The Vampires #2: Heroux and Odette

Chapter 14 (Heroux): We Found Lady Alarie

Copyright © 2024 by GroveltoHEA

I was raised to know my enemies.

Not to fall for them.

I was raised to know that there had not been one good Vautour in the last millennium and to never ally myself with them.

Not to marry one of them.

I was raised to be loyal and steadfast and to make promises only if I intended to keep them.

Not to break them.

Yet here I was, married to a Vautour, having just walked out on the woman I hadn't seen in six years, breaking my promise to always love her.

All because --

"Lord Alarie, what do you wish to do?" Newton asked me quietly from my side. "You've been staring at them as if you're about to kill them all."

He wasn't wrong. The six Vautours still sat facing me after Newton and I had walked into their house when the doorman opened the door to us, uninvited, and I'd graciously invited them all to have a seat in their own home.

"My wife was beaten and cut up," I said in a low voice. "Based on what I know about how you treated her, my only question is...was it all of you or just a select few?"

"Lord Alarie," Lady Vautour said, "we wouldn't hurt our precious daughter. It's insulting you'd accuse of us such a reprehensible act."

I had no time for their lies, and knowing their weak point, I lunged at Basse, pulling him up and off the couch, one hand in his hair, pulling his head back to expose his neck, my other hand on his chest.

I showed him my fangs, and he stilled instantly when he saw both my upper and lower fangs were out. A sight no vampire wanted to see up close.

"Start talking or I begin ripping his throat out. Slowly. If any of you move anything other than your mouths, his throat will be at your feet before you can blink."

The Vautour swallowed, his eyes fixed on his son and heir. "Lord Alarie, don't think I won't be filing a formal --"

"You'll lose, Vautour. Last chance: what did you do to my wife?"

My fangs were scarcely an inch from Basse's throat.

"Very well," I said when no one answered, rearing back to take his throat.

"Stop!" his wife yelled. "All of the Vautours beat her!"

Lady Vautour stood up. "Lies! It was you who beat her!"

That was all I had needed. Newton was already opening the door to the police who'd been waiting outside on my orders.

"We have accusations of assault against all the Vautours present in a crime committed against Lady Alarie. We have two witnesses to these charges. Take them to the questioning cells until we can have a convening of the Twelve as soon as they prepare their cases. I want you to question them about the three missing servants, as well. We need to know what happened to them."

"Lord Alarie, this coercion and gross misuse of your power will not stand."

I looked at him, and I knew my eyes were red when I shrugged at him. "Coercion? I asked a question. You answered."

"You had your fangs at my son's neck! You were about to take his throat! That is the very definition of coercion."

"I call it merely a promise of what is to come." Then I bared my teeth at him, showing him both sets of fangs. "And it will come, Vautour. Make no mistake. Enjoy your last few days on earth."