Page 139 of Savage Blood
The chances of doing that grew slimmer by the minute.
A ghostly hand ran down my back in a soothing manner, and I felt Fane’s hot breath on my ear even though he remained on my other side.“Barric will get Roman to come closer to restrain me with stronger magic. Take your shot then.”
Sweat slicked my nape as I nodded, trying to keep my breathing even before Barric or any of the shifters near us picked up on it.
“Roman!” Barric barked. “Bind Fane so he can’t break out.”
“Why don’t you just kill him?” Amelia muttered as she ambled to Barric’s side, her mask now gone. “You’re going to do it anyway.”
The sadistic grin that broke over my father’s face made my skin crawl. “Because I want him to watch.”
A string of insults danced on the tip of my tongue. Barric couldn’t have always been this evil. It had to be the amulet.
But I was never this bad.
Was I?
“No, fiera mika,”Fane said, having read my thoughts.“You might have been a little unhinged, maybe a little vicious, but never this unequivocally cruel.”
“Are you sure, Maverick, because I remember doing some seriously malicious shit?”
He shook his head.“Barric has given in to every evil urge he’s ever had.”
Movement interrupted the conversation between Fane and me, and Roman appeared through the crowd, his footstepsslower than normal. He bowed his head, blond hair shining like pale gold and shoulders drooping.
Why did he look like he was walking to his death?
Technically, he was, but he didn’t know that.
I shook the confusion off and choked back the sickening combination of guilt and dread shooting up my throat. There was no other way. Roman had to die.
My muscles tensed as I prepared to take another life and add to the blood already staining my hands. I snatched Roman’s arm and whirled him around. He didn’t even fight back when I lifted my talons toward his exposed throat.
One deep swipe at his neck. That was all I needed. The wounds would be too bad for him to heal. He’d bleed out fast.
It would be quick.
He wouldn’t suffer much.
Just as my claws touched his skin, fresh crimson bubbling out, pain hit the center of my torso, and I screamed.
And screamed.
I collapsed to my knees as the world melted away, leaving nothing but fiery agony behind.
Fane’s roar sounded distant, even though he couldn’t have been more than a foot from me. The coppery tang of blood spilled over the back of my mouth, and I spat on the floor. More liquid leaked from my nose.
When my vision finally cleared, the mixture of black and red splatters on the tiles came into view.
My stomach dropped. That had come out of me.Andthose midnight veins once again spiderwebbed over my body.
Barric’s bare feet stopped an inch from the puddles, and he used his index fingers to tilt my chin up. The Infernal Sol pulsed like a beacon, bright red and angry.
“Youare the puppet, Tate.” He stroked the amulet. “Thestone has yanked your strings, and it wants you to suffer, to die in this ritual.”
My heart pounded,and sweat trickled down my back again as Wes and Patricia shoved me into the same ritual room I’d seen dozens of times in my visions. The black demon sigils on the blood-red walls had my pulse spiking.
So did the table with chains dangling off the side.
