Fated In Secrets (Nocturne Vampire Clan #2)

Chapter 62

62

EVANGELINE

M y dream pulled me like a hook through my chest, yanking me out of Riordan’s nice, warm bed and dropping me into a cold, dimly lit chamber. I pitched forward, slamming against a rough stone wall, scraping my palms, my head spinning as I got my bearings.

A round, stone room. No windows. Nowhere I’d ever been before.

But I was going to kill the male waiting for me.

Malachi lounged like a debauched king on his dark altar, shadowy glamour clinging to him like a second skin. His pale brown eyes gleamed as I straightened, the ring of fire around his irises flaring.

"Evangeline," he murmured, his smooth voice curling around me like smoke. "My favorite little slayer. So good of you to answer my call."

“What the fuck do you mean…?” I began, but with a wave of his hand, everything flooded back. Aria’s kitchen. The vial of blood. Me, writhing at his feet. The complete and utter loss of my freedom, maybe my soul.

"Fine. Here I am, like I had a choice in the matter. What the fuck do you want, asswipe?" I squared my shoulders and took a closer look around. The round room’s primitive walls were hewn from solid rock, the enormous altar was crafted from dark metal gleaming beneath a single flickering torch.

“That smart mouth gives me so many ideas.” He leaned forward, hands dangling between his spread knees and suddenly the air shifted from playful to dangerous, my skin prickling as his gaze fixed on my lips.

He smirked, fangs glinting in the low light. "You always have a choice, Evangeline. You just need the right... incentive."

I tipped up my chin, but inside, I was shaking. With anger, fear, horror at how utterly helpless I was. His mere presence was suffocating, a constant reminder of the thrall bond tying me to his will. He could do anything he wanted to me. Make me hurt someone.

Kill someone.

Make me… do other things .

Suddenly the thin shirt felt too flimsy, my bare legs too exposed as he raised his head and sniffed.

“Well, haven’t you been busy tonight.” Anger rolled off him like smoke, painting the air with bitterness. “Both of them? At the same time?” He tutted, his face tight. “You naughty, naughty girl.”

Malachi rose, every stalking step deliberately slow as he approached, stopping close enough to reach out and brush his knuckles down my cheek. I flinched, but he only chuckled and pinched my chin to hold me in place.

“Although, knowing you have a wild side gives me…ideas.” He murmured to himself. “Perhaps an experiment is in order.” Excitement bloomed in his eager smile. “I know how much you enjoy learning new things, little slayer. Now… kneel .”

The word wasn’t loud or even commanding, but the directive rolled through me, bending my legs, softening my body until I landed at his feet, my knees thudding against the floor with a meaty whump and a blast of pain.

“Now look up at me and lick those pretty lips of yours. Say you want to suck my cock. Every fucking inch.” His eyes were glowing, that fire had taken them over completely and, his thumb smearing wetness over my bottom lip, I repeated after him, word for fucking word, a warm, humiliating wetness growing between my legs.

I hate him, I hate him, I hate him. I will kill him for this.

"That was lovely, Vicious. Now. Do you know why I called you here?" He asked, his tone conversational, like we were discussing the weather, the toes of his boots pressed against my scraped knees.

“You realized you’re a total fucktwat and you’re about to lose, so you’re surrendering.” I said brightly.

"I’ve realized," he began, pacing away, "that Riordan and Blake are... inconveniently resilient. No matter how much chaos I wreak, no matter how I rally the rest of the clan against them, they manage to endure. Now it seems, Riordan’s resurrection has brought in a new influx of allies. It’s infuriating, really. But I’ve found a better way to break them."

He turned to me, his dark eyes burning with cruel amusement. "You."

I stiffened. "What are you talking about?"

"You’re perfectly positioned to destroy them from within," he said, his voice honeyed with malice. "You’ve already won their trust. Riordan’s brand-new kingdom is barely stitched together with tenuous promises and fragile alliances. All it needs is a little push to shatter apart."

"I won’t betray them," I said firmly, though my voice trembled at the edges.

Malachi tilted his head, mockingly thoughtful. "Won’t you? Let me paint you a picture of what happens next, Vicious."

He stepped closer, his voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. "First, you’ll undo the protections around Darkmore Castle. Aria has already created holes in the ward, but I need those secret passageways unblocked, every hidden entrance exposed. Let their sanctuary become their tomb."

I shook my head, but he continued, relentless.

"Then, you’ll turn them against each other," he said, his tone gleeful. "Riordan and Blake may be loyal to each other now, but jealousy... jealousy is a caustic poison that has no cure. They claim you’re their greatest love? You’ll become their damnation. Because of you, they will turn on each other, throw a lifelong friendship out the window, and once trust turns to suspicion, I will handle the rest."

I clenched my fists, my nails biting into my palms. “That’s a stupid plan. Stupider than no plan at all. They trust each other more than you’ll ever know."

"Trust is brittle," Malachi said dismissively. "Trust shatters under the right pressure. And once they’re divided, once they’re looking at each other as enemies instead of allies..." He smiled, sharp and cruel. "That’s when I’ll make my move."

I stared at him, the glint of madness in his pale brown eyes, the color staining his cheeks. This was reckless and pointless and was like something a teenage boy might…a sudden thought hit me out of nowhere.

Was Malachi… jealous ?

"You don’t understand how loyal they are. They’ll never fight over me, and you’re thinking like a child,” I said slowly, glaring up at him from my fucking knees. I was going to relish the day I finally got to kill this fucker.

Malachi leaned in, his face inches from mine. "You belong to me now, Vicious. I will have my revenge. And if you even think of defying me..."

He traced a finger along the pulse pounding in my throat, dread tightening around me like a noose. "You’ll find I won’t show as much restraint as I am showing you tonight. Be glad I’m merciful, because right now, the urge to use those pretty lips the way I want is pretty goddamn tempting."

Why did my fucking body respond to him, when all I wanted was to kill him? I hated vampire biology, because that was all this was.

“Try anything and I’ll bite your cock off. I doubt even you could grow that back, asshole.”

I should have stopped right there, except a streak pure meanness went through me. “Although I doubt there’s much to grow back.” I put every bit of my hatred into my eyes, my cruel, biting smile.

“A couple of inches, I suppose, which would explain why you’re always so busy…c ompensating .”

Surprise flared in his eyes, followed by something much, much worse. Anticipation.

“Oh Evangeline, you are such a delicious treat.” The thrall bond flared, and his dominance settled over me like a net of pure power, sinking into my muscles, my bones, rendering my resistance futile as every instinct screamed at me to obey.

“And that pretty mouth can lie all it wants, but I smell your arousal, thick and ripe and dripping. I could throw you up on this coffin and lick your cunt and fuck you and feed from you and…”

He gripped a handful of hair, slowly drew my head back until I stared straight at him, “I could make you come, every bit as hard as those brutes did earlier. Even through the walls, I heard you scream their names while they fucked you. Did you enjoy being shared, my sweet little slayer?”

Something cruel and ancient burned in his gaze as a fist wrapped around my mind and squeezed . “Did you get off on being held down and used like their little fuck toy? Did you enjoy being helpless?”

“ Yes .” The truth ripped out of me before I closed my eyes, tears streaming down my face as he shrugged.

“Well, then.” The breath he blew out was more of a shuddering hiss. “We want what we want, Evangeline. There’s no denying our true natures.” His hand was shaking when he released me and I dropped forward onto all fours.

"Remember, I’m counting on you to deliver, darling," Malachi said, stepping back and flashing a wicked smile. "Get your sweet little ass upstairs and don’t disappoint me." He dissolved away. Not exactly dematerialized, more like… dissolved , and I shook my head to clear away the fog.

What did he mean… upstairs ?

I turned around and found a set of stone steps leading up, torches burning on either side. And this room…what the hell was this room? With the rounded walls, this seemed more like a tomb than anything else, and I touched the edge of the altar— coffin , Malachi had called it—then snatched my hand back.

Iron.

Cold as ice, every rivet and weld coated with the faintest glow of blue magic.

I put my foot on that first step, tears prickling my eyes.

I couldn’t let this happen. I couldn’t betray the males I loved. But then, like I had no control at all, I started to climb.

“Maybe this is good,” I muttered. “Maybe I’ll never get to where I’m going and Malachi can go fuck himself.”

I’d been climbing forever and still, the steps stretched endlessly before me. My feet moved of their own accord, a strange, unnatural rhythm guiding me upward. This was like being trapped in a waking dream, my will no longer my own.

I reached the dungeons, the smell of piss and shit and old blood making me gag. Malachi’s voice echoed in my mind, a haunting refrain I couldn’t silence.

Undo the wards. Open the passageways. Make the castle vulnerable.

Fuck you, asshole.

All in good time, little slayer. And you will scream my name when I do.

The words repeated over and over, each one sinking deeper into my brain like claws as I resumed my climb, the soles of my feet already raw, my thighs burning.

When I hit the top of the stairs, I was in a part of the castle I’d been in once before, on one of the worst nights of my life. Dust coated the furniture, the air still smelled of explosives and old blood. Tyrell’s wing, abandoned and locked away after his death.

I kept moving toward an enormous painting looming at the end of the corridor; its gilt frame tarnished with age. Depicting a younger, regal version of Tyrell, those piercing blue eyes fixed on me as I approached.

Behind the painting, Malachi’s voice whispered. Open the first door .

I resisted, fingers shaking from the effort, pain flickering up my arm into my chest. Then Malachi’s almighty control clamped down on me and he took over, his stern voice a blade of pure command slicing through my thoughts.

Obey me, little slayer, or you will bear the brunt of my temper.

My hands trembled as they gripped the heavy frame, pulling the painting aside to reveal a door cut into the wood paneling. The door was lined with intricate symbols glowing in the darkness—Aria’s ward.

Now close your eyes and repeat after me.

Raising my hands, I spoke foreign words in a language I didn’t recognize, but somehow understood instinctively. The glowing symbols flickered, the ward faded away, leaving the door unprotected.

Malachi’s voice urged me forward. The next one. Keep going.

And I did.

Door after door, breaking ward after ward. I found them all—hidden behind faded tapestries, beneath trapdoors in the floor, cleverly concealed in plain sight. Each time, I spoke the same spell without hesitation, breaking our protections one by one.

The hours blurred together, the weight of what I was doing pressing down on me like a suffocating fog. I wanted to stop. I wanted to scream for help. But I couldn’t.

This is wrong. This is betrayal.

The thoughts surfaced briefly, but Malachi’s voice drowned them out, like he drowned everything out.

Stop resisting. Obey me. Keep going.

By the time the first light of dawn crept through the castle’s old windows, I had unlocked every one of the castle’s defenses, so carefully put in place to protect us.

But the joke was on Malachi . I grinned, heading for the dragon staircase, the wing where Riordan’s bedroom was, the bed where he and Blake still dozed. I’ll warn them. I’ll tell them everything and then we’ll eviscerate him.

The graphic, bloody picture I painted in my mind had me smiling.

None of that, Vicious. We’ve been through this before. You need to forget. My feet stopped moving. Like I was stuck in a full-body vice, I just…stopped, my thoughts drifting away like smoke.

Forget, little slayer. Forget everything.