Page 15 of Our Sins in Silver (Coven of Sin 3)

Seeing that his comment struck a tender spot, he pressed forward with the emotional assault.

“Hmm, let’s see. As a Helsing and a Knight vampire, you must be quite the little whore for torment and suffering. It makes sense why you’re drawn to my surviving progeny. If you get off on pain, my silver spoon must be quite the pleasurable ride for our slut princess.” He snickered while plucking a piece of dangling flesh from his face before he flicked it away as if being a decomposing corpse was a run-of-the-mill inconvenience.

Hearing his nickname for Sterling made my throat burn with molten hatred. “You don’t deserve to call him that. You don’t even remember his name.”

He smiled odiously to himself. “Of course, I remember his real name. I’ll never forget it.”

It felt like my heart had been set on fire. The flames raged through me, intent on leaving nothing behind but ash.

I recalled the story of how Sterling had become the blind vampire progeny to the vampire king with almost sickening clarity. “You told him you didn’t remember. You said all you recalled was the sterling spoon.”

“And Sterling became his true name the moment I turned him. His old name is from a life that has no relevance anymore.”

“You’re evil.”

He straightened, smirking. “Oh, little gem. You can’t even begin to fathom it. Allow me to educate you.”

It was on that chilling note that the vampire stepped back into the darkness of my mind, allowing it to swallow him.

Panic made my heart rate skyrocket. Its thunderous beat filled one ear while my father’s malevolent laughter rattled in the other.

Suddenly, a scene formed. On my next gulp of breath, I was sitting in the driver’s seat of a luxury car—a Ferrari, by the insignia on the steering wheel. It was night, and the car was tearing down a dark street at a heart-attack-inducing speed.

A red light at the intersection just ahead barreled toward me at an alarming pace. I tried to slam the brakes, but my foot wouldn’t budge. I realized I was unable to move at all. I strained my gaze downward to see thick, long legs covered in charcoal-gray slacks. Huge, masculine hands with hair-dusted knuckles gripped the steering wheel, and a wrist wrapped with an authentic Rolex watch glittered under the passing streetlights.

I couldn’t move my body because this one didn’t belong to me.

This was my father’s memory, yet I peered through his eyes as ifIwere living this moment.

Before my frantic train of thought could come to grips with just how messed up this little show-and-tell was probably going to get, I realized I didn’t have to wait.

The car smashed into a motorcycle, T-boning it with a force that had the bike hurtling across the intersection.

A silent scream caught in my chest.

The vampire king’s body barely moved as the entire car shook around him with as much intensity as a rocket leaving the atmosphere.

The motorcycle he’d barreled into smashed into smithereens, and a body skidded across the street, leaving behind a stench of road rash. I would have totally been okay with going my whole life, not knowing what that smelled like.

Heaving an agitated sigh—like this was some minor inconvenience—my father kicked the crushed door of his Ferrari clean off its hinges and stepped into the night.

“Well. What do we have here?” he murmured to himself with a bemused grit to his cadence.

A wail caught in my throat when my attention landed on Corry’s broken body laying on the concrete. By some miracle, he was still alive, but barely. Blood pooled around his twitching form, and his limbs were bent in gut-churning angles. The side of his face that had been concrete-facing was shaved down to the bone, leaving a red mush of pulverized flesh flecked with pieces of asphalt.

I couldn’t look at him, and at the same time, I couldn’t tear my eyes away. The young Knight prince had told me about the crash, but he hadn’t mentioned just how injured he’d gotten. I swallowed down a wave of nausea as Corry tilted the wounded side of his face in a way that made the streetlamp shine on him like a spotlight.

When my father strode over to the young man, I wanted to scream at him to stay away. But this was the past. It had already happened. This was the pivotal moment that would dictate the rest of Corry’s life. The moment that would ultimately bring us together. Still, it didn’t stop the territorial urge to protect my wounded mate from cleaving through me like lightning as the vampire approached my future mate. Nor did it ease the pain of seeing Corry dying, with no one around but Satan incarnate to keep him company in the last seconds of his mortal coil.

The vampire king paused inches away from the dying human at his feet. Barely in his twenties, Corry was probably just a child to an archaic being like Thomas Knight. He nudged Corry’s leg with the point of his loafer, peering down the bridge of his nose at the bleeding boy.

My father expelled a “hmph” when the boy groaned in agony. “That should have killed you instantly. You’re durable for a human.”

Corry blinked up at the man. Logically, I knew he wasn’t looking at me—Iwasn’t really there. But the way he looked up at Thomas Knight made my very soul shiver. A warbled wail of pain locked in my throat at seeing my best friend and mate regard me with nothing but distrust and pain.

My father hunkered into a crouch beside the dying young man, his hands laced together and steepled fingertips touching his lips as he examined his victim. “Tell me, boy. Do you believe in God?”

A bewildered Corry gave the slightest shake of his head, along with a wet gurgling sound as blood dribbled from his lips.

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