Warrick’s face twisted with anger. “The monsters will do as they’re told, and if they don’t, my creatures will give them the mortal death they so desperately want.” He drove the dagger into my leg again, this time in a spot just above my knee, and I bucked against the slab as agony made me want to scream. The urge to beg was on the tip of my tongue, but I clenched my jaw, tears leaking from the corners of my eyes.
Warrick cleared his throat, the anger disappearing from his face only to be replaced by an oddly calm expression. “No, they’ll come around. From the state of you, I’m willing to wager that your little trip to the fae realm didn’t end with you and my son making new friends, and when the fae attack this city, the monsters will understand I was right to create an army of beasts.”
The fae, I knew, would be slaughtered, and so would many of the Katakin monsters. I already knew Kade and the others would go to the front lines to fight the fae, but what about Cara? Would she also be among the dead, yet another casualty of war?
At the thought of my sister, I growled, “What did you do to her?” I needed answers. At the very least, I needed to know if she was alive. If Cara was somewhere in the city, maybe she wouldn’t fight in the war and there was a chance she would be spared. It was a risk bringing Warrick’s attention to her, but I’d told Kade and the others about my sister, and I had to trust that if anything happened to me, they’d try to protect her from Warrick.
Confusion crossed Warrick’s face, and I elaborated, “During a previous offering, a girl who wasn’t of selection age was taken from my island. Tell me what you did to her.”
Warrick continued to frown at me, but I saw the very moment understanding overcame him, his eyes becoming rounder. “So Jarin was telling the truth, then,” he mused thoughtfully.
When I simply glowered back at him, Warrick sighed heavily. “I guess it doesn’t hurt to tell you. You will, after all, be dead soon. I’d specifically instructed Jarin to bring me a younger specimen so I could test the difference in the way her blood reacted to the curse, but Jarin never was reliable. He came up with some excuse that he’d found a young girl and she’d gone through the portal with the group, but she never emerged on the other side.” Disappointment crossed Warrick’s features. “I never could trust that useless demon, and I’d assumed he was either lying or had his fun with her and had discarded her body before returning to Katakin. Imagine my surprise when I found him blurting the information to you when we both knew the council would not be happy to hear that I’d tried to get him to deviate from the agreed-upon ages for the newbloods. In any case, I won’t have to worry about him divulging that information now.” He paused. “Though if I’d known he was telling the truth about the girl, I would have kept him alive. I’d very much like to question him further. No matter.”
I couldn’t speak. Could hardly process what he was telling me. Cara had been taken into the portal, but she’d never arrived in Katakin.She’s not here.
My mind couldn’t make sense of it, and the world seemed to fall away from beneath me. If Cara hadn’t come to Katakin, where had she gone? Bile crept up my throat as I realized my sister wasn’t in the city. That she wasn’t a newblood who was possibly happy somewhere with her new life. No, she was lost out there. Either lost or dead.
Magic.I needed my magic. It was the only way I was going to get out of this. The only way I could escape and try to find her. I tried to focus my mind, desperate to find that spark, but Warrick twisted the blade inside me, and I cried out again, unable to hold back my sobs.
I was so damn weak. My body tingled, and my vision began to tunnel as darkness started to take me. I forced myself to keep my eyes open, but as Warrick yanked out the dagger and buried it in my other leg, I smashed my eyes shut, not wanting to see the brutality. I wasn’t sure how, but through the pain, I saw the irony in the situation. I’d always thought when the humans on my island were taken by the monsters, they were subjected to torture before being murdered, and now here I was, bleeding out at the hands of a vampire.
“You’re a fucking monster,” I snarled, wrenching my eyes open again, though the words didn’t sound as venomous as I’d intended.
Warrick pulled the blade out and held it up, but his attention remained fixed on me. “Indeed, but I still haven’t figured out why you’renot.Perhaps I should have had my son and his friends tortured in front of you instead. The change has proven to be brought on by heightened emotions, and from what I gather, there’s more going on among you five than you let on.”
I tried not to show how his words affected me, but I must have failed, as his hysterical laughter filled the space. Goddess, the male needed serious mental help.
“If you’ve hurt them,” I said through clenched teeth, and Warrick stopped laughing to stare down at me.
“You’ll do what exactly? It’s a wonder you’re still alive, and if Locke and his friends try to attack this house, the wolves and my outliers will see to it that they’re taken care of.”
I blanched at his words. There was no way Locke and the otherswouldn’tcome after me. Not when I was so close to death and the bond was probably making their chests feel like they might explode. The idea that the others were in danger had me fighting harder against the darkness that was trying to take me. My eyes began to close, my body resisting my mental commands to stay awake, but then I noticed it.
I could barely lift my head, but Warrick was still holding the dagger in the air. The dagger that had just been inmyleg. My blood coated the blade, but the thick liquid that dripped from the weapon wasn’t a vibrant crimson, the same color as a rich, red rose. No, it was darker, the color of purple grapes. My gaze dropped to the tube attached to my wrist. At the end closest to my hand, the color was changing, slowly becoming darker. My blood wasn’t inky black like the monsters’, nor was it blue like the fae’s.What?
Warrick followed my line of sight to the tube, and a look of genuine surprise lit up his features. “It can’t be…” he murmured.
If I’d thought I had been in pain before, it was nothing like the agony that ripped through me then. Molten lava raced through my veins, burning me from the inside out, and my back arched off the stone slab.
Warrick took a step back, the bloody dagger still in his hand, and for the first time, the male looked uncertain. “What’s happening?” he demanded, but I didn’t answer.
A cry that was definitelynothuman came from me as every bone in my body felt as though it shattered, but then my body was remolding, changing and shifting. My cuffs burst from my wrists and ankles, the metal flying across the room and crashing against the walls as my body became too large for the restraints. In a matter of seconds, my body grew so tall my head knocked against the ceiling, and I was no longer the same woman I used to be but a massive creature. In the recesses of my mind, I was vaguely aware of what had happened to me. That Iwasthe creature, but it was as if my usual instincts had been overridden by those of the monster I’d become.
Power rumbled through me, magic igniting in every part of my body, and I’d never felt so alive. A vampire was before me, backing closer to the door, and I watched him through slitted eyes. Monsters were on either side of him, their tongues flicking into the air and their clawed feet pawing at the ground in agitation. In some part of my mind, I knew I recognized the male, but my thoughts were consumed with anger and the desire to make the world burn.
“The blood,” the male rambled as he stared at me with round eyes, his expression a mixture of appreciation and curiosity. “How had I not suspected this? You must be part fae, and your mixed blood made you immune to the curse. But as the blood drained from you…”
He didn’t finish. A roar expelled from my lungs, deafening as it echoed around the room and bounced off the walls. A hint of fear finally touched the vampire’s features, and one of my massive, clawed paws lashed out, slamming him into the wall on one side of the room. I took a step forward, ready to crush him, but the two other monsters attacked, their claws scraping against my long snout and the side of my neck, making me bellow.
A monster jumped onto my back while the other bit at my face, and by the time they were both bleeding on the ground, trapped beneath my paws, the dark-haired vampire was gone. I still couldn’t place who the male was, but fury went through me at the fact he had escaped.
Heat swelled in my belly, and when I roared in anger, searing blue flames rushed up my throat, engulfing the room in fire. The flames crackled and popped pleasantly against my scaled skin, and the iron door melted to the ground before me. I smashed through the narrow doorway and half the wall, my large paws taking me swiftly into the wide corridor and up a flight of stairs. My new animalistic desires took hold of me, and I didn’t try to fight them. I gave in, letting the beast rule me.
More monsters were stationed higher in the house, but they burned just like the rest of the house did, nothing more than obstacles in my way. When I’d almost reached the ground floor, a familiar scent hit my nose, and a large wolf appeared before me, but I didn’t stop turning the world to flame.
The wolf darted away, escaping the stream of fire spewing from my mouth, and I smashed through the house, breaking through the walls as if they were as thin as paper and emerging into the cool night air.
CHAPTER 22
