Page 23 of Blood and Ruin: The Complete Series

CHAPTER 6

When you’re a child, you come to fear the shadows for the monsters that lurk beneath them, but it’s the evil that walks among us that you should fear.

I was never afraid of the dark growing up, knowing all too well that it was in the light that monsters came to visit.

Apart from a handful of supes, there was nothing but vile creatures in King’s Tower. Unlike the demons and underlings who wore their horns and skins proudly, King and his followers hid behind sharp suits and pleasant smiles. Their cruel natures never far from the surface, reach out to lure the unsuspected innocent in.

In King’s Tower, I had to be careful who I surrounded myself with. I learned early on the meaning of true friends, having left the only ones I ever knew behind.

The word “friends” and the guys no longer had the same meaning. Especially after the other night. Each kiss seared into my body and mind, making it hard to forget about them. The thought of them alone sends my pulse racing and makes my body sensitive to even the smallest touch.

Where the hell did they learn to kiss like that?

I shake my head, not willing to let my thoughts go there. I had to put them all behind me.

It’s for the best, for us all.

Focusing on Alana and getting out of here needs to be my priority and not my messed-up hormones.

Alana.

My once heated body, not moments ago, turns cold as thoughts turn to Alana.

King only allows me to see her once a week. The rest of the time, she’s hidden some place I can never seem to find. Though, it’s not from lack of trying.

Over the years I’ve searched the hotel in its entirety, coming across hidden nooks and hideouts, but she was nowhere to be found.

King either was aware of my searches and moved her around or took her someplace else between our visits.

Either way, the plan was all I had left to get her out of here.

As I make my way down the corridor, I grip the fabric of my thick jumper to make sure the food and ointment concealed inside was still there.

My hands shake, remembering the last visit with her a couple of weeks ago. Her bones were visible through the filthy rags she wore, her face gaunt and pale. King had taken away her food as a punishment for me disobeying his latest orders.

I had intervened when one of his lackeys decided to take his foul temper out on an innocent bystander, knowing and accepting that I would be punished.

Instead, he had given my punishment to Alana, something that hurt far more than the slice of a blade or sharp crack of a whip as it flays my skin open.

I would heal, as always, but I couldn’t share my curse with others. My healing abilities only extend to myself.

Alana had suffered again because of another one of my foolish mistakes.

The guilt clawed at my throat, choking the breath from my lungs.

Pausing for a moment, I lean against the wall, trying to gasp down some stagnant air.

Shaking my head, I dig my nails into my hands.

Now was not the time to break down. Alana needs me to be strong. Now more than ever. We were so close. Just a little while longer and we would be free.

I focus on the near future, seeing the hope of light in the dark tunnel, and finally pull myself out of the pit of despair trying to hold me down.

Shaking off the last of my turbulent emotions, I make my way through the maze of halls, and toward the room where they allow my brief visits with Alana. Every minute and moment are cherished, but it’s never enough.

“Did you hear about the missing vampire?”

I release a heavy sigh hearing Jared, the sorry excuse for a vampire and his cronies. Their model physiques and killer smiles tell you nothing of their ruthless nature.

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