Page 21

K IDAN STIRRED IN HER SLEEP, STRETCHING HER FINGERS AND FINDING damp sheets. Cold seeped into her with a vicious bite. Her eyes flew open. Her bed was… wet. Heart galloping, she switched on her bedside lamp and screamed.

Blood was everywhere .

She shot out of bed but slipped in a puddle of red. Kidan shouted again, trying to get up but failing. She caught her image in the mirror and froze. Ropes of blood drenched her like a deranged monster. Kidan tried to wipe it off, but it only spread along her skin.

“No, no.” Her pleas rattled in her throat.

Had Kidan killed someone in her sleep?

Please, no.

A low rumble of laughter pulled her frantic gaze to the shadowed corner. Her insides twisted. Susenyos was there, lazily leaning against the wall, eyes gleaming.

“What—Whose blood…?” she started, unable to finish the sentence.

“Oh, I think you know.”

June.

Kidan squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head. This was a nightmare. The house was playing tricks on her.

Her legs trembled as Susenyos crouched before her. He touched the puddle and smeared the blood on her face, making her flinch. He then brought his fingers to his lips, tasting. His eyes remained a flat black, hair unchanged from before, but his lips curved dangerously.

“This is your last warning.” He left, tracking red footprints out the door.

Kidan’s thighs shook, and she pressed her knees closed, unable to move.

This wasn’t June’s blood. It couldn’t be. Kidan dared a glance at her reflection, at her ruined face.

Immediately, she grabbed her phone and called Dean Faris. She picked up on the third ring.

“Kidan? It’s late—”

“Help,” she croaked.

Dean Faris rustled, as if sitting upright, yet her voice remained calm, strong. “Kidan. Where are you?”

Kidan made her voice shake. “Help.”

She hung up and readied herself for the next part, her stomach coiling with dread. She balled one of her ties and shoved it in her mouth. Then she positioned herself flat on the floor beneath the shadow of her large chest of drawers, making sure only her arm was in the line of impact.

Kidan kicked the heavy bottom of the chest, making it rumble and jerk. She kicked again. It teetered back and forth, a mountain, her heart launching with it.

You have to do this.

Dean Faris needed proof.

He had already set the scene for her. She only needed an injured body.

Kidan kicked violently. The chest swayed back, held itself for the length of a heartbeat, and tipped forward. She closed her eyes as the very sky descended on her left arm. Pain unlike anything she’d ever experienced thundered through her. Her scream was absorbed by the tie as her mind went dizzy. The loud crash swallowed the snap in her jaw, her toes, her very core. It took all her strength to pull her broken arm out and hold it. She dragged herself to the front of her bed, pulsing all over.

Then the front door was being pounded on. Spots danced in Kidan’s vision, but she forced them away. Through the ringing pain, she could hear Susenyos’s startled tone and rushed words as he tried to keep Dean Faris and whoever was with her from climbing the stairs.

When they entered her room, Kidan’s head was hung, braids falling over her face, as she cradled her arm.

“My God,” Dean Faris whispered, then ordered with a snap, “Help her!”

Strong arms lifted Kidan onto the bed, making her cry out. But she could see them now—two armed dranaics, Dean Faris, and Susenyos’s shocked face.

“Whose blood is this?” Dean Faris’s features contorted in a frightening wave. “Answer me, Sagad.”

It took Susenyos a moment to speak, his confused gaze pinned on Kidan. “It’s red dye. A harmless prank. Taste it.”

One of the armed dranaics did, nodding. Dean Faris’s anger eased a little. With a shaking hand, Kidan touched the blood on her face, running it through her hands, noticing its consistency. Too thin, and almost… grainy. It wasn’t blood.

Both relief and fury swirled inside her.

Susenyos sidestepped the others, coming to the bed by Kidan.

“This is all a big misunderstanding. She’s fine.” He grabbed her arm—and she screamed. He let go at once.

She could still use this opportunity.

Kidan didn’t have to fake the pain in her voice. “He broke my… arm.”

“ What? ” he snarled.

“Step away from her.”

There was pure command in Dean Faris’s voice. When Susenyos didn’t move, a dranaic pushed him aside.

“Hurry, feed her your blood,” Dean Faris ordered.

Kidan tried to fight off the dranaic pushing his wrist to her mouth. She’d heal on her own. His terrifying strength brought his metallic blood to her lips, and she whimpered helplessly as it slid down her throat.

Stop.

At first swallow, the pain broke like a fever. The dranaic ignored her limbs writhing under him, feeding her a couple more drops. When he eased a little, she shoved him aside and turned over to hurl. Strings of blood and saliva dribbled out of her lips. Her stomach cramped in revulsion, and she gagged again, but nothing else came out. Kidan wiped angrily at her mouth.

“I didn’t need help,” she growled at him.

“There is a short period of time vampire blood is effective in healing bones.” He spoke formally, giving a slight nod of apology.

Dean Faris’s attention was on Susenyos, voice straining to be calm. “Harming an acti, especially one in your household, is a great offense.”

Susenyos’s fangs threatened to show with how far he pulled back his lips. “I didn’t touch her. She must have slipped and knocked the chest over, or injured herself on purpose…” Even he sounded like he couldn’t believe it, taking in the collapsed furniture.

Dean Faris looked at it, then at Kidan’s sweating face.

Please , Kidan silently pleaded. Do something.

“This is the bracelet all over again.” Susenyos raged, eyes blazing. “She plans to frame me.”

Kidan’s mouth fell open. Did he say she planned to frame him?

“Are you kidding? You had June’s bracelet in your drawer!” Kidan roared, ignoring the twinge in her arm.

He released a disbelieving breath. “I’d be an utter fool to do that.”

“Yeah, you are!”

Dean Faris shut her eyes like her head hurt.

Red fury sank into Kidan. “He’s going to kill me.”

Every muscle in Susenyos’s jaw twitched. “This is ridiculous. Listen to her accusations. Out of all places, why would I put my victim’s bracelet in my drawer?”

Kidan didn’t miss a beat. “Maybe you’re just sick that way.”

He took a menacing step toward her, fists flexing, but the vampires stopped him.

Then, in a voice cruel as death, he said, “If I left her bracelet in my drawer, I might as well have hung her corpse in my closet.”

Kidan flinched like he’d truly struck her.

“ Enough ,” Dean Faris snapped with iron authority. “The matter of the bracelet will be investigated, but Kidan, know this: Only your fingerprints are currently on it.”

Kidan was at a complete loss. “You have it?”

“Yes. Susenyos brought it to me at once.”

Her throat closed. “That’s not… possible.”

Susenyos crossed his arms smugly. Then she remembered. He’d been careful not to touch it, using a napkin. He’d been several steps ahead.

“It’s because I touched it without thinking!” Kidan grasped for words. “He must have planned for me to find it.”

Dead silence.

They didn’t believe her. Just like the detectives when she told them June had been kidnapped.

“You have to believe me,” she pleaded, looking around wildly.

Susenyos gave her a pitying look and turned to Dean Faris with a harsh tone. “Why are you letting this go on? Send her away.”

Dean Faris narrowed her gaze on him, then browsed the bloodied room. She knitted her fingers before herself. “If anything else happens to Kidan Adane this year, if she comes to harm or, God forbid, dies , Uxlay will strip you of your chance at inheritance and imprison you.”

Susenyos’s eyes grew wide, his tone venomous. “You cannot enforce that.”

“Would you like to go to the Mot Zebeya Courts? They will not offer you the same mercy.”

“You cannot enforce that. The dranaics won’t stand for it. Uxlay will be thrown into a riot.”

Dean Faris stepped closer, her voice a lethal blade. “I have watched too many Adanes die.”

Susenyos was still as a grave statue when he said, “As have I.”

Dean Faris studied him closely. She was quite small before his muscular build yet undeterred.

“House Adane will not go into extinction on my watch. I will not allow it.”

“Then send her away.” His voice was close to the earth, unreadable.

“No, this is her legacy.”

His mouth took on a cruel shape. “You will do anything to block my ownership of this house. Going to such lengths to find a loophole in the inheritance law. Why dance around the edges? Why not kill me now?”

His harsh tone made the guards pull out their weapons halfway.

Dean Faris held up a hand and they sheathed their blades. “You have served House Adane for years. I never forget loyalty. But do not test me.”

Susenyos’s chest rose and fell, his nostrils flaring. “Send her away before—”

“Before what?” Dean Faris cut. “Before you harm her?”

His jaw tightened. “I didn’t say that.”

“Good.” Dean Faris stared him down. “Because no harm shall come to her. Am I clear?”

He nodded slowly, fists clenched so tight that green veins shot along his dark arms.

Kidan sagged in relief. “Thank you—”

“No, I’m not finished.” The dean’s tone made the house tremble. “If you falsely accuse Susenyos again without proper, irrefutable proof, you will be expelled and stripped of access to our legal resources.”

Kidan’s face drained of color. Susenyos’s smile was a curved knife.

“Am I clear, Kidan?”

Kidan nodded. What just happened?

“Good. The vampire blood will help for tonight, but visit the infirmary tomorrow morning. You may need a salve for the ache.”

Kidan said nothing, still trying to understand. Had she won more than she lost? She’d hoped he’d be arrested and investigated, but this wasn’t too bad of a second prize, was it?

“Good night.” Dean Faris touched the wooden frame of the door as she passed. “And please, for the sake of the ancestors who paid too much blood for this legacy, do not run House Adane into the ground.”

Susenyos waited until the front door closed before he gave a dead, unbelieving laugh and clapped slowly. “Well done. You’ve trapped us both. Are you satisfied now?”

“I warned you not to fuck with me.”

He took a dangerous step toward her. She held up a finger, shaking it slowly. “No, no. Not one scratch on me.”

Susenyos forced a hand through his thick hair, nearly pulling it out.

At least there was one silver lining—Susenyos couldn’t touch her. She grasped her bracelet, which hid her blue pill, and felt the irony of it all. Her death was always the answer.

“Why are you smiling?” He watched her with caution.

Her smile grew cruel. “Because you’ve lost, and you don’t even know it.”

He glowered and left, slamming her door so hard, one of its hinges hissed and broke.

This poor house wouldn’t survive them.