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his possession. Just think of all he could accomplish with their genes, especially if he could get Maddox's other son, the mysterious assassin his keepers referred to as the phantom.
    Royce sighed, which brought Bishop out of his reverie. He glared at his phone. "Or what, Royce?" he said again.
    "Bishop, let's not argue."
    In other words, Royce didn't have the spine to punish him for his insubordination. He was a useless puppet. Nothing more than a mouthpiece. A token where a commander should be. The race needed a strong leader, one who wasn't afraid to show King Bain and his AKM lackeys that drecks were a race to be reckoned with. A leader who would shred the peace treaty and throw it in King Bain's face. One who would exploit the vampires' growing addiction to cobalt to quash them under his proverbial thumb.
    Wasn't that why cobalt had been manufactured in the first place? Cobalt production had been Bishop's first assignment. He had formulated cobalt in the eighties, using deadly dreck venom to create a drug that vampires could get high off of, something they couldn't get from human drugs. But then Royce had all but pulled the plug on the experiment. At the time, it had been enough for him that vampires easily overdosed and died on the stuff, but that hadn't been enough for Bishop. Behind the secrecy of his lab, he had continued to tweak and experiment with the formula, searching to fulfill the original objective: To use cobalt to trip vampires into mutancy. Mutants were deadly, and they had short lifespans. What better way to exterminate a race or control them than by triggering their own demise from the inside out?
    Yes, Royce had finally come back around to Bishop's way of thinking, but he needed to be ousted. He didn't have the stomach or the drive to make the ruthless decisions necessary for the drecks to overcome the vampires.
    In time, Bishop would take over. He just needed to be patient. A way would present itself.
    "Fine, Royce. Let's not argue." Bishop grinned at his reflection and pressed the pad of his thumb against the tip of one fang. He winced, both as the young fang pierced his skin and pain shot through the roof of his mouth, triggering fluid to leak down and drip from both fangs. He smacked his lips. Mmm. Vampire venom. He was producing vampire venom. How sweet.
    Royce sighed again. "So…what now? Grotek and Chane were arrested by King Bain's men. Those two could lead the king's enforcers back to you, and consequently back to me. And after you and Apostle got Princess Miriam involved, the king will be out for blood. What do you plan—?"
    "Grotek and Chane will be dealt with by morning," Bishop said, his voice flat.
    Grotek and Chane were the two cobalt dealers he and his brother, Apostle, had set up to take the fall if things went south with the princess's abduction. Good thing, too, because shit had gone way south. Grotek and Chane were loyal, but it was time to cut ties. Besides, the two dealers were a loose end, and Bishop didn't like loose ends. They were messy. It was better to snip them off and ensure nothing was left to unravel.
    Royce paused, and Bishop felt his doubt through the line. "How? They're locked inside the king's dungeon. No one can get in or out without Bain's authority."
    "Oh, ye of little faith. I have a secret weapon," Bishop said with a smirk. A secret weapon that might come in handy when I'm ready to oust your ass. "Remember the two vampires who sold Maddox to me?"
    "Yes. What of them?"
    "Remember how I told you they held prisoner Maddox's other son, an assassin who can leave his body, use a totem to hunt down his victim—no matter whether he's out in the open or locked in a dungeon cell—and kill him?"
    "Yes." Royce sounded like he was beginning to see where this was going.
    "Well, I've sent Apostle to retrieve totems from Grotek's and Chane's homes."
    "So you plan on using the assassin to kill them inside King Bain's dungeon." Royce chuckled. "Clever, Bishop. But how did you