Page 57 of Blood So Brutal

But I had to admit, her jealousy over thinking I fed from another person was turning me on.

“Jessiah shouldn’t have told you.” I changed the subject as I paced the perimeter of the tower. “I wanted to get back before you noticed, but I got a little distracted at the sight of you two flaunting our presence in the blood kingdom.”

I sharpened my words to cover up the pain that welled in my chest.

“He’s your brother, Wolf,” she sighed. Her voice softened in a way I hadn’t heard since Moira. “I didn’t think you would mind.”

I walked to the ledge of the roof and sat down, letting my feet dangle over the solid edge. Every one of my senses locked in on the fact that Huntyr did the same. Her body moved closer to me until her arm brushed against mine.

“He is my brother,” I said, “which is why it fucking sucks so much.”

She looked out on the horizon too, kicking her feet slightly back and forth in the air. “He seems to think you’re the favored one in the family. I can’t say I would’ve guessed that.”

I coughed a laugh. “Yeah, I wouldn’t guess that either. My father hates me. Anyone with two fucking eyes can see that.” Too much venom spilled into my words, but I couldn’t stop it. Jessiah was wrong. What kind of a father sacrifices their own son to become a vampyre? What type of a father cuts off his own son’s wings after he was already fallen?”

My chest welled with a new emotion, an emotion I had been shoving down for some time, ever since I was a child.

“It’s not fair,” she said.

My attention snapped in her direction. “What isn’t?”

She shrugged. “None of this is fair.”

We sat like that for a few minutes, not talking, barely touching, taking in the surroundings of her future kingdom.

“This is all going to be yours,” I said.

She stayed silent for so long, I wasn’t sure she heard me, but then she said, “I don’t deserve it. I don’t belong here.”

Another silence.

She didn’t think she belonged here, but what she didn’t know was that she was the one who belonged here the most. These were her people. Her kingdom. Her ruins.

All of this—the crumbling, tragic glory of it all—it was all for her.

“Come with me,” I said, pushing myself to stand. “I want to show you something.”

Ifought the urge to slide my hand in hers, fought the urge to wrap my arm around her waist, to keep her body as close to mine as possible while we maneuvered through the streets of Scarlata Empire.

Everything about this place kept me alert. The trusted ones I handed Abigail off to surely were not the only survivors living here.

Huntyr and I were both vampyres, but to them, we were outsiders. They had no reason to trust us, and us them.

Besides, the vampyres who lived in hiding weren’t what we needed to fear. It was the hungry ones, the masses of uncontrollable killers that would bombard us from anywhere.

We walked for a few minutes, making our way to the back of the kingdom. “Stay close,” I whispered back to her. She nodded, her hand hovering near her hip where Venom lay.

When we made it to the catacombs, I stopped. The iron gate had been ripped off, leaving it open to any passerbyers. Steps led underground, covered by dead leaves and sticks and dirt. If you didn’t know what was there, you would walk right past it.

But I knew. I had spent many hours in this place, learning. Studying.Feeling.

Huntyr deserved to see it too. It was part of who she was. It always had been.

“Here,” I said, kicking some debris to the side. “Take my hand.”

She did, and I carefully guided her down the steps into the small underground tomb.

“What is this place?” she asked. Normally, I would need lantern light to see down here, but at this hour, the sun filtered in just right, creating a small trail of vision for both of us, enough that we could see the small, semi-circle perimeter of the room and the massive throne that sat within.

---