Page 71 of Claimed By Blood

“Especially Gideon,” Finn grumbles, startling me.

Biting my lip, I resist the urge to ask what’s happened there. Sure, Gideon has been a bit more overbearing than usual since we got on the plane, but I put that down to how long it took us to find Samuel. Surely he should return to normal now that we’re at least on the right track.

Noha looks between us all, seeming just as confused as I feel. “It must be difficult balancing so many men,” she finally says.

That’s a very diplomatic way of putting it.

The rest of breakfast passes pretty uneventfully as Noha and I wait for Immy and Finn to finish. Immy takes the longest, even with the amount of food that I brought Finn. It could be because the two of us are grilling Noha on life outside of the Court. The community she and Samuel have built seems to be almost completely self-sufficient.

In turn, we answer her questions about our family, telling her a little bit about Callie and Bella, and what details we can remember of our brothers. Samuel’s wife brings up asking the rest of my thralls to come twice more, and both times, the other two shut her down gently.

We’re just leaving the dining hall when the rest of the pack catch up with us, but Finn shrugs them off when Silas suggests we sit with them. The thrall bond pulses with a deep, emotional exhaustion as he stoically regards his alpha.

Gideon says nothing. He doesn’t even look at his omega.

Now Iknowsomething’s wrong, but I’m definitely not going to bring it up in front of Immy and Noha—even if Immy probably knows more about what’s going on in their heads than I do.

Not for the first time, I wish I had her gift. It’s a thousand times more useful than mine.

No one mentions where we’re going to the others, and I bite my lip as we walk away, wondering if we should’ve. Ordinarily, I would have mentioned something, but the way Finn feels right now… the others would’ve insisted on accompanying us, and I think he needs a break.

“Do you spar, Noha?” Immy asks, as she climbs into a sleek black hover car in the underground garage.

Across the lot, I see our van, parked and empty. It’s the most battered-looking vehicle here, and I wonder just how much money Samuel’s vampires are bringing in without calling Cain’s attention to it.

But asking would probably be rude, so I hold my tongue and climb in beside my sister and my thrall.

Noha rolls her eyes. “I should,” she admits, taking the driver’s seat. “Samuel insists on me practising every now and again as a precaution, but I’m more of a movies girl myself.”

“Ugh. What is everyone in this age’s obsession with movies?” I bemoan. “All the films are so…”

“Propagandised?” Noha nods. “I know. But some of the older movies aren’t so bad. The human ones. They’re not as fancy, but at least they don’t all start with a declaration of Cain’s glory.” She makes a gagging face, which Immy duplicates.

“I don’t know why they insist on doing that,” she agrees.

“It keeps his presence fresh in people’s minds,” I murmur. “They’re trying to relax, but he can’t let them truly forget who rules them. People become numb to an abstract threat pretty quickly. Reminders of who he is and what he’s done prevents that.”

Immy sighs and rolls her eyes. “It never gets less creepy when you do that,” she says, good-naturedly, before turning back to Noha. “Don’t mind Evie, she’s just a direct line to our Sire’s brain. She really can’t help it.”

Noha laughs. “Samuel warned me,” she says. “Don’t worry. I think it’s amazing. Not to mention, it’s a pretty common coping mechanism.”

“What do you mean?” I ask, before I can help myself.

The other woman shrugs. “I studied human psychology back in the nineties to fill the time. It’s fairly normal for abused children to be hyper-aware of their abuser’s moods and reactions. Learning how to read and predict their behaviour is a survival mechanism.”

I… never thought about it like that before.

Finn must realise I’ve been struck dumb because his hand comes to rest comfortingly on my thigh and squeezes.

Was I abused? The old Evie would never have said so. Sure, Cain wasn’t exactly… careful when raising us, but why would you be when you knew your blood could heal any injury? He was just a vampire who treated us as he would any other vampire troops. Right?

Why have I never thought about this before?

“So is trying to appease them,” Immy whispers, looking out of the window.

With a jolt, I realise that all of my sisters—except Morwen and I—fall into that category. Callie, who sleeps with Cain to try to earn his protection. Bella works herself to the bone to prove her worthiness, and Immy…

Immy betrayed me, believing it would make her deserving of his love.

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