Daniel and William appeared from behind a row of houses. Aria ignored the blood dripping from William’s head, she couldn’t think about that now. Not if she planned to survive. She was about to release her first arrow when an arm wrapped around her waist and she was lifted against a hard, broad chest. For a disconcerting moment she thought it was Braith that had seized her, the dimensions were about the same size, but there was something cold, unfamiliar, and wrong about the man holding her now. A hand snaked around her throat and clasped over her mouth.
She began to struggle in earnest, kicking and screaming against the hand muffling her. A cold certainty crept through her as lips pressed against her cheek. “Well well well look at what I have here.”
Her body turned into a block of ice at Caleb’s words. She hadn’t spent much time with him, as Braith had gone out of his way to keep her away from his brother, but she would recognize his voice and the cruelty that laced his words anywhere. This was so much worse than she had originally thought.
Every horrible nightmare she’d ever had seemed to be screaming into reality as his arm constricted cruelly around her waist. “We’re going to have so much fun you and I.”
A scream burned in her throat, it pushed relentlessly against the hand that was currently twisting ever tighter on her face. “So much fun. I’ll get to see just what it was that my brother saw in you.”
Aria struggled within his grasp, she couldn’t breathe; she was wheezing from lack of oxygen. She met her brother’s gazes, horrified by the tears of torment that burned her eyes. They had to know that they had to get free; they had to run, now. Aria jerked to the side, throwing her head back, and kicking wildly as she tried to loosen Caleb’s grasp on her. She had no hope of getting free, she knew that, but she needed just a brief moment of reprieve from his firm grasp.
His hand slipped on her as she managed to dig an elbow into his ribs. “Bitch!” he snarled his hand entangling in her hair.
“Run!” The scream, born of terror, ripped violently and harshly from her throat moments before Caleb drove his fangs into her neck. Agony exploded through her, tears formed in her eyes and froze there as her whole body went rigid. Even when he had deprived himself, even when he was on the verge of losing all control, Braith had never hurt her like this. Caleb attacked her brutally; he pulled her blood from her in deep waves that caused her heart to stutter and her muscles to lock.
Her fingers curved into claws but she couldn’t move, couldn’t feel anything other than the torture consuming every cell within her. He meant to draw out her suffering, she was certain of it, but she was fearful that in his fury over her actions, he was going to kill her. He pulled away before biting deep again in another spot, and then another and another. Her skin was raw; blood trickled over her as blackness rose up, threatening to drown her within the dark depths of unconsciousness. She struggled against it, certain that if she succumbed she would never wake again.
Her fingers were going numb; her body was growing colder as she felt her life slipping away from her. She had only a glance of William as he launched at them. Daniel grasped hold of his arm, trying to pull her twin back as he struggled to break free. Max rounded the corner, horror spread over his face as he skidded to a halt in the muddy road.
The last thing she saw was the arrow William shot at Caleb before darkness finally claimed her.
***
It was dark when she woke. Cold. It took her a long moment to realize that she wasn’t in the caves. That she was somewhere far worse. Memories engulfed her in a swift, brutal wave. Her chest constricted, she could barely breathe through the panic trying to consume her. She was in the palace dungeons, she was certain of it, and she was now at the mercy of Caleb and the king.
A chill crept down her spine; she couldn’t bring herself to think about the implications of that as she mentally took stock of the damage to her body. She was sore, tired and weak, but she was alive and whole. For now at least.
Slowly, past the terror of her current situation and her pain, she began to realize something else. She would now know what Braith would do, how he would react without her there, if he would keep control of himself, if he would put the greater good ahead of her, or if he would allow the bloodthirsty, vicious, and malevolent side of himself take control again. He would come for her, she knew that, but would it be the vampire that came for her, or the monster that vampire could become.
Another chill slid down her spine but this one had nothing to do with fear for herself, and everything to do with the fact that holy hell may have just been unleashed upon her family, her friends, and her woods. And that hell may very well be Braith.