Page 37 of Darkest Heart

Algor’s breathy snarls hit me as I turned on my heel. “Why?”

“He had it coming.” I said with a shrug. “He tormented me for weeks.”

Algor craned his neck, looking at Astor, then licked around his mouth, his pointed tongue finding a slather of blood left from his last victim. “You’re certainly a delectable surprise,” he announced with a creepiness that would have sent me running a few weeks ago. “The boy will be punished for his lies about you. His personal grudges against you prevented you from joining us sooner.”

“Punished how?”

“We will tell his master.”

I arched a brow. “I thought that was you.”

He laughed throatily, insincerity clouding his tone. “I am flattered, but no, he does not answer to me.”

“Then who?” I probed, stepping into his personal space. “To your king?”

“We all answer to our king, but the boy is commanded by our greatest ally from the castle.”

My eyes widened. Kalon. It had to be him. Or Velda. If that was true, then Sebastian, my parents, Erianna and Zach were all in danger. “Who is it?” I asked as casually as I could, glaring down at my nails.

“You’ll find out in time. For now, you must rest. Tomorrow, you meet my king, and his royal court.”

I suppressed a smirk at the idea of these things having any kind of hierarchy. They were savages, wild, and without order. But they had pulled all of this off, so perhaps we’d underestimated them. Algor ran a talon along his cheek, his glare on my neck long enough for me to feel uncomfortable. Stepping out from his line of vision, I headed back to the decrepit mansion, leaving Astor behind, along with my empathy.

THIRTEEN

Sebastian

Gwen’s scheming gaze found me in my sleep. We were in the heart of the city, shortly after vampirism claimed my soul. The suppressed desires of my mortal life had turned into something more tangible, and I barely recognized myself.

Rolling my shoulders back, I adjusted to the large, featherless wings permanently attached to my back. Gliding my tongue over my fangs, I closed my eyes as the scent of the mortals in the blood den climbed through me, death hanging on their tired expressions.

It had been less than a month since my family was murdered. I expected the rage to come, but depression numbed it. It stole every emotion lurking under the surface.

I stared into the bright, blue eyes of the woman who had helped end their lives. She placed a finger on my chest, walking her fingers up to my chin, shooting me a wicked smile. “Are you going to be upset forever?”

“We have eternity,” I replied, turning my back on Gwen. “Where’s your mother?”

“With Kalon,” she said quietly, while I imagined slowly tearing out her heart. Like her mother had done to my family. “They’re plotting again.”

“I assume you know what they’re up to?” I baited.

She laughed, flicking her blonde hair over one shoulder. “I know far more than you think. But I’d never tell you.” She flashed a smile.

“I’m surprised they tell you everything.”

“They don’t,” she admitted. “But I have access to all the areas they hold their little conversations, plus a few servants in my pocket.”

My brows pulled inward, and the club and people fell away as my eyes fluttered open, revealing the dim light seeping through the drapes in the hotel room.

The dream drifted momentarily in my mind. A replay of a memory. Since Olivia’s kidnapping, my trauma prior to her was coming back stronger than ever. I’d spent so long pushing it inward, with only one goal in mind?becoming mortal again. But now, with her gone, it was like losing my family all over again. My goals had changed, my purpose and feelings were different. Everything I’d suppressed was forcing itself back into my life.

I sat upright, and stretched my wings, relieving the tension in my back. Zach and Erianna’s beds were empty. No doubt they were finalizing the strategies. I was only annoyed they hadn’t woken me for it.

We’d spent all night going over the plans for today. Panic seized me as the clock on the wall ticked into seven a.m. Each second I was resting, Olivia was in pain, held hostage by those monsters.

Before I could race out of the room in just my sweatpants, the door swung open, and Zach and Erianna hurried inside. “Morning, sunshine,” Zach teased, a failed attempt to lighten the melancholic atmosphere. “Breakfast is waiting for you downstairs.”

My stomach groaned as my thoughts drifted to the mortals at the tables in the lobby, freshly fed, dressed in nice clothes. This was a fine establishment, after all. “We have to get moving,” I said, pushing my hunger aside. “We planned to leave at seven thirty.”

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