Page 12 of All Your Deadly Truths (The Filthy Duet #2)

Kairhyse

T he second the gate opens, I have to remind myself not to sprint out and leave this forsaken dungeon behind. As much as I need to get Xeraphine back, I can’t leave Sydni.

I move alongside Alaric, who walks with his hands clasped behind his back.

He says nothing, and neither do I, because I couldn’t care less about anything he might have to say.

The fact that he was at the crash tells me something I need to know, but don’t want to acknowledge—he’s been tailing either me or Sydni, and that’s a problem.

We pass the cells and ascend a flight of stairs. When we reach the top, the door opens into a modern home. Glancing back, it’s as if I’ve stepped through a portal from another time.

“Do I even want to know why you have a medieval dungeon in your basement?” I ask.

“It came with the house,” he replies, grinning.

My nose twitches. No one should be smiling. It pisses me off because everyone should be hurting right now—just like my girl is. Just like I am.

We walk past a hallway, and I barely register my surroundings until I catch sight of bright pink hair on a couch in the distance.

Brice is standing over her, staring straight at us approaching.

He’s just as massive as I remember. Recalling the moments after the crash, it doesn’t take a genius to know he is the Werewolf that tore off the door to my car.

It makes sense now—his spiked gray hair, the geometric tattoos crawling from his neck to his chest, where his shirt is unbuttoned. How I failed to connect him to the pack symbols before, I don’t know. But I’ll berate myself over it after I’ve found Xeraphine.

He gestures to me. I fully expect Sydni to stand and come to me. But when she stays seated, I rush around the couch to her instead.

“Syd, I’m here.”

Once again, I’m caught off guard when she doesn’t stand. Her head is tilted down, not looking at me. If she’s upset with me for losing Xeraphine again, I wouldn’t blame her. I, too, hate myself for letting her slip through my fingers once more.

Dropping to my knees, I place a hand on her leg and give it a gentle squeeze. “Butterfly, talk to me. Please.”

A wash of realization crashes down on me as I take in her appearance. She had been bleeding so much in the car due to a deep gash right at her neck. Along with that, there should be bruising scattered across her body, yet I see none.

A cold fear tightens in my chest. I don’t know what I’ll find, but my hand instinctively moves to her chin, gripping it gently yet firmly, forcing her gaze to mine. Her eyes are shut, but tears streak down her cheeks.

“Open your eyes,” I demand, my voice low.

There’s a brief moment of hesitation, but when they finally blink open, I’m met with a deep shade of crimson staring back at me.

A tremor runs down my spine.

Oh no… no, no, no.

Sydni’s skin is cold, and though it won’t always be this way, it will be for some time.

“Rhyse…” Her voice trembles, and as her teeth bare, two sharp fangs emerge over her bottom lip. Her once pretty features are now sharpened, transformed by the Vampiric Night. “She’s going to kill them.”

Not if I do it first.

I place a hand gently on her cheek, my thumb running softly just beneath her eye.

There’s so much swirling in my mind, but the biggest thought is that Xeraphine is going to go on a rampage when she finds out.

My girl will hold no forgiveness to the ones that hurt Sydni, and I cannot wait to see her unleash upon them.

A sob escapes her lips, and my heart clenches.

“It’s okay. You’ll be okay,” I reassure her gently.

I was terrified when I was turned. My creator, the bitch she was, had killed me, all to get what she wanted—me, forever. I’m grateful she made the mistake and let her weakness for me cloud her judgment. Removing her head was satisfying, but burning her body? That was euphoric.

I turn to glare up at Brice. “How did this happen?!”

He sighs. “She was about to die, seconds from it, when we got a safe distance from the wreck.”

I turn back to her, her hands fumbling in her lap. Placing mine over hers, I give her a soft squeeze.

“Where is her creator?” My eyes drift over to Alaric, and for a split second, I wonder if he could be a Vampire, and can somehow change his eye color. The snake.

But I know he isn’t. The scent doesn’t match, and I would be able to tell if he was. Sydni still smells Mundane—her blood hasn’t been replaced by the thousands she’s fed on, not yet.

“It was me.” A feminine voice prompts me to look up to the same hallway Alaric and I came down. “You can call me Niyla.”

Personally, I’d love to call her dead for sinking her fucking fangs into my little butterfly.

A tall, dark-skinned woman—likely over six feet—stops just before the couch, giving me a weary smile. Her braided hair frames her face, and her crimson eyes bore into mine.

This hostility toward her runs deep, but nothing cuts sharper than the fact that, had I not been so immobile from the crash, I could have granted immortality to Sydni myself.

Now Niyla will forever be intertwined with her.

A creator is more than just someone who bites and gives the Eternal Night.

She will be able to find Sydni anywhere in this world.

A fact that will directly link to Xeraphine once I’ve got her back.

This will be something I’ll need to take care of once I’m in a better position to do so.

“W-What…” Syd chokes on a soft sob. “What do I do?”

I turn my gaze back to her and release a sigh. “Don’t worry about it right now. It could be worse.” Her eyes flicker between mine. “You could be a Werewolf.”

Brice growls, but it pulls a small smile from my pink-haired girl. Her smiling is fine—no one else is allowed to though, not in my presence.

Coming to my full height, I eye Alaric. “Tell me everything.”

He crosses his arm, his white shirt, nearly as pale as his skin, stretches in protest against his muscles. “After we got you and Sydni back here, I went to your place. They were gone, but that’s no surprise.”

I swallow, forcing myself not to let the revelation hurt. There was no part of me that truly believed she would still be there, even if I desperately wished she had been.

“Achille is dead,” Brice adds.

“What?!” My shock is apparent, and as though out of instinct, I step away from the couch. How? Why? My loyalty to him died already, but with his death comes Marcos—no, Lars , taking up his position as head of Sidence.

My gaze shifts to the Werewolf, who has taken the seat right next to Sydni. My protective instinct surges through me, and I itch to grab and hurl him as far from her as I can.

Except, there’s no need because Sydni’s got herself covered.

With all the force she can muster, she punches Brice square in the jaw. I step back to give her room to stand, her shoulders raised as she screams, “Get the fuck away from me. Now that Rhyse is awake, do not touch me. Do not even LOOK at me!”

She comes around behind me—I’m not sure if she’s hiding or just separating herself from him—but regardless, I’m proud of her. The look on Brice’s face is that of shock, but a flicker of understanding crosses it.

“Sydni, please listen?—”

“You used me to get closer to her!” Her back presses against mine and I can hear her soft sobs. “Fuck you, Brice! You’re a piece of shit! You lied to me!”

My gaze lowers as I watch him rub his jaw, and I’m seconds away from ripping his head from his shoulders. But I need answers before I act too rashly.

“I didn’t… lie to you,” he grumbles.

“You told me you were a fucking Shifter! That’s a lie! You lied about so much!”

Please, don’t tell me you slept with him, Syd… My head’s throbbing with the thought.

“You assumed based on a comment about?—”

“Enough!” I snap. “So, Achille is dead…” This conversation needs to continue or we will waste more time. “What else?”

It isn’t Brice that answers, but instead, Alaric.

“The blame is on you for his murder, along with the deaths of Clay and the twins. They are saying you worked with Xeraphine to kill some of the highest-ranking officers in the Ansford Shifter Hause, but they aren’t officially commenting.

Unfortunately, it isn’t just you they’ve hung out to dry. ”

He doesn’t need to point behind me because I already know who else he was alluding to. A furious growl strums out of my throat.

“Tyson is also dead,” he adds.

My eyes widen, and I barely manage to turn before Sydni drops to her knees. Her body trembles violently, her scream tearing through the air.

I didn’t hate him, and although his relationship with Xeraphine irked me—as would any man being around her—I knew he wouldn’t have dared touch what was mine. His death will hurt my girl, even if just a fragment, and that alone angers me.

“Why him?” I ask, while gently soothing Sydni, stroking the back of her head.

“Hard to say,” Niyla says while coming around the couch. “He was dead before they attacked you. My guess is if your car hadn’t fallen victim to their trap, they would have ambushed you at his place when you went to drop Sydni off.”

Syd then screams out, “Assholes! They took my Phiny! They killed Tyson! Why?! Why are they doing this?!” I know she doesn’t mean to hurt me, but when she slams her fist into my chest, I can’t help but grimace.

I’ll need to help her adjust to what she’s become, and quickly.

Because as much as I care about her, finding Xera is top priority.

Turning my head while gripping her to my chest, I hiss, “Who are you, Alaric?”

He looks over at Niyla, then to Brice, then back at me.

“I was the detective on Xeraphine’s case when she first went missing.

” My eyes go in and out of a blur. “Call me obsessed”—I’m going to fucking kill him— “but when I got wind she was here, I came looking for her. Her case was never closed, and?—”

I’m standing in front of him before he can finish that sentence, my hand around his neck and finding the nearest wall to bash him into. “Bullshit!” The distain in my tone isn’t easily missed. “Because why do you have a fucking posse with you?!”

The sensation of a body appearing behind me is my indication to move, and just as Niyla attempts to grab my neck, I’m gone.

“Noctis Duplicatus.” A shadow of myself steps beside me, and I roll my head around on my shoulders.

“Don’t think for a fucking second you have an advantage because I am one person. ”

“A damn Veilsidian,” Niyla murmurs. “Great…” Doesn’t sound so good to her, which pleases me. I know my kind are rare, and I’ve used this ability enough that it’s second nature to me.

“Stop.” Alaric rubs his hand around on his neck and looks at me. “Fine, that was a lie… but I’m here to help. Take it at face value. I want to get her back?—”

“Why?!” I shout. “Who the fuck is she to you, and I would choose your next words carefully, young man , because if it wasn’t clear before, I will sure as shit make it. She is mine. Mine . So tell me, who the fuck are you to her?”

The fact that he smiles pisses me off to no end. “Let me put it to you this way, Kairhyse,” he says, adjusting his shirt as he steps beside Niyla, as if she could shield him from me.

The upward slant of his eyes as he tilts his head down speaks of distrust and disgust, though I’m not sure why he’s directing it at me. It’s not like I barged into his life.

“When we get her back, I’ll let her explain it.”

My little demon didn’t lie to me. If there was one thing about her, it was that she never hesitated to tell me the truth.

Even if the truth was deadly and would hurt me, she’d say it.

When I asked her who this male was, she only knew his name.

If she had any inkling of who he truly was, she’d have told me. That much, I know.

“Kairhyse,” Brice says, stepping between us with his hands raised as if to defuse the tension. “This is tiresome, and we’re wasting time.”

I don’t hate Werewolves, but this one? This one, I despise.

“Does it matter why we’re here? You need the help now more than ever, because unfortunately for you, everyone is looking for you both.”

“Fuck you,” Sydni hisses. When I glance at her, her piercing red eyes are locked on Brice, throwing metaphorical daggers at him.

I want to disagree with him, but he’s right.

Niyla looks between me and my carbon copy. “Seems fun,” she says dryly, then points at Sydni. “She needs to feed. If she won’t feed off Brice, we need to get her some bagged blood.”

Fucking Vayl above . I drag my hands through my hair in frustration.

“You’ll need to cut your hair,” Niyla adds, now pointing at me. “And you might want to get rid of those tattoos.”

I’ll do whatever it takes to ensure I get my girl back. My hair will grow back, and I can retattoo my skin.

I’m so sorry, baby… Give me time. I’ll find you.