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CHAPTER THREE

CJ

The scent hits me before I see her.

Isolde’s blood has changed. Fundamentally, catastrophically changed. What was once the sweet copper tang of vampire blood now carries something darker, older. Something that makes me restless with recognition and want.

Turning around, I see her with Isaac, looking perfectly composed despite having vanished to wherever the fuck she did. But I can smell the lie on her, taste the deception in the air between us.

“Isolde.”

She turns, and for a split second, I see something flicker in her blue eyes. Power. Raw, unfiltered power that makes my markings burn.

“CJ.” She smiles. “I’m fine.”

“I didn’t ask,” I say with a slight smirk.

She returns it. “I was pre-empting your strike.”

I raise an eyebrow. “My mother would definitely love you.”

Her eyes widen slightly at the mention of my mother, but she recovers quickly. “Can’t wait to meet her.”

The changed scent of her blood is overwhelming now, like standing at the edge of a storm. “The witches are dead.”

She frowns and looks around. “Good,” she murmurs. “They had delusions that you were theirs. Are you theirs, CJ, or are you mine?”

“Do you even need to ask?”

She smiles. “No, I don’t.” She moves closer, and it feels like being stalked by an apex predator. “And if I have any other woman come up to me, telling me you belong to them, I will rip their fucking eyes out.”

I can’t deny the spark of arousal that ignites in my soul. “Noted. Would it make me a bad vampire to hope that someone does?”

She giggles. “Do you want to be bad?”

“Always. I’m sorry I didn’t get to you in time.”

She looks taken aback. “It’s okay. I didn’t expect you to come running to help me.”

“I will always run to you, Isolde.”

She nods.

“Where did you go when you vanished?”

Isaac glances between us. “She was with Blackridge. Everything’s fine now.”

“Is it?” I direct the question at Isolde, ignoring her brother.

“Yes,” she says steadily, but the look in her eyes tells me differently.

She is protecting her brother, and she wants me to do the same.

She will tell me, just not here. That changes this encounter completely, and I relax.

She isn’t trying to lie to me, only to Isaac.

I step forward and pull her into my arms.

“I need to speak with Isolde,” I tell Isaac, not taking my eyes off her. “Alone.”

Isaac bristles.

“It’s okay,” Isolde says, squeezing her brother’s hand. “I’ll catch up with you later.”

Something unspoken passes between the twins, a silent argument that Isolde apparently wins. Isaac leaves reluctantly, throwing me a warning glance that would be intimidating if I were anyone else.

When he’s out of earshot, I move closer to Isolde, close enough that I can feel the heat radiating from her skin, smell the otherworldly power now mingled with her natural scent.

Cassiel and William move in. The fallen is curious, in that irritating way, but it is underlined with worry. William is eager, desperate for her to make him whole again.

“Whoa,” I say as he crowds her. “Back up a second.”

“She completed me,” he says, his eyes never leaving Isolde’s. “Do you know? Do you know what you did?”

“Yes,” she replies. “I felt it. Felt you.” She reaches out to cup his face, hovering her hand near him but not touching.

“What are you?” I ask. “What have you become?”

She drops her hand and looks back at me. “It’s stupid.”

I baulk at her. “What? Isolde, it’s not stupid, it’s…”

“Magnificent,” Cassiel murmurs. “I can feel the power.”

“Magnificent, but also terrifying,” she whispers, her gaze flicking between us. “There’s a word… I made it up.”

“You are like me,” William says. “A Sanguinarch.”

She shakes her head. “No, I’m more than that. I’m a … Sanguimonarch.”

William lets out a grunt. “I’ve never heard of that.”

“She just said she made it up,” I snap at him and shove him away from her, using whatever parallel universe powers I have over him to make my point. “Can you explain?”

“It means I can control blood like a Sanguinarch,” Isolde says. “But more. I can create. Destroy.” Her eyes meet mine. “I made William solid, CJ. For a moment, he was alive again.”

“We saw,” I murmur. “You might want to be careful with that.”

William hisses, and Isolde raises an eyebrow at me, but I know what I saw. I saw the Butcher, ready to slice and dice anything that came near him, just to feel the blood on his hands.

“So, you are a god?” Cassiel asks.

“No, I wouldn’t go that far,” she says with a nervous laugh. “But definitely more than average.”

“You were always more than average, my sweet.”

“And Blackridge?” Cassiel asks, his silver eyes narrowed. I have no idea why they are permanently silver now, but that’s just something else to keep an eye on. “What does he want with you?”

Isolde shivers. “I have no idea. He tested my blood and saw that it was like William’s, but then the nexus decided to kick in, and here we are. Blackridge asked me what I plan to do with these powers and then sent me back here.”

“Just like that?” I ask.

“Yeah.”

The words hang heavy, a chilling indictment of the forces at play.

“He’s testing you,” William says, his spectral form almost vibrating with intensity. “Seeing how far your power extends. What you’re capable of.”

“What a shock,” I remark. “He collects knowledge, power, and you, Isolde, are now the rarest, most powerful specimen he’s ever encountered.”

“So, what now?” Cassiel asks. “What about The Collectors?”

Isolde shrugs, but the caution in her eyes is noticeable. “He said they will still come for me. Sanguinarchs are precious to them. They create…” She gulps.

“What?” William spits out. “Ghosts?”

“Living dolls,” she mutters.

William hisses. “Excuse me?”

“You are getting on your high horse about that when Isolde was going to be made into a grimoire?” I point out.

He turns his head towards me. It’s slow, sinister, and the flash of anger in his eyes isn’t something to mess with.

The second he becomes corporeal again for real, we are going to have a confrontation that will likely bring this academy to its knees.

“I’m trying to understand why they killed me and didn’t do that to me instead. ”

“Are you saying that would be preferable?” I ask curiously.

“Of course not,” William snaps, the air around him snapping with dark energy. “But it’s a discrepancy. They hunt Sanguinarchs for their ability to animate and manipulate. Why destroy one when they could have controlled me?”

“Perhaps they couldn’t control you,” Isolde suggests quietly, her gaze fixed on William. “Perhaps they saw you as too much of a threat, even as a doll, based on what you knew. What you were getting close to.”

“Their own methods,” William says grimly and then tilts his head before he huffs. “Okay, this is starting to make more sense. They are Sanguinarchs.”

Isolde’s eyes widen. “Oh, for fuck’s sake. Of course they are! So, a group of highly dangerous creatures are hunting others of their kind, among other things. They don’t want us to be living dolls. They want us to join them.”

“So why kill me?”

“Maybe it was part of the plan,” I say, my mind ticking over. “One to keep you here for as long as possible until someone came along and could see your ass.”

“Fucking hell,” he grits out. “Aquila, you’re smarter than you look.”

“Gee, thanks,” I mutter. “But it makes sense. This is their hunting ground. They wanted you here, not going off into the world after you graduated.”

Isolde frowns, absorbing this. “So, this has been a hundred-year-long game to trap me?”

“Not you specifically,” William says, his form flickering with agitation. “Another Sanguinarch. And here you are.”

“But why?” Cassiel asks, his silver eyes fixed on William. “What do they ultimately want?”

“Power,” I answer before William can. “If The Collectors are Sanguinarchs themselves, they could be trying to amass an army or consolidate their own abilities. Or perhaps there’s a schism among them, a faction war, and they’re recruiting.”

The thought of a war between blood monarchs is chilling.

“Blackridge isn’t working with them,” Isolde says, almost as if to convince herself. “He could’ve just handed me over, and he didn’t. He set me free to see what I would do.”

“Ever the academic.”

“He’s playing his own game,” William agrees. “He wants to understand you, Isolde. To see the limits of your power and perhaps, to use it for his own ends. But you’re right, he isn’t part of this.”

“We need to prepare for The Collectors. If they’re Sanguinarchs, they’ll be far more dangerous than we initially anticipated.

In heaven, we were taught they were all extinct.

The line ended with William when he was murdered, although you were never mentioned by name, it tracks.

So, how and where have they been hiding? ” Cassiel asks.

“So, I’m a pawn in this sick game.”

“You’re not a pawn,” I say, tilting her chin up so she meets my gaze. “You’re a monarch, a queen . And we’re your fucking knights.”