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I got him on the arm, but it was barely a scratch.
Now he was against the bars, a little line of blood on his skin.
“They told me they wouldn’t hurt her. Just use her as leverage. But when I dropped her off, they told me they were going to kill her…and I couldn’t let that happen. That’s why I brought her back.”
“Interesting. Because my daughter told me you did it for a fucking boat.” I lunged at him, ready to stab that blade right through his heart.
He pulled off another dodge. “And I lied.”
I didn’t care whether he lied or not. We weren’t leaving this cell until he was a bloody corpse.
“Look, if I hadn’t brought her back to you, she’d be dead right now.”
“Motherfucker—” I came at him hard, swinging and swinging, missing my mark every time—until he knocked the blade from my hand and slid it out of the cell underneath the bars. I came at him with my fists instead, swinging and hitting him square in the jaw. When I hit him again, he blocked it. He blocked it again, protecting his face and his ribs. Around the cell, we moved, him blocking my strikes but never making any of his own.
“Stop hitting me, and I’ll tell you everything. And I’ll make you an offer you can’t refuse.”
All I wanted was him dead. It was all I could think about. I dropped my arms for a second to feign surrender, but then I rushed him and slammed his entire body against the wall. When he crumpled to the floor, I spat on him. “There’s nothing you can do to barter for your life.”
“Not even pledging an army of ten thousand powerful vampires to fight for you?”
I stopped in my tracks, the red haze of rage finally broken.
He looked up at me before he got to his feet, moving slowly as if that hit had winded him.
“Vampires?” It was a word I’d never heard.
He leaned against the wall and wiped the perspiration from his forehead. “I finally got your attention.”
“I’m still going to kill you once we’re done.”
“Then you’ll have no army.”
“I’ll kill youafterthe war has been won.”
“You’re one to hold a grudge, huh?”
“You think I won’t snap your neck right now? Because I will, you pompous piece of shit.” I shoved him hard in the shoulders, making him hit the wall again with a loud thud.
“We’re distant relatives of the Teeth—very distant. We feed off human blood, but we don’t kill our hosts…unless it’s intentional. The vampires are at war with the Ethereal, elves that believe they’re the true immortals and are intent on eradicating us from the planet. They spread a disease that’s killed off most of the humans, so I sailed to these lands to get the antidote from the Teeth, because without humans to feed from, we’ll eventually die. But they wouldn’t give it to me unless I did this for them first. I’m sorry that I took your daughter, but believe me when I say no part of me wanted to do it.”
I was at war with myself, wanting to kill him for what he’d done to Harlow, but also wanting to spare him because he could be the savior my people needed. Without knowing who my enemies were, I couldn’t afford to turn away potential allies.
He watched me like he expected me to hit him again.
“They told me they wouldn’t hurt her. But when I arrived, they said their plan had been exposed because you noticed my ship on the coast and you confronted them with their treason. They decided to make her write a letter and include a lock of her hair to draw you out, but she would be long dead before you even arrived.”
I kept a straight face, but my breathing gave away my pain.
“I’m not going to lie to you and pretend I’m some hero with a strong moral compass, because I’ve done a lot of terrible shit that I’m unashamed to admit. But those weren’t the terms of the deal, and I respect Harlow too much to let that happen to her. I fulfilled my requirement to the Teeth by delivering her—so my obligation was complete. I felt no guilt when I took her back, even if they are my cousins several times removed.”
I was hooked on this story now, getting a much bigger and more detailed picture. A logical man would let bygones be bygones because of the context of this tale, but I wasn’t a logical man when it came to my family—especially my daughter. I still wanted to kill him, and I would always want to kill him. “Who are their allies?”
“I don’t know. They wouldn’t share that with me. They just said they were a force to be reckoned with.”
“Are they vampires?”
“No. If they were, he would have told me that.”
