Page 103 of Fated In Blood

I’d told my father exactly that and he’d laughed, that smug little chuckle I wanted to claw right out of his throat. I would have, if I hadn’t been pinned to the ground by his boot.

My face burned when the sun broke over the trees, dark purple clouds speeding across a blazing horizon flecked with pink. My last sunrise, most likely, if I wanted to get all maudlin. Part of me was grateful I was here.

Captive.

Helpless.

Left to my own misery.

My father thought he was punishing me—and he was—but the bastard was also saving me from myself. I was so hungry I was a danger to everyone around me. I laughed at the irony, blood spilling down my chin.

I would die here.

If not here, then in the basement of White Chapel, while Silas and Alistair took me apart piece by piece, because my father wasn’t done with me, not by a long shot. No, this was just a taste of his cruelty against the daughter who gavedisappointmenta whole new meaning.

Besides, death in the sunlight wasalwaysbetter than death in the darkness.

I never would have met my end surrounded by grandchildren, listening to a happy family telling happy stories about their happy lives.

Silverwoods weren’t destined for happiness.

We existed to purge the world of evil, except somewhere along the line…we’d become evil ourselves. Of all people, Blake and Riordan had shown me there was life beyond violence. That friendship existed. That a better world was worth fighting for.

I laughed in my father’s face when he told me what his plan was, Uncle Alistair dragging out the chains and the spikes. Both of them, so eager to set their trap. Little did they know their efforts would be for nothing. Nobody was coming for me. Nobody cared.

They didn’t believe me, but I didn’t expect them to.

No one believed a victim when they were begging for their lives.

I’d gone to great lengths to cover my tracks, including swapping out Vincent’s car. Uncle Dante taught lesson after lesson on vampire abilities—including how far one vampire could accurately track a newly turned vamp through a blood bond. Ten miles, twenty at the most, since the bond was so new and unstable.

I was five hundred miles outside of that range.

Besides, after the conversation I’d overheard, I meant nothing to either of them. So I went out on my own, and look where that got me.

Blake was right after all.

Iwasworthless.

My biggest regret was leaving Angel with Tyrell, but maybe, by some miracle, Riordan would keep his word, and when Tyrell was dead, he would take all those awful memories away from Angel and set her free. That was the best I could hope for.

Evangeline. Little slayer. Stop pretending you’re asleep.

At first, I thought I was hallucinating. I’d lost a lot of blood. I was starving and the Vault’s poisonous magic had sapped the very last of my strength.

We’re here…

I tried to focus, but his voice faded in and out, spots dancing in my vision like starbursts.

…but we need a distraction.

That didn’t sound like a hallucination to me. They’d staked me out in the back fields of the compound, where my great-grandfather used to raise cattle. The barn was long gone, and the split rail fences had been replaced with razor wire, but I was still on Silverwood land.

I should warn them this was consecrated ground.I should…But I couldn’t order my scattered thoughts.

They’d come.Some fuzzy part of my brain rejoiced as warmth filled my chest. They hated me and I meant nothing to them, yet somehow, they’d tracked me all the way here.

Only because they’re going to use you, Evangeline, the pragmatic part of me argued.

---