Page 294 of Halfblood Deceived

I’ve never healed this fast before; she mused, confused, but then she remembered.

She remembered Zeydan’s blood flowing through her veins. Not once, or twice, but thrice. The last time was mere days ago.

His blood is healing me; Aella thought. He’s protecting me even when he’s not here.

Her chest grew tight with desperate, painful longing. She could almost hear Zeydan calling her name.

He’s coming for you, Aella; said a feminine voice in her head. A voice that didn’t sound precisely like the usual voices yapping in her mind, but beautifully otherworldly. Warm. Ethereal. Hold on, Aella. Hold on, my child. Soothing warmth spread inside Aella’s chest for just a second, but it was enough to make her feel less hopeless.

She blinked.

It wasn’t possible, was it?

It wasn’t possible that one of the goddesses had heard her pleas and answered. Right?

Maybe I’m going crazy; Aella thought. But I don’t care. So thank you, new—possibly godly—voice in my head.

“Aella,” Claudia called, wiping at a sticky patch of saliva and blood under Aella’s chin. “Are you going to faint?”

“No,” Aella answered. “I don’t think so, anyway.”

Claudia nodded, rinsing the towel before wiping at Aella’s face again. She set aside the towel and lifted a small bottle of water from the floor. “Can you drink?”

“Please,” Aella murmured.

Claudia nodded and poured the water into her mouth.

Aella drank slowly, careful not to let the water go down the wrong way.

Once she’d finished and Claudia had resumed her careful wiping of half-dried blood, Aella detailed her one-time friend. Her hair was longer. And she didn’t seem too bothered with getting her white dress stained with blood.

And Morrigan, there was a lot of blood all over the once wholly white tiled floor.

Something made Aella’s cheek prickle.

She turned her face to find Aiko curled into herself in the same dark corner as before.

Aella’s heart squeezed.

Goddess. Aiko had seen everything.

The child had seen worse, Aella knew this, but…

Claudia turned Aella’s face back toward her to wipe at her cheek. “I’ve been worried about you, you know? You’ve spent months in the hands of those monsters—”

“Vampires are not monsters,” Aella immediately rebuked. “Granted, some can be evil. But most aren’t monsters. Most are just people living their lives—”

“People?” Claudia asked, her hand dropping from Aella’s face. “Leeches. Unholy beasts that feed on humans and kill our kind—”

“Our kind hunts down and kills innocent vampires,” Aella interrupted. “I’ve seen it with my own eyes.” She gulped. “I saw Micah, Eli, Ben, and others tear apart an innocent family. That’s what woke me up, Claudia. I saw Eli kill a mother in front of her daughter.” A small sound came from the furthest corner of the room. Aella’s eyes burned. “I saw Ben holding that child down.” She tilted her head toward Aiko. “He forced her to watch the unspeakable. And Micah was going to kill her. I thought he had killed her. Only Isaiah stood up to them, and they killed him for it.” Her voice broke. She took a deep breath. “Gargoyles are the nightmare monsters.”

Claudia shook her head. “Vampires are beasts. They kill, rape, and torture our kind—”

“Some do,” Aella conceded. “But some gargoyles do that to every person who’s not human. All the time.”

Claudia sighed. “You can’t expect me to believe that, Aella.”

“I would prove it to you if I could,” Aella said. “Micah tried to kill me, Claudia. The vampires saved me. The Davashkov siblings saved me.” Zeydan saved me. And Mari. And Sebastian, and Aylana. And I met my sister thanks to them… Her eyes stung. Goddess, Diana. Diana could be dead.

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