Page 33 of Entombed By Blood
Only to break into a run at the first smash.
Chapter Eleven
Silas
Waking her is...intense.
Her fangs slide straight into my neck as soon as I get close, her body instinctively searching out more blood.
This time, her pulls are gentle. Her venom slides through my veins lazily; more like a slow burn than the instant rush of lust from before. She stops herself before I can even begin to feel dizzy.
“Why do you taste so good?” she murmurs, still drowsy.
I lift her into my arms and carry her from the den. It’s almost dawn, and I suspect her kind’s natural aversion to the daylight is why she fell asleep in the first place.
“It’s my awful diet. I’m basically running on pure sugar and caffeine.” It isn’t a lie, my sweet tooth is awful, second only to Finn’s. Vane always gives the two of us shit about it, but even he isn’t immune to our omega’s pretty pouts. “Come on, it’s still early, and the couch isn’t that comfy.”
Not that where I’m taking her is much better, but I have my fuckingorders.
I linger in the hall before I take a breath and push open the door to the bedroom Cain had made up for her. It’s red, like everything else in King’s Eden, but the worst part is the coffin in the centre.
Someone has cleaned it and stuffed it with blankets and cushions, but it’s still clearly the same one she was trapped in. All the polish in the world can’t disguise the scent of decay that still clings to it. They’ve surrounded it with hundreds of vases filled with black and red roses in a mockery of a funeral display, which is probably also intentional.
Death and roses.
Evie doesn’t even notice. She’s fallen back to sleep in my arms. The trust she has in me just makes me feel even more like a piece of shit for doing this.
“I hope you forgive us for this,” I whisper, laying her on the soft bedding.
I have the irrational urge to climb in with her, though there’s no way both of us will fit.
At least the blankets are thick enough to prevent burns from the silver. All she should feel are the weakening effects.
Too much exposure to silver gives vampires brain fog. Cain’s keeping her unstable on purpose. Making sure she’s not strong enough to plot against him.
I growl beneath my breath at the unfairness of it all.
She looks like she’s lying in state rather than sleeping. Exactly as her sire intends.
Maybe this is for us, as well. To remind us that she’s a dead woman walking. At any moment, Cain can order us to kill her and he’ll expect us to comply. He even lectured us on not letting emotions and the thrall bond get between us and our duty when we were flying her across the ocean.
I’m painfully aware of how creepy it is to stand here and watch her sleep, but I don’t want her to wake up alone. Logically, I know I can’t stay. Cain is probably monitoring the room, and he’ll get suspicious if it looks like I’m too obsessed with her.
So I drag my feet all the way to the hallway while studiously ignoring the open walk-in wardrobe as I pass. I don’t care what she did to piss him off; no woman deserves to wake up from decades of torment and fall into a world of mind games and manipulation.
My shoulders fall back against the wall as I settle in, keeping guard from outside while she sleeps.
It doesn’t take long before I hear the first smash. The second coincides with the chime of the elevator reaching our floor. I shove open the door and dive inside, fangs bared, just in time for a third vase to narrowly brush my shoulder.
Petals are flying everywhere, but it’s the vampire caught in the middle of the destruction who captures my attention.
“Evie…”
I hold out my hands in surrender, but there’s nothing I can do to calm the woman standing in a puddle of water, roses, and broken glass. Her expression is painted with a mixture of devastation, terror, and fury as she takes in the scene.
“Did you do this?” she demands.
I’m saved from replying by Gideon’s timely arrival. Our alpha runs into the room, gun drawn, and ready for an attack, only to stop short at the scene that greets him. It doesn’t take him long to understand the situation, and his mask doesn’t slip as he takes in her trembling body and wide-eyed stare.
