Chapter 35
Ashroud of darkness meets me when I awaken, and the thumping inside my temples causes me to squeeze my eyes closed for a moment.
Someone groans beside me, and I snap my eyes open.
A thin thread of light slips through the bars of the door, just enough to reveal Piper, chained in the space next to me.
Her hands hang above her head, the metal shackles around them welded to a gray stone wall.
My wrists ache with the weight of something cold, and when I look up, I find the same rusty metal wrapped around them.
Across the room, Kaia and Ajax emerge from their slumber to find themselves in the same position. My eyes dart around the small space searching for Finn, but he’s nowhere to be found. Did he turn on us to spare himself from his father’s wrath?
Kaia tries to rip at her chains, causing a loud clanging sound to fill the small space as she fights against her restraints.
“My magic. It’s gone,” she hisses.
“Mine too,” Piper says.
I sink deep within myself for the feel of Karius’s power flowing within me, but it’s gone, yet oddly, I can still feel Athriel, though it is faint. I call out to him, but there’s no answer.
“Looks like your little friend set us up,” Kaia says.
I hate that I can’t even deny it since the thought crossed my mind, too. “Maybe he had no choice.”
She laughs at this, but it lacks all humor.
“Everyone has a choice.”
I say nothing, knowing that she’s right.
No matter how many times I’ve tried to justify the things I’ve done by telling myself that I had no choice, I know that it’s simply not true.
There’s always a choice. We may not like it, but it’s there.
My eyes scan around the room, trying to figure out how the hell we’re going to get out of here, but the only way out is a thick metal door that no doubt is bolted shut from the other side.
“Why do you think he’s doing this to us?” Piper asks.
I sigh. “I guess he thinks that Finn brought us here to set him up or something.”
“Maybe we can talk to him, explain what we came for. He may understand.”
I shake my head at her.
“People like Finn’s father don’t want to understand. They hate your kind. You may forget that being locked up in your fancy castle, but not everyone has the luxury of being able to pretend,” I snap.
She dips her head and mumbles an apology, and I instantly feel like an ass.
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that. This isn’t your fault.”
“No, you’re right. I don’t understand what it’s like to be human in this world. I say that I want a better world, but I do nothing to help make it happen.”
“It’s not your job to make it happen,” Kaia says. I look up and find her face twisted in anger that is directed at me.
“Then whose job is it?” I ask.
“Your kind decided to start a war, and now that you are living in the aftermath of it, you want to bitch about it and blame us.”
Her words fill me with a rage that heats every vein in my body.
“Maybe they did, but have you ever asked yourself why? Vampires are the ones who were too greedy to keep us as equals. You’re already stronger and have magic, but that just wasn’t enough, was it? How many humans did you kill in your righteous war?”
She tries to leap forward, but the chains hold her back, and her eyes turn to slits.
“You have no idea about the war. You think you know everything. Karius wasn’t supposed to inherit the crown—his brother was.
He thought he could broker peace with your people so we could all live as equals.
You know what happened? They turned on him just like he was warned they would, and then they started a war that killed children and innocents, so don’t you dare sit there pretending to have any idea what actually happened. ”
“And that makes what you’re doing now ok?
The humans alive today didn’t betray your crown.
They are gone, but you’re still punishing us for their sins.
When does it end? How many innocent lives must be sacrificed before you realize that nobody wins this way?
The impure poisoned the minds of the humans, and it nearly destroyed both our people.
Are you really so hateful that you would allow it to happen again? ”
She sneers at me but doesn’t say a word.
“She’s right,” Ajax says as he leans his head against the wall. “This is a vicious cycle, and if somebody doesn’t break it, then the impures are going to destroy us all.”
Before anybody can say a thing, the door slams open. I sit up straight, preparing for anything. Finn’s father comes into view, and behind him are two muscular men, their eyes alight with venom. The hate in the room is palpable.
“Good, you’re all awake,” he says, rubbing his chubby fingers together.
Kaia fights against her chains again, but this only causes him to laugh.
“You’re a feisty one, ain’t ya?”
“Take off the shackles and find out,” she spits.
This seems to amuse him even more.
“Even without your powers and strength, you still think that you’re at the top of the food chain, don’t you?” He shakes his head. “Pathetic.”
“Come over here and say that to my face.” Her words are a low growl.
One of the men stalks over to her, slamming the heel of his foot into her stomach.
“Get your fucking hands off her!” Ajax fights against his own restraints as he spits profanities at the man. I’ve never seen him as angry as he is now, but I understand. I feel it too.
The other guard pounds over to Ajax, gripping his face in his hand, squeezing it so hard that he winces in pain.
“And what the fuck are you gonna do about it? Maybe we’ll have our way with her, fuck her like you filthy bloodsuckers do our women.”
My back stiffens at the threat, my eyes falling to Kaia, who for the first time shows genuine terror. The other guy grabs her hair, pulling her from the ground to trail his thick tongue up the side of her face.
“Wouldn’t mind me some vampire pussy, heard it’s some of the best.”
The two of them laugh, but something in Kaia’s eyes gives way to her fear. Her usual fight is gone, and Ajax seems feral beside her.
“Are you so pathetic that you can only get a woman if you force her? I mean, you’re ugly, but a good personality can get someone a half-decent fuck,” I taunt.
The man turns his attention to me, dropping Kaia to the ground as his anger twists his features into a mask of rage. He strides over to where I’m still shackled and wraps a hand around my throat.
“Watch that pretty mouth, darling, or I’ll fuck that too.”
His hold around my throat tightens, but I keep my eyes on him in a challenge. I clench my fists to hide the shaking of my hands as the smell of stale liquor assaults my nose. Greasy hair sticks to his forehead, and he’s so close I can see the thin sheen of sweat that sticks to his olive skin.
“Lance,” Finn’s father warns. “We need them alive, remember.”
Lance sneers in my face before slamming my head against the wall and returning to stand next to Finn’s father.
A ringing sounds in the back of my head, and I have to squeeze my eyes shut for a moment to silence it.
The fuzziness finally clears enough for me to look up at the men.
I notice Ajax’s eyes burning into me and relief settling in his chest as I nod at him, letting him know that I’m ok.
He grits his teeth, turning his attention back to the men.
“What do you want from us?” he asks, and Finn’s father’s mouth turns up into a calculated smile.
“The only thing I ever want from a bunch of bloodsuckers. Your fangs.”
Ajax’s face turns ashen, and it sends a chill running up my spine.
“Start with the pretty one in the corner. She’s given us the least problems,” he tells one of his men.
One of them approaches Piper, and she cries out, the horror clear on her face as he gets closer.
Ajax and Kaia spit obscenities in his direction, but it only seems to goad him more.
He seizes her, slamming her to the floor and pinning her with a knee to her chest. Her cry of horror echoes as he drags a blade across his wrist and presses it to her mouth.
She thrashes her head side to side, but whatever that bastard dosed her with has sapped her strength, leaving her no match for him.
“Get off her!” Kaia screams, but the other guard slaps her so hard that blood flies from her mouth. “You'd better hope I never get out of here because I’m going to kill you,” she tells him.
He laughs.
“You know my favorite thing about you bloodsuckers? You can never run away from your own nature. Even without the magic fully pumping through your veins, you still can’t help what you are or your disgusting need for blood,” Finn’s father says as he gestures toward Piper as the man lifts his wrist from her mouth, revealing her elongated fangs.
He slips a hand into his back pocket, pulling out a set of pliers. My stomach drops.
“No,” I say, but he ignores me. Kaia and Ajax scream from across the room as tears fall from Piper’s eyes. My eyes burn as he takes the pliers to her left fang and begins to pull it out. Her scream pierces the room, and tears spill down my cheeks as she writhes in pain.
He doesn’t relent until a horrible tearing sound fills the air, and her lost fang sits between its grip.
He holds the bloody fang up in the air like a trophy as laughter falls from him.
My eyes fall to Piper, where she lies unmoving, her eyes fixed on the ceiling as blood runs from her mouth and tears spill from her eyes.
She looks broken, like she has lost all her fight, and from the look on Kaia and Ajax’s faces, I can tell that what just happened is going to affect her for the rest of her life.
Piper is a good person, and she has been nothing but kind to me. She didn’t deserve this.
Anger surges through every vein, and I want to scream as I look down at her—at my friend, writhing in pain.
The three men cheer as though they have done a good day’s work, and their laughter acts as a warrant for their deaths.
I suck in a breath, forcing myself to think logically.
This is all my fault. If I hadn’t been so intent on coming here, then none of them would have followed me.
They only came to protect me, and now they’re suffering for it.
“Let her go,” I say, my voice cold and menacing. The entire room falls silent. “You want a way to kill vampires? To get the upper hand? I have it. Let her go, and I’ll give you exactly what you need.”
All eyes fall on me, and Ajax sends a warning glare, but there is no other way.
If I don’t, they will take her other fang.
I’ve never understood why the vampires were always so focused on the fact that I took their fangs after killing them instead of the actual death itself, but somehow now I do.
I can’t make up for what I’ve done, but I can avenge Piper.
That’s the one thing I can do. This may be a foolish idea, but if it saves my friends or even buys us a little time while I wait for Karius’s powers to resurface, then it may be all we need.
“And what could you possibly have that could be better than venom?” he sneers at me.
“Poison,” I say. “The kind that can kill vampires. The kind that the Slayer uses to kill her prey.”
“Adina, no.”
I ignore Ajax’s words and focus my attention on Finn’s father.
“Her?” Finn’s father laughs at this as if the thought that a woman could be powerful enough to kill a vampire is the biggest joke, but he must see something on my face as his features become more serious. “You’re her?” he asks.
I nod.
“You’re the fucking slayer?” He laughs at his own words as if he can’t believe that they’re real.
“Yes, and you just ruined one of my biggest kills by locking me up here. I infiltrated the palace to get close to the royal guard and their precious prince. Finn was helping me.”
I let a crooked smile fill my face to sell the idea that I’m on his side. He cocks his head and stares at me as if analyzing my very soul. I get a glimpse of a dagger tucked at Lance’s waist, but pretend not to notice it.
“Wanna get these things off me?” I ask. “You can do what you want with them after I get their fangs.”
He watches me for half a beat as if in two minds whether to believe me.
“I want proof.”
I shrug.
“Take these things off me and I’ll kill one of them right now.”
He shakes his head. “No sweet cheeks, it’s going to take more than that. I want something only the Slayer would know.”
My throat bobs. This may all be for show to gain his trust, but the things I did were real, and saying them in front of my friends makes something twist in my gut.
“What do you want to know?” I ask.
“I once found a vamp the slayer killed, lying dead in the alley beside the Golden Tavern. Fangs still intact.”
I plaster a fake smile on my face.
“It was the Black Tavern, not the Golden, and I left one fang behind because it was half broken in a fight ring brawl, and the venom had already dried up, so I took the left one and dumped him in the alley for the guards to find.”
His mouth twists into a full grin.
“Well, I’ll be damned. She’s telling the truth,” he says, and an excitement lights the back of his eyes, but only shame fills mine.
“Undo her shackles,” he demands. Lance takes a pause as if questioning his sanity. “I said undo the fucking shackles.”
“Boss—”
“Now!”
Lance flinches before hurrying to drop to his knees in front of me.
I give him a wry smile, and he grits his teeth, and I know that he wants to kill me.
I wait for the perfect moment, letting him undo me, and then I stand to my feet.
I make a show of rubbing my sore wrists, pouring all my focus into the act.
But just before we reach Finn’s father, I slip the dagger from Lance’s belt and, before he can react, draw its sharp edge across his throat.
He clutches at the wound as red blood squirts from it.
I kick the back of his knees, and just as he falls to the floor, I let the dagger fly from my hand straight at the other guard.
It sinks into the flesh between his eyes before he can even reach for the dagger at his own belt.
A breath falls from his lips before he sinks to the ground.
I twist my body across the small space, plucking the dagger from his flesh, and within seconds, I have Finn’s father pressed against the wall with my dagger against his throat. His eyes widen in horror as he looks at me, and I let a twisted smile fill my lips.
“Undo my friends and take me to Finn?”