Page 9 of Fated In Blood

EVANGELINE

After a week at the Thorndale Historical Society scouring blueprints, I’d learned more than I ever wanted to know about Darkmore Castle.

Because the Gothic-inspired castle was built when New York was still New Amsterdam, the layout was also included in the state’s digital databank as one of New York’s registered historic houses, along with the secret passageways built into the walls. Of special note was the fact the private home was still occupied by the same family that built it—the Tyrells.

What the sweet little society ladies didn’t know were the depravities happening there on a regular basis, the scheduled feeding frenzies, both weekly and monthly. The orgies, the blood slaves, the thralls, the rumors of enormous, disfigured creatures prowling the castle grounds.

How humans who wandered through those front doors never emerged again.

Then there were the secret, quarterly auctions on the four solstices—where kidnapped humans were sold like cattle to the highest bidders and buyers flew in from all over the world to peruse the wares.

Blood slaves, they called them.

I shivered at the idea as I inspected myself in my tiny bathroom mirror, cataloging the weaknesses that could get me killed tonight.

Wide eyes, the color of a stormy sky, a freckled, innocent face that could easily pass as a teenager’s, matching my innocent—or so they told me—scent. I looked too young, too unprepared, too weak to go up against a castle full of monsters.

But looks could be deceiving.

Just ask Spencer and Ambrose.

I took a breath, closed my eyes, and counted to ten, marshaling my emotions the way I’d been trained. When I opened them, the fear was gone, replaced by sheer determination. I could do this. Ihadto do this. I’d been forced to wait a full week since killing Spencer, and every minute had felt like too long.

My delay was strategic, for two reasons.

One, to make sure my carefully planned rescue mission was as solid as possible, and two…because tonight was the spring solstice and I had a foolproof way inside, straight through Darkmore Castle’s front doors.

The vernal equinox marked the first blood slave auction of the year, a private, invitation-only event attended by vampire elite with enough money to be on the guest list and an appetite for depravity.

I’d checked the blueprints three more times to make sure I hadn’t missed anything, then jogged past the looming gates one final time this morning. The drive overflowed with vans and limousines, a long line of blacked-out vans out back.

I sucked in a deep breath and held it long enough for the fear to fade.

Tonight, I would see Angelique.

A year of searching would be over, and by the time the sun rose tomorrow, my sister and I would be two hundred miles from Thorndale. We’d start new lives, far away from this cesspool. I’d keep her safe and never, ever let her out of my sight again.

Spencer’s slimy taunt came back to me.You won’t like what’s become of your sister.

I had to stay focused. I wouldn’t allow Spencer Tyrell’s mind games to sabotage my most important mission.

Fucking refused.

I tucked a stray curl back up into my intricately braided bun and smoothed down my disgustingly expensive, blue silk dress one final time before shutting off the lights to my apartment, not knowing if I’d ever see this place again.

The flowing skirt wrapped around my ankles like smoke as I headed for my car, the layers of fabric hiding the leather sheaths strapped to both thighs, outfitted with a deadly array of poisoned silver knives, syringes filled with silver oxide, and slivers of carved white ash, sharpened to needle-fine points.

None of the weapons would inflict a fatal blow unless I got an incredibly lucky shot, but once I found my sister, my only goal was getting her out of that castle and this godforsaken city alive. An incapacitated vampire was as good as a dead one, but tonight, I didn’t much care how many bodies I left in my wake.

Angel was all I had left in this world.

She was good, and kind, and after Mom died, she was the glue that bound me to reality, gave me something to live for. And…the last time I’d spoken to my mother, I'd made her a promise to protect my sister, no matter the cost.

That failure had haunted me all these months, and tonight was my chance to make things right.

I’d obsessively planned my rescue mission for weeks, yet my hands shook when I locked up my car a quarter mile fromthe castle, the closest I dared get. The wooded city park was bordered by a shallow creek and a steep rocky bank that rose to meet the thick wall separating Darkmore Castle’s manicured grounds from the public.

Even down here, I saw flashlight beams cut through the gloaming darkness and from somewhere inside the walls, heard the low growling of dogs—or maybe something bigger—rumbling out of the darkness.

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