Page 16 of Blood Claims (Garnet Dagger Mafia #2)

Beams of light streamed through, illuminating the panic on her face as I kept closer to the shadows at my back where the light could not penetrate fully.

Of course, due to my family’s unique gifts, the sunlight wouldn’t kill me, like most Vampires.

But as time went on and my darkness took a tighter hold, the aversion to daylight would only increase.

However, the witch didn’t know this, which was why I allowed this meeting to happen just before sunset, so as she would never mistake me for having such a weakness.

Now just how long she had been lingering outside the hospital grounds, I had no idea.

But she certainly looked agitated, and I soon found out why.

Especially after scanning behind her and finding a prominent part of our bargain missing.

Which was when I forwent the formalities of acknowledging her arrival and went straight to demanding,

“Where is the girl?”

She started to look panicked, her dark brown eyes darting side to side before finding a particular patch of cracked flooring to focus on. As if she couldn’t bear the sight of my anger any longer.

“The Erebus twins, they… they got there before I could bring her through the portal, My Lord.”

I gritted my teeth at the word twins, before acknowledging the true reason for my irk.

“Come again?” I asked dangerously, despite not missing the part where she had failed me.

“There was nothing I could do… but the dagger… I have it!” she argued, before taking scrambled steps back over the debris as I let my shadows branch out, cloaking the room in the darkness I was addicted to.

She then gripped the broken strap of the satchel and held it out to me, telling me this was where the dagger was kept.

And although I was eager to take it from her, I couldn’t help but redirect my thoughts elsewhere.

“You had the time to take the dagger but not the time to grab the girl and portal her here, is that what you claim?” I asked in a dark tone that matched the shadows now circling her.

She shook her head, the red hair that had once shone like a flame in the sunlight a dull, darker shade that shook around her.

But it was the slight glimmer of doubt I saw in her eyes that told me a different story.

For I knew of her cruel nature and, therefore, had a feeling that she had first wasted time toying with the girl, instead of bringing her straight here to me.

“Please, My Lord Vasileios! I can get her for you. I know a way!”

I took measured steps toward her, making her back up into part of the window frame.

It was the side where the outside world had tried to infiltrate the decaying building, by winding its vines around the wood before sneaking inside the room.

And it was a part of nature I would use for my cruel pleasure now.

With barely a flick of my hand, my darkness crept along the floor toward it before it reached up to touch the greenery.

It then seeped into the plant, absorbing it whole and turning it to black.

Then with this newly possessed piece of the earth, I used my control on it to wrap around the witch’s throat.

It was like a deadly snake doing my bidding as it coiled around her, minimizing her air supply.

It instantly made her struggle against it, as I had once seen her do to her victims. As I also suspected she had done to the girl.

The thought made me murderous, as the unnatural feeling started to take hold.

For no one touched the girl with a cruel hand… no one but I.

“Please… don’t… do this…” she pleaded in vain, but I would do as I pleased. Which was why I reached out a hand, commanding the vine to take the bag off her and bring it to me.

“I… I… brought you… what you… wanted,” she struggled to say, making me snarl back,

“Not everything!” Then I turned my attention to the bag and just as I was opening it, my fury took over.

“But at least your efforts were not a complete waste as… wait, what is this…? Is this a fucking joke!” I snapped, enraged as I pulled the dagger from the bag and recognized it instantly as being a fake.

Because of course I knew what the real one looked like, having seen it every day in my father’s study.

Not that the witch would, but even so, it was clear that this fucking toy in my hand wasn’t even sharp enough to slice through butter, let alone the flesh of my kin!

“My Lord… I… I…” she stammered, something that ended with a shriek of pain when I crushed the fake dagger in my hand while simultaneously tightening the hold on her neck.

“You think me a fool, Circe?!” I asked in a deadly tone, my fury building as I stepped closer, my height increasing with every step.

My darkness being allowed more freedom to take hold, warping the side of my face that, until now, remained looking human.

Which meant in my rage it was now matching that of the one beneath the mask.

Her eyes widened to the point I thought blood would burst from the vessels.

Her mouth opened as she desperately tried to take in air, her hands clawing at the possessed vines.

But then with just a flick of my fingers, I had large thorns grow from the vine, cutting through her skin and making her snatch her hand back from trying to escape.

The scent of her blood made me snarl like some wild beast on the hunt.

“N-o… the girl… she must have switched them… I… I didn’t know,” she croaked out, and despite my growing anger, I couldn’t help myself from being a little impressed, for the little bookkeeper was proving to be quite cunning.

Vanessa Cadell was a name I had learned from the file I had seen Circe gather and since then, I had been conducting my own research on the mortal.

A mortal that this witch had greatly underestimated.

“Tell me, witch, why I should keep you alive, when you continue to fail me?” I asked, despite my darkness practically begging me for the soul it wanted to consume, it’s hunger never sated.

She started to speak but it came out as a broken whisper I could barely hear. Which meant I was forced to deny my impulses for a few seconds longer, in case she had one last trick up her sleeve to salvage this. And thankfully for her, I wasn’t disappointed.

“I cast a spell… on the girl… connected to… me,” she forced out once I had allowed the plant to ease its hold on her.

“What spell?”

“A mind storm… it can be… be transferred to you.” I narrowed my eyes down at her.

I had heard of this spell before, one that once cast, it contained a small piece of a person’s state of mind.

The barest hint that allowed its owner to connect to them when in a vulnerable state, say, like when sleeping.

But it would also allow me to hunt her with ease, as I would be able to use my darkness to link to this small piece of her mind and with it, find her whereabouts.

Meaning I would always be able to find her instantly.

“Then perhaps you have managed to save your soul after all,” I said, making her visibly relax enough that her eyes closed.

Because as much as I wanted to kill the useless bitch, I also knew if I did, then the spell she had cast would be lost with her life.

Hence why I forced myself to let go of her completely, knowing that snapping her neck or watching the life drain out of her was going to have to wait until next time.

“Where is the source of the mind storm?” I asked, after I first allowed the vines to unwind completely from her body before my darkness released its hold on the plant altogether.

She watched in trepidation as it snaked its way to me, like a master calling back its demonic pets, she wanted to ensure they wouldn’t lash out unexpectantly.

“I was forced to leave it. It fell from my hand the moment the Vampires appeared… their shadows… they…” Her eyes widened before they shot to the floor, watching as the last of my darkness returned to me.

The cogs now turning in her mind as she pieced things together, making her gasp.

Because it was clear that she now recognized the same power my brothers and I shared, making me grit my teeth.

Before, I would have simply killed her for making the connection but now my fucking hands were tied.

Well… not completely.

I moved quickly, so her eyes were incapable of tracking me, meaning I had her throat in my hand before she could finish her gasp of shock.

This time I lifted her whole body up, making it dangle in my hold as she tried to kick out when I choked her.

The sight fed my tainted soul as I relished in watching her struggle for life until, this time, her eyes did hemorrhage.

Something that told me I had found her limit before death took hold, and it was time to pull her close and warn,

“Don’t give me another reason to consume your soul, Circe, for I am … so… very… close.”

She started to lose consciousness, so I dropped her to the floor knowing it hurt, this time relishing in the sound of her pain. Then I bent to a knee and enforced,

“Understood?” At this she coughed and wheezed out,

“Ye-ss… m-my… Lord.”

I patted her cheek and in a condescending tone, told her,

“Good little witch.” After which, I rose to my full six foot eight inches and walked back the shadows, pulling them toward me with every measured step. Then as they swirled around my feet, rising up to take me where I wanted them to, I left her with one last threat.

“I will be seeing your soul soon, Circe.” The whites of my fangs were the last sight I left her to tremble at as I disappeared from the room, to find myself in another.

And it didn’t take me long to discover the clues as to what had transpired in the back room of the old hardware store.

Starting with the scent of blood that hit me like a physical blow.

“Fucked by the Goddess,” I hissed as it drew me closer, the source of my growing madness stained on the floor and, for the second time, I lowered to a knee so as I could get closer.

I then swiped my fingers through it before bringing it to my nose so as I could consume the scent.

Now drawing it in deep, stealing it all in its purity.

It smelled like pure innocence and summer nectar.

A scent that took control of a part of me I thought long ago dead and buried.

My reaction to it was so strong that I almost feared it.

Feared what it could do to me. Feared what I would become should I indulge in even a single drop.

I feared its power over me.

Hence why I rose and quickly grabbed the first piece of material I could find, ripping it from the table so as I could wipe the blood from my fingers.

As if it would infect me if it remained there any longer.

With a grimace I tossed the tablecloth aside, hating the effect her blood held over me.

Like some icy fucking grip that wouldn’t thaw enough to release me.

I sneered down at the blood like it was the enemy before my thoughts finally focused on why. Why her blood was there in the first place?

“Circe,” I growled, knowing she must have hurt her before being forced to let her go and flee. Fuck that witch, I should have killed her when I had the chance, spell be damned!

Speaking of the spell, I was eager to leave this room and start putting a new plan into place. Or should I say, I was eager to leave what the girl had left behind, and my gaze kept wandering on its own accord back to the spot she had bled on.

“Finally,” I muttered to myself as I found the crystal ball, one that looked cracked as it had clearly been dropped in Circe’s haste to escape.

I picked it up, taking note of the swirling grey storm caught at the center that was slowly seeping from the single crack.

I gritted my teeth, hoping enough remained for the connection to be made.

But then an idea surfaced before I gave into impulse to mend the fractured glass a different way.

“Let’s see how well you fight against this, little mortal,” I said aloud, now holding the tip of my finger an inch away from the crack.

Then I released a thin ribbon of my darkness when something curious happened.

For even before I needed to command it to do so, it instantly slithering inside the crack as if it too was drawn to this small piece of her. One I held in the palm of my hand.

Then the moment it surrounded the storm and consumed it, I threw my head back and roared as the connection was made.

My black eyes were now two orbs of glowing silver I could see in the reflection of the skylight above.

A reaction that morphed the rage in me into something more…

something different. It manifested itself into something other than darkness.

Which meant that for the first time in my life, I found myself growling a single word that had the power to scare me.

One that, this time, wasn’t born from the Hell I knew, but from the Hell that I didn’t.

A word I was powerless to stop from slipping past my lips.

“Mine!”

It was the consuming need for a soul but, it wasn’t one I wanted to take by the hand of death.

It was one I wanted to possess, it was one…

Given freely.