Page 68 of A Curse So Vile

“And you would have, if it weren’t for the power dampeners.”

The Denithians looked to their leader, their faces shocked.

Cassius reached up to his necklace and yanked it off.

“It’ll take you a while to regain your powers,” Orrick said. “After all, you’ve been wearing them for days.”

“Madness!” Kerk shrieked, but as he took a step towards Orrick, his leg wobbled.

“And I’m sorry to say that while you were wearing the dampener, it rendered you helpless to the intoxicant I slipped into your drinks.” He walked over to Kerk and grabbed the ax from his hand.

“Why?” Cassius said, dropping to his knees, wrenching up the contents of his gut.

“I told you already, I aim to avoid war, and the best way to go about that is to remove the Den’s most capable fighters and feed them to their new master.”

“You’d betray us?” Kerk said in shock. “To the Ossorians?”

“As I said, our blood is what’s at stake. Mating with humans has weakened us, and eventually, we will lose our gifts. With the Ossorians’ might and our Denithian women, we’ll grow stronger under Brenna than we ever have before.”

The Denithians dropped one by one, their stomachs overturned as they fell forward, but Cole remained unaffected as he did not drink what they had.

Cole leveled his ax, preparing to strike, but as he stepped forward, blinding pain bloomed from the back of his head and the world faded to black.

21

BRENNA

Waking on her twenty-third birthday, Brenna was filled with dread.

For countless years, she knew this would be the day she lost it all. First her sanity; then her life.

It was one of the reasons it was so easy for her to gift Fiona her blood, because while her execution would be tragic, it would spare her something far worse.

The room she was being kept in was well-furnished, and she got to sleep in an actual bed. She found it ironic that after so many years; the Ossorians were coming around, enjoying the creature comforts that were previously thought to be beneath them. It showed that they were losing their savage nature, which was good. Perhaps one day they’d make common cause with the Denithians.

Each day, human slaves came in to tend to her, offering her food and glasses full of blood. One was heavy with child, and she wondered what would happen to her after the birth. If she made it that far.

The Ossorians loathed their human mates, and she suspected the woman wasn’t long for this world. Judging by her dull expression, the woman knew her fate and had accepted it.

“You, stay,” Brenna said to the pregnant woman. “The rest may leave.”

Brenna moved around the room, setting out soaps and pouring sweet smelling oils in her bath before shedding her clothes and getting into her bath.

“The tub is big enough for two if you’d like to relax,” Brenna offered, figuring that the woman must be in agony being worked so hard, so close to her child’s birth.

“No thank you, m’lady.” The woman pulled up a chair to Brenna’s back and began brushing out her hair.

“Have you ever tried to run?” she asked.

“No, why would I?”

“I can’t imagine you’re looking forward to the fate that awaits you.”

“I am blessed to be a part of something so great,” the woman replied in a deadpan tone.

“What if I told you there are better places than this? Places where people don’t contend with monsters and the like.”

“I’d say that I worship at the feet of gods, not monsters.”