Page 1 of Marked for Desecration

ChapterOne

Valka

“Awoman’s power is always underestimated. Remember that, my child.”

My mother plaited the side of my hair, pulling the strands so taut I could feel my scalp twinge in pinpricks of pain. Tears formed in my eyes while my pussy spasmed. It was quite inconvenient.

Mother had always trained us Vargas children to do what we must to move into positions of power in this clan. Married off at a young age to one of the bigger players in the southern lands, my mother climbed the ranks quickly, but just as quickly toppled down once her husband got bored of her and found more wives and mistresses.

A few of them weren’t missed. I wouldn’t make her mistake.

“The men of Letos think they're on top. Never make your plans so easily known that they catch you in the game before you can even play, Valka.”

“Yes, mother.”

I stared into her eyes. Beneath the ugly scars that marred her once beautiful face, she unsuccessfully hid her pride. Her disfigurement was a gift from my father, the head of the southern families, during one of his spikes of temper. I couldn’t blame him. She was annoying at times.

My brother, Devon, was the first to get tired of the stupidity of all these games. He left a couple of decades back and never returned. The last I heard he and his lover created some sort of cult out in the middle of some sad human territory. They were either utterly stupid or brilliant. I wondered how big the following was now. Humans were such stupid beings, easily gullible. Devon wouldn’t even necessarily need to make them thralls for them to follow like sheep to a slaughter.

Standing in front of the mirror in this lavish dressing room, draped with soft fabrics, I watched as my mother walked behind me to cinch my waist in further than my body was truly capable.

“Suck in a breath,” she snapped, as if I offended her senses.

Grumbling, I did. Suddenly, a sharp pain hit me upside the head, and I stared daggers at the woman who bore me into this world through her reflection. She stared right back with the same level of hate. How old does she think I am to still be hitting me like this? She had been in competition with me since the betrothal was made known.

A betrothal that was her damn idea.

“Conduct yourself when you are in the Cromwell family. They will not hesitate to take out the trash as they see fit,” she warned.

I bit my bottom lip, tasting blood. My tongue darted out to collect the delicious liquid as I forced myself to calm. If it wasn’t for this stupid wedding dress, I would have detached her head by now. A smile graced my face when images of blood spraying from her neck took over my mind.

Another jerk of the dress and I could almost hear my ribs crack from the tightening. She grabbed my hair with her claws and pulled me down to her five feet height. “Use that hate to fuel what you need to do, my child, else I will use it to get rid of the nuisance in my life. I did not bring you into this world for nothing. Youwillclimb the ranks whether your uterus falls out or not. Do you hear me?”

She was turned during her youth. My brother and I came as a surprise to someone who didn’t fully understand vampire biology and the possibilities. Both of us had shortly fallen to favor of a vampire who had a fetish for a mother and daughter duo. His untimely death left us with his territory and servants. Mother quickly took over as matron of the Dawson family estate since the rest of his bloodline had taken off to different locations of Letos territory. She forced her way into Zain Vargas’ bed, a family under Xavier Nicolai—Mathias’ caporegime.

Right now, all I could think about was that my hair would need to be rebraided, pissing me off.What a waste of time.

I ground my teeth together in agitation and stared at the far side of the room at the red drapes that partially covered the painting of my soon to be husband while addressing her. I refused to give her the satisfaction of whatever it was she was seeking from me at the moment.

“Yes,Mother. I hear you loud and clear.” As quickly as the words left my mouth, my hand grabbed her wrist and twisted her arm, removing her grip from my hair, until she bore her fangs at me in challenge.

Finally giving her my full attention, I leaned down and brought us face to face.

“The hate you’ve nurtured in me is enough to annihilate this entire forsaken world,Mother. I do have to thank you for that. When I do what I must, there will be nothing left of this family you created, not even ashes. Keep your claws in. You are obsolete to me now, old woman.”

With a quick jerk, I snapped her wrist and threw her to the ground like the trash she claimed me to be. She didn’t make a sound and never shifted her focus off me. It was well known that the Vargas women were ruthless. She didn’t expect anything less. In fact, I expected her to kill me in my sleep. Too bad she didn’t have a room at the Cromwell mansion… upon my request.

The tension in this luxurious room became thick, enough to almost melt the ridiculous oil paintings that surrounded us. One of us was going to die, but not today. No, today I was to become the wife to the head of the Cromwell family and nothing would stand in my way, not even my wretchedly jealous mother.

I walked over her body, not without her grabbing my ankle, and me kicking her back down. The tail end of my black dress dragged on the floor as I headed out the room as if nothing happened. Breathing was overrated as I further sucked in my waist. With my head held high, I walked down the halls of this massive home.

Letos men were stupidly extravagant in a world where our food lived like rats. Disgusting, really, to pretend we were on some sort of upper echelon when we were probably poisoning ourselves with tainted blood from free range kills.

“Valka. You’re looking amazing as usual,” one of the brothers said as I walked by, pulling me from my thoughts of how nice it would be to have a blood farm on the estate lands.

I stopped for a moment, looked around the room full of partygoers and exhaled with a bored sigh. Though I’d liked playing with Jordan, the youngest Cromwell brother, during my past visits, now was not the time for this exchange.

I continued to smile at the guests, and wave when appropriate, while addressing him, “I thank you for the compliment. Now, you’ll have to excuse me while I go find myhusband.”

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