27. Vesper
From one cage to another. I was just grateful my brother wasn’t here to see it.
Ice-cold water was poured down on my weakened body, stinging any exposed skin. Magical. Of course they would resort to magic.
The craziest thing wasn’t that the king wanted me to be the one to kill Prince Icas. Or that he had me do it at the bastard’s very own wedding.
It was that he let me go.
A loose end that had the ability to make life hard for him. He wasn’t a merciful king—killing someone in front of thousands and then declaring war between the families wasn’t mercy. But I was alive. And home.
Well, in a basement. But home nonetheless.
That was the craziest thing. Not only had I lived to tell the tale of the king’s wrath, but I was somehow right back home, like it never even happened at all. I expected to be tied to him for the rest of my life for what I figured out. Expected that he would need to keep a close eye on me.
It would have been better than the hell that awaited me at home.
“You were supposed to be the savior, Vesper. How could you fuck up so severely?”
I looked up at my father through blurred vision. Pain shot through my chest with each breath. My head was killing me. But none of it was as angering as his fucking face. He had that sad expression on his face, like he actually felt pain for “punishing” me.
The stark black tattoo on his neck was calling to me. In my delusional haze, I could have sworn the snake moved, opening its mouth and preparing to strike.
If only it could put me out of my fucking misery.
The basement was lit enough that he couldn’t try to hide in the darkness. That he couldn’t try to look the other way when he was torturing me. I was still stuck in my clothes from days before and chained to the cement walls that surrounded the room. I was forced into a kneeling position, the chains sufficiently tight to hold my arms and body up in case I was weak enough to faint during the assault.
The basement itself was soundproof. None of my screams would get out. No one would know what went on in the house. They would drive or walk by, thinking it was a picture-perfect suburban house. Though I learned long ago that the screams didn’t make a difference.
Maybe at one point I had screamed for the attention of the people on the outside. Maybe on the off chance that someone would come save me. But no one heard. Not even if Mother had guests over like she sometimes did when I was down here getting my punishment.
That’s when I learned just how unlikely it was that I would ever be saved. I accepted it after some time. Hoped my brother wouldn’t have the same fate as me.
I didn’t believe either of them ever truly felt bad for what they had done to me or my siblings. Father wasn’t capable of a smidge of empathy, much like the vampire king. But, unlike him, he wasn’t drunk on power. Not this time. He was angry and wanted to take it out on something. Mother was the scared one. Her expression told me as much when she saw me walk through the door.
They had truly expected me to die. Even if it wasn’t a part of the seer’s prophecy, they had hinted that what I was meant to do would change the fabric of all vampire families and the secret organization that ruled our family. It was only natural that the person who was to change the future so drastically would become a martyr.
But if I hadn’t become one, what could they do? They couldn’t force me into it any longer.
Maybe this is my father’s way of trying to cover up what I’ve done, I thought bitterly. By killing me himself.
No one in our family or any of the other ones in the secret organization had ever gone against their prophecy. At least that we’d heard of. From the start, we were controlled by the seer’s visions. Completing job after job. Starting families and then indoctrinating them into the same fucked-up family business.
“I tried,” I forced out. My voice grated against my throat, scratchy from not having access to water for almost three days.
I had spent about a day in the Castle family dungeons, and Father locked me up as soon as I was dropped off in this city. Word had gotten out fast, but Father was faster. He always was. Somehow, someone had to have given him notice of what happened.
If someone like yourself made it in here, what makes you think there aren’t more? Cedar’s warning rang loud and clear in my head.
I had stopped the wedding, but what about after? I wouldn’t be there to protect her.
Images of Aurelia’s expression as I stabbed her almost husband were etched into my mind. She truly thought I had abandoned her. But then she smiled. A bone-chilling smile that made me realize just how bloodthirsty she really was.
I couldn’t stop the laugh from spilling from my lips.
Seeing her covered in the blood of that asshole was probably the most beautiful sight I had ever seen in my life.
“You think this is fucking funny?” he snarled. “What happened to you? We’ve been preparing you for this for years. Don’t you know what it means for this family?”
I struggled against my restraints.
“What I think is funny is how blind you are,” I growled and attempted to lunge at him, knowing the restraints would hold me back.
The restraints on my neck and wrists dug into my already raw skin. The time in the second dungeon of the Castle palace, locked up for hours in such a similar way, had already done a number on my skin.
His hand tangled in my hair and jerked my head to the side.
“Not blind enough to ignore how you prepared for this,” he said, his eyes coming to where magic concealed my tattoo. Cedar’s magic hadn’t worn off. “I know about your little outings to the witch’s den.”
“And you didn’t say anything?” I asked. It was a surprise to me that he actually knew. Of course the family used magical items here and there, but the organization that ran us warned about working too closely with the witches.
No doubt for fear of what we would learn. Nothing bad had ever happened to me while working with the witches. Both Levana and Cedar had kept their word. Helped me when I needed it.
So what was it that they didn’t want us to know?
Why was it that Father could get magic-infused items from them to torture his children with, yet we couldn’t communicate with them on our own?
“I wanted to see just how far this rebellious streak of yours would go,” he snarled and tossed my head to the side. Pain radiated from my temple.
“Or maybe they didn’t allow you through their wards,” I said with a bitter smile. “Maybe you knew I was meeting them, but you could never get close enough yourself. Must suck, doesn’t it?”
He let out a growl and reached for a knife attached to his belt.
“Don’t test me, Vesper.”
“Do you know what this prophecy has done to me?” I spat out the word “prophecy” like it was a curse. “All the lives I’ve taken? All the families I’ve ruined? How do you even know that they were worth all this? Have you ever even talked to one of these people or?—”
The next slap stung more than the others.
“It is not our job to care for these monsters,” he retorted, his voice barely above a whisper. Almost as if he was ashamed we were even having this conversation.
I thought I had seen the end of my father’s cruelty. Throughout the years of “training” and the punishments whenever I didn’t act like the cold-blooded killer he wanted me to be.
The truth was, I was every bit the monster he made me. The problem was that he and I had different moral compasses.
Well, apparently, he didn’t have one.
“We are the monsters,” I said in a low voice. “No better than those hunters.”
“We are nothing like them!” The booming of his voice had me flinching.
Yes, we are, and all the vampires saw right through it. They had a longer lifespan than we could ever hope for. They saw what the hunters had done—how they brought the world to the brink of chaos before disbanding.
Only us and all the other families involved in this organization couldn’t see it. We were the ones who tried to deny the truth for what it was.
“You’re not getting anything else out of me,” I swore. “I did what I could. That’s all you need to know. Hitting me won’t change that the prophecy is no longer valid.”
His eyes narrowed at me, his mouth set in a snarl.
My eyes shot to the basement door as it swung open with a creak. Mother’s tired face peeked through, her wrinkles looking much clearer on her face than they had in years. The stress of my return was obvious on her face. But she wasn’t alone.
She pushed into the room, a small body following behind her. Tate.
I thought seeing my brother again would give me some sort of joy, but all it did was give me a renewed sense of fear.
They wouldn’t dare.
But one look at Father’s face told me that he had even more sinister plans for him than I could even imagine.
I jerked against my chains with a growl.
They can’t do this.Not after I had spent so much time trying to save him from exactly this fate. He is too young.
“He’s supposed to be in sch?—”
“This is more important,” Father said, dismissing me and motioning for Tate to come forward. He stood frozen. His insecurity showed through his actions rather than on his face, like anyone else his age. He had already mastered the ice-cold expression Father had taught us.
Mother placed a hand on his back and gently pushed him forward. Her eyes glanced at me before her face steeled as well.
She is scared. That’s why she was allowing this to happen. Scared of Father. Scared of what would happen to us.
She is a coward.
Tate tried not to look at me as he approached. The sound of his feet dragging across the cement floor cut through the small room.
“You can’t take him out of school for stu?—”
Another slap. Tate flinched and froze next to Father.
“Not another word,” he warned, his gaze cold. “Now, Tate, this is an example for you. Vesper decided that she didn’t want to fulfill her duties, and you know what we do to people like that?”
Tate mumbled under his breath.
“Louder.”
“We punish them,” he said just the tiniest bit louder.
My heart dropped into my stomach. Bitterness coated my tongue.
I hate them. I hate this fucking prophecy. I hate this fucking family.
“Right, now let’s start.”