Page 21 of Stalked By Seduction and Shadows

He blew out a sigh, massaging the bridge of his nose.

Phillip slammed his glass down on the counter.

Jaxon didn’t even glance at him, pinning his wary gaze on me. “I’m sorry. She didn’t deserve this fate. No one does. But she sure as fuck doesn’t deserve your sacrifice. And that’s what you’d be doing if you stayed here. You’d be sacrificing yourself for nothing. Her fate is sealed, but yours isn’t.”

I looked between both men, weighed down with shame and regret. It was as though Helia was punishing me for choosing to abandon Isabella, for acting so selfishly.

“I’m not staying,” I said.

“Good,” Jaxon said, exhaling slowly.

A vein in Phillip’s forehead throbbed. “You were going to leave her? Your only family? After she basically raised you?”

“Are you fucking joking?” Jaxon’s voice dripped with venom now. “All that bitch ever did was use Scarlett. She basically whored her out. She put her in danger. She?—”

“Right, because Scarlett’s so damn innocent,” Phillip said with a snort. “If she’s so abused and mistreated, she sure does put on a very convincing act that says otherwise.”

Jaxon took a step forward. “You’re just as disgusting as she is. You only want Scarlett to stay so that you can be with the sister you’ve coveted all along.”

I shut my eyes tight as their voices rose and rose, and I saw the blood splatter on the sheets, heard the piercing wail of Isabella’s scream.

“I’m not staying,” I repeated softly, and then louder, I said, “but I’m not going to the coast. I’m going to Aristelle.”

Both men’s heads snapped to me.

“I’m going to find her and bring her back,” I said. “Then I can leave here and live the life I deserve to live.”

Jaxon clasped his hands behind his head and stared up at the ceiling. He laughed, but it was bitter and riddled with exasperation.

“I can’t just go to the coast—go on our adventures and pretend that nothing has changed,” I said, my voice breaking at the utter betrayal that crossed Jaxon’s face. “I wouldn’t be able to face myself in the mirror each day. I wouldn’t be able to live with this… this poison inside of me, reminding me that I didn’t even try to fight for her. That I gave up on her, abandoned her, when she has no one.”

“She has him!” Jaxon gestured to Phillip. “Why don’t we send Phillip after her?”

“Would you? Would you help me bring her back?” I asked as Phillip opened and then closed his mouth, scratching his head.

“Goddess above,” Jaxon muttered. “No, he won’t. Because although his capacity for intelligent thought is low, he has enough neurons firing to know that a human going to a city ruled by vampires to take back another human from the slave trade run by vampires is so beyond stupid that it doesn’t even warrant consideration.”

“You swear my dagger has magick that can weaken vampires?” I asked, wholly ignoring Jaxon as he seethed.

Phillip hesitated, anger flashing in his eyes. “I said it did, didn’t I? But you don’t even know how to use it. You’ll be eaten alive in that place, Scarlett. And no weapons I could give you would be able to prevent that.”

“There are laws now. Rules,” I said, remembering what those sneaky businessmen-types said in the tavern. “I know it won’t be safe, or easy, but there has to be recourse for these kinds of crimes. There has to be a way to get to her somehow, to bring her captors to justice.”

Now both men laughed, and it set fire to my insides, only making me dig my heels in harder.

“Why don’t you just knock on the door of the vampire lord himself and ask him if he can put a stop to human trafficking for you?” Jaxon said icily. “Them taking your bitch of a sister will surely be the last straw it takes for Aristelle’s benevolent vampire clan leader to dismantle the vast underground slave trade.”

Rune, the psychopathic, deathly powerful lord of all Valentin vampires. The stories about him were so varied and inconsistent that all mortals were left with was a primal, visceral fear whenever he was mentioned. They said he was a ruthless tyrant, carrying the horrifying appearance of a demonic prince of the underworld, quick to obliterate dissenters and traitors or anyone else who disrespected his rule of law. But he was turned, not born, and he was responsible for keeping order. The new order, where humans were supposedly protected in Aristelle. Trafficking was against the law, so why did he allow it to continue?

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Jaxon said, his voice raised a pitch as his face contorted into patronizing disbelief. “Are you genuinely weighing my joke as an option?”

“Mortals live there,” I said, lost in the daze of inevitability’s sharp call. “Thousands upon thousands of them. And what happened to Isabella has to have happened to some of them, too. There must be others there who are fighting this—demanding the trafficking end. Demanding Rune and the turned uphold their own treaty.”

“Oh, so not knock on his door, just gather some humans to picket outside his castle?” Jaxon collected himself, shaking his head. He approached me as if I were a skittish, wild dog. “Scarlett, baby girl, I know you’re hurting right now, but I need you to come back down to reality. If those vampires were going that crazy over the mere scent of you, can you, for a moment, imagine how it’ll be when a whole city of them sees you in the flesh?”

“I’m sorry that you think I’m betraying you,” I said softly. “You know how badly I wanted it.”

Anger flashed in his hazel-green eyes. “She was using you! That was the only reason she hadn’t kicked you to the curb. Because she needed you. She wouldn’t do this for you, Scar. She wouldn’t sacrifice a dime to save you. Even leaving her with that much of your money was an act of unfathomable, undeserved generosity. You are about to turn your back on the only person who has ever truly loved and cared for you. All for a useless, cruel sister who didn’t mind if you lived or died.” He took in a shaky breath. “And mark my words, you will die.”

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