Page 69 of Blood and Magic
She licked her lips and looked at me, probably deducing why I was asking.
“I’ve heard it’s like your entire world shifts. It becomes about them, about their survival, their happiness. You can feel them under your skin. Some people even have a telepathic bond. Sol and Orion can feel each other’s pain.”
That got my attention, and for some reason, the thought of Mill dying six months ago came to the forefront of my mind. When precisely had his heart stopped? I always found it strange we went through the same thing around the same time. But what if… No, that would be preposterous. We weren’t mates. Hadn’t he shown that today? If we were, he wouldn’t have been able to hurt me like he did, push me away for the sake of his pride.
This was such a mess.
When we got to the ranch, Guin drove the Range Rover up the driveway, and I narrowed my focus to the front door, which was hanging open. A sinking weight of dread unfurled in my gut. Somehow, I already knew what had happened. I started to open the door, but Guin put her hand on my arm to stop me. The rotting stench of decay wafted inside the SUV, nearly making me retch.
“What is that?” I asked, turning to face my sister.
“Vampires.” She put the vehicle in reverse and backed out of our property, grabbing her phone. Kodiak’s voice filled the speakers.
“Guin, what’s wrong?” he asked, as if he could tell we were in danger without us having to say it.
“Scorpions,” she said, her voice stoically calm. I knew better than to think she was undisturbed. In the face of a threat, she either got angry or turned inward. In this case, it was the latter. “The front door was kicked down. We didn’t go inside.”
It was silent for a moment before he said. “Meet us at the corner of Lilac Drive and Dogwood. We’re headed your way.”
After she hung up, she opened the center console and pulled out a pistol, checking that it was loaded and one was in the chamber before she sped down the road to meet the Bastards.
Kodiak, Moose, and Vermillion escorted us back to the mansion, ten other Bastards following behind us on their bikes. They were heavily armed, each with handhelds on their waists and automatic rifles slung over their shoulders.
“Are you okay?” Mill asked, grabbing my shoulders as he ran his gaze over me.
“Fine,” I snarled, breaking free of his hold. It had only been a few hours since he’d reprimanded me in the forest, and my ire had not dissipated. I deserved an apology. He’d bitten me, not the other way around. I wasn’t stupid, not about him, and I wasn’t sure how much I bought into us being wrong for each other. If we were, why did I feel so strongly about him?
“They’re gone,” Kodiak said when he emerged from the house, his heavy boots thumping down the stairs. “But…Guin, it’s a massacre in there.”
Mill’s features dropped, and he ran inside.
“Massacre?” I glanced at Poe and Columba, reading the grief on their features. We had left the human workers here alone, trusting the security at the ranch to protect them. They were supposed to alert us if something terrible happened. How did they get through our perimeter? How had this happened?
It all caught up to me in one terrible moment of sinking dread in my stomach.
No.
I raced up the marble steps after Vermillion, ignoring Guin’s call to stop me. I froze inside the foyer. Blood streaked the walls in a terrible display out of the worst true crime documentaries. I heaved at the sight of entrails decorating the crown molding like Christmas ribbons. In the parlor, human heads had been lined up on top of the fireplace mantel in a gory display, their faces twisted in horror and torment.
Heart thumping and legs unsteady, I walked through the rest of the mansion, where body parts were strewn about, having been ripped from their torsos with brutal force.
Monsters. These Scorpions were monsters out of the depths of hell.
Just as I ascended the stairs leading to my room, Mill walked out of the door and shook his head.
“Don’t go in there, sweetheart,” he said, his brows lowered in a scowl, his tone bordering on furious.
Of course, his saying that only made me want to go in more. I pushed past him, and my legs nearly gave out at the sight inside. Written on the wall were the words, “Give me my bitch or I start killing heirs.”
Ellen lay on my bed, her throat torn, her chest ripped to pieces. My stomach rolled, and I turned to the side, vomiting right there in the doorway to my once safe space. I retched until nothing else came out, my nerves trembling, my pulse racing.
No. Not Ellen. Not her.
But when I opened my eyes again, she was still laying there, lifeless and still with rigor mortis. I couldn’t look at it anymore.
Slowly and numbly, I walked back outside, overhearing Aquila reporting to Kodiak.
“The stables are empty, but the sheep…the cattle we just moved. All gone.”
