Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 104842 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 524(@200wpm)___ 419(@250wpm)___ 349(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 104842 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 524(@200wpm)___ 419(@250wpm)___ 349(@300wpm)
“Okay,” I said, knocking my head back against the door. “Before, I didn’t want to go to fuckin’ Greenland, but now, you couldn’t keep me away. I want to see what that change from drinking to eating looks like, and the forced taking of blood from the iceni must be stopped.”
“My consort, you cannot—”
“All law-abiding, loyal vampyrs deserve to live out their lives, for as long as that may be, in peace and freedom with the laws that are in place working for them. No one deserves to be in any kind of servitude.”
“Yes, but—”
“And I know there are human beings who are, and I know people live through horrors every day, but it sounds like Decimus has an unlawful system in place, and as prince consort, I can do something about that.”
Zev shook his head at me. “My consort, Decimus has a treaty with the—”
“I don’t give a good goddamn. Whatever bullshit is responsible for keeping that fucked-up holding free of the laws of Ascalon isn’t going to be allowed to continue. There’s no way Varic knows about this, or if he does, it’s only the agreement part and nothing else.”
“You cannot know that.”
“Well, if he knows and isn’t doing anything about it, then I’m going to be deeply disappointed in him. But I suspect he has no idea, which really isn’t that much better.”
“I don’t think you can—”
“We all have to do better, Zev. And right now we’re going to start with an inspection of Ophir and figure out what’s really going on there.”
“Jason—”
“No,” I stopped him, knowing he only used my name when he wanted me to see his point on something. “All the people in Ophir deserve to be in Varic’s realm of inclusion and equality.”
He shook his head. “You cannot judge what Decimus has done based on your morality. We’re talking about—”
“We’re not. People keep telling me not to judge practices and individuals with my modern sensibilities, but guess what—all of you are now living in my modern age, so everyone better get on board with how Varic is going to do things. The Dark Ages are over, and I don’t give a shit why something horrible was done the way it was. We’re living in the sun now, Zev, and everybody better get used to it.”
He sighed deeply. “You have no idea the trouble you’re asking for.”
“It’s not me asking,” I reminded him. “It’s the Crown Prince of the Noreia who’s going to be knocking on the door.”
His groan was loud.
I grinned. “Time to come outside into the light, brother.”
Clearly, from his fingers pressing at his temples, he was about to have a whopper of a headache, which I didn’t know vampyrs could get either.
THREE
I tossed and turned, both excited to get started, to leave for Greenland, and terrified of what I would find. Finally, knowing it was hopeless to try and sleep, I got up and read an article I’d bookmarked a few weeks back. There had been a report in a scientific journal about a life-altering North Atlantic cooling event that happened some 1.5 million years ago. It was very Game of Thrones, winter is coming, and had apparently lasted somewhere in the region of 4000 years. It went on to say that all the people who had settled Europe at that time had been wiped out. I wondered if this was one of the events Varic had told me about when we first met. He’d explained that vampyrs and humans moved along parallel lines: vampyrs started out as humans—unlike in popular culture, vampyrs weren’t made by biting, but were born like all mammals, except the platypus. Then, during something like a mini ice age, the humans died, but the blood drinkers—the folks who had already mutated early on due to a scarcity of food—lived through the cataclysmic climate change.
I loved reading about things where scientists spoke of facts without knowing, of course, about vampyrs. I felt like I was in on a secret. At the same time, with ice everywhere, how had the vampyrs lived? How had they portioned out their resources? Had they taken turns drinking from one another, or had they chosen certain members of their group to feed from? Had they turned a segment of their number into cattle just as Decimus was doing now? It was hard to think of friends and neighbors turning on one another.
By the time I was supposed to get out of bed, I stumbled back to it, more zombie than human. Thankfully, I’d packed the night before, all the cold gear I had, which honestly wasn’t much. Once I’d moved to New Orleans, I’d donated my parkas and hats, scarves and boots. I certainly hadn’t needed anything resembling a heavy coat for Malta, but now I was thinking that when I got off the king’s private jet at the Kangerlussuaq Airport in Greenland, I would immediately go and purchase a parka. My cardigan and hoodies weren’t going to cut it. Or, since we were stopping in Copenhagen on the way, that might be the place to do my shopping.