Page 80 of Club Blood

Warren dodged the next item I threw at him, ducking his head past the flying stilettos targeting his head. “You need to let me explain. We didn’t have a choice!”

I stopped in my tracks. “Choice?You really want to talk about choice, Warren? You and the fucking Queen of Sin City took mychoicefrom me. You ended my fucking life! Why would I want to hear you explain your bullshit reasons for doing that?”

My voice broke and I slid down the wall, sobbing into my hands. I was so angry, but I washurt. Mercy had promised me that I would always have a choice with her. She had told me just how much she hated that she had never been allowed to choose, and yet she had done the same to me.

The worst part was how much it broke my heart because I knew, I fucking knew, just how much she would have hated making that decision. She turned into the person she hated most, and I was sitting heartbroken because I felt sad forher.

I roared, letting all my pent-up emotions free. My scream echoed around us and Warren covered his ears, turning away from me slightly. I didn’t stop though, letting my voice become sore and hoarse as I screeched.

Hatred and love and betrayal mixed around inside me, threatening to swallow me whole. I could feel the anger swelling, my hands curling into fists as I looked at Warren. He was part of this – he hadtoldher to do this to me, and yet he was looking at me like a wounded animal.

“Queenie–”

I growled, cutting him off as I stood, stalking towards him. I thought I saw genuine fear in his eyes as he stepped back, pressing himself up against the wall. “You did this. Look at me, Warren.”

“Cece, you need to calm down. Your anger will be out of control until you feed.”

Feed.

I was going to have to feed like them, and sustain myself on the blood of my people. No, they weren’t my people anymore. I was a thing, a creature, amonster. And they had created me, decided for me that I was to become this.

And I could feel it. The parasite, the hunger, the thirst. I was one of them in every way and I could feel it consume me.

The thirst was a dry, burning ache in the back of my throat. I pictured walking up to an unsuspecting human and pressing them against the wall, enjoying the scent of their fear as I pressed my mouth to their neck before ripping their throat out and drinking them dry.

That thought, the darkness in me, was what made me take a step back. Warren visibly deflated, his breath slowing from the erratic pace I had caused it to be. I hated myself for that; hated seeing the look in his eyes that told me I was no longer the person I was before.

My thoughts went from hunger, to sadness, to anger; a constant loop playing in my mind and making me feel like I was crazy. Perhaps I was unstable, after everything my body had endured. It was like my mind wasn’t my own and instead I was being puppeteered by thisthinginside me.

“Where is she, Warren?”

Warren winced at the venom in my voice as I said his name, the friendliness and compassion no longer present. He stepped towards me but stopped moving when I growled at him, an instinctual response that I didn’t know how to get used to.

“She’s trying to deal with things, Cece. You don’t want to see her while you’re–” he motioned towards me, “like this. Let me get you some blood first.”

The patronization in his voice infuriated me and I leaped forward, grabbing him by the throat. I got in his face, my mouth practically frothing. “If you don’t get your boss here immediately, I will make sure the only blood I drink is yours. Tell Mercy I want to see her,now.”

Warren was wrong. I wanted Mercy to see me exactly like this. I wanted her to look at me and see exactly what she created; no longer her human pet, but a bloodthirsty demon.

They had broken my humanity and they would have to be the ones to deal with the consequences.

Cecelia Blake was dead. And Mercy Petrova had murdered her.

44

MERCY

I was pacingin my office, a small, lonely room that was situated between hallways. An inconspicuous place where I’d liked to hide, a place where I could think without interruption. It was my own sanctuary, although it hadn’t felt like it in days. The minute I walked in and came face to face with the scattered bits of wall and destruction left in the wake of the altercation between Narcissa and I, the little peace I’d felt was shattered. It felt like such a long time ago now, and the more it settled in my soul the more frustrated I became with myself.

I’d become so distracted in my attempts to manage my life and my royalty that I’d failed to see what was right in front of me. Narcissa told me where she stood with me, and I was too blind to see it. I kicked a piece of rubble and it bounced off the floors, landing in the satisfied heap of the mess I’d inevitably had to clean up later, for good this time.

I sat at my desk, spinning in slow circles in the chair. Narcissa was no longer a threat, chained dozens of feet below me in one of the cells I so frequently had her occupying for incredibly different reasons, and the irony of it did not escape me.

While Narcissa was not a threat, there was still the matter of Carlisle, and even the stupid cops that kept visitingAmbrosia,despite my visit to the precinct. Maybe I was not threatening enough any longer, maybe I didn’t have the power I once held. Maybe Cecelia’s effect on me was no longer something that expanded as far as my inner circle. It had become something that everyone could see now.

Still spinning idly, I refocused my attention and cut mid-twirl when I came face to face with the hole in the wall that Narcissa and I’d created. It was gaping, and I felt like it was growing with each passing moment. I took in a deep breath and let the air slide past my lips, closing my eyes.

Carlisle would be the problem. He was a component I wasn’t even sure I could pin down properly. Narcissa claimed that he sent her after Cecelia. With that knowledge, true or not, he could not be allowed to live. But the murder of a High Lord as powerful as he would not be something easily accomplished. And if it was, it would not be something I could escape from, my own death would be swift, quick, and not too far behind.

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