Page 119

First, we have useless humans to kill and my beast needs to feed.

Starting with Earl Rinhold.

He screams when I rip him off of her. His body tumbles through gauzy drapes that had parted him from a sizable crowd.

I had been around during the early years when this sort of marital ceremony had been popular. It had been distasteful then, and it’s distasteful now.

Especially given that the bride in question was coerced. That’s precisely why I had abolished the practice in the first place. I don’t like to interfere with my Elites, unless they stray too far and require correction.

This is one of those times, once again.

Sabre goes for the Earl, but I hold up a bloodied hand. My claws had dug into the mortal’s side and the graze might have been fatal, had I not held back.

But my beast and I share our intentions. Neither of us want the Earl’s death to be a quick one.

He scrambles backward as I march toward him, towering over the insignificant human who ever dared to paint himself with my blood.

Now, I will return the favor.

“Cain, wait. You can’t kill me,” he says as screams rip through the air.

I know that the other two, the Strigoi, are feeding. They will take their fill before they comfort Scarlett. For now, they’re killing everyone around her.

The most efficient way to keep her safe is to make sure no one in the vicinity is left breathing.

“Why’s that?” I ask him as I grab him by his ankle and drag him toward me. My claws sink into his flesh with the motion, making him grunt in pain.

I don’t just want grunts, though. I want his screams.

“We control over half the Offerings in the Magic Sector,” he babbles. I imagine it’s a rehearsed defense should I ever decide the Rinholds aren’t worth keeping alive. “If I die, you won’t know how to continue the programs. You will be decades behind without us. Centuries!”

I’ve heard it all before. Elites tend to be arrogant and they get ahead of themselves.

They think that monsters need them. We don’t. It is a more efficient way of running things, and effective, at times, but this is all an experiment to see what’ll reap the best rewards.

“Scarlett is a compatible mate,” I growl.

It’s difficult to talk in this form, but my beast wants me to make Edward fear us. He wants to watch the light bleed from his eyes when he knows he’s lost.

I tilt my head as I drag my claw over my massive tongue, tasting Edward’s blood. “But you knew that.”

His chest rises and falls on his deep, panicked breaths. He knows he’s going to die, but I’m waiting for him to give me what I want.

A confession.

I need to know how this happened so that Scarlett is never threatened again.

“It’s because of the work at Vulcan Village,” he sputters. “They stole magic tonics and genetic material from the Rinhold labs. It’s the only reason their crop was so advanced.”

I raise a brow as I lean in, casting a shadow over the human. “You allowed them to steal from you?”

His throat bobs on a swallow. “We needed the studies to be tested. We couldn’t risk…” When his words drift off, I snarl until he continues. “My father found a way to harness dreams inside a human soul.”

I go silent as I digest what this pitiful human’s line had discovered.

Glancing up, I find the Duke reduced to a maimed carcass seeping fresh blood onto the floor. His blank gaze stares at us and I know I won’t be pulling any truths from him.

So I turn back to his son. “Go on,” I say.