Vampire Apocalypse #2 Cataylst by H.M. Ward Read Free Book Online Page A

he
explained, “It’s rather simple really. Answer and you can return to
your bed and forget this night.” Cassie nodded, her eyes unblinking
and staring straight ahead.
    “Very good.” The King walked behind Cassie
and stood. Hooking his fingers on the back of her chair, he said,
“I want you to think before you respond. Try to search every memory
before you answer. It is important that you tell me the truth,
Cassandra.”
    The warm feeling that had slipped over her
was changing. Instead of feeling like a warm blanket it constricted
slightly before releasing her. The display of power wasn’t lost on
her. Cassie’s body was still in fight or flight mode. Her feet
twitched, urging her to flee, but her mind was the King’s. She
stared into the fire waiting for the question, wanting to answer it
with every fiber of her being. The willingness shocked her. Her
heart raced faster.
    “Did Kahli have any kind of friendship with
Will Tatum?” the question was simple, direct. That worked best with
fragile minded humans. The King had enough blood to compel her for
weeks, but even as he asked, he could feel the power draining from
him. The King knew he would need that power to find the wild
girl—Kahli. She’d killed two guards and taken off on a snow mobile
with a vampire in tow and Will chasing after her. Or accompanying
her. He needed to know which one.
    For the longest time, he was certain of the
boy, but when he saw the expression in his eyes, when Will took
off, running after the wild girl, he wasn’t so sure. Fear flashed
in the young Will’s eyes, but fear of what? That was what he needed
to know. His gut told him that Will saw the drained bodies behind
him—that he saw the blood spilled on the floor. The boy knew of his
power, of his ways for a long time, but he’d never reacted like
that before. Every year the King had his way with a few of the
girl’s in the Queen’s court. He did as he pleased, unknown to the
Queen, and he drank directly from them. It made him stronger and
stronger until it was difficult to hide his power. The King’s lust
for blood grew as his power increased. More bodies were required to
sate his thirst, but when he tasted Kahli that changed.
    After a moment, Cassie blinked. Her voice was
soft and lacking any inflection, “No. He was her Handler. He took
her blood. She didn’t like it.” Cassie fought the urge to delve
deeper into her memories.
    The King walked in front of the chair and
leaned close to Cassie’s face. The pale girl didn’t move. He
breathed in her face, “Does she have feelings for him?”
    Before she could stop the words, they fell
from her lips, “Yes, as her Handler.”
    The King looked puzzled, “Explain.”
    Cassie could feel the words being pulled from
her. “Sometimes a Handler can arouse his charge. Kahli was upset by
it.”
    “She’s attracted to him.” He said, and turned
to look at the fire, stroking his chin. “Interesting. Very
interesting. This is Will Tatum, correct? The same boy she stabbed?
The same boy who was charged to make her presentable to the
Queen?”
    Cassie fought the urge to nod, but her head
moved without her consent. Cassie’s eyes fixated on the flickering
flames. She wanted to say something to contradict Kahli’s secret,
but she couldn’t. Not while the King had her under his thrall.
    The King circled the chair and bent at the
waist looking into her eyes. “One last question, Cassandra. Did she
act on these feelings?”
    “No,” she said flatly. Her tongue twisted
around the word, unable to hold it back, but she kept from saying
more, from offering that she didn’t know. Somewhere in the back of
her mind, she suspected that something happened between them. The
way Will and Kahli acted around each other wasn’t one-sided. Will
was always sweet, but he didn’t look at anyone else the way he
looked at Kahli. Cassie never spoke these words to her friend and
she wouldn’t speak them now to the King. They hadn’t formed