Page 33 of Blood So Brutal

I closed my eyes and let my magic flutter around the spilled blood.

And then, I waited.

I didn’t know why I felt this connection to Era. I only knew that this was all happening for a reason, a reason she kept me hanging on for but never divulged.

I was getting sick of anticipating her next move.

With my eyes tightly shut, I felt my power swirling around me. It started slow but picked up second after second, until the air in the room created a whirlpool of magic and light and power.

Era was answering my call.

I saw her in the depths of my mind before she said anything. This was how she always appeared to me—always in my mind, never in the flesh, which was why I became so skeptical of what she really wanted from me.

“You summon me, boy?” she asked. Her words were smoother than honey, but the back of my mind twitched with the power I knew she possessed.

This was the Goddess of Vaehatis. She was more powerful than any being in existence, my father included.

“Yes, I do. I need to know what your plan is. What do you want from me? What do you want fromher? I was fine with staying in the dark before, but things have changed. There’s not much more she can take.” The words rushed out of me in a desperate force.

Era became clearer in my mind, the smoke of power fading as she stepped forward. “Everything is happening as it should.”

It was always riddles and half-truths with her. Before, that was fine, but now, I required more.

Era read my mind easily, listening to my thoughts before I had a chance to speak. “You worry for the girl.”

“Yes, I do. She thinks I am betraying her.”

“The only way to save her life, to save everyone you love, is to follow my orders carefully. Your father is a powerful man who has been corrupting this place for a long, long time. Patience is required to have ultimate peace, Wolf.”

I took a long breath. Arguing with the powerful goddess was likely not the best idea, but this still wasn’t helping me.

I needed to understand why. Why did Era want to use me as a pawn? Why did she want me to protect Huntyr, to stay here with my father?

“All in due time, child.” Her voice faded slowly, and the picture of her perfect face in my mind began to blur. “You and the girl are both much, much stronger than you believe. I need you both. Do not give up when we are so close.”

“So close towhat?”

But it didn’t matter how much more blood I spilled, how much I called out to her. Era, the Goddess of Vaehatis, was gone.

“She’s refusing to marry you, isn’t she?” Jessiah teased. Two days passed, two days of avoiding my bedroom at all costs, of lingering outside the door, too afraid to enter.

She needed time to accept this. Once she realized she had no other option, she would get on board.

But that was only one of our problems. Huntyr’s cravings were growing. She kept our bond closed as much as she could, but every so often, I could feel the pain wrecking her entire body.

Hunger. It was a different type of pain, not one similar to stabbings or other physical injuries. It was something dull and unavoidable, something that tortured you slowly until you lost your mind.

She would have to feed, and soon. Eventually, she would reach a point where she could no longer refuse, where her body would need blood to survive. Feeding would be just the beginning.

From controlling her feeding, to a new rush of magic, to new strength and speed and vampyre abilities, her entire reality would change, and this was all while we were navigating Asmodeus and everything else he wanted.

“She’ll come around,” I added. My father waltzed into the room lazily, his long, white robe trailing behind him.

Still, his teasing smile didn’t leave his face. “Trouble in paradise, son?”

My face heated. Yes, there was trouble. There was also the messy new complication of Huntyr’s taste still lingering onmy tongue, burned into my memory. “It will all be fine soon enough.”

“Good,” he said. “Because there’s something I need from you. Both of you, actually.”

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