“Callie isn’t his favourite,” she hisses, trying to keep up.
I wave it off. “A human thrall is nothing to Cain. He barely considers mortals sentient.”
I quash the tiny kernel of doubt which tries to form in the back of my mind. Eventually, I’ll tell our sire about Frost, but only once I’ve convinced my thrall to become a vampire. Even when he’s one of us, I’ll have to choose my moment, and I’m not stupid enough to do it before Cain has finished with his plans.
The closer he comes to realising his vision of a new vampire world order, the more temperamental our sire becomes. The stress is getting to him, and understandably so. It’s a huge task, well beyond the means of any normal man.
But Cain is the first vampire, as far from normal as anyone can be. He has a will of iron and ambitions to become a god. Even silver doesn’t harm him. I have faith that he will succeed where anyone else would fail.
As long as I keep Frost safe, Cain can do what he likes to the world.
Chapter Two
Evelyn - 1897
I reachmy door and shake myself out of my maudlin thoughts. The golden handle is embossed with the curling letter ‘E’ and polished to a gleaming shine. Cain likes to think of us as a family—as sick and twisted as we are—so we all live close to one another. Immy’s rooms are opposite mine, and our other sisters’ are farther down the hall.
I give Immy a last, reassuring nod before disappearing into my room and stripping off my armour. It takes a lot of effort to ignore the black and red pool of fabric on my bed, but the steaming bath is too tempting to resist.
The maids know me well enough to fill the bath to the brim with water and put out extra towels.
Ghoul slaying is a messy business, and the clean up is horrendous, but at least it gives me time to consider my next move. I’ll have to appease my sire as quickly as possible and get out of there without anyone noticing my disappearance. Even then, my chances of sneaking out are slim.
I step into the tub and dunk under the water with a sigh, scrubbing at my scalp with hasty motions. The maids enter silently, their quick hands soaping and rinsing my black tresses with record speed.
Our sire does not tolerate tardiness. The longer we make him wait, the more irate he’ll become.
He must be angry at someone, or he wouldn’t have summoned all of us to court. Sometimes, when his mood is dark enough, only death will appease him, and who better to do the killing than his favourite daughter? His perfect general, trained at his knee from childhood.
For so many years, that life was all I knew.
Then I met Frost.
My human. My thrall. My lover. My weakness.
Myeverything.
I never cared about humans before him. Never believed there was value in a life so fleeting.
I’m not stupid. I know I was human once. Vampires are incapable of having children by conventional means. I remember Cain giving me his blood when I turned twenty, then kissing my forehead as he snapped my neck. Still, I was raised by him before that. A vampire in all but fang.
Humans are just food.
Frost is different. He’s somehowmore.
He taunted me into seeing that there’s more to life than leading my sire’s army and slaughtering ghouls. Yet, the more I like him, the greater the danger becomes. What future can a mortal have at the side of Cain’s favourite child?
I need to convince him to turn.
If he keeps refusing me… I may have to beg his forgiveness instead.
The thought sickens me, but I’m not going to lose him. Not to something as stupid and undignified as old age or disease. Or worse, to one of my enemies.
I shudder as the maids pull me from the bath and start to dry me. They’re silent, as they always are. With any of my sisters, they might attempt conversation, but not with me.
General, princess, executioner. I am whatever Cain wants me to be, and what Cain wants most is someone who can keep his people in line.
I’m a nightmare, and I have enemies everywhere.
