Page 25 of Fated In Blood

Maybe I should obey my king. I didn’t fucking want to turn anyone vampire, but my warped sense of honor demanded I save this girl. But I wasn’t doing tricks for Tyrell’s entertainment.

“Fucking get out.” Books tumbled from the shelves at the force of my rage, ink-black shadows crawling over the blood-soaked floor. “I’ll turn her, but I’m sure as fuck not doing this in front of you.”

I wanted to rip that pretentious smirk off the Ancient’s face but could barely close my hand into a fist to strike him. That was how much power this bastard had over me.

Over all of us.

“See that it’s done,” Tyrell commanded Riordan breezily, ignoring me altogether as he swept out of the room. “Neither of you are leaving this castle until she’s turned and I see the results with my own eyes.”

“Do we even know her name?”Riordan crouched down beside me, his gaze fixed on the girl’s face. “Where did she come from?”

I shook my head. “Her name doesn’t matter. She’s just an innocent caught up in Tyrell’s depravities.”

My king’s expression darkened. “She might be innocent, Blake, but she infiltrated this castle by herself. Blew up an entire wing with explosives.” He dropped his voice. “She’s the one who killed Spencer and the others, and you know what that means. She’s here for a reason. Maybe something to do with her sister? Or to stop the auction?”

“Good. Someone needs to stop this fucking nightmare.” I regretted the words the second they came out of my mouth.“Fuck, Rohr, you know I didn’t mean that. You’ll find a way to get rid of Tyrell, you just need more time.”

For ten years, my friend and I had been working to stop Tyrell, and all we’d managed so far was disrupting his drug supply lines, confiscating some weapons, and freeing a truckload of blood slaves. We had few allies, and even fewer friends.

“It’s not too late to stop this, Blake,” Riordan finally said. “Turning her won’t bring back your sister. This won’t change anything.”

“Maybe not, but I can’t let Valaine lay a finger on her. Once I turn her…she’ll be my responsibility. For as long as she lives.”

That crushing sense of foreboding crushed down on me, the same heaviness I’d felt when Cass had disappeared, when we’d gotten the news Tyrell was holding her in this godforsaken castle.When I saw her body.

Air started sawing in and out of my lungs, my head suddenly light.

“Blake.” Rohr laid his hand on my arm, using the same tone I’d used a hundred times before. Level, steady, calming. I fucking hated the sound of his voice right now. I fucking hated all of this. We were nothing more than puppets dancing at the end of Tyrell’s strings.

“Fuck it. Give her to me.” Riordan’s jaw was set like stone. “This responsibility isn’t yours to bear. You’ve already given enough.”

My king—the only male I trusted—tugged the girl’s limp body out of my arms, my hands slipping off her torso as he stepped away. I couldn’t explain why I felt like I was losing an opportunity, why my chest felt so empty without her.

“I’ll turn her.” His voice was hard, his eyes like flint. “I’m not tangled up in emotion and grief right now, so this is a strategic decision. I’ll save her, then at dawn we’re leaving this fucking place.”

“And her?” I nodded toward the slender form cradled against his chest. “Is she coming with us?”

His narrowed gaze slid up to mine. “Only if we have no other choice.”

15

RIORDAN

The dead, fragile human weighed next to nothing, and I found it ludicrous that something so tiny had wreaked such utter havoc tonight.

When Blake dipped his head, I stole another shallow inhale of her scent, a rare sweetness that settled somewhere deep within me. This wasn’t about sex. This wasn’t even about turning a human into one of us.

This was about saving Blake from his own honorable nature, keeping his head in the game, and giving Tyrell what he wanted, which was apparently this girl turned into a vampire. I hoped the little demon burned his entire fucking world down around his ears.

“Fucking shitty place to do this.” I surveyed Laurent’s gloomy library. “Light some candles. I’ll do this over on the couch; she shouldn’t be laying on the floor in her own blood.”

I adjusted her in my arms like a baby bird, all long limbs and tangled hair. God, she weighed nothing at all, a slip of a girl, drained of all that attitude and fury. My fangs ached, gums already throbbing for blood, body throbbing in an entirelydifferent way, which I shut down immediately because this wasnot about sex.

This was about keeping Tyrell off our asses while we dismantled his operations, one piece at a time. I stifled my chuckle. With any luck, she’d wreak enough havoc, she’d make our jobs easier.

Once I turned her, Tyrell would—technically—be her master, but I’d be her Maker.

I could control her, pull her strings, exactly like Laurent pulled ours. Maybe this wasn’t all bad. She was well trained. Deadly. Maybe we could use her to tear Tyrell’s operations apart from the inside out. A disposable little newborn, she’d do anything I compelled her to do.

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