Alex
The Beta of Aurorium levels me with a look from one end of a long, wooden table. The packhouse in the city is one of the only buildings that isn’t drenched in artificial neon light. A massive stone fireplace heats a wide, open room decorated rustically with animal hides and leather galore.
It would be comforting in a shifter-like way if not for my current situation.
The Beta flings a file toward me and folds his hands on the table surface.
“I’m sure you’re aware of the situation at the university,” I say, opening the file. “My lab is completely demolished. I can’t run–” I stop my voice in its tracks. The pictures on the top of the stack of paperwork in the file are of Laney and Dean Kanten. Laney in shambles. Dean Kanten in one piece, but pale, his body sunken in and distorted but in a way I find grossly familiar despite the wreckage of the ice tunnel he was found in after an extensive search.
“I’ve spoken to the university about you, Dr. Scarlett. I was told you had a tumultuous personal relationship with Dr. Kanten.”
“You were misinformed. I didn’t have a personal relationship with Dr. Kanten.”
“Professionally, then.”
I heave a breath and close the file. “Is there a reason you asked me to come to Aurorium today, or is this an interrogation?”
“My Alpha has tasked me with continuing the investigation into four murders we now believe are connected, and you were the last person to see the young student from the university alive–”
“Laney.”
“Laney,” he says with a tinge of annoyance. “And your relationship with Dr. Kanten leaves room for interpretation.”
“I didn’t like the man, and that’s as far as it goes.”
“Did you kill him?”
I narrow my eyes into a fierce glare. “No, but I haven’t mourned him, either. I know what you’re going to ask, so this is it; Dr. Kanten made it impossible for my lab to have the safety measures required to keep the lab running safely and efficiently. His disdain for me was a direct result of years of academic and professional competition between us, but it was entirely one-sided. He had a vendetta against me. I simply wanted functioning sensors in my lab that would have prevented the level of collapse we dealt with several weeks ago. Killing him wouldn’t have solved my problem.”
“But you wanted his position as dean,” he argues.
I bark a laugh. “If you actually talked to the president of the university, you would know I’ve turned down several offers to be dean of the biology department. As it stands, I’m not even in the running because I pulled myself from consideration. The board is in the process of choosing Kanten’s successor as we speak.”
The Beta frowns but doesn’t look convinced. The door to the meeting room opens, and several warriors waltz in to walk me out, marking the end of the conversation, but the tight feeling in my chest doesn’t leave.
I’m supposed to meet Toby at a bar a few streets over before we head back to campus. I’ve been slowly restocking the make-shift, surface-level lab whenever I’m not lecturing, but the last few weeks have made it clear that my run at Lunaria University might be coming to an end.
I have Skye to think about, and that’s why, when a man steps out of the shadows at the end of the street ahead of me, I decide enough is enough.
Kai’s eyes are the color of polished embers but glow a deep red when he lifts his hood ever so slightly into the glare of a streetlight.
I stop in the dead center of the street. He turns and walks calmly between two buildings, and I follow, keeping a cautious distance between us, but my fangs lengthen, and blood thrums with every step I take.
I lose sight of him in the alley, but not for long.
“Prince Alex,” he says from the darkness of the loading dock tucked between a trio of towering buildings. We’re in the shadows here, clustered away from the populated streets and icy thoroughfares just beyond the reach of the ever-present darkness.
“How do you expect this to end?” I ask sharply, putting ten yards of distance between us, not that it matters. We could be at each other’s throats in a matter of seconds–in the span of a single breath.
“That depends on how easy you want to make this for the both of us.”
“What do you want, Kai?”
He chuckles bitterly, stepping closer but stops, tattered boots sliding over the ice. “You’ve changed.”
“How so?”
“Look at you–all sleek and fancy in your modern fare while your own people–”
“I know, without a shadow of a doubt, that the only reason you’d dare to be here is because there’s nothing left for you back in Red River. Am I wrong?”
Hatred flares behind his eyes. “Who is to blame for that? You are the reason my armies fell. You are the reason I was pushed out of my own kingdom, and my mother’s throne was toppled–”
“I freed an entire kingdom of slaves the second Queen Matilda’s head hit the cobblestone.”
“And for what? Petty name-calling? Ha!” His snarl is bloody. “My mother was a true vampire. High-bred. High-born. True vampire blood blessed by generations of blood-born ancestors. You, prince, are scum.”
“You forget I am also a blood-born vampire.”
“But the woman you call mother is not. An undead witch parading as queen of Scarlet Thunder? That is the reason there was a war. King Michael and Queen Faye acted only because their precious shifter populations were threatened by the prowess of the blood-born armies–a worthy cause, something my mother anticipated. But your whore of a father and fraud of a mother joined the fight because–”
“Because your mother threatened my mother’s life,” I snarl.
“You aren’t the true prince. They can never give their kingdom a true heir, and my mother made that clear to the masses.”
“Did your mother ever tell you that she was the one who gave me to Emelda?”
Kai blinks, his furious expression wavering.
“Well, I suppose we learn something new every day–”
“Shut up, you weak, disgusting excuse for a man. I’ve been hunting you for almost a decade. I figured you died, just like everyone else thought. Your parents, on the other hand, have never given up hope, but it was you who won the honors of that war. You’re a legend now. A god among beasts that now roam freely across my lands. Shifters and witches alike–the lot of them. Free. Free to interbreed with vampires as they wish and tarnish bloodlines.”
“You’re disgusting.”
“And I was not shocked when I found you shacked up here, pretending to be someone and something you’re not, lusting after a hybrid, by the scent of her.”
My nostrils flare when he licks his lips. “Delicious, that one. I can only imagine what she tastes like.”
“Never speak a word of her again.”
“I came here to drag you back. I want you alive, Prince Alex, because if I bring you home… imagine the shock and the turning of tables in my favor when the public finds out the fallen prince they worshipped for ending the war has been alive this whole time and hiding like a coward.”
“I built a life I wouldn’t have been able to have back home.”
“I know why you’re really here,” he whispers, laughing under his breath. “Oh, Alex. How they talk about you like you were some miracle worker. Your apothecary advances across all genera. Brilliant, they call you. But you, based on your, what do you call it? A laboratory? All your shiny instruments and machinery…. You aren’t really masquerading as a scientist in search of the unexplainable. You are looking for a cure.”
I bristle, and he grins like a cat.
“All this talk about my mother’s grand plans of a pure vampire race, and you are trying to find a way to turn your mother into the same thing–to cure her of the torment of being turned. What’s the reason, Prince Alex? Was it clear to you as it was clear to my mother that you’d never rule, and your parents would need an actual born heir in your place?” When I say nothing, he continues with a smirk. “I suppose your silence is answer enough.”
“What do you want from me, Kai?”
“I’ve already told you. You’re coming with me. I want you alive to witness the downfall of your family in my wake when your secrets come to light.”
“I have no secrets, and I won’t come with you. War against my family all you want, but you’re banished and washed up, no longer in power.”
“I will continue to make your life here hell.”
“You can try.”
“She’s next. You think a woman as smart as her will stick around when you’re forced into hiding again? Where will you run this time, Alex? What ends of the world can you possibly run to? I will find you everywhere. I will hunt you for centuries. I will kill everyone you hold dear, just like I killed your precious protege. You’re weak now. You’ve gone so long without having to be who you really are. I could kill you now.”
“Try.”
He laughs, his face tilting to the faint light of a flickering street lamp. His gauntness is answer enough.
“You’re barely surviving here. I have time to make a decision.”
“And I have time to kill the woman you love. Maybe I’ll even keep her for a while for my own entertainment.”
I snarl and lunge, but he disappears in a blur of movement, skirting around me so quickly I lose sight of him before the trash in his wake has fallen back to the ground.
I immediately go back to campus, texting Toby my plans to skip the bar while I ride the train, my heart hammering. Time moves at a crawl. I should have tried to kill him then, but there has to be a better way, and that solution stares me in the face while I hesitate outside the door of my condo.
I do need to go home, eventually. I need to see my family again. I need to bring this fucker to justice and end this cleanly, but that means… years away from Skye–and an uncertain future ahead.
It means ending things with Skye, the woman I love. The woman… I would travel thousands upon thousands of miles in order to keep her safe.
I probably can’t kill Kai on my own. He’s powerful, even as hungry and defeated as he is right now. His skill in battle is legendary, and he will make good on the many threats he threw my way tonight.
Which is why I will go with him. At least until we’re far enough away from Lunaria that I can kill him in his sleep.
“Skye?” I call out, closing the door behind me. It’s unnaturally quiet and dark in the condo, and for a moment, I panic, imagining her blood painting the walls of the bedroom as I race down the hallway.
I throw the door open and find her in one piece, sitting on the edge of the bed.
“Hey. Hey, Skye? Are you all right?”
I kneel in front of her. She has her hands balled in her lap, clutching something small.
“Skye?”
She looks up at me when I smooth her hair behind her ears.
Then, she unravels her fingers.
A pregnancy test sits in her palms. I see the result. It’s a glaring positive that hits me in the gut.
“I went to the clinic with Abby,” she says quietly, stricken, I think, with the same kind of shock ripping through my system. “I’m already two months along. I had no idea. The first time we ever–Alex, I don’t know what to do.”
All plans to leave exit my brain.
I have to kill Kai.
Right now.
As soon as fucking possible.