Page 42 of Chains of Blood and Darkness

He looked around wildly, as if searching for a way out. “If I tell you…he’ll kill me.” The dark Fae were quite inventive in their torture. It was usually slow and always painful. No humans ever survived it. I should be handing this bastard over to Keir, but the prospect of killing him myself was giving me great pleasure.

I flashed my fangs. “And I’ll kill you if you don’t.” I was going to kill him anyway, but the dirty little rat didn’t need to know that.

“No…I’m begging you…” His sniveling voice just made me want to rip out his vocal cords. He didn’t think once of Serenity’s well-being, only his own skin.

My fingers tingled as I focused on him, trying to use compulsion to get what I wanted. Surprisingly, instead of his mind bending to my will, it was like my mind hit a solid wall. My body jerked back as if pushed by an invisible force, and I released him. He landed on the floor with a splat, moaning, groaning, and sputtering.

Confusion and fear flooded through me—why wasn’t my compulsion working? This had never happened to me before.

As I stood there, trying to shake off the mysterious spell thathad rendered me powerless, my mind raced through the list of vampires who could possibly be behind it. There weren’t many that were strong enough—TheFondatoriKings, Dracula of course, maybe Anton Lange from Legacy Academy. But this felt different, more like dark magic than another vampire.

My thoughts turned to Simon’s witch, Marsha, when I noticed her distinct scent of herbs and incense lingering in the air, making my nose twitch in disgust. Where had she been when we attacked Ravenwood Estates? Had she cast a spell on me without me realizing it?

Chapter Eighteen

Angelo

Something in this disgusting apartment was preventing me from using my power. I clenched my fists in frustration.

Killing Freddie in this crappy apartment wasn’t how I wanted to end this bastard’s life. Someone might try to stop me. Nothing was going to prevent me from taking my full revenge out on Freddie, and for that, I needed to get him someplace where his screams wouldn’t be heard. Somewhere like Crimson Stakes.

Petar crept toward the terrified woman who was still cringing against the kitchen sink with no chance of escape.

“Don’t even think it, Petar,” I growled. The last thing I wanted was Costin shoving a stick up my ass if another drained woman showed up.

As I tore out of the crappy apartment, fast as an angrywind, my men followed me like good soldiers. The only thing I could hear, which continued driving me on, were Freddie’s screams as I dragged him behind me. I lead my men out into the crowded New Orleans streets, knocking over people and leaving them unable to figure out what had hit them.

I arrived at Crimson Stakes and quickly made my way inside. I pushed through the double doors, ignoring the bewildered looks from other patrons. In a matter of seconds, I had taken Freddie into a large room hidden behind the cashier’s counter. This was my secret chamber, reserved for those who were unfortunate or foolish enough to cross me. Ornate sconces adorned the walls, each one cradling a thick, ivory candle. Their flickering light cast a warm, golden glow over the swords, daggers, and instruments of torture mounted on the walls. Not one prisoner had ever left this room alive.

I tossed Freddie into the middle of the room where there was a chair with chains. “Dimitri, bind him.”

Faster than the blink of an eye, Dimitri had fastened Freddie’s wrists and ankles to the chair.

Freddie squirmed and wriggled in the chair. “Let me go.” His voice was almost a high-pitched screech.

I circled Freddie like a predator, my anger simmering just beneath the surface. “I asked Simon, and now I’m asking you. You’d better hope you have a better answer than he did. Who ordered the hit on Crescent Manor?” I kept my eyes locked on his, my fists clenching and unclenching at my sides, the tension in my body conveying my unspoken threat.

“Noooo,” Freddie wailed, shaking his head frantically. “I can’t tell you.”

“Wrong fucking answer.” I grabbed his hair and yanked his head back, exposing the tender flesh of his throat.

“Please…Let me go.” Not once did he apologize for hurting Serenity. If he had done so, I might have killed him quickly and painlessly.

But he didn’t.

So tonight, he would suffer like Serenity had suffered.

With a feral snarl, I sank my fangs deep into his neck, tearing messily through skin and muscle with a sickening ease.

Freddie’s scream of agony echoed off the walls, a high-pitched, desperate wail that only fueled the dark hunger within me. The coppery taste of his blood flooded into my mouth, thick and tainted with the essence of his foulness. It was like swallowing pure corruption, a vile poison that burned my veins like acid.

Even as I recoiled from the taste, I could feel the savage pleasure of the beast spread through me, a pleasure that reveled in the violence and the suffering of my prey. I tore into Freddie’s flesh with a renewed ferocity, my fangs ripping and shredding like the claws of a wild animal.

Freddie’s body convulsed beneath me, his struggles growing weaker as I drained his precious life force from him. The sound of my own greedy gulps and feral growls filled my ears, a twisted symphony of rage and hatred.

Finally, I wrenched myself away from his ravaged throat, my breath coming in ragged gasps as I struggled to regaincontrol. Freddie slumped against the chair, his face ashen and his eyes glazed over with pain and terror.

Even as I looked upon his broken, pitiful form, I felt no mercy, nor one hint of remorse for the suffering I had inflicted. Rather, his tainted blood stoked the fire of my hatred, his foulness a reminder of all the pain and misery he had brought into Serenity’s life.

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