Page 101 of Halfblood Deceived

Chloe and Cassidy dropped to the floor like two sacks of potatoes. They gasped and nearly coughed up their lungs, faces red-purple, blood vessels visible in their tearful amber eyes.

Breathing hard, Aylana stood beside Diana again. Her eyes were still bright with contained power and unquenched bloodlust.

Diana gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze.

“Pick yourselves up,” Kamilla commanded, topaz eyes arctic with anger that leaked out from her in a shiver-inducing wave of power.

Aella shuddered involuntarily.

Alejandro’s throat bobbed, but he didn’t back down, unlike Chloe and Cassidy, who flinched away from Kamilla’s aura, struggling to stand.

Kamila waited until they were both on their feet to stalk closer.

Both females flinched back, their bravado completely gone.

Alejandro shoved them both forward.

Kamilla, hands on her hips and stretched to her full impressive height—sharply accentuated by those stilettos—approached the sisters until she was a foot away from them. “It seems like those 200 hours of community service you two served were not quite enough, eh? Maybe a little time behind bars will be good for you.”

Genuine fear flashed on the females’ faces.

Kamilla continued, undaunted. “The penalty for attempted murder is twenty-five years. It’s hardly a long time for a semi-immortal in normal conditions. But locked up in a tiny stone room with no company but your own thoughts during the nights, and working from dawn to dusk… Hmm.”

Chloe froze, skin going pale as death.

Cassidy’s eyes went wide as saucers, almost child-like and full of so much agony that Aella’s stomach twisted sharply.

“Kamilla, don’t,” Aella blurted.

Everyone turned to look at her, surprised.

The combined attention made her wish the ground would open up and swallow her whole, but she pressed on. “I’m alright. They didn’t hurt me, just scared me. And they won’t do it again, will they?” Aella met the werewolf twins’ gazes, silently begging them to agree.

Cassidy gulped. “We won’t go after Diana and her sister.” She nudged her twin with her elbow.

Chloe’s nostrils flared, disdain written all over her face as she looked down at Diana and Aella. “We won’t turn either into our dinner. We promise.”

Kamilla gave a thoughtful look at Aella. “They still need to be punished.”

Aella opened her mouth to protest, but Diana quieted her with a hand squeeze and a shake of her head.

Kamilla turned toward the werewolf twins again. “You will serve half a year of community service,” she ordered. “The immigration office and the housing facilities are short-staffed. You are to spend half your days in one and half in the other. And if I hear you as much as insult someone, I will kick you both out of my city.” The twins flinched. Kamilla had hit them where it counted with that, and she knew it, for she pressed on. “If you attack someone again just because you don’t like their species, I will personally drag your arses out of my city and cast a curse on you that won’t allow you to ever return. Is that fucking clear?”

Cassidy dipped her chin, trying and failing to hide her shaking.

“You will regret being so lenient,” Chloe said, voice subdued, eyes bright with unshed tears. “When the gargoyles infiltrate this city—slaughtering babes in their cribs, raping and dismembering males and females until death like they always have—you will regret it.”

Horror cut through Aella as Micah’s blade had.

That couldn’t be true? Could it?

The answer was in how no one refuted Chloe but simply winced.

Kamilla sighed. “Kerian and I will never allow that to happen,” she promised. “We will keep the evil members of any species far away from our citizens.”

Cassidy sniffed, angrily wiping her face. “For the sake of all of us, I truly hope you can keep that promise, Princess Davashkov.”

Kamilla said nothing.

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