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I was one big ache. Feverish and dehydrated and seeing people who weren’t really there.
Mom touched my face and murmured that she loved me.
Gabriel told me to stay strong, that this was a test, and he knew I could survive it.
And Rafe gave that crooked grin women loved. “You always did have a soft heart, asshole. Now see what you’ve done?”
The only family member who didn’t visit me in my fever-haze was my dad.
“Karoly wants you dead. Why do you think you’re still here?”
That had been the blond vampire, the female with high cheekbones. Ines, they’d called her.
My hands formed weak fists in the cuffs.
Maybe dream-Gabriel was right and this was one of Father’s fucking tests.
Because he’d let the vampire spawn beat on us. He’d known they were beating on us and he hadn’t stopped it. He’d let it happen to make us stronger.
A rite of passage, he’d called it.
They’d taunted us for being half-human, had come at us with teeth and claws. They were pureblood vampires, faster and stronger than us.
And Father did nothing to stop it. Me and my brothers had had our asses kicked too many times to count, even after we banded together to fight back. Worse, they caught Rafe alone a couple of times and hurt him pretty bad.
The second time Rafe was beaten, my mom and dad had argued about it. I’d been high in a tree in the garden of our Maryland home when they’d walked beneath the tree and I heard my mom say something about stopping the beatings. I’d strained to listen.
“You have to trust me on this, my love,” Father had told her. “It’s a test, a rite of passage. If I step in, the other spawn will never respect them. They’ll tell their parents, and the boys will never be accepted as my heirs.”
Mom had given a frustrated growl. “Sometimes I think that’s all they are to you. Your heirs.”
“Rosemarie.” His tone was chiding. But he didn’t deny it.
Mom had turned on her heel and stalked back to our big stone house. Father had stared after her, his expression unreadable.
“Come out, Zaquiel.”
I jolted. He knew I’d overheard. I leapt to the ground and stood, shoulders hunched, waiting for him to lay into me for eavesdropping.
But he set a hand on my back and walked me toward the house. “Your mother doesn’t understand.”
“She doesn’t understand what?”
His eyes met mine. Usually there was some warmth in them, but right now they were hard black stones.
“That you have to stand up to the other spawn on your own. If they think you boys are weak, they’ll eat you alive.”
I looked away, kicked at a stone. Feeling all the weight of being a dhampir. A prince, yeah, but also less.
“Not if you order them to leave us alone.”
Father shook me by the shoulder. “You can’t be weak. I can’t protect you forever. Kill or be killed. That’s our world. Do you understand? I need you to be strong for Gabriel, so he doesn’t always have to fight your battles—and for Rafe, so he can depend on you.”
I faced my father, lifted my chin. “I understand.”
“Good.” He cuffed the back of my head and we headed into the house.
After that, I doubled down on my martial arts and other physical training. Learning to fight hard—and dirty.
