Page 10 of Taken By Touch and Torment

After another long hour of updates from the border districts and doling out new directives, it was time to discuss what I wanted to address more than anything else.

“Have we uncovered Durian’s gifts?” I asked. A few of the clan’s eyes stepped forward, none with the correct answer on their lips.

“All we know is that he is said to be born from an ancient, powerful bloodline that fell out of favor during the war,” Gerrie, my impossibly pale all-seeing eye said. “And this lineage has always had strong mental magick, often kept secret and not written in history books. His father was a rumored memory reader by touch.”

Mental powers made sense, given Durian had spent his whole life influencing the born through his religious persona, speech, and propaganda. I’d long suspected magick had to do with how rapidly he rose to power and altered Valentin’s trajectory.

When Mason stepped forward, the energy of the crowd shifted. Everyone watched us both carefully. Though my men and women would never question me and served me with the utmost respect, Sadie and I had also trained them well. They were primed to scan for weakness, to assess threats. And it was clear Mason had fallen out of favor.

Her strong physique was in a tight black uniform, her features unreadable. But I knew her well enough to catch the briefest flicker of regret in her dark eyes.

“Given Durian’s probable mental abilities, is there anything we should be worried about with Scarlett in his grasp?” She cleared her throat, adding quickly, “She might not have control over what is revealed, no matter how loyal she is.”

No one knew what had truly happened between Scarlett and me but Mason and Uriah. No one else knew she was a succubus, or that I’d unclaimed her. To this room, she was merely mine.

Even if the truth was that I didn’t know if Scarlett would still be loyal to me after what I put her through. They’d said she’d been on her way to see me, but I didn’t know what she was planning to say. It had all happened so quickly. Sadie showed me I couldn’t be influenced by succubus magick, not since she’d finely tuned me into a being of perfect control, with no desire but my own. Then Snow had let me read Isabella’s diary, all the cruel words about Little Flame and the horrors her sister had allowed to happen to her even when Scarlett was a child. Scarlett had discovered her true nature at the same time I had. Which meant our powerful, inexplicable connection was pure, our love the realest thing I’d felt in my long life.

But Scarlett didn’t know that. Scarlett likely thought it had all been a lie. That I’d only been drawn to her because of what she was, not who she was. She thought I’d abandoned her, that she was nothing to me but a liability to dispose of.

Worse, I didn’t know exactly what she thought or how she felt—about any of it. I hadn’t given her the chance.

And now she was gone.

My shadows darkened the room a few shades, my unholy power sending everyone’s eyes to the floor in subservience.

“My Scarlett has nothing to offer Durian. I shielded her from sensitive information that may put her in danger.” The words scraped out of my throat like knives. “I will stop at nothing to ensure she is returned to me as soon as possible. And neither will any of you.”

The unspoken message was clear. Anyone who brought useful information about saving Scarlett would be in my favor, forever. This was not the time for rash actions. If I had no duty to Valentin or ability to foresee the consequences of impulsive moves, I would’ve gone on a warpath to Scarlett immediately.

But I would never risk her life with my blinding wrath, nor would I risk everyone and everything she’d ever loved to save her. No matter my own obsessive, rageful desires.

“You have your orders. Soon, Durian’s head will be in my fucking grip, and his palace will be burned to the ground,” I said. “The born have dug their own graves. No mercy, no more compromises. They will bend to our will or be eradicated from this great island forever.”

While the room erupted into battle cries and comradery, I scanned for those I needed to speak to one-on-one about Durian. There was no time to rest, no time to celebrate our recent wins. Not for me.

Not until Scarlett was back on my arm, her small hand wrapped around my forearm and those big blue eyes staring up at me like I was her whole world.

Uriah’s eyes lit up the way they did every time Snow came around. After she’d fought for Scarlett more valiantly than a seasoned warrior, I finally learned her name.

She was out front on the castle lawn, bundled in a white scarf and long lavender coat. It didn’t surprise me in the least that the weather had taken a turn the moment Scarlett had been taken.

When Snow met my eyes, she must’ve seen my state of mind plainly. Because she swallowed and lowered her intensity, shifting on her feet. Her green irises mirrored my own grief.

The world was colder without Scarlett’s fire.

“Aren’t vampires banned from care centers?” she asked.

“We won’t be seen by anyone but Isabella,” I assured her.

I still didn’t know if this was right. No matter how horrible Isabella was as a human and a sister, she’d endured the unspeakable. And it had only been a few days since she’d been rescued.

Nevertheless, the three of us were on our way to see her. And to our utter shock, the healers who ran the center notified us that Isabella had agreed to the meeting.

I wouldn’t have cared either way, but at least now I didn’t have to advertise that fact to anyone.

Scarlett was the entire reason Isabella had been saved at all. In my eyes, Isabella owed Scarlett her life whether she would ever admit it or not. And we needed information about Evangeline, the born woman who had been keeping slaves in her depraved dungeon. She was high in Durian’s pecking order, just as she and her deceased psychopathic partner had been during the war. No one had forgotten how many innocents he’d had slaughtered—even children. He was one of our first assassinations. We would also want to hear about any other notable figures and events Isabella witnessed or heard about.

We had no time to waste, not for Valentin and not for Scarlett. I saw no reason to give Isabella a grace period when she’d refused to give the same to Scarlett after her numerous assaults.

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