26. 25

25

Serina

I woke before Thorne and put on my now dry hunting clothes. Nox must have dried them for me after what happened last night.

I carefully placed where all of my weapons needed to be on my body, then sat in the large chair by the bed and waited. I knew Thorne would wake up soon, and when he did, he would give me the answers I so craved.

I was done playing by their rules. I had done what they asked when Bastian left. Sure, I put up a little bit of a fight at first, but I had done it. And now that I’d been playing house for the past week with them, I had let my heart get in the way of my mind.

I had gotten soft, had let things slide. Not anymore.

I wanted answers, and I was going to get them either from Nox and Thorne or else I’d go and find them myself.

Thorne stirred awake, and as he leaned up on his elbow, he ran his fingers through his messy hair, looking over at me with those sexy, tired eyes.

Fuck, he was so beautiful. But I wouldn’t let it distract me. I couldn’t.

I held one of my daggers in my hands and twirled the sharpened tip lightly against my finger to ensure I wouldn’t cut myself as he looked me with his brow furrowed.

Then he swallowed, his throat bobbing with the act, making my eyes snag on him, his bare chest and all its—No, Serina, focus.

I arched a brow and sat straighter in my chair.

“I want answers,” I said plainly.

And he sat up, closing his eyes for a second as if he could see the determination in my body language alone and already knew I wouldn’t take no for an answer.

“Serina…”

“No excuses. Tell me what happened yesterday. Where did you go?” I demanded.

“Could we eat some breakfast first?” he asked, forcing a smile. “Maybe have this conversation over coffee?”

“You don’t need either of those things to live,” I snapped, and he looked at me then.

“No, but you do.”

I huffed, “I’m fine. Right now, I just want answers.” I crossed my arms, and he blew out a breath. “Did you go on a hunt yesterday?”

His eyes were full of emotions I couldn’t quite place as he took me in.

“No… I went to check on Bastian.”

My hackles instantly fell as worry swept over me. My mouth gaped, wondering if Bastian was even alive after how broken Thorne was last night. Nox walked into the room moments later.

“Rise and shine, lovebirds, let’s—” His words fell off when he walked through the doorway of thick, sticky tension and saw what I was wearing. “What’s going on?” he asked carefully, his eyes volleying between the two of us.

“You lied to me,” I accused Nox before turning my gaze back to Thorne. “Is he alive? Where is he? What is going on?” I shouted, my anger getting the best of me as I emphasized my words.

They shared a look as Nox sat at the end of the bed, and both of them turned to me.

“Bastian is alive; I can’t tell you where he is. But he left because of what happened at the pub,” Nox admitted.

“What does that have to do with anything?” I challenged, my attention fully on him now. “And why can’t you tell me?”

“Serina—”

I cut him off, “No bullshit.”

“This is all connected to something much bigger than us, Serina—” Thorne tried to speak, but I was faster.

“What did I just say? Stop beating around the bush.”

“Okay… The man you’ve been looking for, the one who orchestrated the attacks on hunters, he has Bastian.”

My stomach dropped like lead.

“Bastian is there because of me,” Nox admitted, looking down before meeting my eyes again. “When we went to the pub, I wanted it to just be a fun day out for us, but when you were attacked, I moved to protect you. Someone saw what happened and reported it back to him, putting him back on your trail.”

“On my trail? This man was on my trail? I did well to cover my tracks. Everyone thought Serina Velika was dead.”

“When you were on your war path, you were paying close attention to Vampires and what they were doing. You were taking out his people without realizing all the connections, and it put them on your trail. Everyone wanted to find out what hunter was killing and moving so quickly. We have been keeping them away from you all this time.”

“Wait… are you telling me you guys knew who I was before I came to town?” I whispered in shock.

“Yes,” they both answered.

Nox went on, “At the time, we thought he was our friend… but we discovered that he had the ability to control us.”

“Who’s he?” My brows furrowed. I needed to know.

He said the name like a curse, “Victor.”

“He was controlling you? How?”

“Compulsion. He has the ability to compel anyone, even Vampires. It was a power of his that surfaced just over a year ago.”

“You knew who I was and where he was this entire time… Were you a part of this man’s hierarchy?” I asked, anger lacing my tone.

They both nodded.

Nox said, “We were—are. Listen, it’s complicated, but we aren’t under his control anymore. We only pretend to play by his rules until we come up with a plan to take him down.”

“Why would Bastian go willingly to him?” I demanded.

“I think you already know the answer to that,” Nox said flatly, and my eyes darted between them and their emotion-filled gazes telling me what I already knew…

They cared for me, too.

“How did you know I wouldn’t kill all of you just like all the others?” I questioned.

Nox cleared his throat. “Bastian figured if we made ourselves useful by harboring information, you wouldn’t kill us.”

“And if I would have thought you were lying?”

“I guess we’d all be piles of ash, and things would have gone a lot differently.” He shrugged. Those unspoken feelings floated in the air between us.

“Is Bastian… hurt?” I murmured. “Why else wouldn’t he have come back?”

When I looked up to both of them again, they just nodded their heads.

Thorne glanced down at his healing knuckles, and I realized something. It would make sense for how tormented Thorne looked when he came home.

“He had you do it…?” I asked, and he nodded.

Emotions swelled in my chest at how twisted this man was for making Thorne abuse someone so close to him.

“Why?”

“Because he is a sick fuck who wants to ensure he gets the answers he wants, but we haven’t given him anything. Bastian is doing this to keep us safe… to keep you safe. Bastian doesn’t want him on your trail. Our plan wasn’t supposed to change.” Nox’s stare settled on me.

“And what exactly was this plan of yours?”

They both looked at me knowingly. The pieces all started coming together.

“Me,” I whispered, and they both nodded. “You were going to use me to kill him knowing I couldn’t be compelled, and I’d want my revenge…”

I wiped the stray tear that had slipped free during their confession.

“In the very beginning… yes,” Nox admitted.

“And what’s changed? Why try to protect me now? Let me go kill him.”

“We couldn’t risk you,” Thorne said somberly.

“Oh, but wasn’t that your plan from the beginning? Ask for a deal, you help me find him, and then I kill him and you three are free to go? What’s changed?” I fired back.

“Everything,” Nox exclaimed, standing and cupping my face. “Everything has changed.” I shoved all of my emotions from that sentiment down, down, down… This wasn't the time.

“What are his plans?” I asked stiffly, shifting back to their original plan. I would find him and kill him. They both stilled.

“This is why we didn’t tell you, Serina. We knew you would want to go face him head-on, jump straight into the fire. But this is more than just Victor. All the people that are under his command are compelled to be there; they didn’t have a choice, they're innocent,” Thorne tried to reason, but I moved out of the bedroom.

I would save Bastian. I would get my vengeance. I would do everything.

“Serina, wait!” Nox called as he grabbed for me, but I was already rushing down the stairs.

He wrapped a hand around my waist to stop me, and I spun and stabbed him in the gut with my stake that I was now white-knuckling against my palm.

He grunted as blood spilled over the wooden steps beneath us.

“That’s for not telling me, or at least not telling me sooner. This could have all been over already.”

“Okay… I deserved that,” he rasped.

I didn’t think I’d ever be able to go back to having a human boyfriend because you couldn’t just stab them when you were angry. Fuck, were they all my boyfriends?

I didn’t know what we were anymore. I was so hurt and confused; my mind was fuzzy with all the emotions coursing through me.

“You deserve more than that. You all do. Maybe if I would have known sooner, none of this would have happened,” I spat, looking between the two of them. My words hitting their mark.

I knew my wrath for revenge should be turned toward the man who had done this, not them.

But would I have ever cared for them if I could have ended this from the jump? They could have told me more when I showed up in their living room that night.

But instead, now everything was sticky with emotions I never wanted to have.

I wanted to kill whoever Victor was. I wanted to stake him in the heart, rip him limb from limb, and then burn all the pieces.

And I would.

First, I needed to save Bastian, and then I needed to plan how I would get close enough to kill him.

I was sure Bastian, Thorne, and Nox could help me with that.

Maybe I could attack on my next birthday. What a beautiful fucking circle of life that would be. I would finally capture my revenge on the one-year anniversary of one of the worst days of my life.

Suddenly, Thorne was in front of me, blocking the door and holding his hands up.

“Serina… please.” He frowned, his kind eyes so full of emotion.

The desperate look in them softened something in me, cracking the dam I had been using to hold all my emotions in. My breathing was rapid, my cheeks wet from tears that I hadn’t realized had been falling.

Thorne took a step toward me. And then another and another until he slowly wrapped an arm around my waist, and I fell into him as a sob broke free. I went limp crying into his hard chest.

Shhh , he soothed me, stroking my back and hair as all the rage, all the sadness from the past, leaked from me like a fresh wound.

I knew who killed my father; better yet, he was so close. I could finally finish it. I could heal, whether that meant from living or dying in the process. I could move on from this, and a part of me was realizing that maybe I had already started to heal by opening my heart to three monsters that weren’t so different.

Three monsters that weren’t really monsters at all.

Thorne held me in his lap. I didn’t know when he had moved to the stairs to sit down, but he had me cradled, avoiding Nox’s blood a few stairs up. Nox was in the kitchen tending to the wound on his stomach.

I didn’t feel bad about it; he had lied to me, they all had, but telling me Thorne was hunting while Bastian was being tortured for what we did at the pub?

Nox, you asshole .

When I finally look up at Thorne, I found he was watching me intently.

“I promise you, we will go and get him, but we can’t do this thoughtlessly. We need to be careful and use our heads,” he whispered firmly to me, and I nodded, knowing that he was right.

If I went into this rage-induced, I probably wouldn’t walk away alive. Not that I had planned to when I started my quest for vengeance…

“We’ll go tomorrow night, I promise. Let’s take a day to plan,” he said, and I wanted to protest, but after a few moments of tense silence thickening the air, I finally agreed.

Besides, I didn’t have a clue on where to go if they didn’t help me.

I stood, and we walked over to the kitchen bar where Nox had already poured himself a stiff drink while sitting on one of the stools, the bandage wrapped around his center already turning red.

The wound was healing slowly. Too slowly.

But I didn’t have time to question it as Nox poured us drinks too and changed the subject.