Page 84 of Thirst
“Yeah, about that. You really think she had a choice? The man’s a vampire, an enforcer. Can you imagine her just saying no to him?”
Talon blew out a breath. “Yeah, guess not.”
We’d reached the war room. I stopped, a hand on the doorjamb.
“She did what she had to do to survive,” I said. “From what she said, he only keeps her around because she’s useful. I’m pretty sure he’d already figured out she fed us intel, even before I sent those texts.” My voice roughened. “I just made it worse.”
I slapped my palm on the biorec pad and pushed the door open. “She’s still a prisoner. But locking her in a cell isn’t punishing Nazaire—it punishes her. And Nyx may be more of a victim of Nazaire than any of us realize.”
“Fuck.” Talon blew out a breath and followed me into the cavern.
Brien and Twilight were already in his office. Talon entered first. I paused to smooth down my white shirt, feeling like I was ten again, summoned to the principal’s office for breaking some stupid-ass rule. I pasted on a neutral expression and followed him, closing the door behind me.
Brien was leaning against the desk, arms crossed. Twilight perched on the edge beside him, her fishnet-clad legs crossed at the ankles, deceptively dainty in gold sneakers and a blood-red dress.
I gave my primus and prima a respectful nod—playing the game—while Talon took the leather armchair in front of the desk, knowing I’d rather stand, be free to pace.
I got straight to the point. “If this is about me moving Nyx from the dungeon, then maybe I overstepped. But she’s not the kind of woman you cage. Keep her in that cell much longer and she’ll shut down completely, and we’ll never get anything out of her. I promise, she’s contained—I’m keeping her in those two rooms. I’m not even allowing her into the garden.”
Brien glanced at Twilight, the two communicating in that wordless way of a mated pair. I braced myself. I had to win this argument because I was damned if I’d let them send Nyx back to the dungeon.
But when Brien turned back to me, it was to say, “Okay. We trust your judgment.”
The tightness in me eased a little. “Thank you.”
“Actually,” said Twilight, “it’s smart to keep her somewhere with access to the outside. If and when Nazaire’s people come hunting for her, it may lure them into making a move. We have a camera on both doors, right?”
I nodded. “We do, and the alarms are set. No one’s getting within ten yards of her without us knowing.”
“Perfect.” Her smile was all sharp teeth. “Hopefully, Nazaire will take the bait. Save us the trouble of goading him to retrieve his daughter.”
“Might as well allow her the run of the garden,” said Brien. “Make it easier for someone to get to her.”
I stiffened. No fucking way. “Too risky.”
Brien cocked his head like he’d heard something I hadn’t said. “Because?—?”
Because if they somehow got to her, it’d gut me.
But I wasn’t ready to say that out loud.
“Our security has been breached twice in the last few years. Twice that we know of, that is. The island’s too big, and we can’t be sure Nazaire doesn’t have someone on the island already, someone on his payroll. And I’m not letting that SOB get ahold of her. He knows about me—you read the texts.”
I’d forwarded the texts to the three of them.
Brien and Talon nodded. Twilight’s brow wrinkled. “You think he’ll take this out on her.”
“I’d put money on it. It was a test—and Nyx botched it, thanks to me. If he gets ahold of her, there’s no telling what he’ll do.”
“Fine,” said Brien. “No garden access unless you’re with her. Now we’ve already laid the groundwork—hints about the castle’s supposed vulnerabilities. How else do we turn up the heat on the bastard?”
“Hit him in the assets,” Talon murmured from the armchair. “Bank accounts, investments. And maybe it’s time to leak that we have Nyx here on Lilith Island—that she’s one of us now?”
“The assets first,” I said, recalling how Nyx had begged me not send those texts, how important it was to her not to be known as a blood-rat. “If that doesn’t work, we can think about leaking the info about Nyx.”
The meeting turned to the best way to inflict financial pain on Nazaire. After, I dealt with the items needing my immediate attention, then grabbed a leather jacket and headed out of the castle. Needing to get out, go someplace Nyx wasn’t so I could think.
Outside, the moon had been up for hours. It hovered above the east turret like the eye of some enormous beast, watching me cross the cobblestones to the carriage house that housed our vehicles.
