Chapter 21
“Hello, Hannah.”
My stepfather’s voice slides over my flesh like a black widow spider ready to sink its teeth into me and kill me with its venom.
“You’re here,” I say matter-of-factly. “Show yourself, you fucking coward!”
“No one will sit on that throne but me,” his voice continues. “No matter what you, your wolf, or your vampire father say.”
I listen carefully, ever aware, letting my heightened vampire senses tell me what I need to know.
“Your voice,” I say. “It’s weak. You are weak.”
“You won’t get away with this,” he seethes, still invisible.
“Get away with what?” I demand. “I only want Rogan. Where is he?”
“What makes you think he’s here?” Richard cackles. “You already know the truth.”
You’re controlled by nature. Nature has led you to Rogan. But the laws of nature also tell us that what controls us can also be controlled.
Richard knew all along. He fucking knew what my father had done. But does he know why? Because I don’t.
“You never gave me any credit for my intelligence,” I say. “I knew all along.”
He laughs then, a slimy, evil laugh that makes my spine go cold. “Please. You had no idea at first. But you’ve known for a while. You know that wolf isn’t yours. Was never yours. So for you to tell me you know he’s here is bullshit, Hannah. You have no link to him at all.”
Except I do.
I’m linked through his child growing within me, and I heard Rogan. I heard his blood flying through his veins.
And I know he’s here.
I take a closer look at Richard’s iron throne.
Since it’s empty, I can see all the detail, the angular and menacing design, the sharp edges that could rip flesh open…
and probably have. The throne overlooks a…
I’m not sure what it is. A hole in the uneven ground, perhaps a bottomless abyss of lost souls.
“I’ll sit on that throne again.” Again his voice.
“I don’t give a damn who sits on that metal chair of evil,” I grit out. “I want Rogan, and then you can have your reign of terror. Just leave us out of it!”
“I’m afraid that’s impossible. You’re in it already, Hannah, simply by virtue of who you are. You are bound to your father but also to me.”
“I have no relation to you whatsoever.”
“Ah, but you are. Through your love for your mother, and her love for me.”
“That’s a crock.”
But as I look around the lair more carefully, chills skitter over me.
Whispers of evil flow over me—whispers I feel more than hear. This is a place where darkness thrives, and every shadow seems to conceal something twisted.
I close my eyes, summon my unborn child. Perhaps he can lead me to his father.
But then my eyes shoot open.
Evil surrounds me, and—
“Oh, shit.”
Something foreign pulses through me, something I hate, despise, abhor.
Yet…
Yet…
I feel…almost…home.
“No!” I shout out.
“You can’t fight it, Hannah,” Richard’s disembodied voice says. “This is who you are.”
“I. Will. Not!” I punch my fist through the air, feeling resistance. This air isn’t normal, it’s thick.
Thick and malevolent.
“You’ll never take another thing from me!” I shout. “You took my mother. Isn’t that enough for you? I won’t let you take Rogan too!”
“As you know, Rogan was never yours.”
He’s right. I know that, but my anger overpowers me.
“He may not be mine,” I yell, pushing my fist through the thickness once more, “but he does belong to something of mine. And with every ounce of strength I have, Richard, I will fight you. And I will win!”