Once the guards had completed their pass through the ballroom, Eryx leveled me with a menacing glare and as cool as he would order a glass of wine, he said, “Now the fun begins. Commence the culling.”
Death unleashed throughout the ballroom.
Anyone who had declined the red cloth became a target. Severed limbs, screams, chandeliers tipping, going out completely, setting fabric ablaze.
It was pure chaos. Distracted by the horror, I didn’t notice Eryx position himself behind me.
“Unbitten…” he whispered as a pointed nail traced my bare shoulder.
My mind screamed to fight or run but my body froze beneath his tightening grip. I heard a hiss before his fangs sank into my flesh. Blinding pain radiated from my neck as my blood was forced from my body. Trails of warmth trickled down my collar while he sucked. My body went limp in his arms and then I felt it. The pleasure. He moaned as he dined on me and an echo of shame reverberated somewhere in the depths of my mind as I moaned too.
Now, I understood the ecstasy I felt when I summoned the vision from Talia—the Northern hive slave. Now, I understood why Rhazien said it was common to feed during sex.
Any lingering fear was snuffed out by the bliss descending on my senses.
My frame of vision began to pale. Blurry gray edges precluded my view of the ceiling and the half-lit chandelier above.
“Stop…” I whispered the pathetic plea so softly, I wasn’t sure I’d said the word at all.
My heart pounded and my blood rushed from my veins to his supping lips.
He gasped at the ceiling as he released me. Fingertips dug into my arm and waist. Trails of my life force were rivers down his throat. The warmth of the blood I was still losing spread across my surface.
“Now I see,” he said, looking down at me with sharp, half-lidded eyes. “I thought you were a nuisance. A play thing. But now.” He stroked my hairline. Not with tenderness or care, but possessiveness. Like he’d just claimed a new pet. “Now. I see.”
Energy spent, my head fell away and the familiar glint of Rhazien’s crown came into view. What little focus I had left was snuffed out by the tears filling my vision.
“I think I’ll keep you for a while,” he snarled.
I blinked away heavy tears.
And then, I slipped willingly into the creeping darkness.
Chapter 41
Pesky Sunlight
Rhazien Kyrell was dead.
Dead.
And somehow, I wasn’t. I thought I’d gone into the abyss. Not passing onto the next life or realm or whatever was in store after my final breath but to the vast nothingness. A place where the shades existed in the unending prison between the living and the immortals.
But when I awoke, my heart was beating. The reliable thump, thump, thump was slow and labored as it worked to pump what blood remained in my body.
I was alive. And I was relieved.
“Rey?” a whisper echoed beyond my closed lids. A familiar voice. A familiar nickname. The voice reached out again as I blinked, bringing the brick ceiling into view.
Gray, uneven stones swirled together above me and I slammed my eyes shut again. I was going to be sick. Slowly, the aches and discomfort of still existing in my human body revealed themselves, like peeling back the layers of a discarded onion.
The creeping nausea, my pounding head, stiff muscles deprived of stolen blood constricted in protest to my minimal movements. I was a host to more discomfort and pain than I’d ever experienced. Second only to delivering Lydia into this cruel world. But all signs pointed to the same undeniable fact. I was—somehow—still alive.
“Rey!” Cova’s annoyance reverberated across the stones, sending even the well-fed rats skittering back into their holes.
Shut it,I wanted to hiss back. The fight in me died with the cold, biting metal shackled around my hands and feet.
I cleared my throat and croaked, “Yes. I’m here.”
