Page 32 of Halfblood Deceived

Eli and Micah laughed.

They laughed.

Aella’s head spun.

Wrong! This is wrong! This is wrong! Screamed every cell in her body. Those aren’t demons. They are people! They are people!

Micah aimed his sword at the screaming vampire child, his eyes on her father. “Are you sure there’s nothing else you can tell me about Duke Zeydan?”

Aella’s eyes widened.

The male recited the address again between sobs. “Zeydan lives there with his family. You’ll find him there, I promise. Please don’t kill my baby girl, please!”

Zeydan has a family, too, Aella thought. And they’re going to destroy them. Micah will destroy them.

“Mommy!” the child kept crying. “Mommy!”

Micah smiled at the vampire and lifted his sword.

Aella’s body was in movement before her mind caught up to what she was doing. Before she could think about how there wasn’t a thing she could do to stop six gargoyles.

She all but zoomed to the destroyed front entrance and jumped on Micah’s back before he could see her coming. Her hands closed around his arm, nails digging into his stone-like skin. To her surprise, her nails left marks on his gray skin instead of breaking.

He flinched back and away from the girl.

Aella scratched like a feral cat at Micah’s face, an animalistic growl reverberating in her throat.

Micah cried out, gripping Aella’s left forearm and swinging her off of him.

Aella flew and landed painfully on her side—a foot away from a gleaming gargoyle sword.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?!” Micah boomed in the voice that had made her cower countless times before.

Aella flinched, but a protective fire burned in her core. She wouldn’t allow him to kill a child without a fight. She couldn’t. She’d rather die.

Aella felt Micah stepping closer to her.

Her fingers closed around the sword’s handle and she rolled, crouching and brandishing the blade in a left-to-right arc in a single movement.

Micah looked down at the wound that had cut through his leathers and his thick skin, drawing blood.

Aella gripped the sword’s handle with both hands, stood, and brandished it again. This time, Micah parried, and pain lanced up her arms, but she held her ground.

She was half aware of the other gargoyles—the ones who were on the roof—landing in front of the house, and approaching the destroyed doors to watch the show. Isaiah’s gaze was far heavier on her; she saw him struggle with his bonds, murmuring her name.

The screams of the child and the quiet sobs of the vampire further fueled Aella’s rage.

“Isn’t that his wife?” asked the gargoyle that was still holding down the vampire male.

Eli snorted. “I told him he should have beaten the fight out of her once and for all, but did he listen? No?”

“I’ll listen this time,” Micah growled, his unholy red eyes wild on Aella, huffing like a bull. “If you stop now, I might not break every single one of your feeble bones.”

A shaky growl left Aella’s throat. “You are nothing but a monster.”

“They are the monsters!” Micah screamed back. “Have you forgotten what they did to you? To your mother?”

Aella shook her head. This vampire family Micah had destroyed had done nothing to do with her. She would not let him use her pain to twist the harrowing reality of what he’d done. “No, you are a monster,” she snarled. “And I’ll be damned if I let you kill a child.”

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