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SEBASTIAN SPRINTED away from the beautiful dark-haired woman even though he wanted to take her to her house and spend the night locked in her embrace. She was a confusing contradiction that he couldn’t figure out. While she looked sophisticated, sensual and self-assured, her kiss had been almost that of an innocent. It almost seemed as if it had been her first real kiss.
The thought pleased him more than he’d expected. It was impossible to tell how old she was, but if she’d been born in Nox, then she was less than fifty years old. That made her an infant compared to an aged monster like him. While he hadn’t changed physically since he’d been turned when he’d been twenty-six, he felt every one of his thousand plus years weighing on him.
It was stupid of him to keep seeking the fairy out, but when he’d caught her scent during his latest scouting mission, he hadn’t been able to resist seeing her again. Having her slender body in his arms and her face pressed up against his chest as he’d carried her to the City Square had been sweet torture. It had been far too long since he’d satiated his needs on a woman. That single kiss she’d allowed him had started a fire that had quickly spread through him. If he wasn’t careful, it would be easy to become addicted to her.
Sebastian had chosen yet another abandoned house in the Vampire District to pass the daylight hours in. The basements were dark, windowless and could be locked from the inside. Anyone could enter the deserted buildings, but it was doubtful anyone would discover his presence.
He sat down on the cold stone floor with his back to the wall, then went on full alert when he heard a fluttering noise outside. It approached the house, then he heard slithering sounds as it slid beneath the door. There was more fluttering, then more slithering as a magical letter wormed its way beneath the basement door. It flew over to him and hovered in front of his face until he grabbed it. He tore it open and read the short message, then his lips curved up into a hard smile.
Kade Sinclair had asked him to come to the abandoned warehouse in the Vampire District tomorrow night. He’d found spells that could help them topple the Immortal Triumvirate. Sebastian didn’t even need to think about whether he would turn up or not. The warlock would explain what the spells would do tomorrow night. It seemed fitting that they would begin their alliance and their rebellion on Halloween. The Triumvirate would be busy with their Energy Tax, so it was the best possible time for the rebels to conspire against them. He couldn’t wait to see what the warlock had planned.
The letter vanished before he could drop it to the floor. A glass of fresh, warm blood appeared in Sebastian’s hand when hunger gnawed at his stomach. As a newcomer to the city, the master vampire still had his full power. He didn’t have a kiss to support, so it was easy for him to use his energy to conjure up what he needed. He’d been on the move for the past three months since he’d arrived and hadn’t settled down in one spot yet. A bed would have been nice, but it wasn’t necessary. He was used to living without any comforts by now.
During Sebastian’s scouting missions, he’d identified other people and beings who might make good allies. Jardine, a fellow master vampire, was a known rebel among their kind. She’d been gathering other masters to try to form an alliance to take down their leaders. Although he’d never met her, he’d heard Jardine was as intelligent as she was ambitious. She wanted better conditions for their people, which he thought was rather noble for a monster.
He drank the blood and mused about a possible alliance with Kade Sinclair and Efrem Prager. It occurred to him that perhaps they would be the rebels who would overthrow the Triumvirate. Xiara Evora had told him that Nox would cease to exist if the Immortal Triumvirate were to die. The entire Night Cursed population would die along with the City of Night. He didn’t personally care about their plight. His only goal was to punish Lord Kreaton for killing his kiss.
In another part of the city, a second letter was zooming towards its recipient.
Efrem Prager was sitting at his desk in his office when the magical letter squirmed beneath his door and fluttered over to him. He read the message, then it vanished. “Finally!” he whispered in triumph. After nearly two and a half decades, he had a glimmer of hope that he would get vengeance for his murdered son.
Feeling too excited to remain seated, Efrem stood up and began to pace up and down. He didn’t even contemplate the idea of speaking to Guild Master Reed about the alliance he was about to forge. The alpha werebear would insist on taking Efrem’s place and he couldn’t allow that to happen. He wasn’t about to squander his only chance to make the Triumvirate pay for Yancy’s death.
Feverish anticipation gripped him as the night wore on and dawn drew near. He shared a carriage with several other shifters when it was time to leave work. It would be Halloween tomorrow night and it was classed as a holiday. No one would be going to work at the Guildhalls, so he wouldn’t be missed by his colleagues. He would have to make his way to the Vampire District on foot, because carriages wouldn’t be operational. It would be a long hike, but he didn’t care. He would walk all day to get to the meeting if he had to.
Efrem disembarked from the carriage when it stopped at his house. He entered the building and made his way up to Yancy’s bedroom. The house was far too large for just one man to live in. His mate had been killed by human hunters when his son had been two years old. A lot of shifters had migrated to Nox and Efrem’s alpha had spoken about their pack moving there as well. They’d all decided it would be safer to live in the City of Night than to risk living among humans and had packed up and left.
Their alpha had been one of Lord Graham’s casualties in his effort to quell the rebels, which had broken their pack to pieces. After several decades of whittling down his rivals, there were far too few alphas left. Shifters were turning rogue and there was no way to stop it from happening. Mr. Prager hoped Kade Sinclair could come up with a spell to turn him into an alpha. It was his dream to take charge and to unite his people. Things would change for his species beneath his rule. They would no longer be weak and oppressed and they could return to being strong and feared.
“I’ll get vengeance for you, Yancy,” he vowed to the empty room where only dust lived now. “I’ll make sure every last Night Cursed being is eradicated from Nox.” While the Immortal Triumvirate had ordered his son to be executed, he hadn’t forgotten that Xiara Evora had been the one to end his son’s life. Her kind had no place in this world and Nox would be better off without them. He was going to make it his own personal goal that they would all share the same deadly fate as the trio who had created them.
