Page 116 of Cryptic Dreams
Wraith roars as they rip him off of me, his hands shooting out toward two of them, the males essentially combusting on the spot while his blue-black flames start engulfing the room.
“More!” One of them shouts as he rushes me with a gun pointed at my head. “More chains, you idiots! Subdued! We need the Prince subdued!”
I scramble toward the edge of the bed, pulling the sheet up my body before someone grabs me from behind. I kick and scream, flail my arms and scratch at any piece of this asshole I can reach until a collar closes around my throat, one that immediately burns my skin and forces me to quit moving.
“No!” my mate booms, my head lolling in his direction in time to see Wraith throw several guards off him, only to be rushed again.
I watch as he fights, as they add more chains to his wrists and neck, his waist and arms, and as my wicked prince uses everything he has to get free, to get to me, I hear the words that turn my blood to ice in my veins.
“Wraith of Carmarthen, you are hereby taken into custody by the Great Counsel under suspicion of treason and conspiracy, and will be detained at the Hall of Vampire Affairs to await trial. Any and all parties under this roof and directly involved to the knowledge of the High Elder shall also be detained until further investigation takes place. By law, you have no rights until proven innocent, status pending.”
My heart drops to my stomach before it flips into a tight knot, my eyes welling with tears as these horrible males force my mate to his knees, piling chain after chain on him until Wraith can barely move.
And when he lifts his head to meet my gaze and a lone black tear rolls down his porcelain cheek and drops off his chin, my mate’s words gut me.
“This isnotthe end.”
29
Soul Crushing 101
WRAITH
“Wraith of Carmarthen…” Hans grins as he paces in front of me, a scroll in his hands, unrolled and stretched out as if he’s actually reading mychargesfrom the ancient parchment. “Pure blood vampire, Descendant, and born directly to the line of Kadoc the Sovereign. High Elder Successor, son of Atticus—”
“No,” I growl, the sound low and full of warning, a growl that comes deep from within my chest and threatens every prick in the room. “Sonto him, I have never been.”
The meat head smirks as his eyes flick to my sire, the fucker nodding from his place on his goddamn throne like king of the bloody world. “Murderer. Traitor. Usurper of the crown. Purist—”
“Usurper of the crown? What crown?” I scoff, my anger only quelled by the layers of silver chain and cuffs holding me down. “There is no goddamn crown, not since Kadoc reigned and—”
Randolph cracks me across the jaw with a heavy, spiked baton, my head swiveling on my neck as blood sprays across the stark white of his shirt.
“Purist bastard,” Hans continues, a look of malicious glee passing over his face briefly. “Leader of the Uprising, therevolutionhellbent on tearing apart the Counsel and all that it stands for.”
The others sitting with Atticus whisper amongst themselves, a few of them even gasp as if it’s shocking that someone—namelyme—has had enough of my sire’s bullshit and want to make a change. The Purists have existed just as long as the Counsel, longer without the title since I started the movement the second Atticus placed my grandfather’s gilded crown on his corrupted head.
The Uprising was a long time coming, and if this doesn’t set things in motion, I don’t know what will.
“You appear here today in front of the Great Counsel and the remaining Descendants of our people, accused of these charges according to Kadoc’s law. What say you?”
What say you?
What fucking century is this?
“What sayI?” My stare moves slowly around the hall, landing on each of the Descendants, on my bastard father and bitch mother, on every single noble and spectator so their faces are burned into my memory.They will all pay for their treachery.“What do I say to thesecharges?”
Hans narrows his eyes as he stops pacing to face me completely. “Now is your only chance to speak,my lord. Before you’re begging for mercy, anyway.”
I jerk against my restraints, my energy nearly sapped and coming in spurts. The cuffs burn against my flesh, the silver digging deep enough to touch bone and keep me in place. The pain, my god it is excruciating but it is nothing compared to what I’m going to do to each and every one of them as soon as I am free.
“I say…” I pant as my muscles twitch and spasm. “I say, fuck you, you goddamn twat. Fuck you, fuck the Counsel, and if you don’t tell me where my mate is, I’ll rip your pointy little head right off your neck and shove it so far up that berk’s arse he’ll be choking on your teeth every time he coughs!”
Randolph hits me with the baton again as Hans charges at me, grabbing the collar around my neck and pulling until we’re nose to nose. “I’m going to enjoy this more than you know,my lord.”
“Moving into… into Atticus’s anal cavity?” I spit a mouthful of blood in his face as I chuckle darkly. “Or when I fuck you with… with Randolph’s baton before I kill all of you using nothing by my bare hands?”
Hans laughs as he leans in even closer. “I imagine it would be difficult to do that once your head is mounted over my fireplace, but I wanted your mate to have a way to remember you. Since she’ll be chained to my bed and at my mercy the second I sever it from your body.”
