My cheeks heated with shame and fury, and I was glad for the cover of darkness.
“I took you in when no one else would have,” Silas continued. “Trained you, fed you, clothed you. Andthisis how you repay me?”
I didn’t trust myself to respond. Furious tears burned the back of my throat, but I would not lose control in front of Silas.
The day I’d turned eighteen, I’d left the group home I’d been living in and found work as a waitress in the Quarter. I’d barely lasted a year on my own before I’d wound up pinned beneath that vampire, thinking I was going to die the same way my mother had.
I wasn’t that girl anymore, but Silas could still make me feel the way I’d felt back then. Weak. Alone. Insignificant.
I waited, but he didn’t say anything else, so I turned to go. I’d only taken a single step toward the door before Silas was in front of me.
I hadn’t heard him move — hadn’t seen him shoot out of his chair. I’d always known Silas was faster than the others, but it was still unsettling.
He stood less than a foot in front of me, and everything in me recoiled at his sudden proximity. My heart thudded as he loomed over me in the dark, his breath a cloud ofsmoke and ash. It wafted over my face as he leaned in, and I fought the shudder that rolled through me.
He let out a low chuckle of disgust, and I could practically taste the smoke on his breath. “And youstillhave no control over your emotions after all these years.” He clicked his tongue in disapproval. “Mark my words, Lyra. That pitiful mortal heart of yours is gonna get you killed.” One cold, rough finger reached out and stroked my cheek. “You’re too soft.”
Bile burned the back of my throat, but I swallowed it down.
“How will you earn your keep if I can’t count on you to meet your quotas?”
There was something softly sinister in his voice, and I jerked away from his touch. I suddenly felt as though I needed to take averyhot shower, and my cheeks burned with something like shame.
It didn’t make any sense. I’d done a lot of things I wasn’t proud of since Silas had pulled me out of that alley all those years ago. I’d drained hundreds of vampires of their blood and staked hundreds more. I’d lied. I’d cheated. I’d turned my back on my only friend. I’d doneeverythingSilas asked of me — let him use me in every way possible.
Every way except for one, and it was that one small dignity I held on to.
Maybe it didn’t make any difference at this point. I’d done all manner of despicable things to survive the Quarter, but I couldn’t —wouldn’t— cross that line.
“Still soungrateful,” Silas snarled, letting out a bitter huff of laughter that sent a chill down my spine. “Watch yourself, Lyra,” he said, and he might as well have reached outand slapped me for the tremor that quaked through my body. “I am quickly growing tired of you.”
Chapter
Three
Ihardly slept at all the day I was scheduled to meet Julian. When darkness settled and it came time for the drop, I slipped out of bed and donned my leathers as though it were any other night.
The last few weeks, I’d been demoted to the basement where Silas kept his vampire prisoners and tasked with siphoning their blood. I hadn’t been sent out on a single hunt since my disastrous staking, and tonight was the first night I was to be allowed out of the house.
Pulling up the ragged comforter, I laid all my weapons out on the bed — carved wooden stakes, silver-tipped daggers, a pair of short swords, and the witchwood blade. The latter had been in the box of possessions salvaged from my home after my mother was killed. My first foster family had told me it had likely belonged to my father — the hunter I’d never met.
With its rowan-wood core, the dagger should have been heavier than a regular blade, but it wasn’t. Perfectlybalanced and finely hewn, the knife fit in my hand as though it had been made for me.
The handle and pommel were engraved with runes I didn’t know the meaning of — an intricate pattern of interlocking circles and swirling lines that gave the weapon its legendary power. The blade was sharp, as all my blades were, but the magic it was imbued with when it was forged meant that it never dulled.
When I closed my fingers around the hilt, the dagger hummed against my skin, and I no longer felt afraid. At least, I didn’t fear the creatures that lurked in the shadows of the Quarter. Double-crossing Silas was another story.
Sheathing my weapons, I shoved my extra leathers, the short swords, and a few clothes into a bag, which I sneaked into the SUV when no one was paying attention. I took one last look around my room — the grimy window overlooking the weed-choked lawn, the lumpy double bed, the beat-up dresser. Nothing about this place had ever felt like home, and if tonight went according to plan, I’d never have to set foot in here again.
By the time I’d choked down a bowl of dry cereal, Vince had a duffel loaded with blood bags. The blood had come from the vampires I’d methodically drained, and I was meant to deliver the drop.
“This one goes to Gorm,” said Vince. “His place is on Dumont. Red brick building on the corner. You can’t miss it.” He tossed the bag at my feet with a look that said,don’t screw this up.
“I-I thought I was delivering to Julian,” I stammered, panic thrashing in my chest.
“Gorm was willing to pay more,” Vince grunted with a shrug. “This drop goes to him.”
I swallowed. I’d never met Gorm before, and hopefully, I wouldn’t have to.
