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“I know you fancied her, you half-wit. You were never good enough for her, don’t you understand?”
I growled, then I pushed him, knocking him into the tapestry that he had commissioned of Lilith, standing beside a large tree with an even larger snake wrapped around it, lingering beside her ear.
Domenico’s fangs sprung free, and he growled back, only he didn’t charge me. I knew he wouldn’t. When it came down to fighting or fucking, he would always choose fucking. I knew that much of my brother.
“I have never tasted blood as sweet.”
“And you think I have? Why do you think I fought so hard for her? It wasn’t just her cunt, her lips. It waseverything.”
I sat on the only chair in the room, head in my hands. I wish I didn’t feel this way, I wish I had never found her and taken a small taste that night. She had been drunk and laughing, and one thing led to another…
Lilith knew what we were, and she loved it. She loved the blood, the secrets, theworship.Shewasa Godsend, she was everything we needed and wanted. It was a damn shame that she fell for Domenico in the first place.
“What else is there to do, Dante? Tell me.”
I don’t have the answers, I never did—that wasn’t my place.
“Aren’t you angry? Do you not feelrejected? Betrayed?”
This garnered a laugh from him, as if he couldn’t be bothered with any of those feelings. After all, we had been dead for centuries, you would think emotions would fail, but they did not—they remained.
“Of course, I feel rejected! Betrayed! I gave her years of my life. Risking being found out. We did every sinful act known to man, I would have been cast aside just as fast as Mary Magdalene.”
“Then we just forget her? A Goddess dropped down to us from Heaven, who’s blood tastes like life itself?”
Domenico stood, shoving his hands in his trouser pockets, thinking, as he gazed out of the tall stained-glass window. “I guess you’re right. I thought perhaps I could just forget, but not without tarnishing her name. I will make a monster out of her, I will tell her story of evil, sexual prowess. The child killer.”
I squeezed my fists together, remembering the way it made me feel when I drank from her. I felt alive again, powerful. If there was ever any way of feeling hope in a vampire’s world, her blood was it. I felt strong enough to walk into the light, strong enough to reveal my true self to anyone who would listen.
“What about the babe? Would it taste just as sweet, do you think?”
Domenico turned to me this time, grey eyes sharp and pointed. “It is possible…but we would have to wait. Wait and watch.”
I nodded, knowing exactly what he meant.
“I will watch, then.”
Little did he know, I had plans of my own for Lilith. Shewouldbe mine. Perhaps not of the flesh, but her blood would be mine.
17
LILITH
I named her Annabel, and then I left her on the doorstep of a doctor and his wife. He was the only doctor within miles, and I thought perhaps that would be the safest place for my only child.
When I had seen the couple out together at markets, the husband doted on the woman, he spoke soft words to her, he was gentle with her. He looked at her like she was a prize.
Annabel’s hair was red, her lips were shaped like a heart. I kissed them gently as I placed her in a basket and on the doorsteps that day. I didn’t deserve to be a mother; I was not made for that job.
I was The Dark Mother, the one who refused to submit to a man, who demanded the same treatment as a king. I was not a tender, nurturing matron, but a bloodthirsty and selfish creature.
And now, I was free again, walking away from a baby that I would only be able to love from a distance.
I promise I will always be near, always watching over you.
I suddenly felt weak, and I craved rest.
My snakes had disappeared, and sadness lanced my chest. I didn’t cry, I wouldn’t allow that.
