“Thaddeus?”
“Thaddeus,” he confirmed. “He asked if I wanted to live and help keep balance in the world.”
“What did you say?”
“I said,‘as long as I get my revenge, I’m in.’”His blue eyes darkened like the depths of the ocean.
“Did you get your revenge?”
“Hellyes.” His lips twisted into a sinister smirk. “After Thaddeus turned me and taught me control, I went back to London. I found Cicely and Alice in the same bloody alley they’d always been in, with Gerlick begging at the entrance. Wanker didn’t even realize it was me.”
“What happened?” My voice came out just above a whisper.
He tilted his head, wetting his lips. “Alice recognized me at once, running over and hugging me. Cicely even managed a smile. Gerlick was pissed. Ranting and raving about how I’d been declared dead and how they nicked their rations. Accused me of desertion. That’s not even the worst part. Both Alice and Cicely had bruises and dried blood everywhere.”
“What a piece of shit,” I spat.
“He never stopped beating them. If anything, the abuse got worse, and not a damn soul did a thing about it. Alice was twenty-four, and Cicely was twenty-six. Yet, nobody tried to help them. They were never married off, which was bloody weird for that day and age. But by some proper miracle, they lived through all of that.”
Bile burned the back of my throat, and I swallowed it back with a shudder. “But you helped them. Didn’t you?”
“Damn right I did,” he growled. “I took both Alice and Cicely with me to meet Thaddeus. He maintained connections with a noble family who took them in and cared for them. They were treated as noblewomen, and Alice even married.” A ghost of a smile touched his lips.
“That sounds like a happy ending.”
He shrugged. “Cicely was never the same, but she was taken care of. She lived until her thirties, and Alice died in her forties shortly after her husband.”
“What happened to Gerlick?” His name tasted bitter on my tongue.
His fangs descended from his gums. “I ripped him to pieces and showed him how much of a weak human he was.”
I gave him a sharp nod.
He raked a hand through his messy ginger hair. “My sisters have been dead for centuries, but I still miss them.”
“You loved them. Of course you still miss them.” I tucked a leg under my butt and lifted myself over to wrap my arms around his neck. “I’m so fucking sorry you went through that.”
“I had to go through all that hell to get where I am now. I have Thaddeus and Blaise, and now, I have you.” His arms wound around my waist and pulled me close.
His elemental scent engulfed me as I nuzzled my head into the nape of his neck. It fucking killed me to hear the hand life had dealt him, but I was damn proud of the person he’d become.
Being wrapped up in his arms, I couldn’t help but drift off to sleep. But when I woke up, the house was empty save for the pitter patters of pixies.
TWELVE
Trust was a small word with a strong impact. Without trust, strong relationships couldn’t form. It was a logical assumption, and from my standpoint, I wasn’t all that sure the Draven clan trusted me anymore.
Over the week, I continued my training with a closed-off Thaddeus, conditioning my body and honing my reflexes in the gym without Blaise, and practiced my powers to the fullest extent I could while being cooped up in the manor alone most of the time. They kept leaving for hunts without me, and nobody would tell me why.
Tomorrow was the day shit would hit the fan, and unease was filling my veins like cement. The Order of the Void could very well sentence me to obliteration if they didn’t like me. Instead of spending time with me, the vampires insisted they had to go hunt some fucking abandoned or maybe it was something to do with the Crimson Demon nobody would tell me about.
Blaise had kept avoiding me, and it hurt because I’d thought we’d shared something special that day—or maybe that was what he wanted all along. Blaise didn’t scream fuck boy to me, but perhaps I’d judged him wrong. Kai went back to avoiding me after opening up about his past, and Thaddeus wouldn’t talk or look at me unless he had to. They didn’t even eat meals the same time as I did anymore.
My mood plummeted into a more bottomless abyss than it already was. When the guys were keeping me distracted, it was easy to not dwell on my human life. That wasn’t the case anymore.
“We’re heading out, Lilith,” Thaddeus told me from my doorway.
I raised a brow and sat up in bed, the comforter sliding off my upper body. “You’re actually telling me before you leave?”
