Page 48 of Crimson Bond

“He looks quite peaceful now,” she mused. “So young and innocent.” There was a beat before she continued. “Much like your friend, Josiah.”

I whipped my head around to face her. “Josiah?”

I didn’t think she’d even noticed Josiah at the accident scene—well, as anything more than a source of blood. My memories of that night were muddled, but they included hearing her tell the rest of her traveling group they were welcome to drink from everyone there but me and Reece, whom she’d claimed.

“He would have made a terrible vampire,” she drawled. “And he was definitely draggingyoudown. He didn’t even leave his room while his parents screamed and fought for their lives downstairs, just cowered behind that flimsy locked door, mumbling his pathetic prayers.”

Reece had told me Imogen had somehow been able to see through his eyes, describing the Yoder’s farm and the murder scene in detail when she’d told him he was responsible for it. Was her “vision” really that good?

Then she gave me a smile that lifted the baby hairs on the back of my neck.

“When I dragged him outside and staked him to the ground to await the sunrise, he didn’t even fight back. He didn’t make a peep. You ran right past him, in fact,” she said to me.

Wait... what?Whenshestaked him to the ground? My chest tightened, and I blinked repeatedly.

“Youwere there that night?” Reece asked, clearly as dumbfounded as I was.

Imogen laughed. “You didn’t really think the farm boy had enough courage to daylight himself, did you? I have to say the incineration did a nice job hiding the evidence. Wooden stakes burn just as thoroughly as vampire flesh.”

“So it wasyouwho killed Josiah,” I said. “And his parents. And you let Reece believe he did it. He joined the Bloodbound out of guilt over that.”

She giggled. “I know. Clever, huh? I got one hell of a soldier out of the deal. And I removedbothimpediments to your rightful path to queendom.”

Gesturing to Shane’s battered body, she said, “Now I’ve removed a third. Shall we keep going, or are you finally ready to come to your senses and take your place as my heir apparent?”

“You are pure evil. You’renotmy mother, and there is nothing you could teach me that I’d want to learn. You had Sadie killed, too, didn’t you? Didn’t you?” Enraged, I flew at her.

Either it was the element of surprise or I didn’t know my own strength, but I was easily able to overcome Imogen, grabbing her by the throat and pushing her up against one of the large stone columns.

She stared at me with shocked eyes, her mouth open wide but unable to speak with my left hand choking off her air supply. My right hand was poised directly over her heart, ready to strike and rip it out if she fought back.

The members of her personal guard were scattered throughout the room, all in a state of bloodlust and participating fully in the feast. If they were still even capable of rational thought, they probably assumed Reece had the queen covered. He and Kannon were the only two Bloodbound soldiers close enough to see what was happening.

“Abbi—what are you doing?” Kannon yelled, rushing up to me.

I threw out a hand toward him and tightened the one wrapped around Imogen’s trachea, ensuring she wouldn’t be able to utter an order he’d be compelled to obey.

“Stay back. I’m warning you—don’t come any closer. This has to stop, Kannon, and you know it.”

Reece put a hand on his shoulder. “She’s right. Things can’t go on the way they have been. We all know it. And a challenge is part of the natural cycle with queens. Let them work it out. You know Abbi—she’s not going to kill Imogen.”

Kannon looked uncertain but complied.

Which left the decision in my hands. What was I going to do here? With a little more pressure, Icouldend Imogen’s eternal life. It would cost me my own, which naturally I didn’t want, but what else could I do? She was incapable of remorse or rehabilitation, and I couldn’t let her keep hurting people.

Not the humans, not the vampires under her rule.

“You’re not fit to lead a sing-a-long, much less a community of endangered refugees,” I said, gesturing with my free hand toward the carnage surrounding us. “This—is not a solution.”

She forced out a harsh whisper, spittle flying from her mouth. “Neither is peace. If you’re so smart—whatisthe answer?”

“I’m not sure, but it’s not ordering your loyal soldiers to kidnap a roomful of innocent humans to be slaughtered.”

“They’re not loyal,” she hissed. “If they were, you’d be in pieces right now. Soon enough, though. You may be physically strong, but your spirit is weak, like Sadie’s. I was wrong about you.”

Darting her eyes at Kannon and Reece, she said, “I will have their heads. And yours, you ungrateful little—”

Imogen’s words cut off abruptly as Larkin dashed forward and plunged a hypodermic needle into her chest.

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