sounded humble and…awed.
I say we cut her throat and throw her out right here, Warrior. We can’t trust this bitch. You know that.
I almost told the voice in my head to shut up, but it had a point.
I always have a point.
Now I did tell it to shut up. I cleared my throat. My words came out clipped. “I should have seen what , Victoria?” I said.
Victoria made a sound like a swooned sigh, so low that if I didn’t have my enhanced hearing, I wouldn’t have heard it over the sound of the bumpy road going by under the tires. “Your sister, Nelliana,” said Victoria. “You should have seen Nelliana. She was… wonderful! ”
This bitch has lost her mind. You sure you don’t want to dump her on the side of the road?
“Either say something useful, or shut up. Something is wrong with Nelly!”
Yeah, so give her some blood, Stupid.
“Look, just—oh.”
Yeah, oh.
“Alexa,” Kayden began. I held up a hand to cut him off.
“Sorry,” I said. “Explain it all to me in a minute.” Reaching behind me, I pulled my Gladius from under the back of my shirt. The blade had been retracted when Kayden had returned it to me. I tightened my grip around it, and the silver blade slid out about six inches, as if the sword itself knew that I only need part of its length. In my head, my Monster snorted. I rolled my eyes.
Holding my left arm out, I slid the razor sharp blade along my forearm vertically and gritted my teeth. A thin line of warm blood, black in the darkness of the van, welled up in its wake. I handed my Gladius to Kayden, who took it without a word. I put my sliced arm against Nelly’s parted lips, and waited.
Seconds went by, slow and agonizing. Nelly didn’t move, and everyone in the van was as silent and still as she. I felt cold sweat rolling down my back and neck, and my mind seemed to be suspended in a nonfunctioning void. My shoulders sagged as I waited, my hair falling over my face like a dark curtain. I closed my eyes, no longer able to bear the sight of my motionless, unresponsive sister. I was two seconds away from taking her by the shoulders and shaking her. She wasn’t sleeping. Somehow, I’d known this the second I’d set sight on her. I was going to shake her anyway. It seemed like the only thing I could do.
My eyelids flew open, so suddenly that it was as if it hadn’t happened by my own volition. And I was looking down into the eyes of my sister, which were wide and black and endlessly deep with no whites at all, like two black holes staring out at me from my Nelly’s face. The eyes of a Lamia.
What the f—
And then she was on top of me, sharp fangs sinking deeply into the thin skin of my neck, pinning my arms down at my sides with what seemed like crushing force. I felt a few bones in both of my wrists splinter and crack like twigs beneath her fingers. And I was either too shocked, or just unable, to move.
King William
The world swam and swirled slowly back to focus. The first thing he saw was three silver suns moving in a nauseating dance, overlapping each other, and finally coming together into one. Next he noticed silver lilies sprouting out from the sun on wispy vines from every direction. It took a long moment for King William to remember where he was –in Camillia’s office, lying on his back and staring at the ceiling. And following on the heels of that remembrance, came all others.
He sat up sharply, and his back ached and his head throbbed as though someone had taken a sledgehammer to his temples. His vision blurred again, and it took several seconds before he was able to set it to rights. Anger, a close and longtime companion, flared up hot and horrid in his stomach as he took in the sight around him – as he remembered, realized what it all meant.
His five Warriors, his personal guard, lay sleeping all around him, slumped against the walls and laid out flat on
I say we cut her throat and throw her out right here, Warrior. We can’t trust this bitch. You know that.
I almost told the voice in my head to shut up, but it had a point.
I always have a point.
Now I did tell it to shut up. I cleared my throat. My words came out clipped. “I should have seen what , Victoria?” I said.
Victoria made a sound like a swooned sigh, so low that if I didn’t have my enhanced hearing, I wouldn’t have heard it over the sound of the bumpy road going by under the tires. “Your sister, Nelliana,” said Victoria. “You should have seen Nelliana. She was… wonderful! ”
This bitch has lost her mind. You sure you don’t want to dump her on the side of the road?
“Either say something useful, or shut up. Something is wrong with Nelly!”
Yeah, so give her some blood, Stupid.
“Look, just—oh.”
Yeah, oh.
“Alexa,” Kayden began. I held up a hand to cut him off.
“Sorry,” I said. “Explain it all to me in a minute.” Reaching behind me, I pulled my Gladius from under the back of my shirt. The blade had been retracted when Kayden had returned it to me. I tightened my grip around it, and the silver blade slid out about six inches, as if the sword itself knew that I only need part of its length. In my head, my Monster snorted. I rolled my eyes.
Holding my left arm out, I slid the razor sharp blade along my forearm vertically and gritted my teeth. A thin line of warm blood, black in the darkness of the van, welled up in its wake. I handed my Gladius to Kayden, who took it without a word. I put my sliced arm against Nelly’s parted lips, and waited.
Seconds went by, slow and agonizing. Nelly didn’t move, and everyone in the van was as silent and still as she. I felt cold sweat rolling down my back and neck, and my mind seemed to be suspended in a nonfunctioning void. My shoulders sagged as I waited, my hair falling over my face like a dark curtain. I closed my eyes, no longer able to bear the sight of my motionless, unresponsive sister. I was two seconds away from taking her by the shoulders and shaking her. She wasn’t sleeping. Somehow, I’d known this the second I’d set sight on her. I was going to shake her anyway. It seemed like the only thing I could do.
My eyelids flew open, so suddenly that it was as if it hadn’t happened by my own volition. And I was looking down into the eyes of my sister, which were wide and black and endlessly deep with no whites at all, like two black holes staring out at me from my Nelly’s face. The eyes of a Lamia.
What the f—
And then she was on top of me, sharp fangs sinking deeply into the thin skin of my neck, pinning my arms down at my sides with what seemed like crushing force. I felt a few bones in both of my wrists splinter and crack like twigs beneath her fingers. And I was either too shocked, or just unable, to move.
King William
The world swam and swirled slowly back to focus. The first thing he saw was three silver suns moving in a nauseating dance, overlapping each other, and finally coming together into one. Next he noticed silver lilies sprouting out from the sun on wispy vines from every direction. It took a long moment for King William to remember where he was –in Camillia’s office, lying on his back and staring at the ceiling. And following on the heels of that remembrance, came all others.
He sat up sharply, and his back ached and his head throbbed as though someone had taken a sledgehammer to his temples. His vision blurred again, and it took several seconds before he was able to set it to rights. Anger, a close and longtime companion, flared up hot and horrid in his stomach as he took in the sight around him – as he remembered, realized what it all meant.
His five Warriors, his personal guard, lay sleeping all around him, slumped against the walls and laid out flat on
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