Chapter 75
Chapter Seventy-Five
APRIL
Trust.
Such a fickle thing, yet everything depends on it.
Empires rise and fall based on trust. On loyalty.
How many things need to happen to a girl for her to lose her shit once and for all?
The world exploding when you are very young, revealing monsters from your nightmares to rule it?
Check. Your parents turning their back on you and dropping you like a hot rock because your blood type means certain death for them?
Check. Those same monsters you hate from the bottom of your soul gunning for your head, catching you and turning you into one of them?
Check. The only friend you’ve ever had and trusted with your life selling you out? Check, check, and double check.
And the bitch killed Andrei.
Memories flood my mind, taking me back to when I crawled through the underground tunnels of the city, foolishly believing that no one would know where I was. The night I braved the monsters so I could help a friend I loved as family.
The only family I had left.
“I think someone was following me,” I mumble lamely, shrugging a shoulder.
“Maybe someone else needed medication, too? I mean, we are surely not the only ones left hiding.” Her words sound strong, but when I lift my eyes to her face, I can tell Sara doesn’t believe her own reasoning either.
“Maybe ...” Leaning back on the wall, I close my eyes. I’m so tired I can barely keep them open any longer. “Whatever it was, we should stay low for a few days, I think. Just in case.”
“Should we try to find another spot in the tunnels where we’ll be safer?”
“This is the safest place to be if we want to live, Sara. Trust me.”
The words pass my lips more like an unintelligible murmur than anything else.
I’m not even sure I said them out loud. Something in me flutters, a whispered worry that I’m crazy thinking anywhere is safe.
Why in the world would I tell her this? Optimistic ideas like that have killed many, yet I can’t find enough strength to open my eyes and correct the bullshit that spilled from my lips.
“As crazy as it sounds, April”—I feel Sara’s fingers pushing hair away from my forehead, just like I’ve seen her do to her brother Eddie—“I believe you from the bottom of my soul.”
Red hot rage makes me dizzy, and I clutch the edge of the desk I’m leaning on with a white-knuckled grip.
All the lies, everything she said and did, every word that spilled from her mouth, and her every action …
it’s all led me to this. For what? For Sebastian, a voice in my head chirps, pissing me off.
“That’s not a very nice look on you, friend.” Eshe prowls in, her eyes wary, although her tone is airy and unconcerned.
I have to do a double take when she enters.
Gone are the bangles, strings of crystals, and beads around her neck.
I’ve known her for as long as I can remember.
A deep red long-sleeved shirt hugs her torso, and it’s tucked in black, skin-tight jeans that disappear into knee-high leather boots with a thin heel about six inches tall.
The blood color of the shirt compliments her ebony skin, just as the red lipstick on her full lips brings attention to her high cheekbones and beautiful face.
Her braids are piled high on top of her head, cascading over one shoulder.
With a sigh, I turn to her and embrace my oldest friend.
“Well, only one of us can look good, friend.” Answering her in kind with a humorless chuckle —I take hold of her upper arms, pushing her away to take a better look. “Modern times sure look good on you. You are stunning.”
“Oh, stop that.” Slapping my hands away, she snickers.
“You always were a smooth talker. Now, spill all your secrets.” All joking is gone as those ancient eyes lock on my face, unblinking, the weight of her stare not giving me an option to dismiss her question.
“Let’s hear what has you glaring at that desk like it owes you a blood debt. ”
“Like I don’t have reasons enough? Take a pen and a roll of paper and let us make a list. A sheet won’t do the trick.” Scrubbing my face with both hands, I sigh. “You know … I miss the days when the only thing I knew was that I was a human woman scraping to survive.”
Eshe purses her lips and looks me up and down.
“And I miss the days when we could control kings with no worries and rip throats out left and right without caring if anyone would notice.” Propping a hip on the desk next to me, her arms fold over her chest. “What’s your point?”
“What happened to the Eshe who spoke in a formal, archaic manner?” Glancing at her from the corner of my eye, I push papers those idiots calling themselves Council left behind after their long overdue deaths. “I think I liked her better.”
Snorting, her eyes take on a faraway look. “She had to keep to who she was for the sake of appearances. Not wanting to change and being unable to are two different things.” A grin pulled her lips up. “As Vincenza would’ve loved to say long before April took the rein, wouldn’t you agree?”
“Touché, my friend. Touché.”
“Let us stop deflecting, shall we.”
“There is nothing to say, Eshe.” Throwing the pile of papers I’ve gathered in my hand with a smack, I spin, walking around the desk to start pacing.
“Betrayal. It didn’t sit with me well then.
It doesn’t sit with me well now.” Fists clenching, I struggle to keep my fangs from bursting out.
“That fucking bitch! And Andrei …” I hate when my voice breaks just at the mention of him.
“You truly cared for the young one.” Her eyes track me, noticing every twitch of muscle. Nothing escapes her, and that’s the main reason we became friends a very long time ago. “Not just as one of your subjects. I believed Sebastian was the one you chose. Was I mistaken?”
“What?” Taken aback, I stop pacing to gape at her.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake. He was my friend, Eshe.
Remember when having one of those was a normal, mundane thing?
And yes, I cared for him deeply, but times where I took multiple lovers to my bed are gone.
” Her cocked eyebrow pisses me off. “I’m too acutely aware of my human life.
In modern times, monogamy is a big thing apparently. ”
“I’m not judging.” Oh, but she is.
I could see it in every sweep of her long, thick lashes.
“He is dead.” Goosebumps pop over my arms from the flat, dejected tone of my voice. All this time has passed, I would’ve thought the pain and grief would ebb a little.
I was wrong. Days turned into weeks. Weeks into months, months into a year, then two. The excruciating, numbing pain is still as fresh as the first day.
“We never found the body—”
“There wasn’t a body to be found in the pile of bones and ash they left behind.” I cut her off harshly, a red haze coloring my vision, and my fangs throbbing in my gums.
“So there wasn’t.” Lowering her voice to calm me, as if speaking to a cornered animal, she pushes off the desk. “That being said, I will not sit back and watch you drown in anger and misery.”
“What is this about?” The words are slurred through my fangs while I fight with myself not to pounce on her and rip her throat out.
Rage is burning too strong, and I struggle to be able to control myself around anyone.
Which is the reason I was hiding in the damn room that stunk to high heavens of the assholes I killed.
It only drives me further down in the insanity screaming for me to go out there and kill anyone and anything in sight.
“What do you mean?” The flick of her gaze to the floor examining the ridges in the parquet is the only answer I need.
“Why are you here?”
With a sigh, Eshe’s arms drop to her sides. “Sebastian is worried about you.” When I narrow my eyes on her, her hand reaches for me, but I take a step back. “We are all worried about you. This is not healthy.”
“I need you to leave.” My power is churning inside me, clawing under my skin to be unleashed. As pissed off as I am, I don’t want to hurt her. “Now.”
Eshe transforms in front of my eyes from friend to imposing creature that had empires trembling at her feet for centuries. Her own power swirls around us, lifting her braids on an invisible breeze. Gone are the pleasantries or whatever tactic she has been using to placate me.
“Listen to me now and listen well … friend,” she spits the word like a mockery.
“I have loved you as a sister for longer than this damn world has been in existence, and I’ve mourned you for just as long.
” Fangs poke out from under her curled lip, and her eyes glow like embers.
“If it takes a fight to get you out of whatever madness is muddling your brain, by all means, let us get it over and done with. But don’t you dare order me around like one of those boys pretending to be men you have doting on you.
You and I have been family way longer than they’ve been alive, so you can show me the respect I’m due. What shall it be, April?”
“What do you want me to do!” Screaming my rage, my nails rip the skin of my palms.
“I’m very glad you asked.” All the power she is throwing around disappears, and she smiles. There is nothing sweet in it, and it curdles my insides. I’ve seen that look on her face, right before roads were running with blood like rivers.
I raise one eyebrow, waiting her out.
“You get revenge.” Her grin grows.
I bark out a laugh.
“You bet your ass I will.” My smile matching hers, I roll my shoulders. “I will get my revenge.”