Garroway crosses his arms. “You were much more cordial with me last night, Kep. Why the hostility?”
“I’m tired of your kind scaring away my patrons. I put up with you, Garroway. Doesn’t mean I like you.”
“For shame,” Garro sighs, tilting his head. “Here I thought I was helping you keep scoundrels like Banooth in check.”
The lad to my right snarls at Garro. “Found that body outside in the alley, too. Think that’s good for business? Was probably this wicked bloodsucker bitch oryou, half-blood.” He jabs his finger into Garroway’s chest—
Or almost does, because my hand instinctively lashes out and crashes into the man’s wrist directly in a sore point, causing the lad to howl and grab at his flung hand.
“Don’t touch him, for your own safety,” I growl.
“Kep, I’m tired of this shit!” yells the lad on the left, furthest from me. “These curs can’t just push us around in our own place of business!” He shoves past the burly barman, charging at me.
Kep gasps, too slow to stop him. “Wait, you fool!”
I read the lad’s flying fist the entire way, instincts taking over. Bobbing left, I bring up my elbow and use his momentum to rail the bone into his nose, crunching every little thing there. Blood spews, which makes the girl in the doorway sniff and hiss from the scent.
The other lad with the bruised wrist spins at me, but Garroway’s sword flashes. One quick jab toward the boy’s neck, drawing a bead of blood as it rests against his collar, stops the boy cold. His face drains of color.
“We’re leaving now,” Garroway says. “If you make one more move trying to harm a hair on my lady’s body, I’ll slice off every single appendage from the three of you. I tally eighteen limbs between you, counting heads and cocks. If you have those.”
Kep inhales sharply and backs up, barring his lackeys with his arms spread wide. “You madman.”
“I’m much worse than mad. I’m annoyed.” Garro sheathes his sword now that there’s some space between us. “I’ll chalk this up to a misunderstanding, Kep.”
We march past them, toward the vampiress standing in the doorway. She looks confused.
“D-Don’t show your f-face here again, grayskin!” Kep stammers, trying to muster his courage to our backs. “And take that ragged bloodsucker with you!”
“Was planning on it,” I say for Garro. As we approach the door, the girl moves aside to let us pass. Her hood stays low. “Come on,” I urge, holding an arm out. “You’re not welcome here, lady.”
A frown forms on her pink lips, lines of confusion marring the few features I can see.
“Don’t be sad,” I say, wondering if bloodies like her evencanfeel sad. “This dingy brothel isn’t worth your time.”
“No, it’s not that, Mistress,” she mutters. “It’s your . . . voice.” Her hood falls back, red eyes staring up at me.
My world tilts, shock speeding across my face as swiftly as I recognize her, even though she’s grown now.
“S-Sister Cyprilis? Is that really you?”
“True be true,” I say in awe as the three of us lazily walk through the dark streets of Nuhav. “I haven’t seen you since we were children.”
My heart hurts to see someone from my childhood, from the House of the Broken. Not just because it was a dark time in my life but because she’s been turned into a vampire in the twelve-odd years since I’ve last seen her.
Sister Cyprilis was an innocent, studious girl I took under my wing after Baylen Sallow’s exile. I thought her quaint and boring, until the evening when we gazed at the setting sun atop a roof’s edge and she kissed me.
That was when I first learned Father Cullard, the man who raised me, was molesting girls and boys at the House of the Broken. An innocent thing like a peck from Cyprilis opened my eyes to the ugliness of the world around me.
And now this? The poor girl’s beenturnedinto a fucking bloodsucker?My stomach twists into knots.
She seems so frail and malnourished. I feel for her, even though I know it’s a dangerous thing to feel any sympathy for a creature of bloodlust. They’re more like wild animals than humans when they’re hungry.
“I wish I could call upon the feelings I had for you back then, Sister Sephania,” she mutters by my side. The girl only comes up to my shoulder, clearly never getting a proper growth spurt because of when she was turned.
Which is the House of the Broken’s fault.I grit my teeth, trying to tamp my anger.
Garroway has remained quiet the hour we’ve walked, glancing between me and Cyprilis as he marches in front of us to give us privacy. I see the curiosity on his face and shake my head, telling him to leave well enough alone.
