Luc POV
He flattened himself against the wall to avoid the patrols. The guards marched in the capital streets, with their swords and fangs flashing in the dark.
The irony wasn't lost on him. He'd become the one skulking in the shadows, except he didn't have a friend in the world at the moment. Traitors.
Lurking in an alley, smelling the stink of the city, he tried to collect himself and assess his situation. In a word, dire. But he wasn't dead yet. His dear betrayer of a brother had shown weakness in the end. He hadn't gone in for the kill.
At least he could be sure that Dimitri wouldn't execute their parents and Irina. Dimitri wasn't a cold-blooded killer, even though previous vampire kings of Merak had staked their rivals, including their own family. And Queen Teuta had her own sister staked and decapitated while being nailed to a cross.