Page 185 of Claimed By Fangs and Darkness
“All I’ve ever wanted was to make him happy.”
Her eyes leaked crimson tears. She clutched her stomach.
For the briefest moment, I saw myself, talking about Jacob. It wasn’t the same. But it was a feeling I understood, one that I didn’t want to see in Juliette.
I didn’t want to see her pain. It was easier for her to be a soulless villain, evil without reason or context.
“It’s not your fault,” I said, before I could stop myself. “It’s not you.”
Juliette hadn’t started thisrivalry,and neither had I. We’d been pitted against each other since Aster had first laid eyes on me as a child. She’d been set up to fail. She would never satisfy a monster with a void instead of a heart.
Juliette stopped crying and slowly lifted her gaze to me. She cocked her head. With the next blink, her torment had drifted away. Her eyes turned mean, her features twisted with disdain.
“You’re right.” She backed away, her hand on the doorknob. “It’syou.”
I didn’t knowwhy I’d tried to be kind to Juliette, after everything that had happened. Well, I did know. And it had everything to do with the spirit world, which apparently would rather teach me lessons about empathy, assumptions, and psychological shadows than actually provide a crumb of real fucking help.
I finally saw myself inside Juliette, and that was cool and all, but I was also still chained to Aster’s bed.
Aster didn’t return until the next morning, which meant neither of us had slept. Guards had allowed me to use the bathroom, and one had tossed me bread at some point. Plain and stale. Eventually, one brought me water, as if they’d forgotten that was something mortals needed for their survival.
And I was supposed to believe that Iwasn’ta prisoner?
My stomach rumbled, but it was hard to feel hungry when I was worried sick about Kylo.
I was worried sick about the entire city.
As Aster approached, I searched his face for clues.
At first, he merely appeared sober and resolute. But a cold anger flashed in his eyes that couldn’t be ignored.
He was wordless as he removed the chain from the bedframe. He wrapped the end around his wrist.
“Come. With. Me.”
I’d never heard this level of venom from him before. I had no choice but to follow him as he led me by the leash. Humiliation burned my skin with every step. None more so than when the men outside the room ogled me with a mix of lust and amusement at my expense.
I was led downstairs. Vampires smirked as I passed. There was a different energy in the air today, a heaviness that fell over the huddles of vampires speaking in hushed tones. Hedonism had been replaced by Lillian’s wrath. Eyes lingered on me hungrily.
Before Aster could drag me down another set of stairs, uniformed men marched into the foyer.
I swallowed down a choked noise.
Soldiers.
They nodded in subservience as they passed Aster, heading for the staircase that led upstairs. To Conrad’s study, I assumed.
My lungs were working overtime to keep me breathing. And the stars in my vision only multiplied when I realized I was being yanked into the underbelly of the castle. Where the born so often kept their skeletons.
Where they kept theirslaves.
“What is happening?” I tried. I didn’t even care about myself right now. I needed to know what had happened to Kylo and the clan. “What is happening in the city?”
Aster barked a cold laugh, not saying a single word.
Vampires in the basement—or dungeon, rather—had not abandoned their hedonism. In the first room, dim lights illuminated the born feeding from mortals. Some violently, others more sensually. And unlike the first night I’d spent here, I wasn’t at all certain any of these mortals were willing participants. A girl with mousy brown hair met my gaze. Her eyes were hauntingly empty, limp in the arms of a blonde born woman on a velvet couch.
I ignored the smiles and stares as Aster pulled me away from all of them. He gripped the back of my neck now, as if showing his claim.
