Free The Dark Gifts Birthright by Willow Cross Page B

eyes there were others in the room.
Although all the voices were angry, Michael’s was definitely the
loudest.
    “You swore she would be safe,” he yelled.
“You sent me on a mission that didn’t require my attention, and
left her to be slaughtered by those abominations!”
    “Michael, be reasonable,” Athena’s calm voice
spoke. “Angie had things to attend to, and we are not equipped to
baby-sit your changeling.”
    “I told you all from the beginning this was a
horrible idea.” Another familiar voice spoke. It was the
hate-filled voice from the tunnel below. “You were warned that she
would cause nothing but trouble and now look what’s happened!
Thirty-five of them, Michael! Thirty-five unspoken are loose
in this fortress. How many of us will die, because you couldn’t
keep your new pet on a leash?” he hissed.
    “I will kill you, Monroe,” Michael hissed
back. “Right where you stand, I will kill you if you ever liken her
to a dog again!”
    “What if they make it out of the fortress,
Gregorio? How do we keep the secret then?” Athena asked.
    “They will never make it out,” Gregorio’s
strong voice sounded confident. “Michael, you need to go hunt. It
is your place to do so, regardless of Liz’s condition. We reached
her in time. She will heal. If any of our own are lost because of
this incident, you and Liz will be in great danger. Even the Eldest
will not come to your aid.”
    Liz opened her eyes and searched for Michael.
He was beside her in an instant. “You have to go, this is all my
fault.” Liz mustered the closest thing to a smile that she
could.
    “I can’t leave you,” he said.
    “You have no choice,” she answered softly.
Grimacing in pain, her voice turned bitter. “Kill every last one of
them.”
    Gregorio laughed and the tension in the room
seemed to ease. “It didn’t take her long to become a full-fledged
vampire, did it?” He laid a hand on Michael’s shoulder saying, “I
will not leave her until you return. Go do what you must.”
    Michael gave Liz one last searching look,
bent down and kissed her, and was out the door in a flash. Athena
sighed and sat beside her pushing strands of hair out of her face.
“That was a close call, my dear. You gave us quite a start. How did
you end up in the dungeon? That was definitely not on your
tour.”
    Liz glanced at Monroe standing in the open
doorway. Finally having a face to put with the evil sounding voice,
she was stunned by the familiarity of it. Something about this
particular monster seemed strangely familiar. The word monster
described him perfectly. Unlike his brother vampires, Monroe had no
unearthly beauty. Ghostly white skin stretched tight across his
tall skeletal frame. Long stringy hair as pale as his flesh hung
limply around his face. His pale, icy blue eyes looked more alien
than human. Although his face and voice rang familiar, his hands
were even more so. His fingers were extremely long and thin, ending
in razor-sharp, pointed nails that gave his hands the appearance of
claws. His countenance was the embodiment of a long unthought-of
nightmare from her childhood.
    It was unsettling to think that somewhere in
her early youth she might have met up with this fiend. As she
stared at Monroe, his loathsome gaze washed over her. He did not
even attempt to conceal his hatred. Turning away, she focused on
Athena. Without knowing who was involved in the conspiracy against
the Council, she needed to be cautious with her answer.
    “I really don’t know how I got there,” Liz
said, her voice soft and laden with guilt. “I was just wandering
around looking at everything, and then I got lost. I saw the doors
with bars and decided to look into one of the windows.”
    “And what, pray tell, made you think you had
the right to stick your nose in such matters?” Monroe questioned.
His eyes glinted with malice as disgust resonated in his voice.
    Gregorio turned and glowered at Monroe until
he gave a curt bow and left.