Page 90 of Midnight Kiss

It was painful.

Hang on, Emily. I’m coming.

The door to the chamber slammed open, and Karn entered.

Rage filled me so swiftly that it stole my breath. Memories threatened on the fringes of my mind, and I forced them back, focusing on the moment. On his presence. Anything else would lead to my swift demise.

Because Karn was the original vampire. The one who had turned me. Who had imprisoned me. Allowing my mind to wander away from the present would give him an opportunity to attack.

I ensured my mind shield was firmly in place.

Karn was a tall creature, so tall that he’d had to bow to enter the dungeon. He was slightly hunched over, completely bald, his mouth a thin slash, and his eyes almost too large for his face. They glistened wetly in the half-light from the sconce outside.

He clicked his fingers and an orb of brilliant red magic appeared. He set it to hover beside him as he approached, walking like a sickly spider.

“There you are, dear Alexander,” he said. “It has been too long since I’ve seen you.”

He was a nightmare made flesh. The opposite of what I wanted to be.

“Free me,” I said.

“Now, why on earth would I do that?” Karn asked. “I have memories to recover from you.” He reached for me, and I swatted his hand out of the way, my nostrils flaring. I inhaled the scent of him—cemetery dust and rot—and snarled.

“Tsk. Tsk. There’s no need to be hostile. I’ve heard that you’ve been giving our Ezekiel quite a bit of trouble,” Karn said. “You haven’t been allowing him to penetrate your thoughts and recover the bonding ritual. Is that correct?”

“I will never allow you or any other vampire in this cursed coven near my thoughts.”

“That is most unfortunate. We would hate to torture you to get what we need,” Karn said, and again, reached for me.

Again, I deflected him.

“You are one of our own, Alexander,” Karn said. “You have and always will be a part of Sanguine Nox. I have claimed you as thoroughly as a country claims its territory. You are yet another finger on my hand, and you will obey my thoughts and my will.”

“I will not.”

“Yes, yes, you will.” Karn nodded, a smile opening that gash. It was humorless. To any mortal or vampire, werewolf or paranormal entity, that smile would be terrifying. But I had seen it too many times to count, and I wasn’t afraid any longer. “Remember the night I turned you, dear Alexander? Remember how terrible it was when your parents died? I saved you.”

“You condemned me. You killed everyone I loved. You are no savior. You are a monster.”

Karn laughed under his breath, his voice dry as bone. “That is an unfortunate viewpoint to have, when really, the alternative was your death.”

“And now, I am trapped in forever, instead. A forever where your existence is a constant reminder of what I lost.”

“Mortality is a weakness.”

“You are nothing,” I snapped. “Nothing.”

If Karn had had eyebrows, he would have raised them. Instead, the skin on his forehead lifted and settled. “Nothing? I made you, dear Alexander. I made you into what you are today. The hypocrisy.”

“Hypocrisy.”

Karn circled me. I didn’t show my discomfort. The scent of him filled my nostrils, and he emanated a thrumming power that was meant to intimidate me.

“That’s right. You remember how infatuated I was with you, Alexander. Such a young, virile man. The potential for limitless power. I saw something in you that I both envied and valued,” Karn said, stopping beside me and staring at the side of my face. “Is that not the same as what you have done with Emily.”

I kept my mouth shut.

Karn would use anything I said about her against me.