Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 112500 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 563(@200wpm)___ 450(@250wpm)___ 375(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112500 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 563(@200wpm)___ 450(@250wpm)___ 375(@300wpm)
Her father prolonged his meals. Tonight a collared female knelt at his feet, his “favorite snack.” Lia had long hated her parents, but never more than right now.
She forced herself to stay focused on her own fate, reasoning that she couldn’t help anyone from the crypt. “What you’ve described is hell, Father.” Every small dream she’d once hoarded began to shrivel. “I’m begging you—as your youngest child—not to do this.”
Neculain was unmoved by her words. “You have two weeks. Guards will see you don’t squander them.”
“And if I say no down in that crypt?”
“Then you’ll never leave it. One hundred babes is the price you’ll pay for freedom.”
Her voice barely held. “What if none of them inherit my gift?”
He smirked. “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try another’s seed…”
Was this just a joke to him? Other species speculated that the vampires were all mad, but especially the royals.
Not for the first time, Lia thought: We vampires are the creepy, wrong ones.
Coștin’s voice cut through the tension. “You did not consult your heir, one deeply invested in her fate.”
“She is not your Bride,” Neculain snapped. “Her time in the crypt will rid you of this insane obsession as nothing else will.”
“So that’s your reason?”
“Partly. But mostly I want an army to claw its way up from the ground with murder in its veins like the first bloodthief. When the Berserkers come, they’ll find retribution buried right beneath them.” His eyes gleamed. “Nothing could be more vampiric than sowing a blood harvest.”
In Neculain’s mind, the end was nigh. Best to go out in carnage and death.
He told Lia, “You are vengeance incarnate, the sinister future of our species. Act the part.” He rose and vanished with his captive.
Lia turned to her mother, tears burning. “Please stop him, Mother.” Help me, though you never have before.
Sereth swept from the court. “The king has spoken. Be bold in your fate, child.”
No one had taught Lia boldness. But she had begun to learn cunning.
A plan took shape, dangerous and unforgivable. Glancing over the blood slaves, she thought, I owe this kingdom no allegiance.
Before she could flee, Coștin’s lips curled, revealing his bloodied fangs. “The crypt has weaknesses. Father might prevent me from having you. But I’ll be damned to the hells before anyone else does.”
Lia fled, heart pounding, half expecting his hand on her throat. But he stood like a statue with that rictus smile frozen on his face…
Outside the court, Nadje, her royal companion, hurried to meet her in the hallway. “You are pale, my princess.”
“Walk with me.” Lia swept forward, her skirts whispering against stone. Ancient family portraits glared from their gilded frames. Tapestries depicting veins, thorns, and spiders spinning hung on the opposite wall. Bloodreach’s weavers dyed their threads with blood and gore; Lia glanced down at her own gown, the crimson silk suddenly feeling like a death shroud.
A trio of intoxicated nobles stumbled past—flushed, drunk on spells, laughing as they headed for another endless revel. Their bows were lazy, mocking.
She inclined her head with equal disdain. Would they be down in the crypt with her? She grew even queasier.
When they veered down a side hall, Lia asked softly, “Did you hear anything from inside the court just now?”
Nadje’s auburn brows furrowed. “Only bits. Nothing that made sense.” Her accent, rough and musical, still carried the cadence of the Badlands, a postapocalyptic wasteland on the outskirts of Bloodreach.
Lia knew little of her past beyond rumor: a survivor, risen from filth and famine to serve a princess. Her hazel eyes showed no signs of bloodlust, though she’d admitted to obeying her prey drive on occasion, feeding lightly and never to the death.
Lia exhaled. “Whenever my family is given a choice between good and evil, they always choose evil.”
Nadje hesitated, then whispered, “Yes.” Even that small admission felt dangerous in these halls. The torches hissed, as though they’d heard.
“We’re the wrong ones,” Lia murmured. Then, searching Nadje’s clear gaze: “Can I trust you?”
“With your life,” she answered, tone low and earnest.
“I’m going to trust you with far more than that. But you mustn’t tell another soul.”
“I will never repeat anything you tell me.”
Lia eyed her rough-around-the-edges servant. Had her father or another faction installed Nadje as one of their agents? Why else would someone lacking in decorum be assigned to a royal?
What a gamble trusting her would be!
Nadje laid her hand on Lia’s arm, an impertinence. “Never, my princess.”
Chapter 2
Inkletter Scribe Xii
Crypt Castle, servants’ level
“I’ll tell you anything. Anything! JUST—DON’T—STOP.”
Ink stared down in detachment at the mindless vampire he was fucking. Nadje. His latest mark.
He moved with mechanical precision, his mind far from her flushed, vacant face and heaving breasts. This dolt was a mouth breather. And nothing was so unattractive as a befanged, mouth-breathing vampire.
Wet gasps through fangs. He stifled a shudder.
But his job as a spy often forced him to do things—and beings—he’d rather not do. Ink had danced rings around her before he’d even unsheathed his most persuasive instrument: his gorgeous cock, which was nearly a foot of madness-making flesh.