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Alek

Theopen before I could so much as reach for the handle

“Welcoe bowed his head and uy was dressed in a suit, which was as casual as he got He took his job as the head of the talem—our immortal stewards—just as seriously as I took

“You knoas only gone for an hour, Serge Relax a little Maybe let et the door every once in a while” The sound of h the , dual staircases that led to the second floor

“As soon as I’e called after me

I shook my head as I made my way into the expansive ballroom that consumed a quarter of the estate’s floorplan We used the hall for celebrations, official court business, and all the other glitzy shit I couldn’t stand Suited tale tables that ran perpendicular to a raised dais, filling crystal goblets with fresh, cri repast

I muttered a curse It was already ten o’clock, and none of the nobility had risen frouest rooms yet Lazy fucks

Lachlan,as out of place in his leather and tats as I did He was a hulking brute of a warrior with thick red hair and two Glocks openly holstered beneath his arular ammunition and the other, silver His eyes narrowed as I approached Lesser va but lesser

“You look hungry or pissed, and I’hland burr that even three hundred years on this continent hadn’t dulled

“I just fed” I reached his side, then turned to survey the hall as the first of the nobles trickled in, dressed like they were going to the opera, not just the first ht

“Pissed it is,” the Scots his way up the steps to the table I was supposed to be sitting at “Don’t bother He won’t drink the canned shite, anyways”

True

The talem nodded and took his pitcher to the next table

“Alek, it wouldyou a wee bit easier if you’d feed on the estate” He nodded to the left, where a door led to a su hus at their veins