Chapter 3
Ashrill scream jerked Lila awake from her already fitful sleep. As soon as the Reinicks had left, she kept her word to Ambrose and trained her heart out. Her limbs had grown weak once more in her months back under the Viper’s venom, but she tried her best to keep her muscles as strengthened as they could be. Squats, push-ups, sit-ups, and even pull-ups, if she could find a spot, were now her daily solace from this hell hole.
Unlike her time in the Crow Court, however, her body showed little improvement. Every time Ciro drank from her, it felt like an entire week’s worth of exercise was for nothing.
And what was worse, everything was so much harder to accomplish. She went from banging out one hundred squats a night, to barely maintaining thirty.
Damn the viper venom, she thought.
After a few rigorous rounds of stabbing the wall and bed with her stake, Lila’s body was ready to give out on her. She washed up in the small basin in her room, and collapsed into the bed.
Sleep didn’t come—not really.
It was hard to sleep when, at any point, Lila knew she could be attacked. The brothers were silent, deadly beasts, and she had no clue as to when they’d return.
But when she heard the shrill scream echo through the stone walls of the Viper Morada, Lila knew they were back. And worse, they brought trouble.
She shot out of bed, her back stiff from the hay-made bed, and her muscles still sore from the work out. But, the scream shot through her, first like a fever dream and then brought her to fully alert, fully awake, and her body tensed as she prepared for any possibility, though her body was in no shape for another fight. With them, she never knew what to expect, but she knew it was never good.
As soon as Lila made it to the threshold of her room, she knew something was off. There was a sharp, metallic tang in the air, and the scream had multiplied into a choir of wailing.
“Lilaaaa . . .”
She knew she shouldn’t leave her room. Not only had Ciro directly commanded her not to, but who knew what would await her.
“Lila, pet, come join the fun . . .”
Her feet moved before her mind could process. Cold stone froze Lila’s toes with each step, as Drusilla’s voice carved its way into her very being.
She wasn’t sure where she was being led to, all she knew was that she had to follow. Had to follow and see. Lila climbed the four steps and placed her palm on the damp wooden door that led out of the murine quarters.
“Hurry, doll, or you’ll miss all the fun . . .”
Lila quickened her step. Through the darkened corridors and chilly hallways she went, until she arrived at the two massive doors that lead to the main hall of the Viper Morada.
Through Lila’s time as a murine in the manor, she abhorrently avoided the main hall at all costs. Back when Lord and Lady Reinick were still around, they would hold massive revels for all the vampires in the land. Slues of murine would be brought in from neighboring villages. Ciro made sure Lila and her brother remained in their tiny crypt during those nights, but the screams they would hear echoing through the stone would keep them wide awake for much longer than the night itself.
She remembered, once, Hektor dragged her upstairs during one of them. He kept a territorial grip on her waist the entire night, growling at any vampire who dared even look at her. But that didn’t stop him from forcing her to join the murine games.
Shackles and cages decorated the halls during the murine feasts. Lila remembered the cuffs placed around her ankles, her wrists, as she was shackled to a wall, unable to escape as Hektor drank from her.
That was around the time he discovered how much he loved drinking her blood from her thighs.
Since then, Ciro had kept a close eye on Lila, making sure Hektor never stole her away again, and though she’d always been thankful, she knew it was for selfish, greedy reasons—not chivalry.
But now, thanks to Drusilla, she felt such a strong desire to be where the murine were. To be where the Reinicks were. To be in the center of it all.
As her hand pressed against the final door, a tiny voice in her head yelled danger, danger. But the forest-green fog clouding her mind was blinding. It was all she could see.
Until she only saw red.
A scream bubbled from Lila’s throat before her eyes could focus on any of the countless bodies before her. She threw herself against the door, to run back the way she came, but it was too late. Vampires were on either side of it, blood coating their chins and chests, their eyes glowing a gold so brilliant, they looked like fireflies in the dark of night.
But Lila couldn’t focus on any of them, she couldn’t see their faces—only their sharp fangs and those glowing orbs that made her sick.
One of the faceless vampires grabbed her arm, pulling her to them in a sharp tug. With their free hand, the vampire angled Lila’s face toward the room.
Immediately, the sick feeling in her stomach turned into a disease. She felt the bile rise in her throat, stinging and burning, and threatening to burst.
All around her were bodies. Human bodies, torn to shreds and bits. An arm over here, a head being tossed around over there—some of the bodies were still screaming, still shaking, still trying to get away. But the vampires of the Viper Morada wouldn’t let them.
The vampire behind her shoved Lila to a dais in the center of the room, on which lay Ciro, Hektor, and Drusilla. She felt the blood, both cold and hot, squish under her bare feet the moment she was pushed across the room, oozing under her sole, between her toes. She didn’t want to think about which of these poor souls it belonged to. Or rather, how many of them it belonged to.
Drusilla lounged against pillows, other vampires surrounding her as they fed on murine, while others shared from each other’s soaked bodies as they groped on one another. But Drusilla’s sick hazel eyes were a violent shade of green as they landed on Lila.
“Pet, you came,” Drusilla smirked, her ruby lips splitting as the blood shimmered on her pearly white teeth.
Lila nearly vomited right then.
“Do you like what I’ve done with the place?” Drusilla wove a long hand with even longer nails around the room. Murine cried in cages—were shackled to walls as vampires cut them up and lapped at the wounds, were torn apart across the floor.
The screams from the humans melded with the moans of the vampires. Monsters were feasting on flesh, fucking over corpses, covered in blood.
Lila spotted Hektor then, his ravenous eyes on her as he fucked into a screaming woman and tore open her neck.
He smirked at her as their eyes met, and she knew . . .
I’m pretending she’s you.
As he thrust into the human woman harder, Lila took a step back, turning back to the door but was stopped again. The vampire holding Lila, a creature with the same venomous green eyes as those from the Arachnid Estate, snickered behind her as their claws dug into Lila’s arm. They looked about ready to prance the moment Drusilla gave the word, their teeth at the ready, mere inches from Lila’s neck.
But it seemed the hag of the Arachnid Estate had other plans for her. She beckoned the vampire to release Lila, and with an aggressive shove, Lila was on her knees in front of the dais.
“Come, doll,” Drusilla beckoned. Like before, the thick sage fog clouded her mind, and before she knew it, Lila was crawling up the steps of the dais. Drusilla patted the pillow beside her and Lila’s body instinctively curled into the crook of the hag’s arm, body pressed to body. “Lovely Ciro gave me special permission to sample you tonight. How do you feel about that?”
Lila didn’t move. She liked being against Drusilla’s body, it was so warm, and soft, and—
Vile.
Blinking furiously, Lila tried to fight the thrall on her. She shoved away from the woman, but it was too late and she was already far too close. Drusilla threw herself atop Lila, pinning her down below her.
“I like this dress, Ciro. Did you have it custom made?” Drusilla’s eyes sparkled as she addressed the man watching them, her clawed hand gliding under the strap at Lila’s shoulder.
Lila struggled underneath, but her hands were bound by Drusilla’s, her wrists grasped in one hand as though it were an iron band.
Ciro grunted. “I did.”
“I might need to borrow your seamstress,” Drusilla smirked as she ran a taloned finger over Lila’s body, making a sharp slit just under her collarbone. Small droplets of warm blood immediately welled.
Deadly silence echoed louder than the screams all throughout the room. It was a silence Lila felt down to her very bones. And she knew, every vampires’ eye was on her at that moment. Everyone in that room would be ready to have her, their bloodlust stronger than it had been all evening.
“Get off!” Lila bucked against Drusilla, kneeing her in the gut with as much force as she could muster in this angle. Drusilla gasped, her grip loosening just enough for Lila to wiggle out from under her.
But once again, the vampire was faster. Drusilla wrapped a hand as cold as stone around Lila’s arm and dragged her back. She didn’t leave time for a witty remark as she pulled Lila’s body into hers and licked at the wound.
Drusilla moaned against Lila’s skin. “Lords, you are truly one of a kind. How you have not drained her completely, Reinick, is beyond me.”
Everything and everyone in the room faded from Lila’s mind as she struggled to free herself. She had to get out. Now.
She pushed against Drusilla’s shoulders as she straddled the vampire, but all it did was push the thin red strap of her crimson silk dress off her shoulder.
“You’re a feisty little one, aren’t you?”
And before the words had even fully fallen from her lips, Drusilla pulled Lila’s hair to the side and snapped into the curve of her neck.
Immediately, Lila felt all her muscles go taut. Drusilla squeezed Lila’s body to her own, breast to breast, as a thin layer of blood seeped through the fabric of both of their dresses from the wound at Lila’s collar.
A small whimper escaped Lila’s lips as Drusilla took another drag before finally letting go.
The hag’s eyes were wild with bloodlust, her pupils dilated to where Lila could only see the blacks of her eyes. At that moment, Drusilla truly looked like a black widow about to snap its mate’s head tangled in her web. And Lila was caught. Her taut limbs wouldn’t move, all the fight left her body while it raged in her mind. She slunk into Drusilla’s arms, completely paralyzed save her for eyes and the small wheezes of breath she was able to release.
“Aw, the Little Mouse can’t move? What fun we could have with her now . . .”
Lila’s bones chilled as Hektor spoke. She heard the sick slide of skin as he shoved the woman he was with away. She tumbled down the dais and landed hard on the stone floor, a trail of blood dripping from her torn neck down her chest. Lila realized the girl’s eyes weren’t moving . . . they looked hollow, cold. Lifeless.
Hektor crawled into Lila’s line of sight. His shirt was gone and his pants hung low on his waist. But even more terrifying was the girl’s blood still dripping down his chin. The girl he just murdered. His gold eyes looked up behind Lila, and in them was a sense of desperation, pleading. Lila realized he was looking at Ciro, silently asking him if he could, in fact, have fun with her now.
She could just barely see Ciro out of the corner of her eye, her head tilted away from. But, she could just make out his jaw clenching, and his eyes meeting hers.
Lila tried to will her body to move, tried to get away, but nothing worked. She considered calling Ambrose through the Concord but . . .
But if she did, he would be throwing himself into a den full of vampires who’d be ready to kill him the moment they sensed him.
And while she knew he’d stop at nothing to take down what would essentially be two manors on his own, she couldn’t bring herself to reach out to him. No. She’d come to the Viper Morada for a reason. She had to handle this herself.
She’d been through worse, this would be nothing. But the invisible restraints paralyzing her body made her heart feel as though it were going to give out. Everything became too much, too quickly. Her lungs wouldn’t expand enough and she wasn’t breathing nearly enough air.
It was as though Lila forgot how to breathe, and all at once, her entire body was begging to move, to stir. She tried to bend her finger. She tried to wiggle her toe, her nose, to purse her lips, to scratch the itch on her cheek. But her body wouldn’t listen.
Drusilla, still under Lila, shifted back into her original spot against the pillows. She turned Lila around in her arms, and pulled Lila between her legs, Lila’s back to Drusilla’s chest.
Before she heard Ciro respond to his brother, Drusilla groaned, “Oh, let him have some fun, Reinick. The boy just wants to play with his food.” Lila could feel Drusilla’s wicked grin and hot breath spread over Lila’s neck as she tried desperately to avoid the heat of Hektor’s glare roaming over her body.
After a silent beat, Ciro sighed out of sight. “Fine. But Hektor . . .”
Hektor looked up, past Lila.
“Know your limits.” Ciro’s words were like ice. A command, a threat, and—for Lila—a death sentence.
I can handle this, she reminded herself.
But . . . Lila could do nothing but watch as Hektor’s lips cracked into a terrifying grin. He looked like a little boy who’d just been gifted the entire world for Yule.
And then his eyes latched onto her.
He crawled to her, on hands and knees. As one hand landed on the floor beside Drusilla’s ankles, she lifted a heeled foot and pressed it into Hektor’s strong shoulder.
“Slow there, serpent. Let’s share her.”
Lila felt Drusilla’s nails graze the skin at her shoulder, shift the hair from her neck, leaving it bare.
“I’d rather not. But as the guest of honor in a Viper Morada revel, I suppose I don’t mind.”
A rock clogged in Lila’s throat as the pit of her stomach felt like it was trying to run away from her. Not only would they cause her double the pain now, but the two of them drinking from her would surely cause a bloodlust frenzy. Vampires were creatures of passion, and that passion melded when it came to hunger, sex, and pain.
And now Lila would be right in the middle of it.
I can handle this, she reminded herself again and again. Ciro wouldn’t let Hektor go too far. He was too selfish for that. It may get bad, but not worse. She could handle this. She didn’t need to call on Ambrose and endanger him. She could handle this.
Could she?
I can handle this!
She felt Drusilla’s lips smile again as they hovered over her neck, as Hektor smirked at her. There was a glimmer of lust in his eyes, and she felt that heat radiate from Drusilla as well now.
Hektor reached for Drusilla’s foot still on his shoulder and kissed her ankle as he lowered it. He crawled forward, shifting his gaze to Lila.
“I have been dying to have you again, Little Mouse.” The nickname twisted Lila’s stomach again. It was taunting and it made Lila’s blood boil. “Oh, so warm today. I wonder how hot you are on the inside.” He smirked, and then lowered to Lila’s eye level. “Well, Drusilla. Buen provecho.” Hektor’s smile revealed sharp fangs as Drusilla bit into Lila’s neck again.
Lila yelped and in a flash, the pain spread to her thigh, where Hektor had lowered himself to drink from his favorite spot. Lila could only watch as he held her thighs apart, biting into one as his nail dug into the other, gripping them, claiming them. He closed his eyes, and she felt his tongue as it lapped up every single drop of her.
She was already feeling lightheaded as the two were literally sucking the life from her. The fight in her mind finally gave out, matching her paralyzed body.
Behind her, Drusilla moaned as her hands began to roam over Lila’s body, searching for Hektor.
The frenzy had taken over, and she was sure the demons wanted more.
Hektor tore himself from her thigh as Drusilla finally found the waistband of his dark leather pants. She pulled him, and Hektor obliged, climbing up Lila and Drusilla’s body. His hands were on Lila and Drusilla both, shifting Drusilla’s dress up as fingers grazed Lila’s skin, over her hips, her breasts. His venom-colored eyes bore into Lila, watching in apt attention as she tried to look anywhere but him.
Around them, the revel was still going on. The eyes that had once been on her were now on the other humans in the room. Screams were still echoing as she made eye contact with a few survivors.
Lila imagined this is what Hell must look like. She didn’t know much about the older religions, but Hell was often brought up by the vampires—often described in their history. And she knew in her very soul, the hellfire she had heard only snippets of must have looked exactly as this room did now. Bodies tossed about, dead and near-dead, humans begging for mercy, blood as thick as butter spread throughout the floor.
But worst of all, was the lack of hope this room permeated. There was no way out of this. No way for safety to weasel its way in.
As Drusilla took another pull of Lila’s blood, she pulled Hektor’s cock free from his pants and he hungrily chuckled as Lila’s eyes widened as much as the Arachnid venom would allow.
“Do you finally want my cock inside of you, Little Mouse?”
Drusilla didn’t seem to care what was happening, she just needed to feel something as she lapped at Lila’s throat.
Lila’s heart stopped beating as she tried with all her might to just fucking move.
But not even a flinch would escape her.
“Hektor,” Ciro’s voice warned.
And for once, that voice was like a miracle. She praised that voice in that moment, for it was keeping the leash on the monster. She still couldn’t see him, but she knew he was there. And though she hated it—hated him—Ciro was her only assurance right now that she would survive this. And if she could survive, she could handle anything else that might happen.
Hektor sneered but heeded his brother. His focus once again shifted to Drusilla as he shoved her dress farther up her thighs, bunching it at her waist. He pulled Drusilla down toward him, pressing her thighs open as she latched her teeth back into Lila’s neck once more.
Lila figured they must’ve looked like a monster of limbs, as Hektor angled himself at the apex of Drusilla’s thighs. He raised himself to his knees as Drusilla lay flat on the dais with Lila above her. He was going to fuck her with Lila right in the middle of them like the cheese in their fucked-up sandwich.
Hektor hoisted one of Drusilla’s thighs in his hand, while his other grabbed for Lila’s ankle. She felt his grip tighten around her frail bones and she desperately wanted to use the moment to kick him in the face. But when she couldn’t so much as twitch, Hektor just smiled at her. It was like a shock of cold water, as fangs coated in her blood shone back at her, his chin still covered in blood. It was a smile of nightmares, of her worst fears. The smile of a predator.
Her gut roiled, and all she could hope on was Ciro. Lords, what a sick and twisted situation she’d gotten herself into, that her one hope for mere safety was in the form of one of her greatest nightmares.
With eyes still locked on Lila, Hektor plunged into Drusilla.
Lila felt Drusilla’s moan on her neck as her hands continued trailing up Lila’s body.
“Harder, love,” she said between licks of blood.
Hektor rammed into her again, his eyes glued to Lila’s. When Lila fought to look anywhere but him once more, Hektor yanked her ankle, digging his teeth into it and drawing even more blood. She didn’t know how she wasn’t dead yet. The ankle bites always hurt Lila most, and she screamed at the immediate pain, which only sent Hektor wilder.
“Fuck, Lila, you feel so good.”
She expected Drusilla to stop him, but clearly, she was using the fucker too. And Ciro—he was still watching, monitoring . . . wasn’t he? Ciro wouldn’t let any more than this happen to her.
What if he’d left? What if there was no sliver of hope there to protect her now? What if . . . What if she were next? What if Hektor acted on his desires and raped Lila?
Fear rolled through her, simmering in her gut. She needed to get away. She needed to do something.
Lila didn’t want to be here anymore. She wanted to be elsewhere.
She wanted to be with Ambrose.
She wanted to be home.
Lila imagined herself then, in her bed at the Crow Court. Pollock nesting on her pillows by her head. Ambrose was there, comforting, warm. She lay on top of his leathery wing, as he read her a fairy tale of a far-off kingdom—a kingdom in the ocean—and a princess who was in love with a man of the sea. He would tuck the loose strands of her lilac hair behind her ear, and kiss her forehead as she nodded off to sleep. Ambrose would tuck her in, lying beside her till morning. His warmth would be her warmth and their hearts would beat in tandem as they cuddled together. Safe.
But as Hektor grunted in pleasure, pulling out of Drusilla and spilling himself all over Lila’s crotch, her illusion of home shattered.
“Urgh!” Drusilla painfully broke away from Lila’s neck and kicked that same heeled foot into Hektor’s chest, hard enough to send him tumbling back down the dais. “You can’t even please a woman, you selfish snake!” Drusilla shoved Lila off of her, and she rolled to the side, her back now to Drusilla and Hektor. “Find me someone else to fuck—someone who knows what they’re doing.”
And just like that, the vampire forgot about her.
Which was fine by Lila, she was ready to go to sleep and never wake up.
A black polished shoe stopped just in her line of sight. And then a man bent down and eased her back up. Ciro.
“If you’re done, I’m taking her now . . .”
Anywhere is safer than here.
“Brother, please, I—” Hektor began, but Ciro was done sharing. Lila could see the flair in his eyes as he punched his brother so hard, Lila heard the crush of bone as Hektor’s nose caved in.
Ciro stood, easily lifting Lila into his arms. The rush of movement sent Lila’s head spinning, and as she felt blood ooze from her ankle, her neck, her collar, and her thigh, Lila’s vision completely faded to black.