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CHAPTER ELEVEN

ENDER

It’s been over a day, and I feel no better than when I woke up in this hell.

Honestly, I feel worse. I’m confident that if I don’t consume blood soon, I’m going to lose myself or die.

Is that what they want? Why did I make such a fucking mistake?

How did I fuck up so badly? I should have just stayed home with Rylee.

I bet she’s in distress… she’s never going to forgive me.

She’s going to flip and flop on the floor of my bedroom for the rest of our lives so I’ll never have a good night’s sleep again… if I live through this, that is.

The door opens and I’m in such a state that I don’t even realize who it is until he speaks.

The sound of his voice tears through me as my head snaps up, but he’s not looking at me.

No… he’s fixated on Mads. He acts like I don’t even exist. Like even though I think of him every fucking day, he can’t even be bothered to look over at me.

Abel has changed very little since the last time I saw him well over a hundred years ago. His dark hair is cut shorter, his facial hair neatly trimmed instead of the beard he once wore. His amber eyes are still as cruel as I remember them.

Anger and desperation rip through me. I need out of these shackles. He’s right here. Right here for me to tear apart, but I can’t even get myself free. I can’t even?—

“Mads, is it?” Abel asks as he walks up to him. “It’s a pleasure.”

“The way you walked in here makes me think it’s not so much a pleasure, but I’m willing to pretend.”

He grins at Mads as he steps in close to him.

Mads looks a mess. His clothes are dried in blood, almost soaked in it.

He obviously didn’t handle the fight he was in well at all.

His ability to fight is absolutely nothing compared to the vampire standing before him.

If he couldn’t handle eight vampires in his hotel, then this man would tear him apart with a mere brush of his hand.

But I will destroy him. I will ruin him. I will?—

“I want to know everything,” he calmly says to Mads.

“I’m sorry, I feel like I’m supposed to know what’s going on here and oddly, I do not.”

The vampire who’d crushed Mads’s throat scoffs. “This is all he does. Plays the idiot. You sure it’s the right guy?”

Abel holds his hand out and the taller of the men sets a short sword into it.

He lifts it and tilts it this way and that, like he’s inspecting the blade.

I very much know this game he’s preparing to play and it makes rage burn inside of me.

A part of me feels like maybe the right thing to do—the thing Rylee tries to teach me—is to warn Mads.

But a bigger part of me doesn’t want Abel to know whatever he’s trying to get out of Mads.

I don’t want to scare Mads into giving up what Abel wants because if he wants something, it’s not good.

Abel gives him a cruel smile. “I don’t beg, Mads.

I ask, and if I don’t get the answers I want, then I don’t ask again.

” He slowly pushes a blade against Mads’s stomach.

It presses into the fabric of his shirt but still, Mads says nothing.

Even as Abel presses harder until fresh blood pearls around it, he still doesn’t say a thing.

Abel gives him a mocking laugh as he slowly pushes the blade into him until the hilt stops it from going any farther. And even as Mads groans and grits his teeth, he refuses to say a word.

Mads’s eyes are clamped shut so he can’t see the way Abel is smiling at him.

He’s always loved breaking a person down.

He doesn’t withdraw the sword, just leaves it there as he cups Mads’s face, making him open his eyes.

“I’m going to add one every time I come in until you wish to talk. It’s as simple as that.”

He glances over at me, like I’m an afterthought. “I see you finally came back, Ender. It’s been a while.”

“I will kill you,” I snarl.

Abel chuckles as he turns around, making me feel insignificant, like anything I say or do is nothing compared to him. He doesn’t fear me. He doesn’t care about me. He just waves to the others to tell them to exit as he walks out the door, leaving the two of us locked in the room alone.

“Well, he seems like a cheery guy,” Mads says, like he’s not dealing with the pain from still being impaled. “Friend of yours?”

I’m shaking with rage even though the one who should be shaking is Mads. “I will fucking kill him. I will destroy him, and I’ll do anything to do it,” I snarl, my hatred burning deep inside of me.

“Yeah? Strangely, we definitely need to get out of here first,” he says as he glances down at the fresh blood added to his shirt. With no way to remove the sword, the smell of blood is filling the room, making the hunger welling up inside of me rear its head.

“I didn’t even get the pleasure of knowing the name of the guy who is wanting to make me into a pincushion.”

“His name is Abel.” Even saying his name fills me with irritation.

“Lovely chap. Should probably have invited him out for drinks. I usually ask for at least one drink before I let someone stick one in me. Ha!”

“This is how you’re going to die? With your ass out while making horrible jokes?

” How can he still crack jokes? How can he find any amusement in any of this bullshit?

All I can find is rage. Abel is so close.

The man I’ve hunted for so much of my life is so close and yet… I still am too weak to reach him.

“Honestly, is there a better way to die? Surrounded by friends with your bare ass in the breeze.”

“Surely there is,” I say. “What does he want you to tell him?”

“Probably about that recipe I used to make blood soup. It was a super hit at the last company potluck. I bet he heard about it.”

“You each just brought versions of blood?” I ask, curious about this stupidity.

“Sure did. Mine was the best, thank you very much.”

The smell of blood is disrupting my thoughts. “How about we don’t talk about blood right now?”

“Sorry. It’s pretty much all I can think about at this moment,” he admits.

Me too.

“Fuck. I guess I was wrong about that stepping on a tack thing,” he says as he stares at the blood dripping onto the floor. The blood I’m absolutely mesmerized by. “I’m somehow still alive. Yay for me!”

Mads closes his eyes but I can’t look away. I just fixate on each drip of blood as the puddle grows and the desires fighting inside of me spiral out of control.