12. Twelve

The Queen claimed me.

That was why I was here in this palace and on my knees. The tether laced around my throat, and her Scriber dug the needle into my neck. A thousand pricks later, I was marked.

My will had wavered, and my essence drained by the chain.

There was nothing to be done. No more fighting. No more longing for another life.

I was hers.

Fire swarmed within my cold shell of a body. I did not want this, and I did not want her. Queen Verali would not take no for an answer, and after all this time, she got her wish. Now, no one would come near me, and no one would ever touch me again.

When the mother moon crest in the sky, she would have me. Bound and unable to withstand the lust that would ultimately claim me until she was full of my seed. And I’d never laid with a woman.

Her claws reached for my face when the mark was complete, and her eyes ensnared me.

“You are Nova Born, and our child will be of the stars.”

I jolted from my sleep.

As my eyes adjusted, I realized I was not in the palace but in Atreyis’ room. He was lying next to me on the bed, completely naked. I ripped up the blanket off of my groin, and sweet relief washed over me when I discovered that my pants still covered my ass. Why was he in the nude?

Slipping from the bed, I recalled the events from last night.

Humans had drugged me. The finest needle pricked my arm as I waited for Atreyis, and then they harassed me. It all happened so fast, and I hated myself for allowing it. But I was heavily distracted.

What am I doing here?

The fact of the matter was that I needed to hide. Atreyis brought too much attention to himself. Whereas he had nothing to lose, I did. Yet, I found myself falling into this man’s clutches.

Returning home wasn’t an option. I couldn’t. She would find out, and then I’d be hauled off to the palace. I also couldn’t stay here. Atreyis had the attention span of a gnat. He wanted the next thrill—the next lover. This wasn’t what I wanted. It never had been.

His nose whistled when he slept, and his brows twitched slightly. The peaceful nature of his slumber would fool even the most intelligent man because when he was asleep, he held a world of promise on his face. I decided then, at that moment, that this would be my last day in the Under Cloud. My last day with Atreyis…

Although the sun was manufactured by magic, it wasn’t pleasant to be out in. So I carefully laid back down beside him and let his soft breaths guide me back to sleep.

“I will hunt you down, shit on your bed, and make you eat it!” Atreyis’ voice jolted me awake.

He was bound in the corner of the room, flailing and cursing wildly. Instinct told me to move, but when I felt a familiar burning around my ankle, I stumbled and rolled to the floor. The fire licked up my leg, through my bones, and anchored in my chest.

Attempting to blink through the pain, all I saw were shades of gray. Vampyr eyes are what they are because of our internal magic. The source of our immortality, strength, and senses. Without it? I was as good as blind.

Figures draped in dark hues filled the room.

“Oh, that’s real fucking smooth. I can’t die, you idiots,” he ranted. “Do it, I fucking dare you!” A gun fired. It should have been unbearably loud, but I hardly heard it, muffled as if underwater.

Struggling to get on my feet, I barely made it to all fours before hands grabbed my head, and darkness encased it. Everything about the tactic told me that one of two groups located me: a blood ring or the Fane Coven.

This was his fault. With his recklessness and that fiasco when we were in the penitentiary. He caused all of this to happen. As if I hadn’t suffered enough? As if all that I yearned for wasn’t torn from my hands and destroyed. Atreyis Winters had to burst into my life and make it even worse. I was a gods damned fool. This man didn’t care what happened, nor did he understand the gravity of the situation. How could he? He refused to discuss anything that wasn’t his cock or fecal matter.

“Ariel! Chris!” he called, and it echoed as I was lifted.

His housemates were likely dead. These individuals didn’t leave survivors. The door opened and shut, and the Under Cloud sun might have crippled me had I already not been so. But I felt its heat as the rays that marred my flesh, and I knew wholeheartedly that my time was up. The gods were punishing me for denying the Queen, and so they spit-roasted me. Caving into my new reality and preparing for whatever was coming, I did not expect to be launched from my captors” hands and slide face-first across the cobblestone.

“Dont. You. Know. Who. The. Fuck. I. Am?”

Atreyis?

A slew of crunches, smacks, and a muffled splat followed next. My arm protested, but I got the bag off my head. As if being partially blind wasn’t bad enough, the light forced me to shut my eyes tightly and cower in on myself. What a pathetic excuse for a Vampyr I had become. Helpless and forced out of my home because I couldn’t stomach impregnating one bloody woman? Unable to accept that everyone wanted me for what I was and not who I was.

Weak. Coward.

“How do I get this fucking contraption loose?” Atreyis said, but I still hid behind my hands.

He gripped my ankle, and I screamed. The tether tightened its hold and sliced at my flesh as if it were laced with acid. Every nerve electrified and intensified the white-hot coursing through me.

“Tell me how to fix it!” His voice went guttural, and he ripped at the tether more in a furry.

Was he genuinely trying to help me?