“Come in, whoever the fuck it is!” he bellows, his voice echoing around the room.
The door slides open, and even the footsteps of whoever it is sound bossy before a woman comes into view. She is in modern clothes, black tight trousers and a white silky top, with pretty impressive knee-high boots. Her black hair is braided on one side of her head and falls to just under her chin, and she is pretty.
The vampire kind of pretty.
“Why the fuck do you never answer your phone?” the woman asks, placing her hands on her hips, glaring at Reign. “You’ve made it clear not to come up here, and then you don’t answer? Like, what the fuck?”
“Katy, your reason for being here best be important,” Reign eventually replies, glaring right back at her.
“Two more of the demented kids popped up and killed three humans. We have them cornered in a house, but as usual, we need your help. I’m not letting any of our vamps go in there with them,” she states.
“Kids?” I ask as Reign looks even more pissed off. Katy turns her gaze to me, like this is the first time she noticed I was here.
“A human date, Reign?” Katy arches an eyebrow at me. “Unlike you, but alright.”
“This is Katherine Chathair, and she is the head of my royal guard who runs the island and keeps it safe,” Reign finally introduces me. “Katy, this is Riona, the human from the auctions I’m sure you’ve heard about.”
Reign gets up as Katy looks down at me. “I didn’t know she was blonde.”
“Does that matter?” Reign mutters. “Take me to the kids.”
“I’m coming too,” I say, climbing up off my seat and chasing after them. Reign picks up his keys off a glass side table and looks back at me, but Katy walks out of the door.
“No, this isn’t safe,” he tells me.
I snort. “Nothing on this island is safe, and I want to see what is going on.”
He shakes his head. “Fine. But only if you tell me something.”
“What?” I ask, crossing my arms.
“Did my brother get called away for anything odd while you were there?” he asks.
The memory of Maddox’s lips on mine flashes into my mind, including the interruption I was thankful for. “Yes, the night before I came here, he was called away to something. Another one of something that bit someone, and it burned them from the inside out.”
He nods with a grim look. “They keep coming.” Without waiting for me, he walks out of the house, and I jog to keep up with him. Outside, Katy is waiting by the Jeep, and the second Reign unlocks the car, she climbs into the passenger seat. Reign opens the back passenger door for me, and I climb in, doing my seat belt up as Reign gets in the Jeep himself. Seconds later, we are heading fast down through the forest, and I look up to see Katy staring at me, her bright blue eyes like cut diamonds in water.
“Why is the human here?”
Reign ignores her question. “Tell me about the children this time. Everything you know.”
“As usual, no one claims they are their children or has ever seen them before. The kids this time are a boy and girl. The boy looks about eight and the girl about ten. They both have modern human clothing on them, but vampire teeth and witch powers. Anyone they bite literally burns inside until they die or the kid drains them. They are as rabid as the other ones.”
“Other ones?” I echo in shock.
“There have been thirty of these children, who appeared all over the island in the last year. We don’t know where they are from or what they are,” he explains to me.
“You don’t kill them, do you?” I ask, remembering what Maddox said at the meal about not harming children. I know why he made it clear to me now. “I know Maddox doesn’t.”
“No one is allowed to harm the children or any children on this island under eighteen. It is a law we will kill vampires or humans alike over,” Reign firmly states. “These children are innocent and too young to be held accountable for their actions.”
“If they are wearing modern clothing, then they aren’t from the island. How are they getting here?” I ask.
Katy looks back at me with a little disgust but answers. “They appear out of nowhere, much like a witch can do. These children are controlling elements, like witches, but they don’t smell like witches. Their blood is like nothing we have seen.”
“Could they be half witch and half vampire?” I suggest.
“One: it is impossible to create such a being. Mixing our races has been tried before, and each time, the child has died before a year is up,” Reign explains to me. “Two: we have taken blood samples, and there are no vampire or witch blood cells. They are something new.”
“And evil. The kids aren’t right,” Katy adds in. “They brutally murder anyone in their way except for the royals, and they laugh about it. The children are demons, and I think—”
“Enough!” Reign growls. Katy glares at him but goes silent.
Demons?
“They don’t attack Reign or Maddox?” I gently ask.
“No, they listen to them,” Katy tells me. “It is strange.”
Not just strange, but honestly, terrifying.
Reign follows Katy’s directions through the empty streets of The Onyx, and I spend the time looking out my window, spotting the lights in the houses that are silent otherwise. News about the children must be out, that’s the only reason I know of as to why they are all hiding. But then again, I don’t know much about this island to begin with.
Why I care about Reign and Maddox’s problems is a box I’d rather not try to open anytime soon.
“Stay outside,” Reign very clearly tells Katy and me before slamming the brakes on. Katy closes her eyes and rests back in her seat as Reign climbs out the car. Ignoring his warning, because there is no way I’m staying in the car, I undo my seat belt and grab the door handle.
“That’s not a good idea, newbie,” Katy warns as I pull the handle. “Actually, no, go. The demon kids can kill you and stop the war you’re going to brew between the princes.”
“Nice to meet you too,” I mutter, rolling my eyes when she chuckles. I climb out the Jeep, my boots sticking to the stone floor, and I glance down, lifting my foot to see there is blood everywhere, dripping down between the stone. Swallowing the nausea in my throat, I walk around the Jeep and look up at the row of terrace houses. None of them has a single light on except for the house right in the middle, and the lights of the Jeep luminate the trail of blood going up the steps to the open front door. Cold air whips around me, the silence of the night eerie to say the least, and then Reign appears.
He isn’t alone.
Holding one of his hands is a little girl of about ten, and holding her hand is a boy who must be about eight.
And they are covered in blood. It is sticking to their clothes, dripping from their hair, and I can just make out their cute faces and bright, bright green eyes.
“No!” Reign roars as the girl lets go of his hand, and both the children kick him hard in the chest in the blink of an eye. Reign crashes through the house, and then the children are in front of me.
“Hello...,” I whisper, taking a step back, and they just move closer, looking up at me. “Can you speak?”