Page 67 of To Vanquish Darkness

He paused, his eyes dark. “I don’t question your escapades.”

“We’re all glad you’ve found good company. We know the last few years have been . . . difficult.” Ren stepped in front of Clémentine. “I think?—”

The door slammed open, and Amalie jumped as Theo threw her again behind his back.

A vampire Amalie didn’t recognize appeared in the doorway, breathless. His coat billowed behind him as he strode into the kitchen, eyes wide with urgency. "We've found another."

Clémentine straightened, her amber eyes flashing. "Where?"

"Mordelles." The man sucked in a haggard breath. “A Guardian. He’s been changed.”

28

1836 NORTHERN NORMANDY, FRANCE

Amalie jogged to keep up with Theo as he stormed up the stairs and down the hall. “A guardian? They’ve been turned?” She looked back and lowered her voice. “How does your coven know about them?”

"Everyone knows about guardians, Amalie." His expression was hard as he started up the second staircase. "What they don't know is where they are."

They. Because Theo did know where they were. Where her family was. Her stomach dropped. Now his whole coven knew about someone else.

She panted as they climbed. "Well. Seems like the secret’s out." The words hissed through her lips like venom.

“It’s only one.”

Amalie scoffed. “Only one? How many of us are there?”

Theo stopped when they reached the top. “I’m trying to protect them," he growled. "To protectyou. Do you have any idea what would happen if every vampire knew of the guardians walking among us? I’ve seen it. I know—” He shook his head, fury flashing across his features. "But that's exactly what's happening now. This will spread. All vampires will hear of this soon enough, and there's no telling what chaos will ensue." Hewhirled on her. "You need to stay here. I can't risk your safety outside these walls."

Theo started down the hall to their rooms.Stay?Her fingers curled into fists at her sides. The idea that she could sit idly by while Theo figured out who had changed one of her blood. . .

“Who is it?” she snapped.

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know.” She scoffed. “Right. You never?—”

Amalie’s breath caught as she noticed a figure ahead of them. A woman. Bathed in red.

Amalie rushed forward, dropping to her knees. “Penelope?” It was the third woman she’d seen in the parlor. “Who did this to you?”

Her dress was torn. It hung off her in ribbons, barely covering her bare skin underneath. She wore no corset or underclothes. The skin on her throat was bruised and mottled, and a long cut on her left shoulder dripped blood down her arm.

Theo knelt beside her, his body rigid. “Who is your host?”

Amalie swallowed the bile rising in her throat.Host.He said it like she’d been invited to a party and had an unfortunate accident. She grabbed at the shredded fabric with numb fingers, trying to piece it back together. “We have to help her. She’s bleeding, she?—”

Amalie froze. Penelope was bleeding. In a castle where vampires roamed. Had the others left the kitchen? Would they walk down this hall?

Penelope looked up, her eyes red and swollen. “I tried," she whispered. "I did everything he asked.”

"Who?" Theo demanded, his voice like steel.

Penelope's eyes filled with tears, and Amalie's heart shattered. "He said I wasn't good enough," Penelope choked out. "That I w-was a disappointment."

“His name started with an ‘R,’” Amalie murmured. “She mentioned him in the parlor, but I hadn’t met him.”

“Ramon,” Theo growled.

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