Page 131 of Claimed By Fangs and Darkness

The sound that left my lips was pure, scalding frustration.

Without the knife against me, my limbs began to wake up. My hands twitched. My power stirred.

Kylo kneeled and assessed me quickly. Shadows bled from him. His voice boomed. “What did she do?”

“She took a vial of my blood,” I spat, angry tears burning my eyes. “Temporary paralysis and a cut on my neck. Physically, I’m fine.”

My tattoos emitted heat, and shadows whispered pure hunger.

“Don’t, Evie. You need your strength,” Kylo said as he scooped me into his arms and bent lower.

His tongue traced the wound, and the venom dulled my intensity against my will.

“She has my fucking blood,” I said through a clenched jaw. “I am sofucked.”

“Why wouldn’t she have used the blood you spilled at dinner?” Kylo asked.

“It needed to have been taken. Ritualized. Harvested.” I closed my eyes, listening to the sound of more people coming down the stairwell with dread. “That was my opportunity. She was alone. Aster didn’t even know she was here. And now she’s gone. Withmyblood. To do gods know what with it.”

I remembered that Juliette had told Aster I threatened her with blood magick. That was the thing about people like her—their lies and accusations were always a reflection of their ownmotives and actions.

“Angel, she shouldn’t have been here at all. You did not fail,” Kylo hissed. “This is not on you. This building is glamoured and warded. The only mortals here were vetted and escorted, and we know them intimately.”

My breath was ragged. “Just like the fucking sex dungeon. How does she keep getting into turned spaces? She wasn’t only here—she was on the roof!”

Idris and Blade burst through the door. I could move a bit better now, still resting against Kylo.

“Ollie was found in a pool of his own blood in the stairwell. He’s dead,” Blade said. “What the hell is going on?”

Kylo’s face dropped. “That witch was here, at the party, and we don’t know how. She took some of Evie’s blood and ran. What of the guards?”

“No one else was harmed to my knowledge. The guards from downstairs were the ones who smelled blood and alerted me,” Blade said.

“You okay?” Idris asked.

I nodded. It was a low dose of venom, but it was still working well to calm my body. My mind was still holding strong to visions of gruesome violence and retribution.

“It doesn’t make any sense,” Blade continued. “How did she get past everyone else and only kill one attendant?”

“The one who was supposed to be in the stairwell?” I asked.

Kylo nodded.

My head spun. “She is sick in the head.”

Vesper slipped into the room. I felt embarrassingly weak, more so than before. Vesper only regarded me with concern.

Idris ran a hand through his hair before rubbing his mouth. He glared out the open window. “What can she do with your blood, Evie?”

I shook my head. I clenched both my fists until my knuckles were white. “A lot of things. But I have no idea her intentions. She made absolutely no sense. She’s too volatile. She’s acting as a manipulated weapon for the born. But she also has her own dark motives, ones that belong only to her. She—” I choked out the next words as if they were as disgusting as Juliette was. “She has this obsession with me that is terrifying. Ihateher.”

The room was silent for two beats. I felt exposed and hot and useless.

“She is your shadow,” Vesper said softly. Her piercing blue eyes slammed into me like an ocean wave.

I blinked in confusion, remembering my healing sessions with Princeton. He’d talked about an internal shadow that needed to be integrated.

“Hatred is a curious thing. It can tell us a lot about ourselves.”