His eyes were closed as if he had never spoken.
Gently, I closed my own. I whispered, “Thank you.”
Morning would be here too soon.
A folder landed on the desk in front of me with a crash.
It was too early for this bullcrap.
Turning up a lip, I poked at it and looked up at the overlord who had dropped it.
Cato. Of course.
I growled. “What the hell is this? Is my Challenge to clean up your mess?”
Snorting, he turned and walked back to his seat with the rest of the overlords.
Lord Pippin slapped his forehead from the ridiculousness of Cato’s gesture. I finally felt some connection to the arrogant ass at that moment.
Lord Belshazzar yawned.
Lord Otto and Lord Xenon were rolling their eyes.
Did they find Cato to be as big of an asshole as I did?
Interesting.
Leaning forward in his chair, oversized and ridiculously ornate, he grinned. “Well, my little candidate, are you ready for me to issue your Challenge?”
“That’s why I’m here, overlord.”
He didn’t like me addressing him without respect, but he had to earn mine as well. And he most assuredly hadn’t. He narrowed his eyes, and leaned on his knees, steepling his fingers.
“I have a bit of political intrigue for you, my sweet. There is a human who is running for a powerful political seat. I want him destroyed. That folder,” he swept his hand toward the case file he’d dropped on the table, “has all the information you’ll need to find and destroy him. I’d adore you if you could humiliate him and leave him alive, but I’ll also understand if he’s dead at the end.”
“A human? You want me to track and kill a human?” Trying to stifle the derisive snort, I pulled the file closer. “You’re kidding. Did you forget that I’m a vampire and tracking humans is what we do? All the time?”
“I did not say I wanted him necessarily dead,” he reasoned. “I said I want him destroyed.”
I gagged. “You want me to meddle in human affairs?”
“If you can’t meddle in their affairs without being found out, how will you learn to manipulate them to your will?”
I opened the folder, and the picture of the man was staring at me. He was a handsome human, the kind I would toy with before draining him and leaving him for dead. I smiled, licking my lips, thinking about how good he would taste…
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Nial raise an eyebrow.
I wondered if he knew what I was thinking.
But, in any case, I looked through the file. The target was a very wealthy man, and there were many things to imply that he had ripped off and lied to Cato about financial matters.
“You’re worried about your gold, overlord?”
He chuffed at that. “I’m worried about you completing this task, my dear.”
I continue to thumb through the pages. This was easy. Really. I didn’t see this as a challenge. I had brought down people more powerful and wealthy than this man. Kings and princes. Cato was up to something with this one.
“What are your stipulations, overlord?”
“Take him down. He must be humiliated. Dead and used is also acceptable.”
“I cannot refuse your challenge. Please finish.” I waited. There had to be more.
His teeth gleamed in the light as he grinned, a flash of fangs against his pale white skin, with lips the color of a blood-red moon.
It was his smirk that made me decide my conceited father was going to die. I would send my own warriors against him, drain him of the blood in his body, and leave him in the hot noon sun of the Atacama Desert to turn to the dust he was composed of. His bones would bleach and crumble, and I would have him cast into the sea, to scatter him to the four winds for the pleasure of seeing him destroyed. And I would excise his name from the Council of Overlords, much as my grandfather had done to Akhenaten in the days of the 18th Dynasty.
His eyes roamed my features, and his smile merely grew. “You have forty-eight hours.”
The audience behind us gasped.
It was only because of my expectations of his horrid nature that I didn’t join them.
Niallan leaned forward. “That is unreasonable.” His voice was even, maybe bored.
“That is my challenge.”
Lord Belshazzar, as the leader, could not speak against the limitations or the Challenge itself. He could, though, see the raging anger in my eyes and nodded in acknowledgment of it. “Lord Cato, are you sure this is the Challenge you wish to issue?”
“I am,” he said. “A true queen must be able to act quickly and without hesitation.”
Nial cleared his throat and sat back, mumbling quietly, “He’s gonna regret that.”
“Something to say, Master Niallan?” Cato tossed an evil eye in his direction.
“No, your lordshit.”
“Excuse me?”
“Nothing, sir.”
“Mind your place.”
“I’ll try.”
I swore I heard him mumble something else, but I didn’t have time for his snide attitude. I grabbed the folder. This was a Sisyphean task, like all of these stupid fucking Challenges. Something seemingly simple crammed into a box of impossible.
I wanted that throne. I would have it.
I slammed the folder shut. “I assume you will be watching?”
“Of course.” Cato nodded.
Standing, I grabbed the folder off the desk and pushed my chair back. “Then mark the clock. You will have your Challenge completed in forty-eight hours.” I stepped out from behind the table and marched to the hallway that led to my apartments.
This was ridiculous. I could just hunt the guy, kill him, and leave his legacy in a shambles. I could do any number of things and be done with this in just a few hours. There had to be something to this. Cato was the biggest, most arrogant asshole I’d ever known.
“What are you thinking, Gwen?” Adelie asked as I passed into the hall, away from the overlords.
“I think I need to feed and think more on this.”
“He’s a deceptive son of a bitch.” She threw a look at the chamber where the overlords were addressing the crowd. “He’s not being upfront about what this really is—”
“I know, Adelie.” I adored her, but she was stating the obvious and would be doing so for the next hour if I didn’t shut her up. “I know. I have to go through this file. I need you to go to the library and look up as much information on this...Timothy Ginter as you can.”
“I can use the computer in the study,” she said. “The library has restrictions on it, and I don’t want to fight those.”
“Why are there restrictions on the computers there?” I cocked my head, curious.
“Because God forbid the masses get their hands on information to overthrow the Council.”
“Overthrow?”
“You really think they rule with honesty?” Nial asked.
I jerked at the sound of his voice, my shoulders tensing.
Once again, he had snuck up on me. Fucking druid.
“Am I supposed to believe the masses don’t know about the lies?” I looked him up and down—and suppressed the intimate shiver that tried to claw up my spine. “And what the hell are you doing here? I need time to read this junk.”