth of information.” I caught and held his gaze. “Of course, I have a term that needs to be met first.”
His lips twitched subtly. “And we’ve come full circle.”
“We never finished our negotiations,” I pointed out. “But you requested proof of my worth. I’ve given it to you. Now I want Gretchen and James to be left unharmed, and I want to see you let them go free.”
He considered me for a moment, his icy irises giving nothing away. “How familiar are you with the new world?” he asked, his change in subject giving me pause. “Have you seen how humans are treated?”
“I’m aware of the Blood Day proceedings and the allocations to different camps.”
He nodded. “And you think your two friends can survive that? Because that’s what will happen to them, or worse, considering their immortality. They’re glorified blood bags, Calina. Just like you. And the superior beings of this world are not kind to their food.”
He demonstrated what he meant with his eyes as he tracked over every exposed inch of my body. Hunger blazed in his irises, and I could tell it wasn’t just blood he desired, but me.
I shivered, the prospect of becoming his new toy making my stomach twist.
Lilith had frequently used me for my blood, but never for sex. However, I’d witnessed the act countless times. She had often thrown humans into the cells for the vampires and lycans to play with as a form of reward for their acquiescence during our studies. Those who’d chosen not to obey had been subjected to mental torture until they’d yielded to her command.
Just like she’d tossed misbehaving lab technicians into the cells for a lesson with the superior beings.
I’d never been subjected to that treatment, her punishments for me much more personal in nature.
“I can’t free them,” Jace continued. “And I won’t free you. But I can make their lives—and yours—more comfortable if you comply.”
He didn’t bother to voice the alternative, because we both heard it in his tone.
Don’t comply and I’ll make your life decidedly uncomfortable, I thought in an English accent that poorly rivaled his own. His voice resembled posh elegance, while mine was strongly midwestern United States. Or what used to be that area, anyway.
I glanced at the window several feet away, noting the balcony beyond it and the dark sky overhead. The humidity here was different, making my skin clammy despite the cool air brushing it.
It left me wondering where he’d taken me. A trivial curiosity, considering my situation.
Jace stood and wandered to a bar in the corner near the tall windows. Either he’d misunderstood my perusal, or my wandering eyes had made him thirsty. He filled a single glass with bronze liquid, took a sip, and sauntered toward me.
“Open your mouth,” he murmured as he pressed the rim to my lips.
I attempted to tell him I didn’t need a drink, but he tipped the contents over my tongue, forcing me to swallow. The alcohol burned on the way down, making me gag.
He grinned. “We’ll work on that.”
“Why?” I asked, my voice hoarse.
“Because it’ll suit a future use,” he replied, taking another drink from the same side of the glass as I’d touched with my mouth.
I shivered, the action distinctly intimate. Like we’d just engaged in an unspoken vow of some kind.
Which was entirely impractical and inexplicable. I hadn’t promised him anything. Nor had I agreed to a single term.
The edge of the glass met my lips again. I opened and swallowed, this time without the gag. A dark glimmer graced his silver-blue eyes.
“Already learning,” he mused, lowering the drink away from my mouth.
A jolt sizzled through my veins as the cool glass brushed my nipple. His eyes lowered to watch the movement, his touch clearly intentional because he repeated it with the other breast.
Was this meant to be some wicked form of interrogation? Or was he merely a predator taunting his prey?
“I almost hope you refuse to comply,” he murmured. “Your pale skin would redden so beautifully. And I would very much enjoy coaxing reactions from you along the way.”
The glass rolled across my skin once more, except this time he tilted the contents of it to spill bronze liquid onto my breast.
Goose bumps pebbled along my skin.
Then my breath caught in my throat as he bent his head to catch the droplets with his tongue.
Heat caressed my skin, his mouth an unexpected kiss to my senses.
Ohhh…
A violent quiver stirred inside my lower abdomen, shooting sparks to each nerve ending. Sparks that ignited into flames as his fangs pierced the sensitive area around my nipple.
I cried out in surprise and slight pain, only to freeze as he lifted the drink to the fresh wound.
“As I said,” he whispered, his icy irises capturing mine. “I can make your life comfortable. Or I can make it absolutely miserable.”
He tipped the glass, the alcohol slipping over the edge and directly onto my breast once more.
The comfortable burn morphed into a stinging inferno that elicited a sharp hiss from my throat, one born of shock and pain.
His tongue chased the torment, licking up my alcohol-laced blood and soothing the burn.
It only lasted a second.
But his point was clear.
I’m your master now. Work with me, and I’ll consider rewarding you. Work against me, and I’ll destroy you.
