Page 34 of The Serpent's Bride
Nadi wasn’t quite sure what to do with herself the following day. She had an appointment to get her dress fitted. Neither of which—the appointment nor the dress—she had been consulted about.
There was absolutely no point in getting upset over it. This wasn’t her wedding. This wasn’t her body. This wasn’t her name. This wasn’t her face. This wasn’ther.She was exactly just another luxury object to Raziel and his family—something to be purchased and put wherever and immediately disregarded.
Well, that much was at least clear when it came to everyone else in the house. As for Raziel?
Their exchange only seven hours earlier was the reason why she was pacing around her room, fidgeting with the sleeve of her blouse.
Raziel.
Shutting her eyes, she forced herself to recall the horror. The gunfire. And the sound of his laughter. The sound of her mother’s screams. “Run.”
Holding onto that moment was the only chance she had in the world. Otherwise…otherwise, she’d have to come to terms with the fact that she wasattractedto him. In a way that she hadn’t ever felt with another person in herlife.
Maybe it was because he was the person she hated more than anyone else in the world? Maybe that was a part of it? It had to be. It made no sense, otherwise. But even when he had been about to end her life…something in her craved him.Neededhim, in some deep and twisted way.
Sitting down on the edge of the bed, she put her head in her hands and tried to think. Tried to reason with herself.
He was a murderer.
And so was she.
He had killed her family.
And soon, I’ll do the same to his.
But he had made her laugh.
Areallaugh.
And the look in his eyes when she had cleaned the blood off his knuckles was so confused as if nobody had ever done that for him in his life. As if nobody had ever cared. He was like a junkyard dog shown affection for the first time in its life.
Rubbing her hand over her face, she sighed. No. This was all just a game to him. She wasn’t special to him—she wasn’t unique. She was just a puzzle. A curiosity. The moment he had sex with her, the mystery and allure would be gone, and she’d be tossed away with all the rest.
Right now, she was just teasing him, dancing outside his reach until the moment they said their so-called vows. Then he’d take her to his ancestral home, as was tradition, and slaughter her.
That also meant she would have to work quickly to dismantle everything around him. She hoped she could prove useful—or at least inoffensive—enough to be kept alive for a little while after the wedding. She assumed she wouldn’t be shuttled onto a boat the morning after—she’d have alittletime to work her “magic” before their bloody honeymoon. Maybe she could convince him to stall and keep on a seemingly human wife for a little while.
It depends entirely on how breakable you turn out to be.Maybe if she proved entertaining and useful, he’d postpone the trip long enough for her to complete her mission.
We’ll see which one of us breaks first, buddy-boy.
“Oh, no, no, no. We can’t have thathideousbirthmark of hers visible. Are youinsane?”
Nadi decided she very much disliked Volencia Nostrom.
“Ugh. And do something about hernails,” the vampire matriarch scoffed.
Yep. Raziel’s mother was instantly and firmly on Nadi’s shit-list. Not like she wasn’t already there, to be fair. It was more about the order that she was going to murder them all in.
Volencia was just starting to show her years. Although vampires and fae didn’t age, they did still somehowshowage, like old furniture. How they held themselves, how they dressed, how they acted. She had also been turned later in her life. Her skin was creased at the eyes and at the corners of her mouth, but she was beautiful all the same. None of the gray hairs that were mixed with her black strands were hidden or dyed. All were simply tucked into the carefully braided bun.
Pride.
That was what this woman was.Pride.
Volencia would be a difficult target to kill. She wasold.Easily five hundred years or more. And, if the stories were true, she’d dismantled her husband, the father of her children, into tiny pieces and walled him up in the family estate in separate buildings to ensure henevercame back.
That kind of deranged bloodlust would be dangerous to take on. And, it explained a great deal about Raziel. The apple didn’t fall far from that particularly rotted-out tree.
