Page 142 of Stalked By Seduction and Shadows

“I swear I fed endlessly before I came here,” she said. “I’m extremely powerful right now. But there’s a wall up inside of him that I can’t break through. It’s as if he desires nothing at all.”

Sadie sighed, smiling like a satisfied cat. “By my perfect design.”

The pieces finally fell into place. I lost my perfect composure for a moment as the uncomfortable truth finally landed, just as Sadie spoke it out loud.

“You can’t be influenced by sex demons, Rune. We made sure of that long ago, when you asked me to rid you of desire and I was more than happy to oblige. You are as immune to succubi as you are to bloodlust. All desire you harbor is yours and yours alone.”

65

RUNE

Iflew straight to Hatham. As I grew nearer, Millie called to her brothers and sisters, sensing them even from miles away. My remaining forces stationed in the born districts had been dispatched to the gaudy neighborhood of fallen born royalty built upon sloping cobblestone hills. Evangeline’s mansion would be surrounded in a matter of minutes by air and foot.

As soon as we rescued this cell of enslaved mortals, we would cross back over the battle line.

For now.

Durian’s newly constructed palace was nearby, heavily guarded and in a less populated area surrounded by a patch of green space much like my castle. It drove the born crazy that we took over their land and their historic buildings. In their eyes, we’d not only bastardized vampirism, but we’d also blasphemed Lillian’s will for her children to rule as kings, queens, and aristocrats—an unholy court of hedonism, wealth, and violence.

Now Durian was trying desperately to rebuild in Hatham in the image of what we’d stolen in Nyx. The gods only knew what horrors awaited us in his flashy imitation of Lillian’s underworld palace. I would delight in destroying everything he’d built and slaying him mercilessly for subjecting my eyes to his poor taste.

At this, I finally smiled, for the first time in the longest three days of my life.

It was beyond comprehension that the born blamed me for their crumbling districts and poverty but celebrated Durian and his comrades’ unfathomable displays of hoarded, generational wealth.

Millie dipped below the clouds. The sun had just descended, so the neighborhood of born elites sparkled against the darkness. Our ground forces had already moved in on Evangeline’s estate. They hadn’t expected us. The patrolling born were barely a threat to our show of force and were handled with ease. Soon Durian’s forces would arrive.

We wouldn’t be long.

With a deafening roar, Millie landed on Evangeline’s lawn. While some of her siblings patrolled above, others dove at the born scrambling toward us, and a few landed on the roofs of nearby homes in warning.

I swung off Millie and nodded at Uriah and Mason, already barking orders at our dozens of men and women securing the grounds. Uriah would be leading the force surrounding the premises, while Mason would be joining me inside.

When a few born swung open Evangeline’s front door, I didn’t so much as flinch. My shadows shot out and impaled two in the chest before lifting another off the ground and squeezing out his guts from his skin.

“To think I was going to knock politely,” I said with a sigh before stepping forward over the dead born with my most elite fighters by my side.

Cedar should’ve been here. The rage and grief in my blood from the loss of my protégé fueled the shadows that surrounded me in a thick cloud. I would show the born the same mercy they showed him. The same mercy they showed Scarlett’s sister and all other exploited mortals.

I quickly cast aside all thought of Scarlett as soon as the flicker appeared. I instead focused on the grand entryway, the enormous, multi-tiered, golden chandelier above and the two sets of stairs on either side of the foyer. The floors were smoky marble, the walls dark black and red.

The house was quiet. Far too quiet.

They were surrounded and didn’t have the forces to fight us until backup arrived, so Evangeline and whoever else resided here were hiding. Perhaps in a safe room, dungeon, or secret wing. The slaves were either with them or hidden by handlers somewhere else.

“I scent Evangeline. She’s here, somewhere,” Mason said. “I remember her vile stench with absolute clarity.”

Evangeline had been around during the war, and her partner Faro had been a barbaric general. He’d ordered the massacre of entire towns of mortals—civilians and children included.

“And mortals,” I said, as several of my clan looked to me and nodded. “Percy, your group will check out upstairs.”

I turned to Hanson, one of our allied witches, who had served with us for nearly a hundred years. His russet eyes went white for a moment, gazing into the great beyond. A charge of magick shot through the air as he held out a quartz rod.

“There’s an underground.”

I closed my own eyes and held out a hand for everyone to cease moving. I stepped forward a few steps as I listened intensely and parsed through the scent of mortal and born blood in the air.

I focused on Hanson and nodded, both of us feeling the same truth in our bones.

---