Page 68 of Fated In Blood

I tried to turn around to help Blake, tried to make my body obey, but my efforts were futile.

My hand was on the doorknob when the crowd thundered up the steps behind me. I was shoved through that door by a wave of panicked, desperate humans, then carried through the bar and out into the street, where I started running toward Crimson House.

30

EVANGELINE

Iburst through the front doors of Crimson House with enough force to shatter the leaded glass sidelight, looked both ways down the empty hall, then headed in the direction Blake had gone after he’d dumped me off here that first day.

“Riordan.” My scream echoed away into nothing. “Riordan.Where the fuck are you?”

This was bullshit.

I’d told myself a hundred—no, a thousand—times on the way here this was bullshit. I should be heading to Tyrell’s to get my sister. This was my perfect opportunity to get Angel and hightail it out of this fucked-up town, with it’s fucked up problems, since Laurent was busy playing God in Valentine’s basement.

Nobody here meant anything to me.

Nothing.

Blake was an asshole, and Riordan intended to use me for his own revenge when my agenda—my sister—was the only thing that mattered. I rolled my eyes. Yet, here I was, storming down a dark hallway that smelled like moldy underwear, searching for someone I didn’t trust so he could save someone I didn’t even like.

But I liked Tyrell and Collum even less.

“What’s wrong?” I whirled to face Riordan, who somehow appeared right behind me, the sneaky bastard.

He was in his usual pressed shirt and silk tie—red and gold today—the hem of his perfectly pleated dress pants brushing the tops of his polished wingtips.

“Tyrell’s killing Blake.” I sucked in a definitely unladylike gulp of air. “Actually, Collum’s killing Blake, while Tyrell and Vincent watch. At Valentine’s,” I added as yet another ripple of pain shuddered through me, again, from my abdomen.

Sharp, like I—like Blake—was being gutted with a knife.

“Start at the beginning and stick to the important bits.” There was a tense, vicious edge to his voice.

“Collum’s killing Blake under Tyrell’s orders. He said it’s punishment for me fighting Collum in the first place, as his…spawn. Said I attacked Collum with no provocation, which is complete bullshit, by the way. Oh, and your time is up and Collum’s going to take over as king.”

I slanted him a look while I braced for the next onslaught of pain. “Sounds like the king gig’s a shit job anyway. Maybe you should let him have it.”

“So that old bastard’s finally making his move. I wonder what took him so fucking long.”

“Also, and this is just an observation on my part, getting rid of Collum would go a long way to solving a lot of your problems.”

“We tried that once and it didn’t work out.” Riordan grabbed my arm. “Anything else?”

“Should there be more?” The next wave of pain incapacitated me enough he had to drag me back the way I came. “I mean, isn’t that enough?”

“There’s always more with Tyrell.” He stopped. “Wait, how did you get away? It’s not like Laurent to miss an opportunity to torture someone, and you’re quite the prize, Silver.”

“I was invisible,” I said, somewhat defensively. “Blake put some kind of a shield around us before we went downstairs at Valentine’s, but somehow, they saw him and not me. Then heorderedme to come warn you.”

“And now you’re feeling his pain through that connection?” I nodded before I doubled over again, and he caught me by the arm so I didn’t face plant. “How bad?”

“Really, really bad,” I gasped. “I know you fuckers are hard to kill, but this has been going on for thirty minutes, at least.”

“Wearehard to kill, Blake more than most. Wait. Youwalked here?”

“On my own two feet. How else was I supposed to get here? I can’t fly like you and I don’t have a fucking phone. According to Blake, vampires aren’t allowed to call an Uber.”

“Fuck.” Riordan lost whatever was left of his usual cool. “Hang on, this won’t be pleasant.”

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