Page 75 of Club Blood

I’m not dead yet,I thought to myself.

I tried to move but my body was paralyzed. I felt like I was in one of those weird dreams, only I wasn’t floating over myself.

My body wasn’t mine anymore, and my mind was fighting to break free.

* * *

I was being consumed;mind, body, soul. I wasn’t alive or dead, or even anything in between. I didn’t know what was happening to me, only that Iwas. I was something, nothing, everything all at once.

There was something bad I knew I should remember, something that would hurt more than whatever was happening. But I couldn’t remember, and I couldn’t feel anything else either.

I was cold and warm, fire and ice, dead and alive.

My body was changing around me, something eating its way through my system and turning me into something else entirely. But what, I didn’t know.

I was disappearing into the shadows and I could only hope I would find whatever I had lost there.

40

WARREN

It had beenmany years since my heart last beat inside my chest, and yet I could have sworn that it was pounding as I sprinted through the compound. I banged on whatever doors I could to alert our coven of possible intruders, before checking the perimeter for Carlisle and his crew of dickheads.

That stupid, jealous littlewhorehad Cece and it was all I could think about. For as long as my heart hadn’t been beating, it had been equally as long since I had friendship to call mine. I had Mercy, but she was family and business rolled into one. We didn’t gossip or discuss trivial matters at length, and I had found a kinship in Cece. If Narcissa was responsible for her death, I would burn the world down just to see her panic as I hunted her.

“Boss, there’s nobody here,” one of the younger vamps stated, running alongside me as I checked the borders of the grounds.

I seethed when I realized what it meant. That stupid bitch was trying to trick us and we had fallen for it;Mercyhad fallen for it. Cissa wouldn’t miss an opportunity to make us pay.

“Check again, then again. I want to make sure this entire place is fucking locked down, okay? Make sure everyone is clear on what’s happening, and get someone stationed around every exit. If anyone enters this compound, I will personally tear all of you apart, bit by bit. Clear?”

The baby bloodsucker nodded and I left him, making my way into the building in a manner I believed the humans referred to asa raging bull. I had been compared to worse in my time.

I rushed to the weaponry, unlocking the door as quickly as I could with fumbling hands. I despised the way I was suddenly losing control, allowing my emotions to cloud the calming fury I normally had masking my persona. It was foolish to believe that I was anything close to human, but Cece had shown us all that we were not the monsters we thought ourselves to be. We were beautiful, vicious beasts – but we weren’t evil. Wefelt,even if we pretended not to.

And all I could feel was terror that someone I loved, cared about, was going to die.

A growl ripped through me as I burst into the door finally, grabbing whatever weapons I could and stuffing them on my person. There were some nasty-looking stakes up on the wall, their entire length dipped in pure silver, and I grabbed them, knowing that I would be torturing Cissa painfully slow using them.

Vampires were silent creatures when we moved, every footstep like we were floating on air. Yet, all I could hear was thethumpof my feet as I raced back to Mercy and Cece, hoping that I wasn’t too late. Mercy was strong, but she had shown weakness when it came to Narcissa previously, and I wasn’t willing to let her deal with this alone. If she needed someone to take that final blow for her, I would. With pleasure and satisfaction.

The sound of an altercation was clear as I made my way back into the room, hearing Mercy and Cissa attack each other before I saw them. Cecelia was lying in a heap in the corner, bleeding and forgotten as the two lovers fought. My mouth twitched involuntarily at the pool of crimson beneath Cece’s body, my fangs aching to taste the sweetness of her blood. I yearned to go over and make sure she was okay, but I would protect her from all danger right now – even if that danger was me.

Narcissa was too busy trying to sink her fangs into Mercy to see me come up behind her, grabbing her hair and yanking her off my queen. Mercy tumbled to the floor, bites covering any exposed skin, and glared at the wriggling Known in my grasp.

Hissing like the demonic snake she was, Narcissa kicked out and tried to escape my hold on her. I reached behind me, grabbing the hilt of the stake into my hand, and ramming the spike through her back until it protruded through the front of her stomach. I heard her gasp before she slumped in my grip, her limbs slowly stopping their fight for freedom as the silver soaked into her already weakened system.

Twisting it just to be sure, I left the stake in her before dropping her to the floor and turning to Mercy, who looked paler than usual.

“Princess, are you okay? Tell me what you need!”

The desperation in my voice was quickly overshadowed by the sheer heartache in her eyes as she looked towards Cece. Gritting her teeth, she crawled towards her, holding a palm against her side.

I almost thought she hadn’t heard me in her grief, but as she reached Cece and touched her cooling skin, she looked up at me with blind fury.

“GET HER OUT OF HERE!” The command in her voice was enough to make me want to quiver in submission. “Take her downstairs and show her what happens to people that betray us. But leave her alive, Warren. Because I want her to see the hatred in my eyes when I pull her heart from her body and eat it while she dies.”

Mercy’s voice was cold, the voice of a queen… the voice of the person I had met many years ago and watched as she slaughtered her way to the top. I would not disobey her.

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