Read Online Heiress of Lies by Cege Smith - Free Book Online

as well as everything there was to know about their mortal enemies, not astronomy or math from the Sisters of St. Abath. She should have been at his right hand, not Malin.
         Connor did another circle of the clearing before answering. “Yes. After your great-great- great-grandfather did a fine job of hunting down and killing all but a few remaining vampires, he offered them a choice. They could move to the farthest corner of the kingdom, by far the most remote, hostile place in all the land, and never come back, or he would kill them where they stood.” He knelt down in front of Angeline and sighed. “My Master was one of those survivors. So he came here, as far away as he could possibly get, and he gathered the survivors to him and they have lived here peaceably ever since.”
         Connor’s story added at least ten new questions to Angeline’s list. She wished she had a pen and paper to write it all down.
         “How many of you are there?” she asked.
         “Too many,” Connor said curtly and then he turned away.
         Angeline wondered if he could hear their pursuers and how far behind them they were. And she was also disturbed by Connor’s answer. A secret kingdom of vampires sitting quietly all the way out where no one could see what they were doing? Angeline smelled something very bad in all of that. She feared that this pseudo vampire king was amassing an army to wreak havoc on her people. They had been at peace for so long that she doubted most of them remembered what it was like to live in a time of war. Her father had campaigned against small upstarts far in the east near the ocean and had skirmishes along the boundaries of the Solera Valley, but there hadn’t been a full-scale war since…well, since the war that solidified that a Robart would sit on the throne of Altera until the end of time.
         Angeline, deep in her thoughts, wasn’t paying attention to what was happening around her. She still felt a bit lethargic from the journey so far. Then she felt a slight pinch of pain on the top of her hand. She looked down and gasped. A spider the size of her fist was crouched over her hand like it was claiming it. Its red beady eyes dared her to defy it.
         Then Connor was there and he grabbed the spider by its immense furry body and crushed it in his fist. Red blood squeezed through the folds between his fingers and dripped onto her hand. Angeline’s stomach turned. She hated blood.
         She turned away as Connor walked to the edge of the clearing and tossed the spider’s mangled body into the tall grass. Her hand was hurting, though. She examined it as best she could in the moonlight. There was a large bump and two angry red marks where its fangs had pierced her skin. It was warm to the touch and it tingled. She scratched it for just a second before Connor returned and took her hand in his, looking at it closely.
         “It bit you,” he said.
         “Yes,” she said. His touch was gentle as he probed the bump. She tried not to cry out. “That hurts. Is it bad?”
         Connor seemed to slip to the ground in front of her. He looked shocked, as though he had no idea what to do.
         Angeline was alarmed. “Connor. I’m going to be fine, right? It’s just a little spider bite.”
         “From the most poisonous creature in Altera,” he said. He couldn’t meet her eyes.
         “You need to do something!” Angeline said too loudly. She was starting to feel the tingles of pain traveling up her arm now, and there was a dull roar sounding in her ears.
         “Even if I could get you to a healer, a single bite from that menace kills in less than ten minutes.” Connor moved closer to her. “Princess, I don’t know how I can help you.”
         Angeline felt herself slipping off the rock. She couldn’t feel her lower limbs anymore. Her mind was trying to think of any alternative, but she could only think of one. If the