“By continuing to rule your territory with a firm hand,” Kato said.

Lucien detected the doubt on Amal’s face, but she said nothing.

Kato must have seen it too. “I think you will find in the coming months that many of the troubles you have been facing will become… less troublesome.”

Amal said, “Thank you, Kato.”

“Be warned, however, that if you cannot maintain control when I rule Alitea again, expect to lose your throne. This territory is beloved to me—it holds some of the strongest waters of my ancient kingdom—and I will not have a weak regent looking after it.”

“Yes, Kato,” they said in one voice.

Ramy glanced at Lucien, noted Saba standing at his side, but he averted his eyes before Saba or Kato took note. Makeda had not attended the meeting, and neither Ramy nor Amal had asked what Saba’s cure was. Lucien suspected those in their territory were not given the luxury of treatment but the swift cure of the sun.

One of Saba’s messengers waited in the door, and Lucien nodded her over.

“A message for our mother, Lucien.”

“From?”

The girl smiled. “You didn’t smell it?”

Lucien lifted the linen envelope to his nose, knowing without another word who the message was from.

Dark smoke and incense.

He handed the sealed letter to Saba. “A message from Arosh.”

“That took longer than expected, to be honest.”

“You deal with him,” Lucien said. “You’re the only one who can.”

“Not true,” Saba said. “Kato can as well.”

“Kato has a few things to do.”

Lucien eyed the old king and his new regents, nodding at Ramy and Amal’s first lieutenant who stood on the other side of the room, watching the proceedings with no discernible expression. The man had spent hours with Lucien, arranging the intricacies of protocol and the details of the agreement.

Within an hour, Kato’s meeting with Amal and Ramy had concluded and fealty had been pledged along with a reasonable tribute amount and named immortals to add to Kato’s growing forces. Within days of leaving Saba’s secluded territory in Ethiopia, the ancient king had conquered nearly all of the Eastern Mediterranean.

Without a drop of blood being spilled.

Lucien knew it wouldn’t last.

The plane had landed in Cyprus just before dawn the night before, and their party—which now included four vampires from Inaya and four from Amal—was staying at Ramy’s seaside compound on a secluded strip of shoreline north of Paphos on the western side of the island. Lucien knocked on Makeda’s chamber door, stripped down to a pair of shorts and eager for some time alone with his lover.

Makeda’s eyes were glowing when she opened the door. “Swim?”

“Yes.”

“Humans around?”

“They’ve all been given the night off. Thank Saba when you get the chance.”

Makeda’s smile might have broken her face. Their time in Tobruk had been brief, and a cursory tour of Inaya’s waterfront offices was the closest Makeda had come to the water. Then they’d taken off for Lebanon and more political meetings. This was the first night they’d been able to relax. The first night Makeda would be able to swim in the ancient Mediterranean Sea.

She stripped off the robe she’d been wearing, and Lucien’s fangs dropped at the sight of Makeda in a white bikini. Feeling more predatory than playful, he dove into the ocean seconds after she’d jumped off the rocks. She swam deep into the midnight-blue water, and he followed her past the edge of moonlight glittering on the surface of the calm sea and into the darkness of the cove below the guest villa.

White craggy rocks turned black in the darkness, and Lucien followed the tug of Makeda’s amnis as she swam along the bottom until he found her sitting on a low rock at the bottom of the sea, head cocked as she watched a school of sardines spiral above her.

Lucien swam toward her, enjoying the childlike pleasure of her first ocean swim in months. Unlike many earth vampires, he’d never felt uncomfortable underwater, probably because he’d spent so much time with Kato. He reached out his hand and brushed the cloud of her hair away from her face before he leaned in to touch her lips with his.

She grinned, her fangs glowing in the faint light, and met his mouth with her own. He tugged her up from the rock and swam toward the school of sardines, wrapping his arms and legs around her body as he rolled them toward the surface. The school surrounded them, and Lucien and Makeda floated in a rippling cloud of silver.

He let her go, let her float away, and watched as the fish circled her, moving as one organism as they kept a cautious distance from the predator in their midst.

Wonder. Delight. Curiosity. Her face was a symphony of emotion.

He wanted to show her the world. He wanted to take her to jungles and coral reefs. Let her explore volcanoes and caves so deep only alien creatures seemed to thrive. He could do everything with her. There were no limits but the sun. He could—

The tug on his ankle made him glance over his shoulder. It hadn’t come from Makeda.

Another tug. This time the current yanked him back and away from the school of sardines.

Kato?

He couldn’t scent anything in the water, but the familiar energy of the ancient water vampire was nowhere in the cove.

Makeda’s eyes met his, and she frowned.

What is it? she mouthed.

He shook his head a moment before an unseen hand closed around his chest and yanked him into the darkness.