Page 64 of House of Darkness
I stumbled forward and collapsed in front of that blanket where it had been discarded on the floor. My fingers brushed over the soft fabric. I could almost imagine how it had felt when it was wrapped around both of us, still warm from her body. But it was all wrong. The male vampire’s scent was stronger here, as was the foul chemical odor. He had touched herbed.Pulled her from it. The place we had made our sanctuary was now destroyed.
“We’re going to find her, Roman. I’ve already dispatched fortysoldiers to start knocking on doors and some of my best trackers are searching for their path. Catina and I were only waiting until you got back before we left as well,” Enso’s voice was level, but lower than I had heard in a long time. I finally managed to look at him, at the way his jaw was clenched, and his shoulders were tense.
I couldn’t bear to see him taking my failures onto his shoulders, not after he already lost one family. I looked past him to that bed once more. Where I had left her, alone and unprotected. After I had brought her here to keep her safe, where she would never have to endure the horrors of her past again. Yet she hadn’t been safe. I was too busy getting drunk to keep her safe. I failed her, just like I failed everyone else.
This was my fault.
“I’ll start looking as well, brother. I’ll see if any of my contacts know anything.” Sorin’s face began to morph, shifting to one of his many disguises. His black hair grew down to his cheekbones in an instant and lightened to the color of sand. The sight made me laugh, the sound hollow and broken. I failed her.
“Roman…” Enso knelt in front of me, his eyebrows furrowed. His hand found my shoulder, where he might have squeezed. I didn’t feel anything. “We will find her. You know that. She is family, and we won’t rest until she’s safe.”
My eyes refocused on him. He was right. I wouldn’t stop until I found her and brought her home. All I knew was fighting, and I would fight for her. There were only so many places they could take her. That was it—I’d just tear the city apart until I found her. I would find her.
Failure wasn’t an option.
Chapter 32
ROMAN
Chaos had enveloped the world. Flames, fueled by Enso’s power, flickered around us, while the shrieks of girls evacuated by my generals pierced the air. The turmoil mirrored the storm raging inside my mind, but I kept my face impassive—I wouldn’t show emotion to the man glaring up at me.
“Did you or any of your dogs steal a woman from my house? Blonde hair the color of starlight, big blue eyes?”
“Fuck you,” he snarled.
My vision blurred with red fury. I hurled my fist through his chest, snapping a rib in the process. His screams were muffled against the wall of rage in my mind. I yanked my hand back with a sickening squelch, unfazed by the blood and gore splattered across my arm. “I’d recommend answering my questions.”
He gasped against the gaping wound, already beginning to heal itself. His pause made me shake with impatience. “You’ll kill me anyway.”
“Yes,” I replied flatly. This wasn’t a democracy; I was judge, jury, and executioner.
“But you decide how painful it is. I can either rip your head off and be done with it—” I twisted one of his fingers untilit tore from his flesh, his shriek slicing through the air, “—or I can ensure you suffer.”
I reached for another finger, and he screamed. “Please stop! No, no, no?—”
“TELL ME WHAT I WANT TO KNOW!”
A hand landed on my shoulder. “Breathe. Count to ten.”
The air hissed past my teeth, but I obeyed Enso’s command. The trafficker, a bloody mess and missing several parts, still had a voice, and that’s what mattered. It trembled between shaky whimpers. Fucking pathetic. Then again, so was I. “I didn’t take her, man. I’m not that stupid. I don’t know who did—” I growled, and he hurried on, “—I promise! I don’t know anything!”
“Thank you for your cooperation.” Despite my reluctance to accept it, he spoke the truth. I seized his head and twisted until it detached from his body.
“You need to calm down; you’re scaring the survivors.”
I ignored Enso’s words. The girls we rescued had witnessed worse. I hurled the severed head, which struck the far wall with a sickening thud. Blood splattered like some grotesque painting. Razvan would be proud.
My voice wavered with hysteria. “Where is she?”
This was the fourth black market acolyte ring we had dismantled in five days. We had rescued countless girls and ended many wretched lives, but none of it mattered if she was still out there. She had been taken while I wallowed in self-pity. My guilt, anger, fear, and hatred boiled beneath the surface. I couldn’t explode yet—not until she was safe.
“We’ll find her.” Enso’s certainty was a balm I desperately wanted to believe. I did believe it—I would turn the world upside down until I found her—but he left out what state she’d be in when we did. Fivedays she had endured hell while I failed her. I had promised to keep her safe and had failed.
I nodded vaguely toward him. Isabella stood outside, directing girl after girl to safety. This wasn’t the first black market acolyte den we’d raided since I took the throne, and she had become adept at managing the details. I knew it fulfilled a need within her, the same need I had, but those thoughts had faded, leaving only Estrella’s safety.
Sorin emerged from the shadows, looking unlike himself. He now had sandy hair, was several inches shorter, and his facial structure shifted. Yet after knowing him so long, I recognized him even when he used his powers to alter his appearance—the skill that allowed him to perform his job as general of intelligence so well. His eyebrows were furrowed, and his shoulders tense. He held a package wrapped in torn parchment.
That unmistakable sweet scent, like lilies and vanilla wrapped into one, radiated from that package. I stumbled forward on unsteady feet, my body instinctively searching out my starlight. Though my mind knew it was wrong. Estrella couldn’t be in that box, and whateverwasin there couldn’t be good.
