Page 179 of Taken By Touch and Torment

“Might be the work of the uprising outside,” Scarlett said. She searched my face. “Do you need to feed again?”

Few living born remained. A bold idiot raced toward me, and I took him out with my bare hands, plunging a dagger into his neck. I caught sight of others fleeing through the second set of main doors down from the ones we entered through. I obliterated any I could reach.

I replaced Scarlett’s dagger in her holster.

“No, baby, you’ve given enough. I need you lucid for what’s next,” I said, answering her previous question.

No one else dared come near us. Scarlett surveyed the damage, the room piled with corpses and decay.

“Okay, so villagers weren’t exaggerating about what you were capable of, then,” she said with wide eyes. She coughed, the flames rapidly spreading now.

“Are you frightened, Little Flame?” I drawled. My cock twitched, already yearning for her again.

Her gaze became hooded. Her breathing was shallow as she stared at me and my dark power. When she coughed again, I snapped out of my lust.

Before she could answer me, I pulled her into my arms and concealed us with shadow as I took off with vampire speed.

She covered us with her own invisible glamour, making us as energetically uninteresting as possible.

An impressive feat considering we were two of the most interesting beings to grace this realm.

“Do you have a plan?” Scarlett asked, clutching me tight.

“Sort of.”

“That’s very reassuring.”

Someone must’ve started a fire in multiple places, because I didn’t understand how the flames were spreading so rapidly.

I took the grand staircase but ducked around the corner, avoiding the main entrance where bodies were tangled in a vicious battle. Guards were fighting back the growing crowd of dissenters, and at the same time, the remaining born were attempting to escape. My shadow glamour was already wearing thin. I struggled to see through the smoke.

Scarlett coughed. Her heart fluttered. She needed blood replenishing potion. She’d given me more of herself than I would’ve taken under normal circumstances, but I knew it was what was best for her in the long run.

“We need to take the west exit,” someone hissed.

Through the haze, I saw a group of born women slipping through a side hall.

I followed them at a distance as my glamour flickered and Scarlett continued to struggle to breathe.

Between monitoring behind us for trouble and keeping careful notice of my proximity to the women ahead, I fell into a rhythm. Scarlett was breathing easier again as we headed toward clearer air.

It was only when the exit was in sight, doors wide open and fresh air pouring in from the palace grounds, that I sensed the unmistakable prickle of warning raise the hairs on the back of my neck.

“There she is,” Evangeline Naya purred, her sickly-sweet voice recognizable to anyone who’d ever heard it.

It was the last thing I heard before Scarlett was ripped from my arms and a heavy chain was pulled tight against my throat.

70

RUNE

“What did Liza see?” Evangeline screamed at Scarlett like a banshee. She’d thrown her up against the wall, mere feet from the doors to our freedom.

I strained against the hexed chain at my throat. I watched Scarlett crumple to the floor, her waves of brunette hair wild, those big blue eyes wide with fear and anger. She moved for a dagger, but Evangeline was quicker.

Evangeline bent her wrist at an unnatural angle, and I heard my Little Flame’s bones snap with a crunch that had my stomach turning over.

“What did she see!” Evangeline wailed. “You killed her. We know you killed her.”

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