Free The Rise (The Alexa Montgomery Saga) by H. D. Gordon

when I yanked her off of you and knocked her out.”
     
    I looked at Tommy, whose chin raised a fraction as he averted his gaze. “She needed your blood,” was all he said.
     
    And we were going to let her have it, Warrior. We weren’t going to stop her.
     
    Bile rose in my throat and I swallowed the putrid acid, grimacing. I looked into the faces of everyone around me, but no one other than Kayden would meet my eyes. I saw in their expressions that this was true, Nelly had tried to kill me, and the only one here who would have stopped her was Kayden. More bile. Another nasty swallow. I knew it was true; they knew it was true, and my Monster had confirmed it. Nelly had almost killed me. It was a fact that was as awful as the fact that I would have let her do it. I had wanted her to do it.
     
    I slumped back, closed my eyes. I felt weaker than I ever had, as if I could sense only trace amounts of blood still flowing through my veins. My head throbbed, but not as badly as my wrists, where Nelly had snapped my bones like matchsticks. My hands hung limply at the ends of my arms, fire pulsing through them harshly.
     
    “But she wouldn’t. She wouldn’t do that.”
     
    The voice of my Monster chimed in, also weak and dazed. Oh yes, Warrior, oh yes she would. And she almost did. Seems we have underestimated our little Nelly. The beast that now controls her makes me look like an angel. I told you I was no Monster. Now you see what a monster really is. We kill when we have to. We protect those we love. Nelly is no longer the girl we once knew. You saw her eyes. You saw the blackness there. She would have killed us. And we wouldn’t have been able to stop her.
     
    “It’s not true. I refuse to believe that. It’s…it’s not true.”
     
    Your weakness is your love, and it will be the death of us, Warrior. Mark my words.
     
    I shuddered, my body going cold all over. I could not even look at Nelly where she lay, pale, white, and sprawled on the floor. Kayden slid closer and pulled me onto his lap. His head tilted to the side, and his golden hair fell away from his neck. My fangs slid out from my gums on their own, and without preamble, I sank them into the warm skin on Kayden’s neck. His sweet blood filled my mouth, and I swallowed and swallowed. I felt my energy slowly returning to me. I stopped myself before I could take too much, but only with effort. Kayden’s blood was like a drug to me, offering a high that no other substance could ever replicate. My wrists still hurt, but the pain had faded to a dull throb. The bones slowly mended themselves back together. I had to stop myself so that I wouldn’t take too much. I pulled back and ran the back of my hand over my trembling lips.
     
    “Okay,” I said breathlessly. “Now tell me what happened. Tell me what happened to my sister.”
     
    You sure you want to hear it, Warrior? My Monster asked.
     
    “Of course I don’t want to hear it. But I have to. I have to.”
     

 
     
     
     
    King William
     
    He sat at Queen Camillia’s desk, his hands folded neatly in his lap, his crisp black suit unruffled, his silver hair smoothed back into place. It had taken him a moment to regain his composure, and now that he had it, he would not lose it again. He was not a man who needed to get worked up about things, to yell or even argue. As far as he knew, the girl was the only person with a chance of throwing a wrench into his operation, the only one with mental capabilities that surpassed his own. In King William’s head this situation could be looked at two ways: as a problem, or as an opportunity; and he was nothing if not an opportunist. The first threads of an ingenious plan had already begun to weave in his head.
     
    Even so, he was angry, and a touch more than a little afraid, though he would never have admitted it. The girl and her Sun Warrior sister threatened everything he had spent so long working for. He had seen the girl’s eyes go as black as a