Read Online Book One: The Girl (The Sanctum) by Madhuri Blaylock - Free Book Online Page B

chuckled to herself. It was the first time she found something amusing in quite a while and the pleasant sensation caused her to pause. What right did she have to laugh after the pain and brutality her family endured? She was belittling their passing and had no right to smile about anything. Happiness was for the life she had led; this new life was only about revenge.
    But first she would have to get past the sadness. She could not erase the memories of those last moments: her brother’s body, her mother’s scream, her father’s murder. She should have died with them. She wanted to die now. She did not want to face another day in this life without them. She did not believe she could, which was why she had begged Wyatt over and over again to kill her. His repeated refusals to do so annoyed and exasperated her.
    Wasn’t that his duty as a soldier of The Sanctum? Hadn’t her parents warned her that there would come a day when every member of The Sanctum sought her death? Wasn’t she trained to avoid all Sanctum at any cost? And here she lands in the lap of one such being, a Class A Sanctum warrior no less, offers herself without a fight and he repeatedly refuses to perform the very task he has been training for his entire life: to kill her. The sheer lunacy of her situation exhausted Dev.
    Against her better judgment, she closed her eyes, intending to do so for mere seconds, no more than that. Instead, she fell into a deep sleep, her head thumping into Wyatt’s chest and her arms relaxing their hold around his neck. He looked down at her closed eyes and thought to himself, it’s about damn time. He had been wondering when she would pass out, hoping she would do so before they reached their destination. Wyatt adjusted his hold on her, pulled Dev closer to his body and continued towards the Lower East Side, unsure of whether he would be welcome, but certain it wouldn’t matter.
    Wyatt turned the corner at Avenue C and 4th street, heading for the familiar building with Dev in his arms, completely wrapped in his own thoughts.
    “Well, well. Aren’t you a hot mess?”
    He could not see Darby, but he could sense her presence right away.
    “Don’t start with me, Darby. It’s been a long night.”
    “Oh, sweetheart, I wouldn’t dream of it,” Darby stepped from the shadows, “especially when you’ve got something so freakin’ pretty wrapped up in those arms of yours.”
    Wyatt smiled, relaxing into the rhythm of Darby’s easy, flirtatious banter, relieved she seemed to have moved past the evening’s earlier scuffle with Jools.
    “She’s not for you.”
    “Trust me, honey, I can see that clearly enough. I wouldn’t dream of touching something you hold so precious.”
    Wyatt ignored Darby’s comment.
    Darby stepped closer to her beloved warrior, her head cocked to the side in wonder. She reached up and caressed his cheek, grinning all the while.
    “What?” he asked, hating Darby’s mysterious inspections. They always elicited some bizarre truth.
    “I know, honey.”
    “You know what, Darby?”
    “I know.”
    And she left it at that.
    Darby turned on her heel, headed for her house, assuming Wyatt would follow.
    “Darby!” Wyatt called after the tiny, retreating vampire.
    Darby walked up her townhouse steps, opened her door and turned around, wondering what Wyatt was waiting for, a personal invitation?
    “I don’t have all night, sweetie. Let’s move it. Clocks a tickin’ on this gal.”
    Wyatt walked to the bottom of Darby’s stoop and eyed her cautiously.
    “There’s no clock ticking on you.”
    “Mr. Clayworth, not all of us are as aesthetically perfect as you. I need my beauty sleep, thank you very much. Now come on already.”
    Wyatt didn’t move.
    “How do you know...,” he started to ask.
    “Oh, for god’s sake, Wyatt. How do I know what?” Darby cut him off, losing her patience, making Wyatt wonder if he made the right decision seeking her out in the dead of night. “How do I know