Page 35 of The Serpent’s Bride (Bloodlines #1)

EIGHTEEN

Nadi did her best to keep her heart from pounding out of her chest. Vampires could hear heartbeats—and while she could excuse her fear as nerves from sneaking into enemy territory to commit murder, she didn’t want to raise Raziel’s suspicions any more than she probably already had.

She was deep enough in over her head without him starting to think something was up.

Doesn’t matter. He just told you he’s probably going to kill you tonight, anyway.

“Two things you should be aware of before this begins.” Raziel broke into her thoughts, his voice barely audible over the rumble of the old, poorly maintained engine of the truck.

“One leads directly into the other. Out of fairness to what you have already suffered, I want you to be as prepared as you can.”

“All right?” She eyed him curiously. He’d already told her he planned to rip her to pieces out of some…blood-addiction-fueled starvation. How much worse could he think it was going to get for her?

“First. You have yet to truly experience the full power of my…gift.” The edge of his lips twisted up in a thin smile. “The one that makes me particularly useful in this kind of a scenario.”

“Hypnotism. You can control people around you.”

“Precisely. I have only used it on you once, and even then, it was barely a nudge. Part of why they call me the Serpent, I suppose.”

“About my hair.” She gestured at the messy bun at the back of her neck. “It doesn’t seem to stick.”

“That is exactly the point I am leading to. I can command others to do whatever I wish them to do with only the power of my voice. But once I leave their presence, separated by walls or space, it fades. It is…” He paused, clearly searching for words.

“Like exposure to the sun. A little is easy to mend from. The longer you are exposed, the longer the damage lasts. If I issue you a single command, it may last for a minute—an hour—a day, at most. Depending on how weak or strong-minded the individual is.” He gestured aimlessly. “It’s an inexact science.”

This was fascinating. She’d always been curious how his hypnotism worked.

She hadn’t ever really been able to pin it down, and obviously hadn’t ever been able to ask the source about it.

She twisted on the bench of the truck to watch him.

“So, if you order someone to do something and then leave? For example—let us through this guarded door and don’t tell anyone we’re here…

” She let out a rush of air. “Shit. Everyone has to die. That’s the second thing, isn’t it? ”

“I will offer Luciento a chance to leave. He won’t take it.

And then, yes. You’re correct.” His ruby-red eyes glinted with amusement and perhaps more than a little bit of pride.

But his expression quickly fell flat to one that was surprisingly empty.

Almost, even, perhaps just a little bit morose.

“As you aren’t likely to survive this evening for one reason or another, little murderer, I want you to know I sincerely and honestly apologize for underestimating your intelligence. ”

That felt real. Her shoulders drooped a little. “Apology accepted, Raziel.”

A faint smile returned. “When we arrive, we’ll see how far we can get via deception, first. I will insist on speaking to Luciento personally.

” He tapped his fingers on the steering wheel.

“While I have no qualms simply murdering them all, Luciento is a coward and a rat. He’ll slink into the sewers if we alert him too quickly, like all fae scum. ”

She kept a straight face and simply listened.

“If they question why you’re here, you’re the second half of the peace offering.” He smirked. “You’ve proven to be proficient with a gun. And if you insist on sleeping with a knife under your pillow, I hope you’re capable of using one.”

“I’ll make do.”

“Once we reach Luciento, I will dispatch his men. Luciento will be immune to my hypnotism. But, one on one, fae are no match for vampires. If you are not otherwise…indisposed, you should stay some fifty feet behind me.”

“Why?”

“When I blanket an area, my commands are impossible to ignore by any within range. I would hate for you to mistake my command to eat the end of your gun as one I wished you to obey.” He chuckled.

“I have other plans for you this evening that don’t involve watching you splatter your brains out all over the ceiling.

No, stay as far back as you can until I call for you. ”

“Not a problem.” She blanched. He was right about one thing—she’d never actually seen him use his power like that.

She’d heard about it plenty of times. Whole rooms of people, slaughtered by their own hands.

Or by the hands of their friends and companions.

Suicide by some of the most grisly and seemingly impossible means.

All because he had simply told them to do it .

The Serpent had earned his title.

Hearing about it second-hand, or seeing a few grainy photographs in a folder, was very different than witnessing it in person.

Her stomach twisted. Luckily, she was immune to his gift, same as all fae. But therein was the other half of her torment.

Luciento and the Iltanis. Her uncle and her old clan. These weren’t any old gang of criminals. These weren’t just some pack of low-ranking vampires or grubby human mobsters she was going to help murder. These weren’t her normal targets.

These were her people . They had been her friends, her blood. Her family.

She was sitting in a truck next to her worst enemy—the man she’d sworn vengeance against—and planning on murdering her own people .

Was it worth it? Why was her revenge worth more than the lives of other people? No. No, that wasn’t it. There was more to it than that.

She wasn’t just avenging her family; she was unwinding the entire Nostrom clan.

Raziel would have to die first—his mother’s insistence that “Monica” had to die during the sacrifice had solidified that. If they both survived the raid, Nadi would go to the ancestral home with him, and only one of them would walk away.

Then, she’d slink back into the shadows and bide her time to pick off the rest of the Nostroms. Because her vendetta had to be bigger than just Raziel alone.

It had to be.

She wasn’t just picking the weed off at the ground, she was poisoning the roots. She was going to rip apart the Nostroms from the inside. Because if this “mission” was just about Raziel, she should have killed him in the truck half an hour ago. Right?

Right?

She had a knife. She had a gun. Vampires were hard to kill, but they weren’t unstoppable.

His guard was down. She could have “checked the bullets” in her gun and put four in his head before he even knew what was happening.

Squeezing her eyes tight, she leaned back in the truck and took a deep breath before letting it out.

No, this had always been about ridding the world of all the Nostroms.

But tonight had quickly become about survival. Her job was to get through to the dawn in one piece. She could figure out the path forward from there. She couldn’t kill any of the Nostroms if she herself was dead.

They drove along in silence for another twenty or so minutes before Raziel pulled up to a large warehouse with a sliding wooden door. The circular headlights shrank into small bright disks on the faded, flaking paint. She could just make out some text about DANGER, NO ENTRY, CAVE SYSTEM, FAE.

Her jaw twitched. She was glad Raziel was distracted.

As Raziel brought the truck to a halt, he spoke up. “One last thing. If you prove yourself tonight, there is a chance my mother might change her mind. There is a chance we could delay the honeymoon…perhaps even indefinitely.”

She didn’t have the time to reply. Or even register her shock before she had to hide it underneath the brim of her cap. She knew that was on purpose. Damn you ? —

A man in a deep green wool vest walked up to them, rubbing the back of his hand across his nose.

It looked like a tic of his. Powder-user, was Nadi’s guess.

Not uncommon in his line of work. The man tucked his hand into his belt, pulling his brown overcoat aside, clearly showing them both that he had a gun tucked into his belt.

“You lost, mate?” The human man sneered up at Raziel.

“Lookin’ for Luciento,” Raziel replied, his accent mimicking that of a lower-metropolis steel worker flawless. She was impressed. “Deniel sendin’ gifts, I’m just the monkey drivin’ the truck.” He jabbed his thumb toward the back of the vehicle and the stacks of crates.

“Who’s the girl?” The man eyed her.

“Another gift if your boss decides the first ain’t good enough.”

She smiled from under her hat. Sweetly, but not too sweetly. She’d hung out with enough whores in her life to know how to smile like one on the job. It was about looking just a little bit tired and bored of it all.

Snorting, the man shook his head before walking toward the rolling door, and with a whistle, gestured his hand. From the inside, there was a thud, and the wood panels creaked and parted for them.

The smell of the Wild greeted them. Gods, Nadi loved that smell. She’d missed it. Crisp, and fresh, and alive. Utterly different from the reek of garbage and piss and dirt in the metropolis.

The cave mouths were still far from the true depths of home, but it was the closest she’d been in a very, very long time.

They were inside. A good first step. Before them, the road dipped into the ground at a stiff angle, making her wonder if the old truck could handle it. But the vampire next to her seemed unconcerned as he pressed the gas and headed farther in.

Darkness was cut into sharply by the glow of gas lamps.

They meant she almost couldn’t make out the faint purplish-blue glow of the threads of vines that laced along the cave walls like the thinnest of veins.

The Wild. She hadn’t seen it in so long.

It was the only consistent source of light they had to see by, down below.