Page 16 of Taken By Touch and Torment

Isabella’s lips quirked up briefly, but then she seemed to remember we were vampires she hated. “She was always making us say prayers to the demon goddess—her and the aunts both. They said they were preparing us for the new order, when the born took back their rightful place as rulers.”

“Aunts?” Uriah asked.

“What they called the women who watched us, who told us how to behave and who to serve.” An unconscious shudder rolled through Isabella, and her eyes dimmed.

Fire lit up my blood, and I fought to stay focused on the task at hand instead of letting myself become consumed with thoughts of Scarlett.

“The aunts weren’t vampires. They were witches,” Isabella said.

Uriah and I exchanged a glance. “It’s that bloody servants-of-Lillian shit,” he muttered.

Isabella shuddered again in confirmation.

There was a particularly nasty cult of chaos witches who shunned Selena and dedicated themselves to serving Lillian. They first popped up several centuries ago, rising in and out of popularity. Though they claimed to have been called to serve Lillian by way of mystical prophecies, the truth was that they’d been brainwashed by the born. It would appear that this ancient ideology was now being blended with Durian’s religious and political ethos and the growing slave trade.

“That was what they called us,” Isabella murmured. “Servants of Lillian.”

My shadows were itching to escape my skin and go in search of her. To reach and claw and dig for her desperately, devotedly.

“They told us we wouldn’t have to hide for much longer,” Isabella said. “They said Lillian recognized no treaty, and that soon the turned would be wiped from Valentin and all of Ravenia, too.”

“Did you catch any other names? Did you overhear any specifics?”

Isabella clenched and unclenched her hands at her side, looking away from us. “This other vampire woman was close with Evangeline. On one of her visits, she stormed in talking about how you killed her partner—Eric or something.”

“Frederick,” I offered.

“Yeah.” She glared at the floor. “She was a nasty one, too.”

Liza. We were getting closer to the unavoidable, the subject I knew needed to be reserved for last. So that Isabella would be as focused on remembering anything helpful for as long as possible.

“She was angry, but she was also excited about something. She said she’d figured it out. She said she’d uncovered something valuable she could take from you before they took back everything else.”

“That bit of intel is no longer relevant. Anything else?” I asked, and Isabella narrowed her eyes at my biting tone.

“Oh yeah, let me remember all the times they spilled their most valuable secrets to us slaves,” she said sarcastically.

I ignored that comment. “Did you ever meet Durian?”

She shook her head. “And thank Helia I didn’t. Because I’ve seen firsthand what he does to his slaves.” She grimaced. “If they manage to survive him, they’re all kinds of fucked in the head. I met one of his past pets in a club. She could barely string a sentence together. I couldn’t tell if she was drugged out of her mind or just nuts, but I know for certain she wouldn’t stop talking about seeing the future and hearing voices.”

Isabella’s eyes went dead again, and I knew we were reaching the end, at least for now. I ground my teeth together so violently I was afraid they’d crack. Isabella’s words ran through my mind on repeat, interspersed with visions of Scarlett.

I managed to get the words out finally. “Did you ever hear any of them talk about Scarlett?”

Isabella snapped right out of her traumatized daze. Her eyes flitted between the three of us before landing heavily on me. “Scarlett Hale? From Crescent Haven?”

I nodded. “Yes. Your sister.”

“She’s not my sister,” she snapped with a roll of her eyes. She returned her attention to me, drawing her brows together as she frowned. Then something clicked into place, and she suddenly smirked. “Oh. I see.”

I stayed neutral, even as I felt anything but. Snow was having a similar reaction, and Uriah took a small step closer to her.

Isabella flung her head back in a cackle. “Leave it to my whore of a sister to seduce the vampire lord of Aristelle.” She glanced at Snow with a sneer of utter condescension. “Let me guess, you’re the replacement Jaxon?”

Snow exploded, throwing her hands up in frustration. “She’s the reason you were saved! You owe her your life.”

Isabella faltered. “She’s the object of value that they took from you? Is that why you’re really here?”

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