Read Online The Wicked Within by Kelly Keaton - Free Book Online
Authors: Kelly Keaton
Tags: Speculative Fiction
Ads: Link
her vampire servant, they’d drained him, denied him food, tempted him with blood. Tempted him with Ari. And he hadn’t been able to resist her once she slit her skin and offered to save him.
The only thing left to do now was try like hell to get a handle on it. For newbies like him, his near-constant desire for blood was normal. It’d take years to master control, years for his body to calm the hell down. He knew that. He knew all this . . . chaos . . . was normal. He just didn’t want it. And he sure as hell didn’t want Ari, or his father, or the kids to start looking at him differently. More than anything, he didn’t want to see fear or disgust in their eyes.
He was torn between hiding his blood lust and saying fuck it, letting them all see. But he couldn’t risk losing them. He knew intimately what it was like to lose, to suffer that kind of loss. First his mother, then his father, for a decade. After the day he’d had, going through his mother’s things, it only made his decision clearer. He didn’t want to chance it, not again. Not with everyone he cared about.
At the third-floor landing he paused, staring at the large doorsthat led into the assembly room. All nine members of the Novem council were inside. They were the heads of the prominent families who had long histories in New 2. Three from the vampire families of Arnaud, Mandeville, and Baptiste; three from the witch families of Hawthorne, Cromley, and Lamarliere; and three from the demigod/shifter families of Ramsey, Deschanel, and Sinclair.
The heirs would be inside as well. The next-in-lines. Some were too young to realize what a massive responsibility it was to be head of a family, like Bran’s daughter Kieran. And some were far older than Sebastian, with families of their own, such as Nikolai Deschanel’s grown son, Hunter. But others, like Gabriel Baptiste and his three cronies, were bloated on their own importance. If that was what the Novem had to look forward to, the council would not last long once the heirs took control.
Sebastian drew in a deep breath, placed his hand on the door, and entered. All eyes shifted in his direction. The Novem heads sat around a large oval table, while the heirs sat on chairs along the walls.
He met his father’s intelligent gray eyes and dipped his head. He could feel Josephine’s dark stare, feel her satisfaction, and he knew if he looked at her now, he’d see the small smile playing on her lips, the smile that said, “I’ve won. You’re mine.”
Whatever.
He went to the empty seat, wanting to get this over with as quickly as possible, when a chair grated across the hardwood floor anda figure stood. Sebastian froze. Shock crashed through him, lighting every nerve. His heart started to pound. The figure turned and looked right at him.
Zaria.
Memories flashed through his head, unbidden and unstoppable. Zaria offering him her wrist, tempting him every night in Athena’s temple until he broke, until he became a monster. Her eyes traveled up and down his body, and then her lush red lips drew into a knowing smile.
Rage incinerated everything but his desire for revenge.
He was at her throat before he knew what had happened.
The council surged to their feet as his fingers closed around Zaria’s throat. She didn’t fight back. Her gaze remained glued to his, amused, calculating, challenging. He was going to rip her fucking head off.
“Bastian,” his father’s calm voice reached through the dazed fury. It was a sad tone, a tone that said he understood his son’s pain. Michel knew what had happened to Sebastian, and he knew what it was like to be Athena’s prisoner. He understood completely.
Another hand clasped his shoulder, and he shrugged it off violently. Someone grabbed his arm in a steely grip. It was Bran. He could smell him. His senses were on overdrive. All around him, he knew where everyone stood, who was holding back and who wanted to pull him from the bitch in his grasp.
He
The only thing left to do now was try like hell to get a handle on it. For newbies like him, his near-constant desire for blood was normal. It’d take years to master control, years for his body to calm the hell down. He knew that. He knew all this . . . chaos . . . was normal. He just didn’t want it. And he sure as hell didn’t want Ari, or his father, or the kids to start looking at him differently. More than anything, he didn’t want to see fear or disgust in their eyes.
He was torn between hiding his blood lust and saying fuck it, letting them all see. But he couldn’t risk losing them. He knew intimately what it was like to lose, to suffer that kind of loss. First his mother, then his father, for a decade. After the day he’d had, going through his mother’s things, it only made his decision clearer. He didn’t want to chance it, not again. Not with everyone he cared about.
At the third-floor landing he paused, staring at the large doorsthat led into the assembly room. All nine members of the Novem council were inside. They were the heads of the prominent families who had long histories in New 2. Three from the vampire families of Arnaud, Mandeville, and Baptiste; three from the witch families of Hawthorne, Cromley, and Lamarliere; and three from the demigod/shifter families of Ramsey, Deschanel, and Sinclair.
The heirs would be inside as well. The next-in-lines. Some were too young to realize what a massive responsibility it was to be head of a family, like Bran’s daughter Kieran. And some were far older than Sebastian, with families of their own, such as Nikolai Deschanel’s grown son, Hunter. But others, like Gabriel Baptiste and his three cronies, were bloated on their own importance. If that was what the Novem had to look forward to, the council would not last long once the heirs took control.
Sebastian drew in a deep breath, placed his hand on the door, and entered. All eyes shifted in his direction. The Novem heads sat around a large oval table, while the heirs sat on chairs along the walls.
He met his father’s intelligent gray eyes and dipped his head. He could feel Josephine’s dark stare, feel her satisfaction, and he knew if he looked at her now, he’d see the small smile playing on her lips, the smile that said, “I’ve won. You’re mine.”
Whatever.
He went to the empty seat, wanting to get this over with as quickly as possible, when a chair grated across the hardwood floor anda figure stood. Sebastian froze. Shock crashed through him, lighting every nerve. His heart started to pound. The figure turned and looked right at him.
Zaria.
Memories flashed through his head, unbidden and unstoppable. Zaria offering him her wrist, tempting him every night in Athena’s temple until he broke, until he became a monster. Her eyes traveled up and down his body, and then her lush red lips drew into a knowing smile.
Rage incinerated everything but his desire for revenge.
He was at her throat before he knew what had happened.
The council surged to their feet as his fingers closed around Zaria’s throat. She didn’t fight back. Her gaze remained glued to his, amused, calculating, challenging. He was going to rip her fucking head off.
“Bastian,” his father’s calm voice reached through the dazed fury. It was a sad tone, a tone that said he understood his son’s pain. Michel knew what had happened to Sebastian, and he knew what it was like to be Athena’s prisoner. He understood completely.
Another hand clasped his shoulder, and he shrugged it off violently. Someone grabbed his arm in a steely grip. It was Bran. He could smell him. His senses were on overdrive. All around him, he knew where everyone stood, who was holding back and who wanted to pull him from the bitch in his grasp.
He
Similar Books
