ChapterOne
Kyella
Ba-bump.
Ba-bump.
Ba-bump.
My heart was beating so wildly that it was the only sound I could hear, the roar of the blood rushing through my veins. Surely my guards could hear it too, each intake of breath accompanied its loud beat, which they’d then follow to my hiding place in the darkened corner of the Emperor’s throne room.
Closing my eyes and holding the palm of my hand over the beating organ that clearly sought to betray me, I forced myself to take deep, calming breaths. This was the first and likely last chance I would have to escape, and I wasn’t going to let my nerves or fear ruin it for me.
If I was found, I didn’t even want to imagine the atrocities Malakai would bestow upon me. My gut churned with bile at the brief flicker of it in my thoughts. Never before had I done anything bold enough to truly draw his ire, but I’d seen it directed at others for far less serious transgressions.
Everyone was expendable to him…except me.
The Emperor of Thaicia considered me his Thrall, but by the rule of law, I didn’t fit that description—I wasn’t a willing blood donor. I had spent the last four miserable years of my existence being emotionally manipulated by that vile man. For a short period, it had worked. He had taken advantage of my loneliness, my deep sorrow, after I’d witnessed my father and aunt being killed right before my eyes. I had been desperate for a place to call home.
That was before I found out that he was responsible for their murders. They were just a means to an end for him.
That ‘end’ being to have control of me.
I had yet to figure out why I, out of the thousands of humans that occupied his empire, deserved the agony that came along with his attention.
But whatever it was about me? I despised it. It was the reason my family was dead.
My eyes snapped open at the sound of feet pounding in the corridor behind the throne room.Shit.I couldn’t wait here any longer. Rushing to my feet, I gathered the long black silk of my skirt and took off towards the front entrance of the room.
Wind whipped my black hair behind me as the wooden doors beckoned.
Just a few more feet, and then it would be a mad dash across the foyer and drawbridge to the city.I could do this.I could taste my freedom.
Stretching my hand out, I let out a cry of pain as my fingers brushed the tips of the door handle. Crashing to the floor with a heavy weight above me, tears burned my eyes as a sharp pain from my wrist shot through my forearm, which was stuck beneath me.
No.Please no. I can’t have been caught.I couldn’t stay here another day, pretending to be a submissive Thrall that didn’t care if the Emperor controlled my every move.
“You thought you could escape us, human?”
My personal bodyguard, Gabriel—who I referred to as my stalker—lowered his lips to my ear, putting more of his weight on me and crushing my wrist in the process. “You know you will be punished for this, right?”
I couldn’t hold back the unadulterated rage that had been simmering and building within me—especially when freedom had been right in front of me, right within my grasp.
“So will you,” I spat with as much energy as I could muster. Which wasn’t much, considering how little they fed me. I’d used my reserves for my escape attempt.
My throat tightened, the meager contents of my stomach threatening to come up at the feeling of Gabriel’s erection against my ass. Like all vampyres I’d had the displeasure of meeting, he got off on the pain of his victims, whether emotionally or physically. Vampyres weren’t picky.
I tried to keep my tears from falling for that exact reason, but I failed as the pain in my wrist rocketed to new levels with both of our body weights on it and the awkward position it was trapped in.
His tongue darted out to lick up the lone tear that spilled onto my cheek. A rumble of delight spread through his chest. “Not as delicious as I imagine your blood to be, but it’ll do.”
I refused to let myself tremble in fear of him. I’d had many bodyguards prior to Gabriel, and all of them had been made examples out of by Malakai for ignoring his rule of not touching me. It was the one thread of kindness he had given me in this otherwise deplorable castle.
I wasn’t sure how he did it, but any time his guards laid a hand on me, he appeared. It had saved my innocence many times over and resulted in the beheading of said guards.
Gabriel had lasted the longest out of all of them, but if he didn’t get the hell off of me soon, his time would come to an end. He wasn’t an idiot like the rest of them, though. His control over his urges was much stronger than the rest. He once again showed that as he shoved off of me quickly, standing on his feet a mere second before Malakai’s voice rang through the expanse of the open room.
“Kyella!”
