Page 47 of Halfblood Deceived

She closed the door behind her and leaned her back against it. Her hands shook and her stomach twisted. Aella idly wondered how bad she would be without the mood-stabilizing potion. She used the facilities almost on auto-pilot, caught between emptiness and nauseating pain. But she couldn’t avoid the mirror when she washed her hands.

Her gray eyes were duller than ever before. Large purple circles surrounded them. Her skin was vampire-like pale. And that was a bad comparison. Even Zeydan had a touch of color on his skin. Her hair had lost even more of the brown dye. Shades of her natural copper-red tone were visible from the roots to her still bruised neck. She mostly focused on her face, surprised to notice it still looked like a face. Aella was even more stunned when she brushed her teeth and they were solidly affixed to her gums. The foam came out pink, however. She washed her face and left the bathroom before her mind could spiral down again.

Mari was strapping a gun to her leg with a disgusted look. She was no longer wearing her lab coat.

Gabby had a machine gun hanging across her chest and pregnant belly.

Aella felt her heart almost stop beating at the sight of little Luce—one arm around her frog teddy, a Glock in her other hand.

Mari noticed her horrified look and snorted. “Andreas taught Luce to shoot when she turned seven. The little gremlin can take apart guns faster than I can.”

“That’s because you are slow, Auntie Mari,” Luce said with an easy smile.

Gabby rolled her eyes at the child good-naturedly before meeting Aella’s still-stunned gaze. “Luce is fully aware of the dangers that our species faces out there. She will be a full-fledged warrior by the time she turns eighteen.”

We have forced children to learn how to use guns, Aella anguished.

Luce should be playing with dolls, not learning how to shoot and apparently also how to fight.

The gargoyles’ brutality had forced them into this.

“Not all vampire children grow up knowing how to shoot gargoyles and judo-flip males thrice their size,” Gabby said, as if reading Aella’s mind. “But Andreas wants Luce to be as strong as possible.”

Luce nodded, brown eyes darkening with grief more suited to an adult. “Dad doesn’t want me to die at the hands of the gargoyles like Mama did. And he’ll always protect me, but if for some reason he can’t, I have to protect myself.”

Aella wanted to weep, but she was too frozen for even that.

Bright, witty Luce had lost her mother. No, she had her mother taken away by the gargoyles.

“You should have killed me. I deserve it,” Aella heard herself say. She closed her eyes, feeling as if she were falling into an abyss with no end.

A warm hand cupped her face, and she didn’t even have the strength to flinch. “Aella, open your eyes. Come on.”

Aella obeyed, finding Gabby’s worried gaze. “You are not to blame for your kind’s brutality anymore than I am to blame for mine.”

“We judge people based on their actions in this household,” Luce agreed, with the aplomb of a grownup.

“Guilt is useless and a weapon that your enemies will use against you,” Mari advised. “Turn that guilt into something useful, like rage, and wield it to protect yourself.” With that, she tossed something at Aella.

She caught it with reflexes she didn’t know she had—a gun with a holster for her leg.

Gabby took it gently from Aella’s hands and secured it around her leg, then showed Aella how to operate the gun. “Safety placed, safety removed. Automatic. Manual. Reload. Got it?”

Aella nodded. “Yes.”

Mari placed a bag on the bed and opened the zipper, extracting gas masks, and proceeded to distribute them. “Just in case.”

“Help is on the way and we hope to escape before they arrive,” Gabby said with a shrug. “But better safe than sorry.”

As if on cue, the horrifying crack of an explosion that shook the foundations of the room echoed all around them.

Multiple explosions detonated all around the mansion, shaking the structure.

Zeydan felt a prickle going down his spine. His mist had been burned, and destroyed by the goddess knew what kind of new weapon the gargoyles now possessed.

A low hum in the air, followed by the crackle of static energy, made all their ears pop.

Mari’s wards had been obliterated as well.

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