Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 92612 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92612 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
“No,” I say it louder and try to fight Valen off, to get to her. To save her. That’s my calling, that’s always been my calling—saving lives. Helping.
“Stay still.” He wraps his arm across my shoulders in a brutal hold.
“No!” I claw at his arm as the horde of monsters encircles the humans, more of them pouring through the doors, pushed forward by the vampire guards at their backs.
“Music!” Gregor yells as he approaches me, then gives a small, stately bow. “May I have this dance?”
And then he has me clutched against his chest, spinning me onto the dance floor as the people scream and scream as they’re murdered. Violated. Dismembered for sport.
Gregor grins at me, his wiry body moving to the music as he lifts me effortlessly. “I’ve always loved music. It’s one of the small joys of this life, don’t you think?”
I can’t speak. Not because of compulsion, but because of the knot in my throat. The screams grow louder. A vampire drags a woman into the alcove I’d been standing in. She wails then goes suddenly silent as he tears her throat out, blood splashing the crimson banner.
Then Gregor spins me again and again. I get glimpses of horror with each turn, each dip and sway of the music. Bodies ripped and shredded. Tears unheeded. I don’t see the little girl. I don’t hear her anymore, either. She’s gone.
“My Theo loved music, too. You’ve seen his piano?” He waltzes faster, spinning us through the open dance floor. “He could play so beautifully it was almost as if he had a soul. You would’ve cried to hear it.” His eyes flash. “But your kind stole him from me, him and all his beauty.”
Blood splatters across us in an arterial spray. I don’t see where it comes from. It doesn’t matter. They’re all going to die. We’re all going to die.
He feigns concern. “You think my vengeance is unwarranted?”
I don’t answer. His questions aren’t for me.
“That’s because you don’t understand legacy. Humans never will. Your short, empty lives are meaningless. Not ours. Not Theo’s.” His claws dig into my side, and I bite my tongue to keep from crying out. “His death changed the world. His death changed everything. All your fates rested on him. And what did you do? You killed him like the swine you are. It’s a common theme among you animals, kill the most beautiful, the purest thing you can find. That’s what Theo was. Did you know his mother was my sister? He was pure. Every bit of our family line culminated in him, his perfection. He was my Blood!” He grows feral for a moment, then turns conspiratorial. “I suppose you think we’re even somehow?” He tsks. “As if a human life could ever equal an immortal one.”
Not understanding, I finally look into the pitiless depths of his eyes. I don’t want to understand him. To understand a creature like him means sharing something, some sort of connection, some sort of empathy. There can be none. It is his destruction or mine.
“I mean Juno, of course,” he says it like a teacher to an exasperating student. “When Valen killed your sister, it was to me like the squashing of a loathsome bug.” He shrugs. “It didn’t change anything. She was the president of this entire foolish country, and it still meant nothing. Because humans are nothing. You are nothing.”
Valen killed Juno. Until this moment, I didn’t know how it happened. She was gone, that was all I needed to know. I didn’t want to think of her being dead. It was only the abstract, the bloodless version of death. Gone. Unreachable. But this … this is so much worse.
He smirks, his smile growing even more predatory. “You didn’t know it was Valen? Quite the bloody affair. She’d been torn to slivers while still alive. Valen is quite skilled at eliciting pain. The best I’ve ever seen. I’ve often pondered the reason is in his blood. His human weakness gives him insight into your suffering and how best to inflict it. Wouldn’t you agree, Doctor?” he taunts.
I blink away tears, but they flow anyway. Just as the blood flows all around me. Unstoppable. The walls and floors and mouths unquenchable.
“Oh, well. Enough dark talk, yes? This is, after all, a party.” He opens his mouth and slices his tongue against his fang. Then he bites my throat. It burns, tearing through my veins like razors. I barely react, my invisible wounds so much deeper than anything Gregor has done to me.
“Dance.” He stops and backs away a step. “Dance for me and me alone.”
My head swims, but my body obeys. I sway to the music, pirouetting when he spins his finger in a slow circle.
“Come.” He takes my waist again. “Dance with me like a lover. Dance like you fuck. Dance like you’re desperate to fuck me.”