Page 3 of Blood Claims (Garnet Dagger Mafia #2)

FIRST TIME FEAR

VICTOR

“ I ’m sorry.”

Those two words played out over and over again in the bitter state of my mind. As soon as I heard her say them, I had known what was coming. Known of the battle of betrayal that was to be fought against as it was a war I had been forced to conquer once before.

Hence why I had snarled angrily, my fury reaching new heights.

Because waking to find ourselves bound to the bed by our little Firefly had me losing my shit pretty quickly.

Of course, at first, I had arrogantly believed the shackles would have been easy to break. But that hadn’t been the case at all.

Because there was a lot about our Fated we didn’t know.

But as each bitter veil was lifted and the truth revealed, it only made our situation more precarious.

Sweet little Vanessa had been made to believe something that wasn’t true.

And as those lies came to light, so did the impossible task of trying to fight against them.

Of course, I had been furious with her in the moment, for it was clear she didn’t trust us.

Didn’t trust in herself. Because I knew that with each shitty hand that life had dealt her, it was easier for her to believe the bad over the good.

That the only reason we had fallen in love with her was down to some fucking curse!

But she didn’t understand enough of our kind to know that this was impossible. How no power on Earth was capable of fooling a Vampire into believing they had met their Fated when it wasn’t real. No spell powerful enough to mask the true identity of their Moirai Theía.

But Nessa didn’t know that.

And nor would she fucking listen!

Her tearful apologies tasted like ash on my tongue and fell on deaf ears.

My fury an entity too thick to penetrate.

As if something inside me had snapped. My once deadly patience was shattered, the damage irreversible.

I was a shadow of the man I once was, not even capable enough to heed my own brother’s words of warning when losing my shit in front of her.

Her fear was an easy meal to feed from, despite its sour undertone…

The bittersweet ending she foolishly believed this was.

But our little Fated had no idea that this was far from the end. Far from fucking over! For it never would be. This was a lesson she would learn once we were free from the fucking chains!

Chains I knew she had escaped from thanks to the powers of a witch. One that had been manipulating her and, unbeknownst to her, had no doubt being doing so from the very start. And now we knew. Now we knew how she had continuously been able to escape us. It had all been leading up to this point.

For her to steal from us .

Fuck, but anyone else and I would have slaughtered them without a single thought of restraint.

The offence was the highest against a royal blood.

To even try would have meant the death of not just the thief, but every single person they ever cared for.

The obliteration of friends, family, their entire line eradicated.

Everyone but our fated.

Our naive little firefly who had no idea what she had done.

Her reasoning that she was actually saving us from this farce of a curse was one she so vehemently believed in.

And she did, utterly and completely. It was easy to see in her tears, heartbroken tears shed in the belief that it was her last goodbye.

That we would simply wake and not remember her.

And her own punishment was a life lived unable to ever forget.

The guilt she expressed in thinking that she had somehow taken advantage of us, in this cursed state, was beyond maddening. That by sleeping with us had been a line she had been powerless not to cross.

Fuck me, but it was living, breathing insanity.

In fact, it was only the sight of her tears that managed to calm some of the darkness inside me, and no doubt aided my brother in doing so as well. That and when she confessed her true feelings for us.

“The way I fell in love with you both,” ’ she said before more tears fell.

I closed my eyes to absorb those tears and what she said, but then I hit my limit.

The limit of not having her in my arms whilst she confessed her feelings was when I started to thrash against the chains with more vigor.

Not that it did me any fucking good, as the fucking things were held as if they had been forged in Hell by the Devil himself!

In my anger, I had lashed out at her the second I discovered what her plan was, telling Tal bitterly,

“She wishes to be rid of us, brother.”

The comment made her look horrified, and she argued against the claim.

“No! No, I don’t, and I won’t, not ever. I couldn’t, not even if I wanted to,” she had hurried to say, and again it calmed my darkness, but not enough that my response wasn’t to laugh bitterly.

“Foolish girl. Our Fated believes she can make us forget,” I told my brother, who simply shook his head before reminding her of the depth of her situation.

“Oh, Little Peach, you have no idea who you’re dealing with, do you?

” Tal had warned her, but just like my own, his caution fell off the deaf ears of a broken girl with zero confidence.

One who still believed the lies she told herself.

That she wasn’t good enough. That she wasn’t beautiful enough.

That she wasn’t rich enough and all the other fucked up reasons why she believed this fucking witch over us.

This soon to be dead fucking witch!

“It was real!” I argued, but even after I snarled this, with my brother following in my furious, verbal footsteps, it still wasn’t enough.

“Very fucking real, and if you would release us, we will kindly prove it again!” Tal said and yes, we fucking would have.

However, I had debated putting her over my lap and spanking her ass red raw first! Her apologies weren’t able to save her from punishment. No matter how sweet and sincere I knew they were. No matter how each one tugged at my soul.

“You keep saying that Little One, but your words are rather empty when you don’t do anything to rectify your mistakes,” I reminded her after yet another sorry spoken.

But then came those three words once more.

Yet, without them being said whilst locked to our embrace, I could only find an angry bitterness inside myself.

“Another empty sentiment when you stand there and refuse us our right to touch you,” I had lashed out. But it was useless, just like my brother’s attempt at trying to get her to understand that there was no forgetting the taste of a Fated.

Her reply had come like an attack, making us both flinch back at the strike.

“I am not your fated.”

And so came my threat, giving her one last chance to stop her madness.

“Your punishment just keeps mounting, sweetheart, so I suggest you stop now and listen to me when I tell you, this is your last chance to rectify all of this. Release us. And do it now!” Of course, the second she started shaking her head at me, my hope quickly waned.

Foolish girl, reminding me of daylight hours and therefore pointing out that she couldn’t be controlled.

And a damn shame at that, for the devious things I would have made her do, had I still possessed that control.

The punishment would have been delicious indeed.

I would have made her a slave to us! And in return she would have been forced to endure hours of pleasure until begging us for her sweet torture to end.

I would have tied her up in silk and kept her as a sexual pet.

Everything at our hands, she would have been our doll to care for.

All her needs at our will. Reliant on us and no one else.

I would have stripped her of all power until she finally understood the true meaning of who owned her!

Until she knew exactly who she belonged to.

That would be her lesson to learn, and we her teachers so as she never forgot it ever again.

But first we had to get our fucking hands on her!

After the bitter way she referred to our first time with her, I had lost my shit, snarling,

“Save your regrets!”

“My only regret is taking advantage of the situation. Of the lie you have been made to believe!”

I had shaken my head, wishing more than anything that I could literally fuck some sense into her!

“The only lies are the ones you tell yourself by thinking you can just walk away. The lie you believe in thinking you can ever run from us, that there is a single place on this planet you believe you can hide… for I make you this vow, girl… we will fucking find you!” I growled this last part like the threat it was, my darkness changing my voice into something far deadlier than she had ever heard before. To the point that Tal had warned,

“Victor… Easy, brother.”

But it fell on unwilling ears, because she had unleashed the beast and it was too late to try and get him back in his cage.

“We will find you, Nessa, and make no mistake, we will not be so trusting the next time we make you our prisoner!” I warned, wanting her to know what we had in store for her.

Where this would end, and making her gasp from it.

She was smart enough to know it wasn’t an empty threat.

Not if she had any reason to doubt the words of this witch, like she should.

Because she was in for a world of trouble, and one that would only increase as true horror struck when the witch’s true motives came to light.

Our fated hadn’t stopped with her tirade of apologies, because she gave me yet another emotion to add to the freight train of anger that wouldn’t fucking stop… fucking fear.

“No, Nessa, don’t you dare fucking do it!” I had warned when she walked toward my dagger. But of course, it was what the witch wanted. As Nessa soon told us…

“I’m sorry, I have no choice.”

“Who is making you do this!? We will find them. We will make them pay for this but please, baby, don’t fucking do this,” Tal pleaded, keeping his cool far easier than I could.

Oh, how the tables had turned, and roles reversed. All it took was for our fated to betray us, I thought bitterly. My anger making me snarl once more,

“You have no fucking idea what would happen if that got into the wrong hands… it… fuck, girl, but it would destroy everything!” My warning went by unheard, as she was far too consumed in what she believed.

Which meant that not only would we have a Fated to hunt down, but also the right to keep hold of our kingdom!

Her delusions of making this right continued, and I was forced to look on in dread as she accessed the box with ease that held the dagger. It was a powerful spell that she simply eradicated with nothing but a touch of her hand. My fearful gaze went straight to my brother who mirrored my panic.

The second she made contact with the dagger, I didn’t miss the way she responded. Her eyes widened as if surprised, her body tensing as if it was trying to communicate something to her.

“What is it… you feel something, don’t you?” I asked but she ignored the question.

“I wished more than anything I was what you wanted me to be. That I could have been what you both hoped for and for that, I am truly sorry. But I hope you find her one day. That you find your Fated, because only then I will know that I did the right thing. Only then will I know that my heart was the only one I sacrificed… goodbye, Talon, goodbye, Victor,” she said through her tears, and I swallowed so hard I thought I would choke on it.

Choke on the bitterness that was drowning me from within.

Because then we were forced to watch her leave and, no matter how much we roared in anger, it didn’t matter.

She had issued her last command for no one to hear us until she was long gone. And for us, she wouldn’t be gone for long. Because once the anger had calmed, I was left with nothing but cold, hard fear. And not just for the dagger.

“She has no idea what she is walking in to,” Tal said, making me grit my teeth and snap,

“No, nor does she have a fucking clue who she is messing with.”

“Do you mean the witch or us?” he asked, and after testing the chains for the hundredth time, they finally snapped.

“Both, now come on, we have a Fated mate to save and then one to punish,” I said, making him grin before breaking his own shackles, then we wasted no time in putting our plan into place.

Because this was the one thing time had awarded us, a chance to plot what we would do next.

The time it had taken her to walk freely from our fortress home as if she held the keys to the castle in her hand.

Of course, we had raced through the house as if the fucking thing was on fire, despite it being pointless as she was long gone.

Which was when we decided to do something about our nakedness, not one single fucker was brave enough to speak a word of it.

Nor question as to why we were butt ass naked standing outside on our driveway.

“Do you think she would be foolish enough to answer a call?” Tal asked me once we were back inside and dressed, ready for fucking action. His question made me grit out,

“Tell Andras to be at the ready to have it traced in case she does.”

A few moments later and we were at the ready with our net.

One she foolishly and…

Willingly swam into.