Page 35 of Entombed By Blood
Now that I know Cain is watching my every move, I’ll have to be more careful. His paranoia makes him ruthless, and any hints of emotional instability or attachment to my thralls will make him suspect me even more than he already does.
I need to be above reproach if I plan to escape him.
My whole body recoils as if struck.
Escape?
I’ve never considered such a thing. Yet there it is. The suicidal option lodges its way into my brain and stays there, taunting me.
As far as I know, no one has ever escaped Cain. Before he turned my sisters and I, he had plenty of other ‘children,’ but they were all male and were allowed far more independence than us. Cain killed them all the second they grew unruly. He chose a different approach when raising his daughters, keeping us close rather than sending us out to conquer vast empires. Our brothers’ portraits were left hanging around the manor as a stark warning.
None of them survived, even when they tried to run from him.
Morwen was trained to hunt down anyone who tried to flee our sire. On the rare occasions when she brought them in alive, Cain ordered me to execute them. Often he’d invite huge crowds to create a spectacle intended to remind all of the other vampires that even his children weren’t safe.
I’m a better strategist than Morwen. Faster with weapons. Or, at least, I was before my punishment.
Can I be like that again?
My sanity is returning, but I doubt Cain will allow me to test myself with weapons any time soon. Then there’s Immy. She needs to be freed. My sister doesn’t deserve the horror she’s still enduring. If I run, I’m taking her with me. The only way to get her out will be to become even more Cain’s favourite than I ever was before.
That means… I sigh as I lean against the doorway, staring at the coffin.
That means I have to play his games. Keep my moves close to my chest and hope he doesn’t see through me.
For the thousandth time, I wonder how my thralls fit into all of this. They’re definitely a test, but where do their loyalties lie? I have to know if I’m going to run.
They’re the best people Cain can send after me. They have the ability to track me anywhere on earth.
Unless I break the bond.
A shudder runs through my body at the idea. Frost’s face flashes through my mind. The memory of the last time I saw him is perfectly preserved even after all this time.
I’ll never forget that dead look.
But I can bury it. Just like all of the other memories.
There’s only one part which matters, anyway. The one where I was willing to offer him eternity by my side, and he chose to betray me.
He wasn’t the only traitor, though. Someone else must have ratted us out. There had to be a spy. Someone who informed Cain about our meetings and knew exactly what I told my human thrall.
Either someone who benefited from my fall from grace, or someone who wanted Frost dead.
The only person I told about our relationship was Immy, but who knew how many people Frost bragged to about fooling me?
Any one of them might have approached Cain, offering a trade: information for immortality. It was commonplace in his court. Good information that helped Cain was an almost guaranteed route to being turned.
He allowed his followers to change those in power in exchange for their loyalty. It was how he planned to implement his new world order. One greedy mortal at a time.
The more rational I become, the more the sting of betrayal hurts. It’s easier to grip the side of the silver coffin, take the burn of the metal against my skin and sink into the blankets than it is to dwell on those memories.
I sink into a restless sleep, haunted by memories of a man whose lies I’m still paying for, decades after his death.
Chapter Twelve
Evelyn
It takesa while for me to remember where I am. The silver keeps my weakened mind from focusing. For the longest minute I don’t even bother opening my eyes, unwilling to face the black void of my prison.
