was you,” Garin said, jabbing a finger into Bastion’s chest. “You were the one who thought I was not fit to remain here.”
Lilac was suddenly aware of the prisoners shifting in their shackles, watching as she did with bated breath.
Despite his brother’s rage, Bastion reached down and daintily plucked his finger off. “Tell me,” he said with lethal calm. “How were we supposed to have had a second in command, a future leader who suddenly refused human blood? We learned how to hunt together. We used to tear through the towns together leaving the —blood drenched the streets of Paimpont in our wake. It was glorious.”
Bastion stood, chest heaving, in the middle of the hall. When he spoke again, it was quiet, regretful. “And without warning, something in you changed, brother. You went through a… I don’t even know what to call it. Existential crisis? I thought it was merely a phase, that you’d find solace in your absence, then return. I didn’t think it would take you this long. Forgive me, brother. I was only looking out for our kind. But if you won’t drink to your long-awaited return, then I will.”
Lilac watched, mesmerized and frozen, as Bastion brushed the hair from Piper’s shoulders to expose her neck. It was fortunate that fear was a logical response, for there was no way she would’ve masked it regardless.
Piper closed her eyes while Bastion bent over her neck, almost as if she were accustomed to it. With a wet squelch, his fangs plunged into her shoulder. The lump on his throat moved as he gulped it down, swallow after swallow. What little color was left drained slowly from her old friend’s cheeks.
Unable to stand it any longer, Lilac started forward. Garin hastily shot an arm out and yanked her back by the elbow. She threw him a threatening glare, and he quickly matched it.
“Oh? Something the matter?”
Lilac looked back to see Bastion grinning through a burgundy mask, Piper limp in his hands.
“No—” Garin started.
“You’ll kill her!” Lilac burst out in a sob, ignoring Garin’s groan. “You—”
She heard the impact before she felt it. The back of Bastion’s palm cracked against her jaw, jolting her so hard that she toppled to the floor. She lay there panting and fought to catch the breath that’d been knocked out of her.
Instinctively, she licked the blood off her lips and inner cheek, where her teeth had sliced into the side of her mouth. Lilac gagged it down, though she then felt a warm wetness dripping from her nostrils and hastily pressed her palm against it.
Garin was quick to put himself between them. Though she stared numbly at the floor, blurred through the hot tears rolling down her cheeks, Lilac could hear the clear restraint in his voice. She pressed her palm harder against her nose.
“I’ll deal with her later.” he managed. “My turn, brother.”
Lilac looked up.
Bastion was dumping the girl’s limp form into Garin’s arms. Cradling her quivering body, he stroked her cheek and mouth with his thumb as she choked her tears back.
Lilac knew she should have felt relieved that her friend was in Garin’s possession, but it mixed with an underlying sense of unease. The way he looked at Piper was magnetizing.
“I want my maman.”
“Shh,” he murmured into her ear, rubbing the girl’s arm as if to quell her incessant trembling.
“I want to go home,” Piper managed to gag between convulsive gasps. The girl was dying.
“This will pass,” he whispered, pulling her closer. “What is your name, mademoiselle?”
“Piper,” she choked.
“I’ll take care of you, Piper. You’re safe with me.”
The redhead nodded, closing her eyes.
But, as Garin stroked Piper’s hair, he glared unflinchingly down at Lilac. “And you,” he directed at her.
“You dare speak out of line.”
Her relief hardened into sick dread. Something was wrong.
“I’m sorry. Sir.” Her voice was barely a whisper.
He gripped Piper’s shoulder with one arm, grasping her hair with his opposite free hand. When he pulled back slightly to expose the smooth side of her throat, the girl shut her eyes with the same deluded calm the other cattle had adopted.
Lilac exhaled slowly. It was all an act. He was good at this, almost too good. He couldn’t bite her.
Then, Garin twisted his torso to the right. Hard.
Piper’s neck snapped against his chest with a muffled crunch, and with that, he let her lifeless body crumple to the floor.
“Now you’re sorry.”
9
Lilac stared into Piper’s unseeing eyes.
Even Bastion was shocked. “That’s unfortunate,” he said simply, but he glanced unbelievingly at the