Page 34 of Our Sins in Blood (Coven of Sin 1)

Ialmostjumpedoutof my skin when a knock on my door sounded. I knew it was Corry, ready to set me free on the pretense that we were going on a date. Casting one last look at my reflection in the mirror mounted to the vanity, I sighed.

I looked great. I’d styled my freshly colored red hair into French braided pigtails, and I’d managed to find a PVC-style club dress amongst all the frilly old-fashioned clothes. The person who’d owned it before me had been thinner, so the material stretched tight over my curves, making my boobs pop just a bit too much out of the dress. I’d taken a piece of velvet ribbon from one of the velvet frocks hanging and tied it around my neck like a choker, tying it in a bow in the back. It wasn’t the most ideal outfit for making a getaway, but I wanted Corry thoroughly distracted. This would do the trick.

I thought doing myself up for a date would make me feel better because it was something I’d yet to experience. But my appearance in the mirror only made my gut twist into knots.

Maybe because I was using Corry to win my freedom.

Which was a reasonable thing to do when I was literally locked up in a house full of dangerous vampires, saddled with the task of choosing a mate to rule the vampire legions by my side.

Yeah, no thanks.

No one was going to force me to do shit. That chapter of my life was over. And if I had to use the most naive guy here as a way to win my freedom, I would.

“Ruby,”Corry’s voice whispered from the other side of the door.

“Come in,” I whispered back, looking around for a pair of shoes. There was nothing to match my dress that fit my size seven feet, so I opted for what I’d come in; my bright red converse high tops. They didn’t exactly go with my outfit, but they’d be more functional for my getaway. And they matched my hair.

The clink of a key unlatching the door rattled in my ear, and a second later, the door pushed open, Corry peering at me from the other side. His blue eyes widened to saucers the second his gaze landed on me. “Shit, Red. You look…” His throat twitched with a swallow.“Good.”

“Thanks. Do I have to worry about you tonight? You’re not allowed to bite me. Not tonight anyway,” I said with a flirtatious smirk.

A corner of Corry’s mouth lifted into a wolfish grin. “I already fed. But I’ll have room for seconds when you change your mind.”

Hearing he’d already fed, my mind flashed to the argument the youngblood had had with his brother the night before. Corry wasn’t allowed off coven grounds because he had killed innocents.

Another jab of guilt struck me in the gut.

I was leading a wolf to the sheep. But I couldn’t let myself be responsible for crimes Corrymightcommit. I had to focus on saving my own skin.

I eyed him warily. “Don’t tell me it was another prostitute.”

“That was an accident,” he muttered, his expression hardening. “I never mean to hurt anyone. These days I’m only allowed to feed on the coven’s livestock until I can be trusted to gain control over my instincts. You can’t understand the full force of the lust, Ruby.”

At the mention of blood and lust, my throat burned like it had been set on fire. I knew perfectly well what it was like to thirst for something for two decades and not even know what it was my body craved. Locked away in my room, my mother shoved piles of food at me in pathetic attempts to curb my appetites. It had never been enough. The pills Dr. Sharpe had prescribed had helped, but it had never taken away the edge. None of it had been enough.

“I know what it’s like, Corry,” I rasped on a grated whisper.

“At least you’re half-human. You don’tneedblood. That’s a blessing.”

Blessing.Anger coursed through my veins, turning my blood to lava. That word infuriated me, and something inside me snapped. I didn’t like being kidnapped or being told what my future was going to be like by some elderly dead fucks who didn’t know shit about me. I was tired of being lied to, tired of being a prisoner.

Nothing about my life was a blessing.

I wanted to go home. But I didn’t have a home to go to anymore.

I didn’t have anyone.

All I had was myself.

Before I realized what I was doing, my hands slammed into Corry’s chest, and he went flying back onto the bed. Something predatorial was in the driver’s seat now, something that had me scrambling onto the bed after him, straddling him with my hands around his throat. I felt my entire body pulse with rage, strength coursing through my limbs just like it had in my room when Vincent had attacked me.

Corry’s eyes widened as he looked up at me, his chest heaving with frantic breaths. But I felt no pulse against my palm where I gripped his jugular.

“You don’t fucking know me,” I seethed, low and deadly so as not to alert anyone else lurking in the hall.

I expected the youngblood to fight back, to get angry. If this was Vincent, I’d probably already have my throat ripped out. But this wasn’t the vicious Vincent Feral. This was his younger, kinder brother, who looked up at me with soft, blue eyes, his mouth tugged up into a smile that warmed me all over.

He reached up to tuck a rogue coil of red hair behind my ear, his chest rumbling beneath me with a chuckle. “But I want to know you, Ruby-Red, soon to be Queen of the Dead. There isn’t anything I want more than to just know you. And that’s saying a lot because I have a hot virgin vampire princess straddling my junk.”

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