Page 39 of Fated In Blood (Nocturne Vampire Clan #1)

39

EVANGELINE

I woke to a dog’s desperate whining and the sound of paws furiously digging only a few feet away on the other side of the azaleas. The left side of my face was smashed into the damp ground, the ends of wood ferns tickling my nose.

“Hey. Hey . I think he found something.” Fear froze me in place. I didn’t recognize the voice, so he had to be one of the mercenaries for hire. “The mutt’s going fucking crazy over here.”

Go away. Go away. Go away.

“It’s probably just a squirrel or something. Get him away from the fucking gardens before he tears them up.” Another unrecognizable voice, from further out on the lawn. “Make him obey, or I will.”

I’d passed out and tipped over onto my side, probably the only reason they hadn’t spotted me immediately. The handle of the dagger jabbed me in the stomach, but the globe hummed happily in my pocket like it didn’t have a worry in the world.

“I’m fucking trying, but he won’t listen. He really fucking wants whatever this is.”

My gums throbbed like they were on fire, weakened muscles spasming, my stomach demanding to be filled, preferably with mouthfuls of sweet, warm blood. I squeezed my eyes closed, surrounded by the guard’s musky sweat and the fruity oil he used in his hair. His pulse pounded wildly as he wrestled the dog away, while cursing, the air dripping with his scent.

A moan very nearly slipped out and I jammed my fist between my lips, willing myself to maintain some fucking control. If it was dark, if I wasn’t so goddamned weak, I would have already been tearing at his throat like a feral beast.

Oh my God, I was totally going to get myself killed.

Death by lack of impulse control.

What a way to go.

The sky was brightening overhead, the morning sun glaring off the windows. I’d slept the entire night away. I was about as rational as a starving animal and as weak as a kitten. The ground beneath me shuddered.

And now…now I was so incredibly fucked as a cavalcade of heavy vehicles rumbled up the drive, doors slamming, an army of boots crunching across the gravel before they clomped hollowly onto the front porch. No one spoke, but they didn’t have to. Silas, Dante, and the soldiers were back, and my chances of getting out of here alive had just vanished.

The dog whined in earnest, his handler fighting to drag him away. I could see him pawing at the bushes, the creature desperate to reach me. “Come on you rabid beast, get out of there,” the mercenary hissed. “Are you trying to get me fired?”

“What’s going on over there?”

I froze, the mercenary froze, but the dog, who obviously knew nothing about Silas Silverwood’s famously mercurial temper, continued pawing at the azaleas.

“Nothing, sir. Just a squirrel. I have him under control.”

But fear seeped from the mercenary, sour enough that bile rose in my throat as my father descended the steps and crossed to where he stood, the dog still determined to get to me with a single mindedness I would have admired if he wasn’t about to get me killed.

Silas walked like I remembered. Carefully. Slowly. Savoring the guard’s fear as he approached, every step timed for maximum effect, giving him plenty of time to imagine the ten thousand ways a Silverwood knew to cause pain.

“A squirrel. Are you sure?”

Even from here I heard the guard’s audible swallow of terror, my father’s slow, methodic breathing, and the hum of a pleased chuckle beneath. He lived for moments like this. For the power that came from holding someone under his spell, right before he broke them apart.

How many times had I made that exact same desperate sound, waiting for his fists to fall?

How many times had he chuckled while he beat me?

He never hurt me out of anger or rage, but with an ice-cold precision born out of pure cruelty, where every blow was placed to cause maximum pain, and his hatred was overlaid with an amused sort of disdain, as if I wasn’t worth anything stronger than mild disappointment.

You brought this on yourself, Evangeline. I wanted a boy, but I got you, instead. You are weak because you are a girl, and I need soldiers strong enough to face our enemies. Do you want to be strong, Evie?

To my eternal shame, I’d always told him yes. Always .

I’d begged him to train me. To teach me. To make me exactly like him.

I never fought back, not like I should have.

No, I’d obeyed .

God, why had I come back here?

I hated this place as much as I hated the weapon Silas had turned me into. This house had been my cage for the first sixteen years I’d existed, a cage without bars, but one I would never have escaped from on my own. No, any longer and I would have become like Virgil. An obedient, brainwashed robot.

I shivered. Anything was better than that fate.

The only reason I’d tasted freedom these last few years was because mom had snuck me and Angel out of this house in the middle of the night and…

Far too late I realized the dog stopped whining, that the guard had gone silent. In fact, the entire world had gone still.

My father stared straight at me through the shiny leaves of the azaleas, the corners of his gray-blue eyes—perfect copies of mine—crinkling in pleasure.

“Hello, Evangeline. Welcome home.”