Author: Erica Stevens
Category: Vampires
Go to read content：https://readnovelfree.com/p/1242_20
“Bitch!”
A small gasp escaped her as a hand snagged in her hair. She hadn’t realized there was a hole at the top of the door. Caleb’s hand cruelly fisted in her hair, she clawed at it and jerked roughly to the side as she tried to force him to release her by pinning his arm awkwardly against the door.
Frustration filled her, her eyes burned as he pulled her head back, bending her neck at an unnatural angle. He may not mean to do it, it would ruin all of his plans, but she was becoming increasingly fearful that he was going to accidentally break her neck. A strangled cry escaped her as she threw herself forward. Stars burst before her eyes; she could feel the hair ripping from her scalp as she kept her weight shifted forward. Losing her hair was far preferable to losing her life.
A clump of her hair gave way with a wrenching tear that caused her eyes to burn. She fell forward, her knees and palms stung as they slapped on the floor. Scrambling to her feet, she didn’t look back as she bolted down a lengthy corridor. She was completely unaware of where she was going as she fled into the bowels of the palace.
***
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His rooms were much as he’d left them. Trashed. He clearly recalled the last conversation he’d had with Caleb in these rooms; he’d been getting fitted for his wedding when Caleb had come to him. The tailor had been terrified of him, everyone had been terrified of him, even Caleb, and rightly so as he’d been an out of control, bloodthirsty monster after Aria had left him.
But it was that conversation with Caleb that had pushed him over the edge. Aria had been spotted, in a cave, with another man. He now knew that other man was William, but at the time Caleb’s revelation had sent him into another frenzy. He’d already destroyed his apartment once after discovering her gone, but this time he’d ripped it to shreds, leveling it. He’d known the damage he’d done, he’d been there for it, but this was the first time he was actually witnessing it.
He’d gone to the dungeons after with the goal of sating the beast within him, but he’d never made it there. Instead, he’d finally given up on his pride and vowed to hunt her down, vowed to make her pay for turning him into this insatiable monster. Instead, she’d quenched the savagery within him.
Now he was standing here, back in the rooms where it had all started, and he could feel the rising bloodlust as it pulsed through him. This time though, it would only be death that satisfied him.
William let out a low whistle as he stepped over some broken furniture. “Your father has a temper,” he muttered.
“I did this.”
William’s mouth dropped. “Why would you… Aria.”
“Yes.”
Braith nodded to the soldiers and began to pick his way carefully through the debris that littered the floor. He could see, but he still relied on his other senses the most right now. He would hear and smell the enemy before he saw them. The sitting room was in much the same condition as the living room, and he knew without having to see it, that the room Aria had spent the majority of her time in was the most devastated. He’d tried to destroy anything that held her exquisite scent on it, anything she may have touched, but he hadn’t been able to bring himself to ruin it all.
“Wow,” Max breathed.
He didn’t look back at them. He was not proud of what he’d been then; he had despised the lack of control that had consumed him, the death and misery he had rained down upon the innocent. He couldn’t take it back though, and right now he welcomed the thrumming power that came with the knowledge that Aria was being threatened, that came with letting the darkness creep in to take control again.
He stepped into the room that had been Aria’s upon first arriving, not at all surprised to find the tunnel near the bed barricaded. He suspected that at least part of the tunnel had also been demolished. He refused to look at the nightgown spread out on the bed as he turned on his heel and left the room. Keegan remained at his side as he made his way into the main living area.
At the door of the suite, he pressed his hands to the wood, and his eye to the peephole. He saw nothing out there, and sensed no one as his hand rested on the knob. He turned it bit by bit and stepped into the hallway. There was no one about, but he could hear running footsteps in the massive foyer below and shouts echoed off of the cavernous walls.
There were some walls breaking the openness of the hallway before him, but for the most part it was an open balcony to the main entryway below. They would be far too visible to the soldiers and people beneath them. Unfortunately, it was also the fastest way to the dungeons.
He turned and went the other way, disappearing deeper into the palace as he moved toward the servant’s corridor. It would take longer, but this part of the hall was hidden in shadow, and sheltered from view by massive walls. He had to turn sideways to make it down the stairs at the far back of the hall.
It didn’t become any more comfortable as he finally stepped out of the stairwell and into the hallway the servants used to transport supplies, and had their rooms in. A man, stepping from his room, spotted them. His mouth dropped as recognition lit his eyes. “Intru…”
Braith snagged hold of him and snapped his neck before the man could finish the shout that had started to erupt from his throat. Daniel let out a low curse as William made a strangled sound. He turned back toward them, Max had his bow raised, but to Braith’s surprise the arrow wasn’t aimed at his heart, but at the human he had just destroyed. They stared at each other for a prolonged moment before Max grinned at him and lowered the bow. He didn’t know when it had occurred but Max seemed to have started to put some faith in him, some trust. Or if not trust, Max had at least decided that Braith would be the one to get Aria back.
Braith stepped negligently over the servant’s body as he continued down the hall. The further they moved down the hall the more candles started to cast shadows across the dark rock wall. Though the palace had electricity, his father had never installed it in these lower areas as a way to exert his control, and torment the servants forced to reside in the dark.
The hallway opened up as they stepped into a room filled with tables and a large stone fire pit at the end. Burnt logs were still in the pit, fresh heat radiated from it but there were no servants lingering around it. Everything seemed to be going to plan but there was a sinking sensation in the pit of his stomach that he couldn’t shake.
He just had to find Aria, he’d be able to think better and be less on edge if he could just see and hold her right now.