Page 100 of Eternal Captive

Another stare, then a small huff. “Tate! Get your sister.”

I heard the shuffling in the house. The footsteps were smaller, lighter. It was a child. It took only a few minutes for both Vesper and a miniature version of her to show themselves in the doorway.

Blood. Vesper’s blood.I recognized it easily. My nostrils flared, and red started to cover my vision. I couldn’t stop the growl coming from my chest.Did he fucking do that to her?I wanted to kill him. Force my arm through his rib cage and pull out his still-beating heart.

Fresh wounds wound up and down her arms. Her face was ashen. Her hair greasy and unwashed. Her eyes void of light. My chest ached for her. No matter how angry I was at her disappearance, there was nothing that could have prepared me for seeing her likethat. She was even worse for wear than when I’d seen her plunging a sword into my ex-fiancé’s chest.

Her brother was clenching her hand, looking traumatized.

If my family were any better than hers, I would consider taking him. If that was what Vesper looked like after only a few days, it made me worried for the boy. But it would seem both of us had some pretty fucked-up family dynamics.

I forced my feet to stay frozen in their spot. Tried to fight the violent thoughts of tearing the man’s throat out. It was hard. Harder the longer I smelled her blood. Human wounds didn’t heal like vampires’, but hers seemed to be over the top. Deep gashes with no aftercare.

Vesper looked at us with tired eyes. My gaze lingered on a tattoo on her neck, presumably the same one her father was hiding. One I’d never seen before. A dark tattoo of a snake went up her neck and peeked out of her cut-off sleeve.

That had been hidden…but how?

Magic.It clicked why I had smelled magic on her the day she handed me the bird feather, the one that still hung underneath my clothing.

Something went off in the back of my mind. Something about humans with tattoos of the zodiac signs.What was it?

“Is this some kind of joke?” she asked. Her voice was scratchy, and it didn’t even sound like it belonged to her.

“I came here with a serious offer,” I said.Stay planted. Do not fight them.I chanted it over and over again in my head.

I thought I was the one stuck in a cage, hopeless with no way out…but had that been her this whole time? Had her not killing me somehow been the only act of defiance she could muster against these people?

“She’s going,” the man spoke for her. He didn’t even look at her as he did it, his eyes still glued to mine.The feeling’s mutual.

“No.”

His head snapped around to her. Vesper forced Tate behind her and glared at her father.She cares for someone.It was…astonishing to see. The cold-hearted little mouse actually had aperson she was willing to fight for. Even if the consequences had her looking so horrid.

“Send him to Gabriel, and I will go,” she bargained. Gabriel? There was another?

“Ves, I don’t wanna?—”

“I’ll check,” she said, cutting off her little brother. “If he doesn’t go, I’ll be come right back. Is that what you want?”

I could hear the grinding of her father’s teeth.

“Wellness checks, something I can easily facilitate,” I said, pulling the attention back to me. “Do we have a deal?”

Vesper’s gaze rested on Cedar. It would seem the witch annoyed her as much as she annoyed me.

“Interfering again?” Vesper asked, the venom strong in her words.

“Merely protecting the princess in your stead,” Cedar said, though there was no smile in her tone. Ever since she had gotten close to the man in the doorway, she had turned serious.

“Let’s get on with it,” I told them, unwilling to let Vesper bleed out any longer. It was annoying that they were even letting her stand there when she looked so unsteady. “Before I accidentally sink my teeth into someone’s neck.”

But I wasn’t looking at Vesper when I said it. I was looking at her father. The threat was clear. I was a very unhappy vampire.

Vesper

“You think this is fucking funny?” I asked as Aurelia led me down the hall.

My body ached. The wounds on my arms, face, and legs were slowly being healed by whatever magic Cedar had pumped into me on the car ride over, but it wasn’t enough to make the pain go away.

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