Free King's Blood: Vampire Descent (A Serial Novel, Part 4) by P.J. Day Page A

Precisely, no scarring, no marks, clean as a baby’s ass.” Milton let go of her hair and shoved her out the door with his hand over her lower back. “I’ll call you if I need you.”
    Milton proceeded to close the door, turned around and continued with his intense gaze. “Jack, I like Ted. He’s a fun guy. I’ll be the first one to admit Holly is a piece of ass; you don’t want them in there for too long, do you?” he asked, taking a more submissive posture as he sat down again.
    “I don’t trust you after the stunt you pulled back there. This whole setup, the nice stuff you got out of nowhere, you look like exploitative people, I’m sorry.”
    “ Exploitative? We are fucking vampires, Jack,” Milton said. “We don’t have much recourse. You’re lucky. Look at you, you’re a good-looking guy, you dress well, you had no problem assimilating. We aren’t allowed to play by the rules. We are practically peasants who happen to be vampires.”
    “ Again, how do I know you aren’t manipulating me right now?” I asked, pulling his hand away from my face.
    “ Okay, I’ll go first, ask me anything.” Milton suggested, as he leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms.
    “ How in the hell did you infiltrate my dreams?” I asked, as my eyes began to well up.
    Milton stood up from his chair and began pacing the room, repeatedly smoothing his face with his hand. “Luc is going to kill me for this,” he said, with marked worry.
    “Who the hell is Luc?” I asked.
    Milton opened the door and yelled at Kai, “ Dài lái de tóugǔ.” I could see Kai walking slowly toward the tunnel. Milton stood by the door, looking at me with an uncomfortable smile.
    “ You need Kai to explain how you did this?”
    “ Kind of, you’ll see,” he said, motioning his hand in a downward gesture. Kai came in through the door with a black, velvety tote bag in his right hand, which seemed to contain a medium-sized ball. He handed the bag to Milton.
    “ Jack, before I proceed to answer your question, do you know anything about your own anatomy?” asked Milton, as Kai looked on.
    “ What? You mean our teeth? Our ability to quickly heal? That we have no expiration date?”
    “ Beyond that? Anything else?” asked Milton, as he put his hand inside the bag.
    “ No,” I said, with slight confusion.
    Milton pulled out a skull with a reddish tinge from the bag. The smell was horrifying, as there were still pieces of flesh hanging on the side of the cranium. I immediately noticed the skull’s set of sharp fangs in its mouth. I looked away, my brow crinkled in disgust. Kai’s face turned white as a ghost and quickly left the room.
    “No reason to be grossed out,” Milton said to me. “He died a hero, he really did,” he proclaimed, holding up the skull as if were performing Hamlet. “I want to show you something before Jon is put to rest.”
    “ That’s Jon?” I asked, gagging and almost puking out the blood I had just drunk. “How did you get his head back?”
    “ The rest of my men just showed up, they brought back Jon—his head I mean—and that accountant fellow.”
    “ Larry?” I said. “Where is he? We need to get him home.”
    “ We dropped him off in Guilin City with some long-haired traveling Westerners,” Milton said. “We told him to tell them he was lost. He had such a horrified face, from what I hear. He’ll be fine.”
    “ How do you know?”
    “ Listen, Guilin City loves tourists, he's in good hand—now hear me out, okay,” Milton said, snapping his fingers trying to get my full attention. He brought the fresh skull close to my face. I turned my head but still had my eyes fixated on the skull, magnetized by morbid curiosity. Milton placed a finger inside the skull’s nasal cavity. I fought off my aversion and focused on what Milton was trying to show as I completely faced the skull.
    “ See that?” he asked, pointing to a small, thin piece of fleshy cartilage inside the skull which extended