Page 13 of Our Sins in Silver (Coven of Sin 3)

It was no use. The magic holding me was stronger than my power.

The potent wash of odious energy smashed into my body like a charge of electricity, shock wave after shock wave ravaging my limbs. Helpless to do anything but grit my teeth, I took it flat on my back while staring up at the darkness of my mind.

The thing inside my brain made no sound as it approached, which created an entrance that was all the more harrowing. Like a silent, deadly gas.

“There she is,” a man crooned in a carnivorous rasp. No, it wasn’t a man. The voice belonged to a male, but it wasn’t anything remotely human. It was so guttural and chaffing that I wouldn’t have been shocked if it belonged to Satan himself.

I couldn’t even turn my head to see who stood beside me. Not that I needed to. I already knew who it was before he even leaned over me, his visage filling my vision.

Thomas Knight was, by all rights, a handsome man. Jet-black hair swept back from a face with a chiseled jawline, covered in a fine dusting of scruff. He was tall, with a posture that oozed audacious confidence and a stature of unfathomable caliber.

I didn’t buy into the illusion for even a second. The stench of death clung to him like the Grim Reaper’s cloak. His malignance scoured my skin like jagged nails. Even the flawless flesh he wore was a guise. I knew he was rotten, disfigured by true death. One didn’t swallow liquid silver and lay to rot in a sarcophagus for months just to come out looking like he had the skin-care routine of a celebrity model.

He slowly lowered himself into a crouching position beside me. My roaring pulse slammed painfully into my ribs as I watched him with unguarded hatred in my eyes. I couldn’t speak, couldn’t move. Even if I could, what would I do? Attack him? Try to reason with him? It would all be futile. Yes, this creature was of my flesh and blood, but what did that mean to a monster like him? Certain animals ate their young.

My father was worse.

Thomas Knight made Vincent into his blood whore, sucking him dry of his fae blood without asking for permission or forgiveness. He’d turned Eros into the very thing the monster slayer had dedicated his life to eradicating.

And Sterling... I cringed at the mere thought of the few stories I’d heard. All the untold abuse the priest had suffered at the hands of his master wasn’t something I’d ever dare imagine.

So when a warm-as-summer smile curved the vampire king’s lips, making his dark eyes glitter, I was at a complete and utter loss.

“Look at you.” His expression grew distant for a beat, possibly lost in a pleasant memory. “My little gem, you shine even brighter than your mother.” He chuckled, and this time the sound was soft and light. “You have her eyes.”

He reached toward me to stroke my cheek, but when his flesh made contact with mine, he released a marrow-curdling screech.

I would have screamed, too, if I was able. Blinding pain shot through me like a brand’s bite. The vampire king hadn’t intended it, not by the way he reeled back while snarling like a feral beast.

I hadn’t expected the brief moment we’d shared between us to be anything like a father and daughter should. As if he was capable of loving me, even for a fraction of a heartbeat. So, color me shocked, but when the moment left just as abruptly as it had come, there were no melancholy feelings.

My father’s demeanor shifted on a dime, and in his anger, he didn’t bother maintaining the illusion that masked his body’s decay. He looked his age now, his skin as dry as paper and as gray as ash. His fingers were blackened and brittle, and much of the flesh that remained hung off him in tatters.

The star-like twinkle in my father’s gaze vanished, and all that remained were his obsidian orbs, as dark and empty as two black holes.

His brow creased in cold calculation, trying to work out what had transpired. My heart shriveled when his expression told me he’d figured it out. He stepped toward me, more hesitant this time. He was careful to touch only my hair, which he swept back to reveal my shoulder—bare to his gaze due to the strappy yellow dress I still wore.

Eros’ mating mark burned the moment the vampire king laid his attention to it.

“You... You mated one of them?” His drawl came out as slow as sprouting nightshade and just as poisonous.

I tried to open my mouth to speak, expecting him to lift whatever spell held me so I could explain myself.

He didn’t.

His hand shot to the fabric bow holding one of the dress straps in place and snapped it, wrenching it down my abdomen.

A toxic combination of humiliation and hatred surged through my veins, making my blood boil as my father’s scrutiny roved down my bare breasts like he was a Salem priest searching for the mark of the devil on an accused witch.

His eyes settled on Corry’s mark that sat just over my heart. The stifling magic surrounding him pressed down on my chest as if attempting to suffocate me.

He fisted my hair and wrenched me upright, his sneering face inches from my own. If this wasn’t happening solely in my mind, I would have vomited from the stench of rot that assaulted my nose. “What else of mine did you allow to crawl between your thighs?” He spoke slowly, coolly. It was more terrifying than if he’d been shouting. He canted his head, leering at me with an expression that made my monster whimper.

“Did you touch him…? Did you touch my priest?”

Like a weight being lifted, the pressure from my chest was gone, and the invisible plug in my throat vanished.

I could breathe again. I could speak. I could move.

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