Chapter 8
Dressed in the same thin, see-through fabric as before, Lila was wrapped in Ciro’s arms as he flew from the Morada. Behind him, Drusilla and Hektor accompanied, smiling wickedly all the way.
She kept hoping Ciro would accidentally drop her so she wouldn’t have to be in his arms a moment more. She knew they had something vile planned for her . . . she just didn’t know what.
“I am not anyone’s puppet,” Ciro seethed. His voice was so low, and directly in her ear, she knew he meant it only for her to hear. “Except—maybe yours.” Fingers dug into her arms, her thighs. “You make me lose myself, my ambitions, my goals. When I see you, I want nothing but you. I want to own you, and dominate you. But more than that, I want you to want me to do those things.”
Lila didn’t make eye contact, she refused, but she saw as he gulped, as he . . . trembled.
“I own murine for our use. You live in our lands, you chose this.”
“We didn’t choose any of this! We are living with the hands we were dealt!” Lila balked.
“Then move. Like you said, the other manors don’t own murine. Why stay?”
“You don’t let us! You threaten us, take us every month! Do you know how difficult it is to get by on nothing?!”
“No,” he said simply. “Nor do I care. We found you, we. saved you. Before us, you were stealing away into other towns, taking whatever crumbs you could find to feed your stupid brother and pathetic father.”
Lila slapped him. Hard.
“You didn’t save me. You damned me.”
“Is that what you call clothing you, feeding you, giving you a place to sleep, keeping you safe from Hektor?”
“It’s what I call treating me like cattle! It’s what I call tormenting and torturing me every fucking day of my existence. It’s what I call trying to have your way with me every chance you get, until one of these days, Hektor is going to rape me, and you’ll let him. He’s only gotten worse and you’ve let him. If you think you saved me, you truly are more delusional than I thought.”
“And is that what Draven did?” Every word he spewed dripped a venom thicker than that of his bite. “He saved you? Or was he just a different cock for you to enrapture? A different breeder you could tease along until you finally allowed him to touch you? You already have my cock, and my fucking brother’s, but you just needed Draven’s too? You little attention whore. You’ve got a list of men desperate to beg for you on their knees. Maybe, now that Draven’s dead, you can fill that hole in your cunt with me instead.”
Lila gaped, but before she could retort, Ciro flared out his arms, dropping her. She yelped before landing on the hard ground right below her. She hadn’t noticed they reached their destination during their argument.
Ciro looked down at her, and then wrapped a hand around her neck, holding just tight enough to make her wheeze.
“In the meantime, Little Mouse, I want you to see what I’m creating. What I’m creating for us.”
He turned her, forcing her to look out. It was still night out, the stars had been covered by clouds, and everything just looked . . . dark.
The four of them stood on the top of a small hill, facing a town that began at the foot of it. Immediately, Lila went pale. She knew this town. She knew it like she knew her mother’s scent, her father’s voice. She knew this town because it was hers. Her hometown sat quiet, defenseless, in front of her. The small shops may have had different signs, been painted different colors, but it was just as she remembered it.
The illusion shattered as she saw one pale strigoi stalking through the town center. Lila’s eyes went wide, her heart pumped. Another strigoi was crawling down a house, toward an open window. She wrestled against Ciro’s hand at her neck. More strigoi were flooding into sight, like cockroaches in the dark.
“Watch,” Ciro commanded, and she felt the familiar fog of his thrall wrap around her mind.
Then she heard the first scream.
Next to her, Hektor stepped forward. “Can we join in on the fun?” He was practically shaking, his eyes glowing from bloodlust.
“Hmm,” Drusilla hummed on her other side. “We can have some fun. We don’t need every murine to change. We have . . . enough.” Her eyes met Lila’s and she smirked.
They were changing people . . . humans in Lila’s hometown into strigoi? For their army?! Guilt stabbed into Lila’s gut. They were doing all of this because of her. Because she had lived here, grown up here. It wasn’t home, and it hadn’t been for a long time, but it was hers.
She fought against the thrall, trying to avert her gaze.
“Let’s go take a closer look, shall we?” Ciro uttered from behind her. Immediately, Hektor flew up and dove between houses, grabbing a mother running out of her house, child in arm, and dug his teeth into her neck. She screamed and dropped the child. As soon as he fell, a strigoi grabbed him.
Horror twisted Lila’s gut.
“No,” she muttered. “Please, don’t make me.”
“This is your punishment, remember? Once it’s over, maybe you’ll remember who you belong to.” Ciro’s voice was so cold, colder than she’d ever heard it before. As he pushed her down the hill and into the stone streets, blood splashed all around Lila. Blood and screams. The entire town had awoken by now, and were running for their lives. Running out of buildings, running into buildings, grabbing each other and trying all they could to stay safe.
But none of it mattered, not as the strigoi cleaved their way through the town, either turning every living being into one of them or drinking them dry. Drusilla joined in the madness, dashing into a house just before a plethora of wails and shrieks burst from the open door.
Lila couldn’t handle it anymore. She needed to do something.
She thought of her fear, how fucking afraid she was for these people, for her. And she used it.
Ciro yelped, pulling his hand from Lila’s neck. She saw a flash of his palm, the flesh boiling. Then, with more of her fear and anger entwining, she pushed. A gust of heat flared from her skin, and she could hear the sizzle of Ciro’s flesh before he screamed.
Ambrose’s words rang through her ears. Will you continue to dwell on the past? Will you allow those who have wronged you to continue controlling your actions? Or will you let go? Will you let go and be better? Will you show them they were wrong about you, that you are more than just their murine?
“What are you doing?” he demanded.
“Being better!” Lila pushed another wave at him, forcing him to take a few steps from her, and dashed into the night.
She ran behind houses, between shops and alleys, away from Ciro. Lila played her hand earlier than she expected, and now she needed to get away. If she used her fear to singe everyone around her, she feared it may hurt the humans currently fighting for their lives. So, she thought of a different approach.
Lila knew each and every turn to take, knew how many steps it would be, so when she got to the center of the town square, she stood strong and confident.
Love, Lila thought, Ambrose, Marcus, Mother, Father, Constance, Pollock, Kaz, Sandra, Rebekkah. These were the people Lila loved. She thought of them and her love for them, what they meant to her. Warmth started seeping from her body, radiating like the sun. She would cure these strigoi, she would save this town.
But not much happened. People were dropping or changing all around her, in every corner. It was as though her warmth was barely reaching them.
She focused harder, trying to push down the fear and rage erupting around her.
Ambrose.
She focused on her lust, trying desperately to grab for something, anything. As she thought of his tongue lapping her up on the rooftop of the Crow Court, she tried to give into her desires. Tried so hard to feel what she felt then.
But the image of Hektor biting into a mother’s neck, of a strigoi grabbing the child, of Ciro genuinely thinking he was doing any of this for her, crawled into her brain. And any flame in her core was immediately extinguished.
Just as Lila was about to try again, Hektor appeared before her—blood-soaked and eager. He walked toward her and didn’t stop till his chest bumped hers.
“What are you doing?” he asked coyly. “Why are you here alone?”
Fuck, Lila thought.
She tried to take a step back, but he followed.
“I heard my brother while we were flying here.” He scoffed, “He thinks he was speaking low enough for me not to hear, but I heard every word.”
He took another step closer, pushing Lila back, as he drove a hand through his unruly brown hair.
“The thing is, my brother’s an idiot. He doesn’t see what he has.” Another step.
“And what’s that?” Lila clenched her jaw, afraid of the answer.
“Well, for starters, he has you. I don’t know what this nonsense is about reminding you of who your true owner is. You are his, and he can do anything he likes to you.” He took another step, and Lila felt cold stone brush against her back. There was nowhere else to go. “I don’t understand why he doesn’t just take what he wants.”
Lila tried to act brave. “I’m sure if it were you, you’d—”
“Baby, I would’ve fucked you a long time ago. I would have you as my personal sex doll to fuck whenever I pleased. And you would fucking love it. You’d be begging for my cock again and again and again.” He placed a finger under her chin and forced her to face him.
“That tiny thing? I’d—”
He slapped her cheek and then immediately pressed into her, caging her in. It was too much, too suffocating.
“You want to test it now?” Hektor quickly grabbed the underside of her knee with one hand, and lifted it onto his wrist. He positioned himself between her thighs and Lila felt just how hard he already was as he pressed himself roughly against the apex of her thighs.
“Ciro’ll kill you for this.”
“He’s too much of a pussy to do anything to me. I can take you right now if I want. Fuck, how I’ve imagined it. I’ve dreamed of stealing away into your room and fucking you senseless, gagging you so Ciro would never hear.”
Lila tried to push him off, but with his free hand, Hektor grabbed her wrists.
“You know I like when you fight. It turns me on more.”
Lila spat at his face, but he just licked his lips.
“I can do that too. Want to spit on my cock next before I shove it down these pretty lips of yours?” He raised her thigh higher, making her lose balance and fall into him. “You know, my favorite fantasy of us is when I’m fucking you so hard, you can’t help but scream. I have to cover your mouth just so Ciro won’t hear us, won’t find out what I’m doing without his permission,” he seethes. “I fantasize about coming inside of you till you’re so full of me, it leaks down your thighs. And when my cock is filthy from our mixed juices, I force you on your knees and fuck your mouth, just to shut you up.”
Hektor’s lips crashed into Lila’s, painfully and disgustingly. His teeth pulled at her bottom lip, forcing her mouth open. Blood. She could taste her own blood.
He drove his tongue into her mouth, exploring, hungry, and greedy. He sucked her tongue into his mouth, but Lila pulled back.
“Kiss me,” he tried to enthrall, but not even a hint of the fog clouded her mind. She pushed and kicked and punched but he didn’t budge. He drove his tongue into her mouth again, and Lila bit down—hard.
Hektor yelled, but Lila didn’t let go. She’d rip it right out if she could.
Rage filled her, fear shook her, and Lila felt like she’d burn the world. She grabbed Hektor’s face and pushed him back with all her might, trying to get him off of her. As soon as her hands touched his flesh, she felt it bubbling under her palms. Bubbling and boiling.
Hektor reared back away from Lila, and finally let her go. He cupped his face and Lila used that moment of reprieve to run. She pumped her arms and legs as fast as she could. She was in the southernmost region of the Viper Morada, but that didn’t stop her heart from wanting to go to the Crow Court—from wanting to go to Ambrose.
But just as she considered Concording him, a hand clamped on her wrist.
“Where are you going, Little Bug? You don’t like the show?” Drusilla smiled at her.
Blood. Her face and chin were covered in blood.
Drusilla looked down at Lila’s lips, and her eyes shone a green so emerald, it rivaled Darius’s.
Drusilla yanked Lila’s head to her, licking her bottom lip slowly.
“Lords, I love the taste of you.”
Lila jerked the heel of her palm into Drusilla’s chin, shoving her face away.
“Get the fuck off me,” Lila hissed and then dashed away again. But these vampires were relentless. Ciro dropped from nowhere, blocked her path, his eyes flaring with so much fury, Lila could practically feel her body consumed in it.
“Hektor! He—” but Lila didn’t get a chance to finish. She saw the glimpse of his charred hand, just as the back of it smashed against her cheek once more. The impact was so hard, it rattled Lila’s brain and for a moment she saw stars.
When the second impact came, she didn’t see anything at all.