he doesn’t look even half as outraged as the others in the room clearly are. He seems more put out by what I’ve done than anything else. A breeze caresses my skin to the left, and a lamia tries to move in closer to me. I twirl the pool cue in that direction, and I smash him in the jaw. He falls to the ground, cupping his mouth, and glares at me but doesn’t pop up like I expect him to.
I’m perplexed by the lamia’s submission, and it dawns on me that maybe he doesn’t know how to fight. Every lamia I’ve ever run into seemed battle ready, but maybe the whole collective of this nest isn’t. Adriel raises his hand, and the shouts and growls echoing around the stone walls grow quiet. He takes a step toward me, and I tighten my grip around the cue, which is thankfully still whole.
“Put it down now, and I’ll chalk this up to a misunderstanding. You’ve yet to be told the rules of my house and therefore couldn’t know how serious we take slaves shedding blood. Or what we do to anyone who interferes with an elite and their feeder,” Adriel’s words move powerfully around the room, and I can tell they’re meant for the lamia and their rising anger more than they’re meant for me.
I feel the female behind me shakily stand up and press in closer to my back. Adriel takes another step toward me. “I will not ask you again. You will stop this temper tantrum right now, or I will kill the human you’re stupidly risking yourself to protect. I will disarm you, beat you, and then force you to watch me rip her apart piece by piece.”
The female at my back flinches and then quietly whispers, “They’ll torture me anyway.”
Her voice is the slightest puff of air as it hits the back of my neck, and I can almost feel the bitterness in it dripping down my spine. Laughter titters through the surrounding lamia, and I glare at the threat that hangs in the air.
“Would you rather die?” I ask, my eyes locked on Adriel, and he chuckles as an amused glint enters his eyes.
“You’ll need much more than a pool cue if you want to come for me, Sentinel,” Adriel mocks, but I don’t miss the yes that caresses my shoulder.
I drop the pool stick, and satisfaction lights up Adriel’s face. That is, until I pivot behind the female, reach up and snap her neck. She goes limp in my arms, and I carefully lower her to the cold ground. Adriel roars out, “NO,” but I’m unfazed by his outrage. I brush strawberry blonde locks out of the young woman’s face and wonder how the fuck she ended up here? What kind of hell was she living in that would make her rather die than face what might happen next?
I find the buckle on the back of her collar and remove it. There’s so much noise and action all around me, but it feels like a dull roar to my ears as I tune it out and add this woman, whoever she was, to the list in my mind who will be avenged when Adriel is ash. I look up to find Adriel stomping toward me. He back hands me so hard that my entire face and neck explode in pain, and I’m slammed to the ground. My ears ring as I try to push off the ground, and I feel a booted foot kick me in the stomach. I try to roll away from more kicks, but someone grabs me by the hair and pulls me up from the ground.
I grab the wrist of whoever’s fist is wrapped around my ponytail and try to pull up on it in an effort to distribute my weight and keep chunks of hair from being ripped out of my scalp. I dangle painfully until the face of the lamia I tried to kill on the couch is in my face.
Well, fuck!
I’ll have to make the hole in his neck bigger next time.
20
I skid across the rough dirt of the cell I’ve just been thrown into. I grunt in pain from the impact and cough as the dust my body just kicked up tries to settle in my lungs. The door is closed behind me, and I relax against the ground and breathe through the pain. Blood trickles from my nose and my lip, and it mixes with the