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  Whatever look of horror she saw on Nero’s face made her flinch away from him and lower her hand. “I’m sorry. I know it’s disgusting.”

  “It’s not you I’m disgusted with,” Nero said, glancing toward Adrius at the head table.

  “I’m one of the lucky ones,” Vara said. “I’ve had friends who have gotten worse for less.”

  Nero pushed his plate in front of her. “In any case, you’re not stealing anything. I’m giving it to you.”

  Vara waited a few moments before taking the fork. She picked at the food slowly at first, but with each bite, her hunger took over, and soon she was shoveling bite after bite into her mouth.

  “You should come back to my room with me once you’re done. The rest of the company at this feast leaves a lot to be desired,” Nero said.

  She scowled and pushed her plate away. “Is that what this is about? You just wanted me to come back to your room, but you didn’t want to feel guilty about it?”

  “What? No! That’s not what I mean—I’d just like to talk with you more. Get to know you better. You know, without all of… this.” He gestured at the rest of the banquet hall, where mortals still hung from the ceiling in a sick display of cruelty. As the banquet went on, their cries had slowed, becoming lower and more hoarse. But they’d never stopped.

  Vara relaxed again and took another bite. “Okay.”

  Nero crossed his arms and leaned forward on the table, watching her eat.

  “Aren’t you going to eat anything?” she asked.

  “I don’t need to. I’d rather see you get your fill.” As incredible as the food smelled, the atmosphere had destroyed all traces of his appetite. He reached for his empty goblet and looked around the table. “Is there wine, though? I could use some of that.”

  Vara stiffened and set her fork down. “I’m sure they have some somewhere, but that’s not what that goblet is for.”

  Nero frowned. “Then what—”

  Before he could finish asking the question, Adrius stood up and called out to the vampires in attendance. “Now that we’ve all had a chance to eat our fill, it’s time for drink.”

  Vara paled and stood up. “I need to go.”

  “Wait.” Nero reached out and grabbed her hand again, but this time, she didn’t flinch. “Where are you going?”

  “Out of here.” Her gaze darted around the room once more. “Where can I find your room? Maybe I’ll meet you later.”

  “Second floor on the left side. Third door.”

  She nodded and rushed out of the room. Nero watched her leave, then turned back to the front of the dining hall.

  Adrius took Neryssa’s hand in his and led her down to the center of the room. As they moved between the tables, the other vampires silenced, leaving the cries of the mortals the only sound in the room.

  A sense of dread crept through Nero as the pair stopped in front of one of the mortals hanging from the ceiling, a human male. So far, Nero had done his best to avoid them— to focus his attention elsewhere. To look the other way and pretend none of it was happening. But now, with all attention on Adrius and Neryssa standing in front of one of the mortals at the center of the room, it was impossible to ignore the horror in front of him.

  “I hope you’ve all been enjoying this evening,” Adrius bellowed across the room. “Now, let’s drink! Grab your goblets and line up.”

  Nero stayed seated and watched as the others did as Adrius instructed. They formed a line in the center of the hall, goblets in hand, and waited. Nero found Davon among them, as eager as all the rest.

  Adrius removed the dagger strapped to his thigh and handed it to Neryssa. “Would you like to do the honors? Uncork our sweet wine and let the fountain flow freely.”

  “I’d love to, my lord.” A smile spread across her face as she accepted the dagger and stepped forward.

  The man’s eyes were at the same height as hers as he dangled from the ceiling, and they widened with fear as she approached. His desperate squirms did nothing but jerk around the rope he was attached to.

  Neryssa’s grin widened as she slashed the dagger across the man’s neck.

  His screams turned to hideous gurgling in his throat, and his body’s twitching soon stilled.

  She held out her goblet to catch the blood that dripped down from his neck. She waited a few moments for the blood to pool in her goblet, then took a long drink.

  Adrius waved forward the first vampire in line. She followed Neryssa’s lead and let the dead man’s blood fill her goblet. While she drank and those behind her let the blood flow into their goblets, Adrius led Neryssa down the line of mortals. She slashed them open as they went, and blood soon flowed from a dozen suspended bodies.

  She did her duty with glee, taking her time to savor each cut. Nero watched, helpless as more of his sister’s humanity trickled away with each drop of spilled mortal blood.

  Chapter 12

  Nausea clawed at Nero’s gut as he stumbled out of the dining hall. Until now, it had been easy to pretend that Neryssa was only doing what she thought necessary. Until now, there was still hope of bringing her back from the vampire lord’s influence.

  But now…

  He shuddered at the memory of the grin on her face, a grin that would surely haunt him for many years to come. This wasn’t her doing only what she had to do. She’d enjoyed every second of it.

  Nero leaned against the wall outside the entryway to the dining hall and squeezed his eyes shut. He wanted nothing more than to run away, far from this castle, from Terra Nocturne… from his sister and the creature who’d warped her into something dark and twisted.

  Though, perhaps Adrius wasn’t responsible for sparking that darkness within her. Perhaps this had always been her destiny since the day they watched their parents’ execution. Had he just never noticed it there?

  The vampires of Adrius’ clan poured out of the dining hall in good spirits, unaffected by the night’s gruesome revels. None of them seemed sickened the same way Nero was.

  He thought of Devon, who’d been kind to him earlier. He’d seemed so normal then. So human. But he’d participated in the uncorking, the same as the rest. The others may have once been normal people who’d been stolen from their lives, but they’d been in Terra Nocturne long enough now to become desensitized to the vampire lord’s brutality.

  With time, would Nero become the same? Would he someday have the same apathy that the others showed toward the mortals?

  He refused to allow that to happen. He had to find a way to retain his humanity. Adrius had changed what he was, but he couldn’t change who he was.

  Once all of the guests had gone, Neryssa exited the dining hall. Her extravagant gown twirled as she walked, moving around her like a flowing river of shimmering sapphires. She looked regal and elegant, with a softness that betrayed the sins she’d just committed.

  If he didn’t know her, he’d think she was a queen.

  Nero shrank back against the wall. There was nothing left to say to her, and he hoped she’d leave him alone.

  As though she sensed his presence and uncertainty, she spun around to face him. Her face cracked into a wide grin that looked so much like their master’s that it turned Nero’s stomach once more.

  “How did you enjoy the banquet, brother?”

  A million answers flashed through his mind, though any of them had the potential to get him into serious trouble with Adrius. He knew none of them were worth the risk, but now that she was here, standing in front of him, he couldn’t hold his tongue.

  “I would have enjoyed it much more if you hadn’t tortured and murdered a dozen people,” he answered.

  Neryssa scoffed and waved a dismissive hand in Nero’s direction. “They’re just livestock, Nero. They aren’t worthy of your pity.”

  “It wasn’t long ago that we were among them,” he said.

  “And now we’re not. We’re better. We have to feed from them if we want to live.”

  “We don’t have to torture t
hem to feed from them.”

  “When you were human, I didn’t see you making such protests about pigs who were slaughtered,” she said. “And humans are worse creatures than pigs. Look at how they treated us when we were among them in Caracta— why should we not return the favor in kind?”

  Before Nero could respond, Adrius appeared in the doorway. Eyeing Nero with disdain, he wrapped his arm around Neryssa’s waist.

  Nero bit down on his tongue until his fangs drew blood. His clenched fists shook. If he were capable of defying Adrius’ command, he wouldn’t be able to stop himself. This monster had stolen his sister and his humanity. He hated him.

  Even more, Nero hated that he was powerless against him. He couldn’t hurt him. He couldn’t leave the city. He could do nothing but hope that the force of the rage that shook him would manifest into something that could destroy the vampire lord.

  And so far, that was proving unsuccessful.

  “Is there something you’d like to say?” Adrius asked.

  “No. Nothing. My lord.” Nero tore his gaze away from the vampire lord’s face and down to the dagger strapped to his thigh, the one Neryssa had just used during the feast.

  His fingers twitched. He’d been a thief most of his life. At the orphanage, stealing extra rations. On the streets, taking what he needed to survive. And, most recently, plucking a tiara from the head of a princess and getting away with it.

  Anywhere else, that dagger was a damn easy steal.

  But here in Adrius’ castle, trapped beneath the weight of his compulsions… there was far more at stake than a few nights in a jail cell. It had been months since he woke up as a vampire, but when he thought of that day, he could still feel the pain lingering in his knees and back from the punishment he’d been given.

  And even if he did manage to take the dagger, what could he do with it? He’d been compelled not to harm Lord Adrius. There was nothing he could do.

  And yet…

  It was so tempting, resting there with the light of the hallway’s leyline crystals glinting off the hilt. A shiny object that demanded Nero take it for his own. One small thing he could claim for himself.

  As Lord Adrius nudged Neryssa to turn around, Nero stumbled forward to embrace her.

  “I’m sorry for what I said before.” As he pulled away from her, he lowered his hand and swiped the dagger from the strap at Adrius’ thigh. He tucked it away into the belt of his pants as he spun to the side to conceal it.

  Neryssa’s eyes narrowed, but she said nothing as the vampire lord wrapped his arm around her waist. Adrius led her away down the hallway, leaving Nero alone with nothing but the dagger, cold against his hip.

  Nero paced around his room, stealing nervous glances at the doorway each time he turned. He’d stashed the dagger in his dresser under a pile of tunics, out of sight but certainly not out of mind. For all his paranoia knew, he might as well have placed it in a display case on the table at the foot of his bed.

  It was a stupid decision. Certainly not worth the risk.

  Nero ran a hand through his hair and sighed as he plopped down on the bed. All he could do was wait.

  Before he could get settled into bed, two light, uncertain taps knocked on his door.

  Nero sat up, his whole body tense. He glanced at the dagger’s hiding place before returning his attention to the door. “Come in.”

  The door swung open, and Vara slipped inside. Since the party, she’d taken the time to tame her wild hair into a sleek ponytail.

  Whatever she saw in Nero’s expression, she flinched, shrinking back into the door frame. “I’m sorry— I didn’t mean— I can leave if I’m not wanted. I just thought—”

  “No, don’t leave.” Nero’s shoulders fell with a relieved sigh. “I didn’t know it was you. That’s all.”

  She closed the door behind her. “Were you expecting someone else?”

  “I didn’t think you’d come.”

  “Neither did I,” she said. “But in all the time I’ve been here, not one vampire has been kind to me. No one but you. Back in Viridi, I had plenty of men try to buy my affection with kindness. I guess it shows how starved I am for it that it worked for you.”

  He offered her a forced half-smile in return before his gaze drifted to the dresser again.

  “Is there something wrong?” She followed his nervous glance and ran her fingers along the top of the dresser. It might have seemed almost a seductive move if not for the fear written on her face. “You seem distracted.”

  “I’ve done something stupid,” he said, his voice hardly above a whisper. “Really stupid.”

  She sat on the corner of the bed furthest from him and waited for him to continue.

  Did he dare tell Vara what he’d done? She hated the other vampires enough that he could trust she wouldn’t tell Adrius about it. Not willingly, at least. But if she knew about it, she’d be in danger, too.

  “I shouldn’t tell you,” he said, more to himself than to her.

  “You can trust me,” Vara said. She slid up the bed until she was close enough to touch him. She hovered her hand over his, hesitating for a few moments, then interlocked her fingers with his.

  “I shouldn’t trust anyone here, really,” he said. “But I do trust you. Or at least, I trust that we want the same thing.”

  “Freedom.”

  Nero nodded, then freed his fingers from hers. “But I don’t want to put you in danger.”

  “I’m already in danger every second I’m here. Any moment could be my last.” She held up her right hand and waved the four fingers she had left.

  He sighed. She was right, of course. He’d seen humans killed just for looking at Adrius wrong. “I stole a dagger from Adrius. He wore it to the party, and I took it from him.”

  Her grin was the first genuine smile Nero had seen from her. “Do you think you can find a way to kill him?”

  “Can vampires even be killed?”

  She snorted out a derisive laugh. “Shouldn’t you know?”

  He shrugged. “It’s not like there’s a book I can read to learn the basics of being a vampire. I’m learning as I go.”

  “Yes, your kind can be killed, same as any man. I’ve seen it myself.”

  He raised a brow.

  “Lord Adrius has a temper. He’s killed his own, on occasion.”

  “Even so, I can’t harm him. He has this… control over the vampires he creates. I can’t disobey an order he’s given me.”

  “Right.” Vara considered that for a few moments. “But I can.”

  “What could you do?”

  “I could take the dagger and kill him.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous.”

  “I’m not. You can’t do it— but I can. Leave the dagger with me,” Vara said.

  “You’ll never be able to get that close to him.”

  “And neither will you,” she said. “Maybe you’re right. Maybe I’ll fail and he’ll kill me for it. But he’ll never expect anything like this from one of his meek little humans. Help me be in the right place at the right time and maybe I’ll have a chance. You won’t even have that much.”

  He looked her over as though seeing her for the first time. He didn’t know how long she’d been trapped in Terra Nocturne or all the horrors she’d faced. But for all that, she’d somehow held onto herself. Beneath her timid appearance was a strong, confident woman whose shine had never faded beneath all the layers of dirt. A woman who was ready to risk everything just for an impossible chance.

  If anyone could destroy that monster, he believed this mortal woman could.

  “Fine,” he said finally. “It’s in the top drawer of the dresser, buried in some clothes.”

  Vara rested her hand on his cheek, then leaned in. Her soft lips found his, and her tongue brushed against the sharp tips of his fangs. He froze, waiting for her revulsion to kick in at the reminder of what he was.

  Though she’d suffered at the hands of other vampires, the moment of clarity where she shoved
him away and stormed out of the room never came. She knew what he was, and at least for now, she was willing to accept that.

  Nero ran his hands along her soft skin, warm with the life that flowed through her veins. She smelled so sweet, and some sick desire within him longed to taste more of her. He planted kisses along her jaw and down her neck, until he reached the base of her throat.

  Just a nip…

  No.

  He would not give in to his monster. He would not lose control.

  Nero brought his mind back from the edge of temptation and returned his attention to her lips.

  If Vara noticed how close he’d been to crossing that line, she didn’t show it. She returned the kiss with a renewed fervor until finally she pulled away from him and nestled into his arms with a contented sigh.

  “Thank you for not being like all the rest,” she murmured. “You’re a good man.”

  He looked away from her and closed his eyes. Would she still say that if she’d known the shameful truth of how badly he’d wanted to drink from her vein? He’d wanted it more than anything in the world in that moment, but he’d stopped himself.

  Maybe that was what separated him from the others.

  And maybe holding onto that was the best he could hope for.

  Nero shoved aside the thoughts of drinking from her. Nothing good would come from dwelling on it. Instead, he focused on her soft, gentle breaths and her warmth pressed against him as they drifted off to sleep in each other’s arms.

  When Nero woke the next morning, the space next to him in bed was empty. After pulling on his clothes from the previous day, he raced over to the dresser and dug through the drawer.

  The dagger was gone.

  Nero rubbed his tired eyes. His new body no longer needed the sleep to function, yet he still felt groggy.

  He ran his hands along the bed where Vara had been. It was no longer warm from her body heat, so it must have been some time since she’d left. He wondered where she’d taken the dagger, and whether she’d attempt to use it on her own.