Page 6 of This Blood That Breaks Us

We eyed the row of horses waiting around the barn next to the stalls. All were wearing different-colored numbers on their backs.

“Twenty-four.” Luke motioned to a gray one.

“Ah, the underdog. And you?”

It was my turn to pick. I eyed the lineup, looking for the one I thought would be the strongest. A restless black horse bucked at another horse’s legs, and I assumed it was as good of a pick as any.

“Thirteen.”

“Interesting choices. Now, how far would you go to ensure your horse wins?” He plopped down a stack of hundreds on the table. “I want you to go place your bets and double this.”

“Is this a test?” I spat.

Ezra grumbled to himself.

“Let’s all relax. I see two boys sitting in front of me. You are young. I need to know I can trust you.”

There was something about the way he looked at me. His eyes scanned me too quickly, taking in too many things at once, so I focused on his chest. He tried to hide the uneven breaths, but I’d trained myself in Blackheart to check every single person who walked past me, especially after we were caught by The Legion.

He was a vampire.

“He’s one of us?” I plucked a toothpick from the table and plopped it in my mouth.

“Barely. A rat by blood in comparison to what’s pumping in your veins right now. Turned out of courtesy to the cause more than one hundred and fifty years ago by an underling. Like that one standing next to you that shined your shoes.”

Liam licked his teeth and eyed my wrist. It held a faint scar where my tattoo used to be. I’d worked long and hard to repress the memory of the Legion peeling it off my skin in the old church.

“Now, boys, please humor me. Ten minutes.”

There was something there.Envy.

I didn’t like being ordered around, but I followed Luke’s lead.

This was our first official mission, and we needed to make it good, or I’d have to watch my friends be tortured.Fun.

“How are we going to do this?” I asked Luke once we got out of hearing distance, and looked out onto the track.

A large oval track with nothing in the center except a large pond stood out among the green of the field.

“Give me a second to think.”

“If I need to break some jockey’s knees, I will, but I draw the line at hurting horses,” I said. Men were all assholes deep down, but animals were a different story.

“No one’s breaking any kneecaps.”

“What if we need to? That’s the exact type of shit I signed up for. I’ll make sure he stays quiet so you don’t have to feel bad.”

I’d beaten the shit out of people before. I could do it again. Though I felt a little guilt at the thought. That was the problem with spending all that time with my brothers. I’d grown a conscience and didn’t like it. They made me soft, so I was out of practice.

Luke frowned. He wasn’t in a joking mood. I wasn’t either, but humor was the only thing preventing me from falling off the deep end.

Be helpful,I thought, wanting to get that worried look off my brother’s face.

“What if we found the horse to beat and then drugged the jockey? I watched this show once where they drugged horses before a race. This is like that but no guilt.”

“You are on to something . . . not with the drugging, but we do need to find the horse to beat here. We could cut the bridle or loosen the saddle so that tack breaks during the race. Then I could—”

“Luke, I don’t know what the hell you’re saying. Just give me a job to do, and I’ll do it.”