Page 77 of Trapped By the Blood Ruby

It clearly took some effort on Bastian’s part as he gritted out, “Go. We’ll wait.”

I led Eleanor from the room. If she noticed anything weird about my abrupt behavior, she didn’t let on. She merely groused about how challenging certain aspects of her pregnancy were. I let her use the nearest bathroom first, then slipped inside when she was finished.

I braced my hands on the sink, gazing into the mirror, trying to calm my heartbeat. Instead, one of Laurent’s memories surged up and swept me away⁠—

The dimly lit castle chamber—my father’s study—felt like a cage. I hated this room, hated when Ivano Sarkas summoned me. My blood turned to ice as I considered his command. “You wish for me to do what?” I asked, ears ringing.

“It is not your place to question me,” Ivano snapped, his jaw twitching.

“There are children in that family, sire. Innocents.”

“Yes,” he said. “And those children will be dead in sixty years. You and I will continue, as we always do.”

“Sire,” I hissed.

“Let me make one thing clear, boy. I have chosen you as my heir, and I will train you as such. But mark my words, the moment you are no longer useful, I’ll remove your heart from your body and you will be nothing, just as you were nothing before I rescued you from that cesspool you once wallowed in.”

I swallowed against the sandpaper feeling in my throat. How easily Ivano reminded me. How easily he illustrated my purpose—his tool, nothing more. How easily he could dispose of me if he no longer needed me. He hadn’t created me for any reason other than need. He didn’t want me, could easily choose someone else. If I wasn’t careful, he would.

“Do not make me repeat myself, boy⁠—“

I hissed, wrenching myself from Laurent’s memory, only to tumble backwards into another. My reflection in the mirror was there one moment, reminding me of who I was, and gone the next⁠—

“What have you done?” I looked at Rebecca’s desiccated body on the floor. We were in the fortress entryway. Ivano had found her, stolen her from my chambers. Bile churned, lifting into my throat. “What have you done?!” I repeated, the words laced with emotion.

“Your firstborn is always the hardest to lose.” Ivano’s voice was flat.

“What?!” The cry was a broken croak from my mouth.

My sire stared at me with a hard, emotionless face. A face hewn from granite. “Attachments are a weakness, boy. We do not form them.”

Just that morning I’d had my lips on hers, my cock buried deep, taking pleasure from the companion I’d created. Now she looked as if she’d been dead for decades. I swallowed against the burn in my throat, trying to bury my growing hatred. Ivano Sarkas was twisted. I had somehow become his heir. “You killed her simply to teach me a lesson?”

“You have many to learn, but this is the most important,” he snapped. “You disobeyed me. It was her death or yours. Be glad I didn’t rip your heart from your chest.”

I gasped, burying the memory. My fingers were bloodless, clenched around the sink. It was my face in the mirror’s reflection, not Laurent’s. I suppressed a sob as I turned the faucet’s knob, splashing water over my face. I didn’t allow myself to think about what I’d seen. About how awful Laurent’s sire was. What he’d done to teach Laurent a lesson. The things he made Laurent do to innocent people.

I didn’t want to draw parallels about Laurent’s early life and mine, how he’d come from nothing. Didn’t want to be reminded that there was a time he was almost…human. A time he felt things like loss. That he had a conscience.

His memories came more frequently these days and it was getting harder to ignore them. Some cropped up more than once, like the one about Rebecca—his first born. He hadn’t loved her. I would have felt it when I was him, reliving the memory. But he had cared deeply. I didn’t like knowing that.

It was easier to think of him as a monster.

I finished up and emerged to find Eleanor halfway down the hall, interestedly studying the artwork on the walls. But of course, she was into art and history. “Do you think they’d come looking for me if I got lost in here?” she teased.

There was something about her that made me want to wrap my arms around her and cling. “You’re the first human I’ve seen in weeks,” I breathed, only realizing the admission had broken free after I’d said it. I wanted to tell her everything—this woman I’d only met a little while ago. I wanted to spill every detail of what had happened since I’d been captured. Perhaps it was because she was a human, or because she looked like someone who would understand.

Zola was the only female I’d had for company.

An ache formed in my chest. I missed Ania so damn much. It didn’t matter that I’d talked to her just this morning. I couldn’t tell her what was going on.

Eleanor’s brows pulled together. “Is… Is everything all right?” Her eyes darted up and down the hallway before landing on my throat, as if searching for bite marks. “Are you… Are they mistreating you? Keeping you captive or something?”

“It’s…complicated.”

She took a step toward me, reaching for me before letting her hand drop. “Are you allowed to leave?” There was no mistaking the hard edge of concern in her voice.

I bit the inside of my cheek. I wanted to tell her so badly. But we’d already been gone for five minutes. Any longer would appear suspicious.