Page 12 of Darkest Heart

I gasped, choking on a sob as I tried to pull myself together. We’d had such little time together, but it was those times when I felt true peace for the first time since my family was slaughtered. Being with her refocused my pain and gave me something I’d lacked for a long time—hope.

She was my new family, and I was bonded to her. I promised to protect her, to love her. But I’d allowed her to be taken. I slammed a fist down as I thought back to the note I found after she’d been kidnapped. Someone had copied my handwriting exactly, telling her I wanted to meet her in the gardens.

I thought back to what Zach said.She won’t die. He was trying to make me feel better, but it had the opposite effect. Until now I hadn’t let the thought in, that in some world she might be taken from me for good. Just like my parents, my brothers and sisters had been ripped from me. In a second they were all gone, and I couldn’t reach them again. All I had was her, Zach, and Erianna. Without them, I was nothing. I had no reason to live.

A year ago, I would have done anything to get my mortality back, including engaging in a selfish plan and using Olivia before I knew her. I’d wanted to die, but only as a mortal. Then I could reunite with my family. When Velda took their lives and changed me into a vampire, she’d stolen any chance I had at seeing them ever again. Even in death, I would be trapped forever in the underworld. There was no ascension for vampires.

Tears streamed down my cheeks. I’d never let anyone see me cry. Even when my family was alive, I’d always hold it back. But here, in the bathroom with no one around, I let it out. The granite crumbled between my fingers as I dug my hands into it, howling. I wanted her home. I wanted her safe. I’d do anything. Even if it meant praying to the gods who abandoned us.

Please help us. I’ll do whatever you want. Please.I bargained over and over until the sound of a party starting in the background pulled me out of my prayers. I couldn’t believe they were rejoicing and holding events while their princess was missing. The castle should be covered in sadness, with everyone out looking for her. The king and queen were. But the people, they didn’t give a fuck. So, I decided I didn’t care what happened to them. Fuck all royal oaths. The only people who mattered to me were my family, which now included Olivia.

Shaking my head, I stood myself straight, wiping my eyes when I felt a feather touch of compassion wisp into my body. My dark brows furrowed in the reflection in the mirror as I realized. It had to be Olivia. “Love?” I asked aloud, hoping in some world she might hear me. I held my breath, focusing all intent inwards, but felt nothing else.

It was her. It had to be. She felt my heartache. She sent me compassion and love, even when she was in more pain than me. It only made me angrier at those who took her.

A darkness took over as I stormed out of the bathroom. I would get her back, at any cost.

FOUR

Olivia

A mortal man’s eyes found mine as he dragged himself across the floor, his fingernails scraping along the floorboards as he tried to escape the monster.

I wanted to help him more than anything, but the restraints around my wrists and leash on my neck limited my movements. Struggling against the leather, I clamped my eyes shut. There was no escaping the horror now. The long, narrow room was lined with cages sitting on top of each other, from the floor to the ceiling. There had to be at least two hundred mortals locked away. The stench of sweat, blood, and waste burned in my nose as I held back a gag. The silence was worse than the noise. Even they had to know there was no getting out of here, but it was the loudest ones who got eaten first. I supposed they thought if they were quiet, then they’d get forgotten about.

Their fear rattled my barrier as they watched their fellow prisoner being tortured. He was fresh in, captured from a small fishing port in Baldoria.

The creature hunched over him, its body casting a tall shadow over the floor and up the wall behind me. Suspended from the ceiling, a light bulb flickered yellow, the buzz like a fly in my ear. My skin plucked into goosebumps as I leaned forward. The man’s breaths quickened, irregular from the high-pitched whimpers as he realized his fate.

It was a slaughterhouse, but the people were the animals.

I focused on Sebastian instead. Anything to escape the murder room. I’d felt my husband’s pain earlier, I was certain. He was hurting, and I tried to send love through our connection. I needed him to know I was alive and missed him. Whether he felt it, I didn’t know. I was too weak to show much of anything. Astor and the aniccipere made sure of that.

The sound of the man’s heart raced in my ears, pounding so loud I could no longer hear the aniccipere licking blood from its long, yellow fingernails.

Gods help us.

It wouldn’t be as bad if they drank blood like the sangaree. Not that either was good, especially when they resulted in death. But the aniccipere’s way of satisfying their appetites had permanently put me off mine. They didn’t deserve to be here, walking amongst the rest of us.

There were both good and bad vampires, and mortals, but I had not met one aniccipere with any light in them. They were a darkness, a plague on this world, and any notion of saving them was forever gone. Savages. Beasts. Driven by dark, animalistic instincts without a conscience to temper them.

The walls creaked and groaned from the wind howling outside, hammering against the doors and windows. A thunderstorm brewed overhead, crackling lightning through the skies, illuminating the night behind the grimy windows with blue and purple streaks.

I looked at the man, who curled himself into a ball, arms covering his face as if it might do anything to protect him from what was to come. My heart ached as I watched him. No afterlife awaited the victims of the aniccipere. There would be no peace or reuniting with their loved ones.

Here, in an old, derelict mansion nestled behind a forgotten cemetery, there was only darkness.

The creature hissed, and I held my breath. Its long tongue uncurled from its lipless mouth as it thumped slowly toward the bleeding man. “P-p-please,” the mortal stuttered, followed by a gut-wrenching cry as he turned onto his back. “I don’t want this anymore,” he sniffed through his blocked nose. Tears fell down my cheeks, soaking into the fabric, gagging me.

The aniccipere’s beady eyes glimpsed me, crawling terror under my skin, then shifted its focus back to his victim. Lowering itself onto its knees, it grabbed the man by the throat, darting its tongue toward his mouth.

Wrestling harder with the leather straps, I searched for a spark of my powers, but they were numbed.

Gods no, please.

It was like watching a cat and a mouse, as the vampire toyed with its prey. Quivering, it let out the most sinister giggle I’d ever heard when the man relieved himself, urine soaking through his pants.

My eyes widened, and my heartbeat raced as fast as the mortals. The stench of sweat and decay suffocated my senses, and I choked on the fabric gag.

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