Page 15 of The Serpent's Bride
She had been a coward that night.
But that was when she had heard his laugh.
The gunfire had ceased.
Nadi had stared up in awe at the overpass—at the time one of the many great twisting structures of the metropolis. Road built over road built over road built over homes and offices and workshops. A dizzying sea of twisting girders and metal that looked like madness made from straight lines and lit from stinky glowing flames in glass lamps on metal sticks.
The vampire from before—the one with the suit and the red eyes—had stood before her family. Her mother, father, brother, and two sisters. They had all been on their knees before him, bloody and covered in soot, her father already bleeding from a bullet wound in his side.
“Mm. I apologize for this. It really isn’t personal.” The vampire’s voice had been smooth. Calm.Friendly.As if this were any other day. “But, unfortunately, your brother has been testing our patience—and a message must be sent. So…here I am, the messenger—and you, the message.”
“You hideous, inbred bloodsucker.” Her father had spat down at the vampire’s expensive shoes, defiant to the last.
The vampire laughed again. “Oh, my dear, sweetsavage.As if I could be hurt by any insults you can levy against me.” He had strolled casually over to her brother and…snapped his neck with a sickeningcrunch.
Her mother’s scream would replay in Nadi’s mind for the rest of her life.
As would the look on her brother’s face as he fell lifelessly to the ground.
“Damn you!”Her father’s shouting had been pointless.
“It’s a shame my powers are useless on your kind.” The vampire had sighed. “I do hate getting my hands dirty. Though,I suppose it is nice to have the practice now and then. Now, do remember, your brother Luciento is to blame for this, not me.”
Nadi’s eldest sister had followed next.
Followed by the youngest.
None of the desperate pleas for mercy from her parents did any good. Nor did they do anything to change his calm, casual,friendly,demeanor.
The vampire had put an end to her mother’s suffering next before smiling warmly down at her father and shrugging. “Luciento knew the price he would pay for acting out of turn.”
Her father never had the chance to respond.
But Nadi’s terror had not ended yet. Because the vampire had then turned his attention toher. She was still cowering there, wearing the face of a human she had seen once, crying and weeping, bunched up in the corner of some crates against what she recognized now as bricks.
His expensive shoes had echoed on the cobblestones as he approached her. The silhouette he made against the light from the gas lamps still haunted her nightmares. “Wrong place, wrong time…” He chuckled, then said one more word to her. “Run.”
And she had.
But she’d decided, then and there, that she would carve that word into his skull as he died.
There was a knock on the door. “Dinner. Ready?”Fucking Hank again.
And he was summoning her to dinner.
With Raziel Nostrom.
Shutting her eyes, she took a deep breath in, held it, and let it out. Taking in the reflection of Monica one more time in the mirror, she braced herself. Yeah. She repeated the phrase in her mind that had kept her going all those years.
I am going to kill you, Raziel Nostrom.
FIVE
For a moment, Nadi considered her approach. Raziel likely expected Monica to be a boring, idiotic, and naive country girl. She could use that—keep him off guard. He had no idea what he was dealing with.
Cracking her neck from one side to the other, she put on her best smile and opened the door. Hank was waiting for her in the hallway. He was clearly trying to appear bored, to show her she meant nothing. But the way he stared when she walked out of the room gave her a spark of pride.
Monica might look like an innocent farm girl. But that didn’t mean Nadi had to wear her like one. “Lead on.” She gestured down the hallway, eager to get going. And eager now for Hank to stop staring at her cleavage. Monica was an ample girl.
