Page 52 of Fated In Blood (Nocturne Vampire Clan #1)

52

BLAKE

P ossibly for the last time, I buried my face into Evie’s hair when we landed at the farthest end of the eastern wing of Darkmore Castle, folding her into my arms for one precious moment while I got my shit together.

Fucking hell.

Fucking hell .

Rohr landed a second later in a swirl of smoke, and I threw Evangeline behind me as my friend raised his head and snarled, face twisted into a ravenous mask. He gathered himself to spring then slumped to the ground, blood pouring from the wound on the side of his throat, his jacket glistening with blood.

Some of the black bled out of his eyes and he managed a wry smile. “Looks like I caught a few on the way out. We don’t have long.”

“We need to leave this castle. Now .” Evie wiggled out from beneath me and started crawling to Riordan before I yanked her back.

“Stay away from him. You can’t get close.”

“Fuck that, he’s bleeding. I need to?—”

“He’s right. Stay away, Evie. Listen to Blake and stay where you are.” Riordan sounded exhausted, the weakness in his voice not only from his wounds.

She looked between the two of us, confusion written all over her beautiful face. I pointed to the furthest end of the room. “You watch from there while I check him over.” Rohr’s neck was healing fast, but his shirt was stained red, the sword wound and bullet holes still leaking blood. I peeled off his jacket to check how bad he’d been hit.

“They’ll be here any minute. We have to get out of the castle.” Evie was on the verge of hysteria, bleeding from her wrist— when the fuck did that happen? —kicking off her heels before she paced to the window then back to the other side of the room.

“We can’t.” I lifted Riordan’s shirt. One of the bullets had passed straight through, another…was stuck inside. Fuck . “There’s a ward around the castle. We can’t get out.”

She wrapped her arms around her middle. “We can’t be trapped here. We can’t, ” she muttered, rocking back and forth. “There are at least five secret passages…I escaped before. There are all kinds of ways out, I remember…”

“Not you. Us . Riordan and I cannot leave the castle,” I explained patiently as she slid down the wall until her butt hit the floor, releasing a shaky exhale.

“Tyrell’s magic is keyed to our blood. We can’t cross the outer boundary, and we can’t resist his compulsion for more than a few seconds.” I swallowed down my humiliation at the ugly scene she’d witnessed. “As you just saw.”

Nobody spoke as I pulled the knife out of my boot. “This isn’t what I thought I’d be doing tonight,” I muttered, crouching down beside Riordan, the tip of my blade poised by the entry wound. “But if I leave that silver inside you, you’ll never heal, my friend.”

“Do it.” He yanked off his tie, wound it around his hand, then bit down on the folded, brightly colored silk.

The silk muffled his scream when I plunged the knife in deep, turned the blade, and dragged the tip out, pulling the spent round with it. Riordan slumped onto his back, yanking the tie out of his mouth with a groan. “Fuck, I always forget how much that hurts. Did you get every piece?”

I nodded, flinging the silver disk away. “Enough you should heal.”

“If we’re stuck here, then it’s only a matter of time before they corner us.” Evie climbed to her feet, plucking at her gown, her face screwed up in concentration. “Do we have a contingency plan for this? Would a plan even help us now?”

“Did you see? Tyrell tried to compel her.” Rohr was breathing hard, hands fisted like he was in pain. “Didn’t work.”

“I saw.” I slanted her a look and she blushed. “I told you to run, little slayer. You ignored me.”

“I didn’t understand what was happening.” She shrugged. “The air got tight and hot around me, then I pushed really hard and his control slipped away. Right before I put that knife in his throat.”

Get her out of here, Blake. Now.

Riordan and I traded a long look, some of the tension in the air loosening.

“Evangeline.” I crossed to her and took her hands. “Do you remember when you dematerialized before? Do you think you can do that again? You wouldn’t have to go far.”

“I don’t know. Maybe?”

“I need you to try. Dematerialize beyond the outer walls of the grounds. Then concentrate hard on Crimson House and take yourself there, in as few jumps as you can manage.”

“There’s gold in the safe. Enough to get you anywhere you want.” Riordan’s dark-blue eyes were turning blacker, his body healing rapidly, but his injuries weren’t our biggest problem right now. His eyes glinted with bloodlust, hands shaking as he climbed to his feet. “Take as much as you can carry. You need to go now.”

“What about you two?” She narrowed that glare on us. “You’re asking me to leave you behind? Leave Angel here with a monster? Do you really think so little of me that I’d walk away and, what? Live out the rest of my life on some desert island all alone?”

“Would that be so bad?” I murmured.

“We can’t get out.” Rohr fumbled his way to the couch and sat down heavily. “The wards around here are unbreakable. We’re trapped. You aren’t. I would be happy, Evangeline, to know you escaped all this. That you were happy, and alive, somewhere out in the world.”

“Oh, fuck you, Riordan,” she snapped, then she poked her finger into my chest. “Fuck you and your precious code of honor and your stupid plan for me to live happily ever after, while you do what? Die in my place?” She was hyperventilating, so furious she punched me square in the chest.

“What is wrong with you?” Evie demanded, pointing a shaking finger at Rohr. “You’ve given up the fight before it’s even started, Riordan’s completely falling apart…What the fuck is even happening right now?”

“I fed from you last night, remember?” Rohr said miserably, and Evie went still, hands falling to her sides.

“Everything Malachi said is true. Your blood is addictive, and now all I want is more. I can’t stop my cravings, can’t control myself around you. I’m dangerous. I shouldn’t be close to you, Evie. I can’t…The things I want to do to you right now…”

He shuddered, his entire body quaking violently, and when his head snapped up, we both shrank back. Blackness stained his gaze, his fangs flashing in a feral snarl. He looked like every nightmare the humans had about our kind.

“So all that bullshit story of Tyrell’s isn’t…bullshit?”

“Apparently not,” I murmured. “This was what Tyrell was planning all along. His way of trapping us, to controlling us, fuck knows what his end game is, but we need to separate you two before Riordan loses control.”

“This is a fucking mess,” she muttered. “You two…really can’t leave the castle, can you?”

“We’re stuck here. But you’re not.” I didn’t waste time arguing before turning to Riordan. “We’ll pick off Bosch, then the guards. Rohr will handle Collum, I’ll take Malachi. That leaves Tyrell. We’ll create enough chaos to present an opening for you to escape. We could cut the power, start a fire, create a distraction. Whatever we do, we’ll distract him long enough for you to get to Crimson House. It’s the only way.”

Evie studied me. “Tyrell knew all about the knife.”

“Fucking Malachi double-crossed us. That’s the only way he could know.”

“You think?” Riordan was doubled over, but he managed to curl his lips into a sneer. “I fucking knew we shouldn’t have trusted him. That bastard would sell his own mother to get ahead. You take Collum. Malachi is fucking mine .”

Far-off shouting filtered down to us, and outside the windows, flashlights cut through the gloom. “They’re coming. Bosch will be with them. Collum, too. We need a plan.”

“The plan is, don’t let Tyrell lay a finger on Evangeline.” Riordan’s eyes met mine, filled with the kind of cold, clear purpose I understood. “Get her out of here.”

I gripped her wrist, and she twisted away. “I’m not leaving.”

My heart sank when she looked at us both with that determined stubbornness, her eyes flicking between us. “The two of you can’t take on this many opponents. We need at least three to make this work.” She cut through the skirting of the dress, stepping out of the piled-up taffeta in that glittering top and a thin underskirt that she sliced off above her knees.

“Sorry about this. I know they cost a fortune,” she murmured, unclasping the necklace and tossing it on the couch beside Rohr, followed by the bracelet and ring.

“We need to split up.”

“ No ,” Riordan and I said together, the sound of pounding feet echoing down the hallway, slamming doors indicating they were searching the rooms in this hall, one by one.

You must know you can’t escape. Tyrell’s ghostly voice floated through the air, magnified to carry to every corner of the castle. But I do enjoy a good hunt after dinner. Run, little rabbits, run.

Evangeline didn’t so much as flinch. “We stay together, they scoop us all up in the next few minutes, and this is over. We split up and we have a chance.” She shrugged her shoulders then laid her hand on my arm.

“This isn’t what any of us wants,” she acknowledged quietly. “But if you want to save your kingdom, and I want to save my sister, we have to decide now.”