Iniquitous (The Marked #3)(32)

I retook my fighting position, letting him know that I was willing to take out as many of them as I had to.

“We can do this the easy way, child, or we can do this the bloody way,” said Engel, nodding back to Dominic.

Baldy positioned the blade across Dominic’s neck. All he had to do was swipe one way or the other and Dominic would be a goner. My only hope was that he still had enough of my blood inside of him to save him, but that wouldn’t last forever and I wasn’t willing to take that risk.

“Don’t. Please.” My voice came out soft, hopeless. Left with no other choice, I dropped my fists.

The two Rev’s behind me quickly grabbed my upper arms and yanked me backwards. There was a cracking noise, like splintering bone, but the sound and pain of it barely registered. I was too screwed to notice.

Engel’s mouth hooked into a smile, brimming with pride as though he’d just won the war. And maybe he did. He’d figured out my weak spot, my Achilles heel, and he was going to use it against me every chance he got.

They always did.

“Boss?” said Baldy, gesturing to Dominic as he waited for Engel’s command. He hadn’t lowered his weapon yet and he looked as though he was itching to test out the blade.

“It appears as though we’re going to have use for him after all,” said Engel, his wicked smile stretching into a grin. “Bring him.”

Baldy snapped Dominic’s neck.

“No!” I screamed as Dominic’s unresponsive body sank to the ground.

A heavily tattooed Rev stepped to the front of the pack and lifted Dominic up into his brawny arms before stringing him over his shoulder like a human backpack.

“Get your damn hands off him!” I yelled in a fit of anger and fear as I tried to pull away from my two guards.

I tried to scream again, to warn them of what I’d do if they hurt him again, but they promptly clonked me on the back of the head with something hard.

For a moment, I saw pretty little stars glittering in front of my eyes, and then nothing else.





15. THE UPRISING


I had no idea where Engel was taking me, but by the time I came to, I knew we were outside, even with the burlap bag fastened over my head. I could feel the wet grass under my feet, hear the whistling of the wind in my ears as the familiar scent of pine perfumed the space around me.

Tiny drops of rain peppered my arms like memories from a life I once lived, baptizing me all over again with its purity. It had been so long since I’d felt the rain; so long since I’d tasted the flavors it stirred up in the air.

I wanted to revel in it, to bask in its beauty, but I was quickly yanked back to reality as a swarm of murderous Rev’s dragged me along the wetlands against my will.

We walked the length of a football field before the soft grass turned to brushwood and muddy dirt. It felt as though we had entered the forest or some kind of wooden area, but that was all I could put together.

“Where are you taking me?” I asked, wanting to place their voices—their proximity to me.

“Shut up,” answered Baldy as he continued to drag me through the dirt.

From a distance, I could hear faint whispering coming from the sisters. They were talking, plotting—probably going over the little black-magic spell that was going to bring vampires out of the shadows and end my life.

“Dominic?” I called out his name to see if he was still with me.

No response.

That either meant he hadn’t yet come back from his Revenant timeout, or worse, he wasn’t here with us at all.

“I swear to God, if you hurt him, I’ll kill each and every one of you. Starting with you three bitches in the front!” I shouted out the last part to make sure they’d heard me.

“I’d like to see you try!” yelled Annabelle, but Anita quickly reprimanded her.

Apparently, we weren’t on speaking terms anymore.

We finally came to a stop after another hundred or so painful steps through the rocky wilderness. The ground below me had changed again, this time from brushwood and overgrowth to tightly packed earth; possibly a clearing.

The bag came off.

My eyelids fluttered as I tried to adjust my eyes to the night’s light, searching frantically for Dominic through the thinned down crowd of enemy faces.

I spotted him only a few feet away from me and my heart wrenched. He was still out cold, but at least he was here. I tried to pull away from my captors to go to him, to bring him back to life, but they quickly pulled me back.

“Uh, uh, uh. Not so fast,” warned Engel, moving in closer as his dark eyes rested on me. “You aren’t here for him, child. You’re here for me now.”

Like hell I was.

“Welcome to The Uprising,” he said as he spread his arms wide and invited me to take it all in.

I had been too busy trying to fight off the Rev’s behind me to notice where we were. My gaze shifted over his shoulder to the cobblestone steps leading down to an excavated slab of rock in the ground. There were strange markings carved into the bordering wall, making it clear this was some kind of ritual site.

“What the hell is that?” I asked, my eyes rounding out as I stared down into the pit. The ground was reflecting back to me under the full moon as though it were made of glass and not rock. There was something entirely unnatural about it and it made the hairs on the back of my neck prickle with fear.