Chapter 483: Traitor
One would think my friends would have prepared me better. Told me everything I needed to know about this challenge business. Who knew Batsheva could say no?
You don't have any support in the family, Sunny broke through, voice low and anxious. She doesn't have to fight you.
Thanks so much for telling me before I made an idiot of myself, I shot back at her while Batsheva slowly stood. Now what?
Sunny didn't answer. But Batsheva did.
"Traitor," she said, joy in her voice as she slowly circled me, her vampires closing in while Pannera and her family fell back. All of them. Sebastian, Sunny. Uncle Frank.
Uh-oh.
"Strike one," Celeste said.
Syd, Sunny reached for me in desperation. I'm sorry, this is my fault. I never expected you to challenge her so soon. Syd... you have to run.
I did not like the sound of that. Especially when the clan clustered closer, glowing eyes burning with white fire, fangs out, hissing and growling warning me I'd stepped in it this time up to my neck.
As long as I kept my head above water.
"Spy." Batsheva whispered the next accusation, turning to point at Pannera. "You think I didn't find out about your little pact with her?"
"Strike two." Celeste's smile was worst of all. I never saw her smile.
"Assault." Batsheva leaned close and breathed the word in my face, the coppery scent of her making me gag. "You attacked your own Queen."
What, that little lap dance with Piotr? That was an accident. Mostly.
Celeste held up three fingers, teeth flashing in the light. "I'm hoping you're tasty," she said.
Laughed.
"Bring the chains." Batsheva pulled away. "This vampire has broken clan law and will be drained of her blood before I strip her power." One icy finger ran over my cheek. "Personally."
Sydlynn, you have to run. Sebastian sounded as desperate as Sunny. There is no other way.
"Proof!" Sunny stepped out of the crowd, eyes flickering to Pannera who nodded, just a little. "I demand to see proof."
Batsheva spun and hissed at her. "You aren't of this clan," she said.
"Nor am I," Pannera said. "But I, too, want proof, considering the implications if you are permitted to take her power."
Celeste muttered something to Batsheva who waved her off, scariness gone, replaced by irritation.
"Oh, very well. Bring the informant forward."
A slim and lovely vampire, fear on her face but shoulders back in defiance, stepped up. I'd seen her before, one of Pannera's inner circle, wasn't she? She'd been there when the Queen and I had our little meeting. But Pannera banished everyone from the room... secret passage eavesdropping session anyone? After all, she wouldn't have technically been in the room. Vampires were so sneaky. "I shared this abomination's plans with the Queen," she said.
Pannera's eyes narrowed, power crackling from her hands. "My own blood," she said. "You dare defy your Queen?"
"I wish to join the Moromond Clan," the vampire said. "Where I belong." She met Piotr's eyes and smiled.
Soft. Innocent even. Full of love.
The bastard.
He gestured for her to come to him, taking her hand, resting the other on her shoulder. "My Queen," he said to Batsheva. "I have promised Ellia the reward of our family blood if she shares everything."
Batsheva nodded, all gracious and sickening like. "Proceed, my dear."
I was going to barf any second now.
The young vampire woman proceeded to explain how she'd listened in on the rest of my conversation with Pannera. "They are working together against you, great Queen," Ellia said.
Pannera said nothing, face blank. Seriously? I was a little tired of the whole statue act.
But her message was pretty obvious and I had to believe it was true I was on my own, no matter what I agreed to when Pannera asked me to spy for her.
No help for Syd. Typical.
"You have assaulted your Queen with power," Batsheva said, turning to me. The crowd of her vampires rumbled in answer. "Spied on her for another clan." A deeper response, full of hate. Why did they hate me again? Someone to focus their own self-loathing on, maybe. For letting this psycho kill their beloved leader. "And the worst of all offenses, you have challenged your Queen for her place as leader of your clan, though your clan rejects you." A roar from a hundred throats.
So. Not. Good.
"I will now strip you of everything you are." She hovered close to me, her power reaching for me even as the vampire inside me drew tight and closed to protect herself.
"Not before I claim the same right." Batsheva spun with a snarl as Pannera spoke. "Either adopt that thing," she jabbed a finger at the girl who'd betrayed her, "or hand her over to me."
Batsheva showed her true colors in that moment. As did Piotr.
"You can have her," she said, airy and uncaring as Piotr shoved Ellia toward her clan. "I don't want another traitor in my midst."
The girl staggered, spun to stare at the vampire she thought loved her. We all saw it, his slow and painful rejection of her as he allowed his smirk to return. I watched Ellia crumble, accept what she'd done before turning to her Queen.
"Forgive me," she choked. "I was misled."
No mercy in the vampire world. Before she finished speaking, Ellia was surrounded. I held my breath, wanting to turn away, heart in my throat for her. Yes, she'd betrayed Pannera. But she didn't deserve to die for it.
It's our law, Sebastian sent. I was saved the view of the girl's take down only because I stared into his eyes. But her screams, the shrieking cries of pain and cracking of bone, tearing of fabric as they pounced on her and sucked her dry, would stay with me for the rest of my life.
When it was over, I forced myself to look. The shrunken mummy lying on the rough stone beside the banquet table looked nothing like the girl she'd just been. Now Ellia was merely a bag of shattered bones, not a drop of blood in her entire form, though her eyes remained, alive and terrified, as she was lifted by three vampires.
"Take her," Pannera waved them off, no longer interested from the bored expression on her face. "Put her somewhere the sun will find her in the morning."
"I hope you were watching," Celeste whispered in my ear, the brush of her hair on my back making me shiver. "You're next."
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