ELARA MONTOYA
“You cursed me, didn’t you, you half-breed wretch?”
Kael Whitmore's voice ripped through the bitter cold of the Crimson Talon grounds like a death sentence, more like that of an executioner rather than a predestined partner. He had transformed back from the monstrous shape of his Ascension, his skin white and dripping with the sweat of transformation. He did not regard Elara as any vampire should their Blood-Bond, with awe and rapt adoration. He regarded her with the same loathing that seemed to thrum within the earth itself.
“I didn’t do anything to you either, Kael,” Elara whispered, though the shock of her own Ascension caused her voice to shake with the pain of it. Her body ached as if her bones are still being sewn together with hot thread. “The Blood Moon decided this. Not me.”
"Don't you lie to me!" Kael bellowed, moving into her personal space. "I saw you! You've also been lurking in the shadows of the Manor for weeks. You were watching me and Vikki Blake, days ago, yes, you were! You were in the doorway, like a hungry beast, watching us rut, imposing your filthy lusts on me. You've also been working with that blood witch Lili, haven't you? You hexed our lineage ceremony to make me bond with you!"
Elara scoffed, a jagged, dry sound that flapped the edges of his mouth with the taste of copper. The utter ridiculousness of his ego would have been hilarious if the rest of the Clan wasn't closing in like sharks sensing a hole in the life raft. “I was cleaning up your trash, Kael. It's what I do. I wasn't watching you because I wanted to; I was waiting for you to get finished so I could clean the pheromone trails out of the floor before the Sire noticed the mess you left.”
"Lairs and betrayers!" Kael turned to the crowd, his voice thundering. "The Crimson Talon Clan will not be led by a petitioner who practices dark magic to snare its heir! She seeks to take my own strength! She seeks to steal the throne my own father constructed!"
The crowd burst into whispered, venomous chatter. Elara scanned it, her heart pounding against her breastbone. She saw Alias Marwood leaning against a stone column, a mirthless laugh playing on his lips. She saw the other Fledglings, those she had called friends, huddled together, pulling their cloaks around them as if she was some sort of plague.
“Is this true, Kael?”
The voice of Lord Severino Montoya, the Sire, sliced through the din like a saw blade. "He came for the virus." "We can't leave the damned creature with–" "Silence!" Lord Severino cut Elara off with a narrow glance. "This isn't about you or our kind." Elara had the feeling he was referring to her as a parasite to be eradicated.
“Yes, Father,” Kael spat, grinding his teeth together. “Yes, the bond is there, but it is twisted. It is an abomination. My blood reviles her blood.”
Lord Severino’s eyes shifted to Elara. “You were an error from the moment you drew breath, Elara. A half-breed blot on the Montoya honor. We chose to let you live, to serve us in some capacity as a means of atonement for your parents' betrayal, and this is how you reward us?”
"It's not magic!" Elara shouted, the desperation at last breaking through the terror. "It's the Blood Bond! It's ancient! You prattle on about the purity of the bloodline, and the first thing the bloodline hands you that you don’t like, you deem it a curse!"
“Silence!” The Sire’s hand was quicker than her sight, a sharp smacking sound ringing out as his palm met her face. Elara spun, landing on her backside on the packed earth, the metallic tang of her own blood exploding in her nose. "You have no voice here. You are a servant. A servant who plots against the Crown is a servant who must be broken."
Elara did not wait for what came next. She had never listened to her Ascended senses before, and now she knew she had to move. She struggled to stand, and everything around her moved. The Shadow-Weeping trees were only fifty yards out. She could make it to her backpack and get to the coins she had hidden.
She bolted.
The wind rushed through her hair, and for one moment, she realized the incredible speed that came with her new gift. Her legs could move in ways that had always eluded her, her senses heightening to the point where she could hear the individual heartbeats of the vampires following her. But she wasn’t quick enough. She wasn’t a pureblood, and her gift was shattered from the rejection of the bond.
“Catch her!” Kael’s voice rang out in the forest. “Don’t let the traitor escape!"
