Page 37 of Taken By Touch and Torment

She flicked her wrist again, increasing the weight of the bowl and chalice. My muscles trembled uncontrollably. I breathed shallowly, grinding my teeth together.

I kept my face utterly neutral. I did not show them my hatred or my pain. I gave the aunts nothing.

And just like Evangeline had said, I lapped up the vampires’ attention as if it was the coldest glass of water on the hottest day of the year. And I finished by running my tongue over my supple lips to get every last drop.

On the outside, I was stoic.

I was stoic even when my arms gave out and the golden objects fell to the floor in a deafening clatter.

I looked to Aunt Carol, as if silently asking her, What next?

She only shook her head with faux, cruel pity before leaving me alone in the center of a room full of vampires.

Evangeline smiled. “Poor, weak thing,” she said with a sigh. Her voice was creepily high, her beauty ruined by her cruelty. “Her silence was clear. Her time as Rune’s whore has left her with disrespect for her rightful lords and ladies. She clearly still sees us as the enemy, no matter what act she puts on.”

“Didn’t realize silence could say all of that,” I muttered, unable to bite my tongue—the tongue that repeatedly got me in trouble with beings far stronger than I was.

Brennan smiled, shaking his head as his eyes burned my skin. Someone chuckled, and Evangeline’s pale face turned red, a vein protruding in her forehead.

I was getting punished either way. It was worth it to take a swing at Evangeline. It was also very revealing—to see that regardless of her clearly high position, she was not as respected as her male peers. It seemed as though the born clung to archaic misogyny, despite worshipping a female goddess.

Regardless, when Evangeline decided my fate, they happily agreed.

“The other servants will punish her for our enjoyment. Put her on the cross.”

17

RUNE

Ilooked out at the sparkling lights of Aristelle. I clutched the railing of my balcony, my onyx tattoos vibrating with power. I imagined the cityscape from Scarlett’s eyes. Every time she saw the city’s expansive splendor, her whole face lit up with childlike enthusiasm. Sometimes I’d catch her smiling or laughing to herself, when she thought no one could see her. That was how beautiful her heart was; she was able to experience such heights of joy from simple things I’d taken for granted for centuries.

I heard distant voices and calls of beasts. Some of my inner circle had organized a sparring competition in the back of the castle grounds, before the thin layer of trees secluding the land from prying eyes.

Sadie brought a legion of newly turned vampires on shadowbirds when she arrived, along with her two current favorite subs—a shifter woman and an uninitiated turned man. The man, Cliff, had been her favorite for over a century. He worshipped the ground beneath her more vigorously than the most faithful high priest.

It was still only a drop compared to my sea of endless devotion to my Little Flame. She was the last thing I thought about before sleep. She haunted every dream, and she was the only name on my lips as soon as I opened my eyes. Not that I was doing much sleeping.

I had too many plans in motion, too many executions, interrogations, and acts of retribution to oversee. The borders had been solidified. Any born caught in our territory was killed or taken prisoner, and ours were given the same courtesy. Fighting had been mostly relegated to the border, with a few stray guerrilla style acts of terror closer to home. We were certainly not in a ceasefire, but full-blown battles had yet to commence.

What happened next depended on the meeting with the kingdom’s dignitary.

Scarlett had been with Durian for over two weeks now. I nearly convinced myself I could feel her brokenness through that invisible leash, the blood bond I checked compulsively every few minutes. Her heart still beat, but fuck was it sometimes erratic and much too fast, other times too achingly slow.

I’d once told her I would sever the heads of anyone who dared feed on her addictive blood. I planned to make good on that promise and so much more. The born had not a clue of the wrath they would soon face.

At a brush of perfumed air at my back and the clicking of heels on stone, I knew that Sadie had joined me.

“It’s done,” she said.

My hands tightened around the railing, thorny vines leaping from my skin to wrap around the columns.

“Good. Thank you,” was all I could manage.

Sadie didn’t criticize my uncharacteristic show of emotion. She merely stood by my side, placing her own hands on the marble and avoiding my thorny shadow vines.

“I figured it out. Durian’s gift,” I said gruffly, staring angrily at the horizon. “I’ve pieced it together. The descriptions of his followers’ religious experiences, his lineage possessing powerful mental magick, his father a rumored memory reader…” My jaw ticked, hissing out my next words. “The fact that he drives his slaves to madness.”

“If he were a mind reader, he’d be much more powerful than he currently is,” Sadie thought aloud. “Yet his gift must give him some key advantage. He didn’t get to where he is now by being a keen fighter and orator.”

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