Page 59 of The Vampire's Mercy

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

PARIS

“Let go of her!”

The vampire dug her teeth into my sister, others lurking in the dark, scarlet eyes shining, laughing, laughing, laughing. Ready to taste. Ready to kill.

“Pearl!”

I tried helping, but my body moved slowly, as if in water. The distance between us never closed, all hope sucked away like a leech snacking on my blood.

“You’re leeches!” I screamed. “You’re all fucking leeches!”

Laughter, agreement even. So many voices, so many sets of eyes mocking me.

The coral flush in my sister’s skin faded to gray. Her silver hair withered, and her body crumbled into tiny pieces while the vamp continued to drain her dry.

“There’s nothing left!” I cried, trapped in that damn slow motion. “Pearl! Oh, Aidan! Pearl!”

The darkness swallowed her and me, the vampires snuffing out.

“Pearl…”

A howling wind snatched me off my feet, sending me spinning into the dark. I roared, grasping for purchase on something, anything.

Thunder pealed, lighting forked around me, and the darkness spat me out into a heavy downpour.

I landed awkwardly on my feet, slipping on the soggy ground, pitching forward, smacking my forehead on a rock jutting out of the ground. A jagged edge tore my skin, blood streaming down my face.

“Dammit!” I cried, the honeyed taste of my blood landing on my tongue.

I rolled onto my back, sobbing, calling out for help, begging for my sister to come back.

Icy rain soaked me through in minutes, the cold seeping into my bones. My lungs burned, my head pulsed with agony.

I lifted a hand to shield my eyes from the torrent of water, just able to make out dark clouds choking a night sky. But a cloying darkness surrounded me, hiding everything.

Where was I?

Slowly, I got to my feet, shaking like a mouse in a trap. My crop top and jeans clung to me, filthy, useless in this weather.

Damn. Still wearing that damn outfit, eh? I’d be doomed to wear it forever, never finding my jacket, never allowed to slip on a hoody and sweatpants again.

“Well, bollocks to you,” I spat into the dark.

The pain in my head thundered like the rumbles in the sky, my chest a tangle of thorns. I had to get out of this rain and find help. Maybe then I could piece some of this together. Do something to save my sister, to make things right.

Be free from grief’s dirty grip.

Fire flared to life on my right, revealing a doorway. Two torches burned in sconces under an arch, light dancing on thewooden door. More fires came to life in murky glass windows above the door, spreading upward in a spiral, culminating in a beacon at the top of a tower of gray stone.

“Whoa,” I whispered, staring up at it.

The fire at the top went out, the other fires following, leaving the doorway torches to burn alone.

A shiver licked up my spine, my insides a roiling mess.

The thunder crashed, a burst of super bright lightning stinging my eyes. The rain fell harder, a sense of utter dread creeping up my spine.