Page 14 of Our Sins in Blood (Coven of Sin 1)

“So my dad was a twisted sadist, huh?” I forced a sadistically sweet smile in Vincent’s direction. “That explains you, I guess.”

My face nearly slammed into the middle console as the car came to a screeching halt.

“What the fuck, Feral?” I barked at the vampire, who unfastened his belt and stepped out of the car.

“Uh-oh,” Corry breathed.

A second later, my door was torn open, and the male vampire standing there glared down at me with death in his bloody gaze. He oozed sex and violence and pure fury that had the human instincts inside me withering away from him, wanting to put distance between the predator and us.

But something else inside me, something I hadn’t discovered until tonight, was dying to get closer to this monster. It was like the beast inside me, the very same that my mother had feared and locked up, wanted more of this male.

Like it didn’t care if he devoured us whole.

Vincent arched down and grabbed my throat in his crushing grip. I sputtered from shock and lack of air.

“Come on, man, let her go,” Corry said, looking at me with pity. “The Elders will have you staked if you hurt her.”

“Fuck the Elders,” Vincent snarled at his younger brother, his veins bulging in his neck, making the raven wings tattooed into his pale flesh twitch like they were trying to fly.

“And you,” he gritted, clamping his gaze back down on me. It was a look so terrifying, it could make a grown man shit his backbone. But I only met his glare, refusing to show any fear.

“Never compare me to your father again. Got that, Princess? You didn’t know him, and you’re a lucky bitch for never having to know his reign of terror. You were kept with your mother for your safety. I’m sorry she locked you up like an animal, but what you endured in that house was fucking paradise compared to what my brothers and I have been made to endure for decades and in Sterling’s case, centuries under your father’s brutality and savagery. So excuse me if you don’t get any sympathy from me because you should be on your knees thanking me for keeping you away from him.”

“I’ll thank you for one thing, Feral,” I sputtered against his choking grip. “By freeing me from my cage, I realized I can never go back. Meaning I won’t be anyone’s bitch ever again. So sorry, but I’m not going to get on my knees for anyone.Especiallyyou.”

His full lips spread into a brittle smile, and his eyes burned into me like he could see every freaking inch of my soul. His fingers squeezed my windpipe in a way that shouldn’t have been pleasurable… but it was. And I hated my traitorous body for wanting more of him and his ruthless attention.

“We’ll see about that, Princess. We’ll see about that.”

Chapter nine

The Youngblood

Amillionthoughtsflewaround in my head as I watched the blur of Quincy’s streetlights streak past my window.

I had a lot to think about.

Like what Mom would do when she woke from that trance Vincent had put her in. Probably nothing. If she knew about the vampires and the coven, she knew where they were taking me. It’s not like she could call the cops or anything. Now that the coven wanted me, there would be no getting me back.

Would she even want me back? My stomach curdled at the thought. She was all I had in the world and tonight felt like a bitter betrayal.

Now I had nobody but these pricks in the front seat. Not only were they strangers, but they were also dangerous strangers. Lethally dangerous. Vampires. And if I was really half-vampire, where did I stand with them? Was I prey or princess?

It didn’t sound like they were huge fans of my dad. Corry didn’t seem to carry any animosity toward me, though. In fact, with the heated glances he kept shooting over his shoulder, he was full of curiosity. And standing at the opposite end of that spectrum was Vincent Feral, who I was convinced might be compelled to smile if I somehow randomly combusted in the backseat.

He had told me in my room that vampire law was for the king to select a progeny to take his place, and in doing so, he had named me as his successor on his deathbed.

Why?

Did he really hate his adoptive sons so much that he would make a sheltered half-blood girl his heir instead, just to rile them?

Thanks, Dad. On TV, most estranged relatives left their beneficiaries furniture, jewelry, money, or their taxidermy collections. Not entire, monstrous cults.

Guess all I was to him was a tool to make everyone else suffer. I didn’t exactly agree with the way the prick went about it, but maybe Vincent had the right idea by bringing me to the Elders so I could tell them I wasn’t interested in being queen. I didn’t know the first thing about being outside, let alone being the ruler of some ancient vampire coven.

I couldn’t go back to Quincy after all this. No, Human Ruby was getting left behind in this town, and I guess Vampire Princess Ruby was waiting for me in Provincetown. The question was, who was that person?

Not a sheltered girl with a heart problem. No, I had to be the person I’d always dreamed I would be. An adrenaline-seeking badass who wasn’t afraid to cause a little trouble. I had never dreamed of that tougher, wilder Ruby being a vampire, but hey, I could roll with the punches. I certainly wasn’t cut out to be some vampire queen, but I could at least do my best to rock the fangs.

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