Chapter 68
68
EVANGELINE
M y gaze dipped to Malachi’s full lips, to the sin and promise waiting there.
He was a fucking monster. But he was also inside me, a few mouthfuls of his blood, something my flesh craved another taste of, no matter how loudly my mind protested.
Malachi smelled like cedar and storms, his body hard and muscled, not an inch of softness, despite his foppish mask, and when he tugged the knife from my fingers and draped my hands around the back of his neck, my fingertips traced his long, silky hair.
Our lips met harder than I meant them to, his softer than I’d imagined, his taste something I would remember.
Pain. He tasted like pain , sharp and brutal and needy, and then I was kissing him for real, my tongue meeting his, stroke for vicious stroke, him sucking up all the oxygen, me swallowing down his moan, his hands yanking me roughly against him, and I hissed when his hips slammed into mine.
A tide of heat crashed and rolled inside me, and this was perfect, fucking perfect…
Danger. No. This is a mistake.
Breathless, I shoved him off me, both of us completely unraveled.
“There’s your kiss.” I whipped my other knife out, pointed the puny thing at him. “Keep your word and I won’t stab you in the heart.”
I didn’t know who was a bigger mess, me, trying to appear threatening with a tiny knife in my shaking hand, Eldric, eyes wide enough to show the whites around his golden irises, or Malachi, body trembling as if he could barely stay upright.
Something had changed during that kiss. The usually composed Malachi Draven was completely undone, his eyes wild, hands clenching compulsively, a rather impressive— not that I was dick-measuring —bulge straining against the front of his pants.
Good. I hoped he was suffering.
He deserved all the misery this world had to offer.
“Never fear, little slayer, suffering is what I do best.” A flick of his elegant fingers and Eldric crumpled to the floor, the torch spilling across the stones, the slick of oil igniting in a blazing roar. “Oops.”
“You fucker.” I stomped on the flames, choking, black smoke filled the chamber as I dragged Eldric’s cloak off and beat the flames into submission, until sweat and soot ran down my face. Then I tossed the ruined cloak to the side and checked Eldric’s pulse. Strong. Steady.
“So resourceful, Vicious. Now. Let us begin.”
“Wait.” I held up my hand, glancing wildly around the room, looking to delay the inevitable. “What is this place? Why is that iron box here?”
“Ah, this.” Malachi rested his hand on the box, an expression of pure loathing taking over his face. “This is my past, come back to haunt me. Or rather, the past I continue to drag behind me, like my proverbial ball and chain.”
“What is in there?” I couldn’t explain this dread crawling through me, the sense that something so terrible waited inside that coffin I never wanted to know.
“Do you know I’ve been an outcast for centuries? Didn’t the ever-noble Blake Marten explain my dark, twisted past?” His face brightened. “No? Then let me enlighten you, my love. Because the truth is always far more delicious than the lies people tell.”
His long, pale fingers tapped silently. “I was turned vampire by one of Caine’s Elders, along with my brother and our two best friends. By that point, we’d suffered for twelve years, fighting under Tyrell’s command, until he sold our souls to Caine for a promise of greater power. The father of our race and his monstrous Elders were quite hungry that day, as I recall. They slaughtered us like pigs.”
“You…you are an Ancient.”
“Oh, I hate that term. Makes me feel old.” He demurred. “Anyway, fast forward a thousand years, to when I had the opportunity to even the score and put my Maker in the ground. Killing one’s Maker is a vile, traitorous offense, you see. Good for the heart, terrible for one’s reputation. For my crime, I’ve spent the past millennia as an outcast. Except…” His fingers resumed their tapping. “I didn’t kill him after all. I simply boxed him up in enough iron to negate his magic, and am kind enough to feed him a drop of my blood once a year, enough to keep his vile heart beating.”
“Why…would you do that?’ I asked, horrified.
“Would you like to see him?” Malachi asked, as if he hadn’t heard me. “Yes, I think you would.”
He traced a pattern across the gleaming lid, the same one etched into the metal, a faint path worn over the centuries. When a small door slid back to reveal a gaunt, hollow face framed by long, straggly black hair, I couldn’t stop my gasp .
That face…
“Meet Ravok. My Maker.”
The brutish face matched the malevolence I’d sensed inside Riordan, the cruelty and the violence, the unleashed hatred. I snuck a glance at Malachi. Did he even know his Maker’s consciousness was still in there, searching for a way out? Hungering for revenge?
Seeing the loathing on Malachi’s face, I thought not. No, in his arrogance, he was convinced he had this powerful creature under control.
“My greatest failure, swearing an unbreakable oath to this fucker, but we all make mistakes. None of us can escape who we are, Evangeline. I am what this world has made me, and so are you. I’ve learned to never apologize for who I am, you should do the same.”
The door slid closed, my thoughts in utter turmoil . I had to get out of here, I had to warn…
“Now Vicious, we have a busy night ahead of us.” Power seized my muscles, Malachi smoothed his hand up my arm, then buried his nose in my hair. “You always smell so damn good, I cannot wait until you are mine. Aria will arrive at any moment. Silas and your uncles are waiting outside the walls, Valaine is inside the tunnel. Let’s go welcome our guests with open arms.”
I felt his smile, pressed against my cheek, but all I could do was stare straight ahead, horror and helplessness twisting me into a panicked knot. “Riordan and Blake will watch you open the front doors for their enemies, they will see their castle overrun. And they will know it was me who made their kingdom burn.”
I had to stop this. Had to stop him .
“Is this because Blake executed your brother?” I managed to ask and his grip on me tightened, “You know Blake wouldn’t have ordered his death. Tyrell or Domonic, that’s who you should blame.”
“Oh, but I did blame them, little slayer, and now they’re both dead.”
“Then why are you doing this?” My body shook as I resisted his control, tried to stop myself from betraying the males I loved. “This castle is filled with staff who don’t deserve to be hurt. Don’t make innocent people suffer, Malachi. Please.”
There had to be some way out of this. I flailed against his control, against the doom about to crash down on all of us, my heart cracking open.
“No, I suppose they do not.” He dragged his nose up the side of my throat. “And you already know what I want, Vicious. I want my revenge and I want you, Evangeline.”
Blackness swept over me, a wave of forgetting, and no matter how hard I tried to hang onto the now , everything began to seep away.
Malachi’s lips moved against my ear. “And the only way I can truly keep you is for Riordan and Blake to be gone.”