Page 86 of Fated In Blood

The next corner I turned, the smell of coffee hit me square in the face, strong and earthy and fully caffeinated, along with two male voices speaking in hushed tones.

No, not speaking.Arguing.

The tension in those strained voices forced my feet to stop before I reached the open doorway, curiosity prickling, along with a healthy dose of dread.

“Goddamn it, Rohr, it’s bad enough you’re feeding her, did you have to fuck her, too?”

“It’s been a long time, Blake, even by my standards. We need her strong so she can fight alongside us, and the sex…well, that’s just a bonus.”

Wait…what?

“She’s a goddamnSilverwood.” Blake’s tone was sharp as a dagger. “Murderers, defilers of the innocent. They’ve destroyedfamilies, Rohr. Ripped entire clans apart and ended bloodlines.” My breath caught at the gut-wrenching misery in his voice. “Youmight have forgotten what they did to Cassmira, but I never will.”

“I have not forgotten.” Something—a coffee cup, most likely—slammed down onto a table. Riordan sounded…exhausted. “I’llneverforget what they did to Cass, not as long as I live. But Evangeline wasn’t involved, and that girl is not your enemy. She’s our means of getting rid of Laurent. Silas and Alistair slaughtered your family, not Evangeline.”

I was processing everything too slowly, still hung up on the fact Riordan had used me because he’d hit a dry spell, the fucker. Not that I expected a great romance, but there had been a moment when I thought we’d connected.

And sure, I’d confessed Silas was my father, but they knew my uncle’s name. Blake had gone toVirginia.

What else did they know?

“According toher. Stop making excuses for a slayer you barely know. Who’s to say this isn’t another Silverwood trap, meant to trick us into trusting her while her uncles and father sweep in and exterminate the lot of us?”

“She’s not?—”

“We agreed,” Blake hissed as if Riordan hadn’t said anything. “We agreed to use her then throw her away once Tyrell was dead. That was our deal, Riordan, and don’t you dare renege because your cock’s hard and she’s a sweet piece of ass.”

“I want that weapon.” Riordan’s voice was steely. “I want to know that blade is in our possession and not Silas’s. I want to know he can’t, at least, use that knife against us ever again.”

“Then use her to get the weapon and kill Tyrell and get rid of her. I don’t care if you send her across the globe or put her in the ground. I swear to God, I can’t stand looking at her for another moment. She looks like him. She has his fucking eyes. I should have known from the very second I first saw her who she was. Ishould have known that night and let her bleed out. You warned me, and I didn’t listen.”

I sagged against the nearest wall, sliding down and down and down until my ass hit the floor.

He was right.

I had my father’s uniquely colored eyes. His golden-brown hair. And the only way Blake could possibly know that was if he’d seen Silas Silverwood in the flesh.

My father killed Blake’s family.

Not my uncles or one of my cousins,but my own father. He’d delivered Blake’s own sister to her death. Slaughtered Blake’s parents, and fuck knows he would have been messy about it. I rubbed my aching chest, willing the bile to go down, for me not to vomit right here.

Every time Blake looked at me…that’s what he saw. Not only did my father murder them, he took Blake’s sister, ravaged her, and gave her to…Tyrell.

I frowned, trying to make that compute.

Why not kill her, according to the old family motto? Why involve an Ancient, when killing such a powerful vampire would be a feather in my father’s cap? There was a tall glass cylinder in the Vault, filled with fangs from their victims. Thousands of them, most with the bloodied root still attached.

But on the wall behind that were the heads of their notable kills, mounted like deer heads.

There was no possible way, if my father knew Tyrell existed, he’d ever pass up the chance to add such a coveted prize to the family’s trophy wall.

“Letting her die would have haunted you forever. You did the right thing, now we’ll deal with the fallout.” Riordan sounded so reasonable, but his voice was hollow. I didn’t care.

They were using me. I could try and try, but I’d never prove myself to them. Riordan’s promise to take away Angel’smemories was probably bullshit, too. He’d lied to me about everything else, why would he help my sister?

“And now it’syoushe’s fucking bonded to, asshole. For-fucking-ever.” Glass shattered on the floor, after Blake’s angered growl, slivers flying through the door into the hallway. “I should have been the one to turn her, but now you’re shackled to a scheming slayer for the rest of your immortal life.”

“I’m trying to find a way out of this shitty situation, save our clan, and keep us both alive, Blake. I swear to fucking God, once Tyrell is dead, I hope you’ll see that’s all I’m trying to accomplish.”

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