bed. Daylight had added more sinister sights to the once cozy cabin in the woods.
“That can’t be good,” Nyx whispered beside me.
The blood left my face, along with the feeling as my pulse thundered in my ears. Nausea rolled through me violently. It took everything I had in me to move to the bed. I walked to the other side, yanking the blankets back to see what was moving beneath the covers, and screamed as snakes slithered off the mattress.
Rhys reacted faster than I could, yanking me away as a snake shot forward. I cried out as he pushed me behind him. His thumb ran over my wildly racing pulse, and I calmed from his silent reassurance as he issued an order. The knights moved into the room, grabbing the reptiles and disposing of them outside. I didn’t tell Rhys that snakes terrified me, or that they usually signaled a snake in the ranks. They were a warning to anyone within our bloodline that someone in the family was compromised. Or worse, someone had turned against us. As in me, who had brought home a Van Helsing?
Spinning on my heel, I exited the room, moving toward the kitchen. Opening the fridge, I brought my hand up to my mouth at what I found. Body parts sat in jars, blood coating them as if whoever had been bottling them hadn’t cared about cleanliness. The smell was obnoxious and made my stomach heave repeatedly. Rhys reached over my shoulder, closing the grisly scene.
“Fucking witches,” he muttered. “Dead vampires, jarred body parts, and a missing Silversmith that may or may not be breeding. A very young, mortal Silversmith, who tried to kill the Van Helsing alpha, along with two other House of Van Helsing males,” Rhys pointed out without sugar-coating his words while staring me down. “Anything else you want to add the growing list of what the fucks, Remington?”
“No. That pretty much sums it up nicely. I need to go down into the armory, and I don’t suggest you come with me. It’s highly booby-trapped against anyone else getting in. I don’t know if I can disable the wards, and I’d hate for you to fuck my throat, and all that jazz,” I hissed, glaring at him as his lips curled into a dark, sinister smirk.
“Your throat was surprisingly welcoming. You sure you don’t want to try that one again?”
“No. Once was enough for me. At least for this lifetime, asshole,” I muttered, pushing past him to shove the fridge out of the way, exposing the hidden doorway that led downstairs. Pausing, I frowned, finding the door missing from the hinges. “That’s not good at all.”
“Edger, enter, and tell me what you find down below. Remi, back the hell up in case something comes up the stairs,” Rhys ordered as Cole and Acyn stepped in front of me.
Rhys’s hand didn’t release me, not until I jerked my arm out of his grasp, and refused to look or acknowledge his presence. My fingers lifted to my throat, finding it sore but undamaged. I could feel the heat of his stare, noting that I was touching the injury he’d given me, and yet I refused to meet his pretty eyes. My mind ran wild with scenarios of what was happening and came up blank.
There were snakes in my mother’s bed, covered in blood. I was pretty certain it was deadman’s blood, something used to inject into a vampire, rendering them paralyzed. Vampires had attacked during daylight hours. The question was, were they sent to protect the house, or to keep us out of it?
Screaming sounded from below, and then the horrifying scent of burning flesh filled the room. We all remained silent, staring at the empty stairway until something started moving toward us. Rhys pushed me further behind him, protectively, as Edger moved up the stairs, crawling his way to us. By the time he’d finally reached the top of the stairs, his flesh was little more than leather covering his skeleton. Smoke rose from his skin, and my stomach rolled, fighting the bile that entered my mouth. My arm lifted, covering my mouth while my horrified stare remained on the corpse.
“What the actual hell?” I whispered, looking down the stairs. Someone stood at the bottom of the staircase, bright glowing red eyes peering through a hood before all hell broke loose.
The cabin began to shudder and shake as Rhys grabbed me without warning, rushing toward the door as he breached the threshold. The