Wrathful Mortals by Caroline Peckham & Susanne Valenti

Author:Caroline Peckham & Susanne Valenti [Peckham, Caroline & Valenti, Susanne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dark Ink Publishing
Published: 2024-02-28T00:00:00+00:00

Julius switched the cellphone off and silence fell among us.

“See?” Montana said in a hard voice, turning her eyes on me. “He’s trying to fix this. They’ve banished Wolfe; ripped out his fangs and told every vampire in the New Empire that they can’t bite humans.”

I shifted back as I tried to hear what she was saying. I could see how desperately she wanted to believe that Erik Belvedere had some good in him, but banishing Wolfe wouldn’t bring our father back. The fact that he still drew breath only told me that the vampires valued the lives of their own so much more than ours.

“They left him alive,” I replied eventually. “That monster tortured Dad for days-” My voice cracked but I forced myself to go on. “He was covered in bites. You know how painful their venom is. And he was beaten too, chained from the ceiling and starved.”

Montana’s eyes filled with tears and she squeezed my hand tightly as if she expected me to pull away from her.

“Erik didn’t know,” she whispered. “He sent Wolfe to bring Dad here. He was meant to be setting him free-”

“Free?” I stared at her in disbelief. How could she have possibly thought that Erik had ever had any intention of freeing him? “If Erik Belvedere cared about you so much that he was willing to set Dad free, then why was he still happy to keep you captive? Surely he’d have given you freedom too if he loved you?”

She shook her head like she wanted to deny what I was saying, but I knew she could feel the truth in my words. He’d kept her caged, and in the end, she’d had to run from him because of it.

Magnar and Julius stood and moved away from us, clearly deciding this was something we had to discuss alone. They headed outside and the silence thickened.

“He did let me go,” Montana breathed, her voice barely audible. “In the end. He let me run with you.”

I chewed on my thumbnail as I tried to contain the outburst which was desperate to part from my lips. When I was sure I could contain my anger, I closed my hand into a fist and dropped it into my lap.

“The only reason the Belvederes are still standing is because of this mark on my hand,” I said evenly. “Magnar had Fabian defeated, and if I’d been able to fight alongside them properly then we would have destroyed the others too. Erik didn’t have a choice in letting you go. If he’d tried to keep you, he knew we would have finished the lot of them.”

Montana shook her head again, her gaze cracking as she ached for me to understand what she was feeling, but it was so difficult for me to attempt it. The vampires had caused us so much pain and heartache - how could I just turn a blind eye to that because they claimed ignorance or regret?

I felt like the two of us had landed on differing sides of some great fissure and I had no idea how we could bridge it.

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