Page 27 of Claimed By Fangs and Darkness

“Make a sound, and Roger loses blood,” I said flatly as soon as my gaze collided with Cindy’s.

She stood cowering in the spacious foyer, halfway down one of the lavish staircases. The house was even gaudier than I remembered, sparkling with fine crystal and shitty art and goldeverything.

“Get the fuck down here, Cindy,” I hissed.

As I did, my shadows crawled from me like snakes, making their own hissing sounds.

She trembled, and I could tell it wasn’t even authentic—her movements exaggerated as her mouth wobbled, and she fought the urge to wail.

Likely inebriated on one or more substances, Cindy shook her head and clutched the railing for dear life. She mouthed the wordRogerdramatically, her puny mind working on overdrive for a few beats before she leveled a cold glare on me.

“You killed my son!”

Kylo slashed Roger’s face. Roger hissed in pain, reaching for his wounds in shock—as if he’d never had to consider his own mortality before. He stared at the blood that came away on his palms in horror.

“I warned you,” I said sweetly to Cindy. “Do you want to walk down here yourself or do you want me to force you to come down?”

My shadows slithered closer, curling around the banister.

Roger stared at me as if in unrecognition. It was the first time his gaze hadn’t oozed with lust. Probably because I was no longer so naive and vulnerable.

I had power now, and that wasn’t a quality Whitfield men wanted in their women.

Cindy’s shoulders slumped, sobbing with a quiet histrionic flair. As soon as she made it to the base of the stairs, I wrapped one of my shadows over her mouth and pulled her forward as if she were leashed. Her cry was muffled.

Kylo merely followed my lead.Hisgaze, on the other hand, absolutely oozed with lust.

I led my prisoners down to the basement, the basement in which I’d given Jacob blowjobs without any degree of reciprocity.

Witch lights responded to our presence, flickering on overhead.Dim,I commanded.

I shoved Cindy to the floor.

“Good thing this basement is soundproof!” I said cheerfully. “That’s what you always used to joke, right Roger? How no onewould be able to hear me scream? Violence against women is hilarious!”

Kylo pushed Roger to the floor next to his wife, and he was far less gentle than I’d been. Roger removed his gag with shaking hands. Kylo’s lip curled as he regarded Roger with wrathful disgust.

We were in the center of the basement, a space for entertaining high-class leeches or mistresses. Roger and Cindy were positioned on the opulent marble floor, up against a wall separating the kitchen from a drawing room.

“Congrats to you both,” I said, my power growing slightly less stable as I allowed more anger through. The walls shook, and Kylo ran a hand through my hair. “You killed Idris. You killed my eighteen-year-old brother. You murdered an innocent, human university student.”

Roger averted his eyes to the floor. Cindy vibrated with emotion. I let her gag fall.

“We didn’t tell anyone to kill that boy,” she said. She appeared to be fighting hard to keep from saying what she truly wanted to say. She wasn’t known for her restraint. “We wanted justice for Jacob. He was our son! We only wanted the authorities to investigate what had happened to him.”

I laughed dryly. “Theauthorities. You mean born vampires tasked with murdering witches? Born vampires who throw away human life like it means nothing at all?”

“These were respectable individuals,” Cindy said, shaking her head. “They wouldn’t kill anyone who was truly innocent and law-abiding.”

“You’re either a fucking idiot or a fucking liar. Which one is it, Cindy?”

A gust of wind shot her back, her head striking hard against the wall. It wasn’t nearly as sickening as the noise Idris’s head had made. She cried, rubbing her skull.

No apology. No remorse. All Cindy did was defend the monsters in power.

“Why are you always so quiet?” I screamed at Roger, who reached for Cindy’s hand and mumbled something useless about how it was all going to be okay. His eyes were slow to meet mine. “Saying less makes it easier for you to get away with your own atrocities, doesn’t it? Open your mouth too wide, and I bet all manner of harrowing admissions might fall out.”

I’d always detected Roger’s putrid soul with my witchy senses, but its stench was even stronger now in the face of my power.