“Yes, believe me, I know complicated well. Ginny is back at the hold.” Jonas’s eyes flickered with blatant possessiveness. “Based on the way you’re avoiding looking at me, I’m guessing I don’t have to explain why getting involved with Mary is a terrible idea. Her intended groom is already hell-bent on taking my throne. Now imagine Hadrian finds out my right-hand man has been intimate with his bride? He could very well decide to try and decimate us, instead of a mere battle for supremacy. Hadrian isn’t known for his even temper.”
That meant Hadrian had a bad temper?
And Tucker was going to leave his sweet Mary in the vampire’s company?
Fire ants crawled up the back of his neck and into his hair, swarmed in the palms of his hands until his whole body felt engulfed in flames. To his right, one of the fence posts freed itself from the earth, rising, rising, unsnapping from its neighbors and hurtling somewhere into the darkness. Tucker watched it go, then pitched forward, gripping his knees and trying to rein in the dark rage spearing him in the middle.
“Jesus,” Jonas whispered, coming off the fence. “She’s your mate.”
Tucker could only stare down at the ground, visions of the girl exchanging themselves in his mind. One for the other. “Yes.”
The king didn’t speak for long moments and Tucker could almost hear the cogs turning in his friend’s mind, running through the implications. “Am I too late, then? Have you already drunk her blood?”
Tucker shook his head vigorously. “No. I haven’t. But God, I want to.”
“Thank God you haven’t. This is one of the reasons I came here myself.” Jonas took a step in his direction, expression cautious. “Tucker, you need to know that fae blood can have ill effects on a vampire. Hallucinations, hunger that can’t be quenched. Madness. You cannot allow yourself to give in to the temptation.”
No. Impossible.
He couldn’t imagine her being responsible for anything negative. He simply couldn’t fathom such a thing and refused to believe it. Her blood would be salvation, not madness.
“And here I thought you’d traveled all this way to convince me not to turn Mary over to Hadrian. To stop the alliance from forming.”
“They’re going to find a way to form the alliance one way or another. Their end games are too important to them to let the opportunity pass.” Jonas laughed without humor. “And I’ve already learned my lessons with Elias and Roksana. When a mate’s happiness or well-being is on the line, a vampire will forsake everything else. Loyalty included.”
At the mention of his friends, Tucker studied the king’s expression. “That sounded ominous. Have you heard from them since they flew to Moscow?”
“Yes.” Jonas tucked his tongue into the corner of his cheek, concern and bemusement at war on his face. “They gave the game piece to the Queen of Shadows.” Roksana’s mother. “Or at least, they pretended to hand it over. Roksana discovered the contents of the envelope prior to the meeting. It was a list of names. Identities and addresses for all the slayers in North America. She decided to hold on to it, rather than hand it over.”
“Why would Inessa need to know names and locations of the North American slayers? She’s head of the Russian guild.”
“Inessa is an opportunist. With a potential war approaching, she saw a better opportunity that meant selling out the slayers. They might be her own kind, but her loyalty runs to power, not faithfulness.”
“But she never got the list.”
“No.” Jonas inclined his head. “We have it now.”
“Oh shit.” Tucker fell back a step. The king and his followers were proponents of peace, but that didn’t mean their existences weren’t constantly under attack from slayers. They were the undead and thus, they were offensive and needed to be eradicated. Knowing who the slayers were and where they lived…that was powerful information. It could protect the newer vampires who hadn’t yet learned to defend themselves from the pointy end of a stake. That was…if Jonas decided to go on the offensive, which wasn’t his style. He was more the diplomatic type. So they had the list, but would it even be useful? “What are you going to do with it?”
“I’m getting to that.”
“Oh. Cagey.”
Jonas quirked a brow and let it drop, his demeanor turning serious. “During the meeting with Inessa, Roksana finally saw her mother’s true nature. Elias had to step in to protect Roksana.” The king met Tucker’s eyes. “It got messy.”
Alarm gripped Tucker. “What do you mean, it got messy? Are they all right?”
“In a manner of speaking. Elias was forced to Silence Roksana.” Jonas paused, his expression one of lingering disbelief. “She’s one of us now.”
“Are you serious?” Tucker sputtered. “Roksana, the slayer who threatened to kill us all every day for years is now a vampire?”