Desecrated Beauty (Twisted Fairy Tales #1)

by Kyleigh Castronaro

  “What does that have to do with me?” Quill asked the question she dreaded slightly.

  “Well, in those cases the first signs of the connection occur when both parties feel each other.”

  “Feel each other?” Not only was Quill frustrated because she was confused she was growing more and more frustrated with Rose, who knew way too much about the supernatural but continued to keep it all to herself.

  “I checked you over myself, the wolf watched, and neither of us saw anything - any indication that the pain was yours. I thought maybe it was your heart but it was strong and steady, and I’m not a doctor but look at you now. You’re fine. How do you feel?”

  “Anxious, nervous, frustrated, angry, ready for a fight.” She listed off quickly the various struggles she was feeling right now before looking up at Rose, “what does that mean?”

  “My best guess…” She bit her lip, looking at Colt, who whined just softly enough to prompt her to carry on, “something has happened to Nero.” Quill’s face must’ve indicated something because Rose rushed to continue, “he’s not dead! You’d know. I asked. You would feel empty, like a void… soulless. So long as you feel healthy, in general, he’s okay. But from the sounds of it something is happening back at his manor and he’s not too pleased about it.”

  Quill rose quickly, looking around for her jacket before stumbling toward it, landing hard on her knees. Colt got to her first although Rose moved initially. He swooped his head under her chest and brought her back up to her feet although she remained doubled over.

  “What now?”

  “Dead legs,” Quill muttered in horrified embarrassment. The prickle of pins and needles ran right up from her toes to her thighs, her muscles spasmed refusing to cooperate while they remained pinned.

  Rose laughed despite herself and nodded at Colt, who carried her to the couch, depositing her there unceremoniously. Quill stayed there for a while, waiting out the tingling in her legs before she could finally feel her toes wriggle when she asked them to.

  “We need to come up with a plan so I can get back to Nero and whatever is happening at his manor.”

  “You don’t even know what is going on at his manor. You could be walking into a death trap. You could die.” Rose, ever the voice of reason, echoed what one side of her thoughts were considering.

  Of course she could, but she also knew she couldn’t live with herself if she stayed here and waited to see what happened. So she came up with a plan, on the spot, it wasn’t pretty and it was most likely dangerous but when had that stopped her?

  “Colt, I need you to run me back into the forest where I left Damien - the vampire I came with.” Rose’s breath hitched and Quill didn’t stop talking to even consider what the reaction meant. “I’m going to get Damien to bring me back to the manor. If there is danger there, he’s been sworn to protect me so he will until I find Nero and then he’ll do the rest of the job.”

  “Izzy...” She rose from the couch again, gripping the arm tightly just in case her body decided to give up again before she shook her head.

  She ignored Rose, her sister would never understand that the way she felt about Nero was her own choice and not the choice of a blood exchange.

  “Colt, are you going to take me or am I going to take myself?” She stared down at the wolf who was blatantly ignoring her in favour of watching Rose for her reaction.

  “I guess there’s no stopping you is there?” Rose said, turning to look out the window to examine the sinking sun. “It’ll be dusk soon. We should get you ready to go... I don’t have any weapons...” Rose turned, still mumbling to herself as she walked over to the kitchen and began going through the drawers looking through them for something. She finally pulled out a chef knife and held it out to her. “Not at all like yours but it’ll do if a vampire attacks you.”

  Quill smiled slightly and took the knife, she didn’t have a sheath for it though which would make carrying it awkward. “I actually thought that maybe if you had anything that was wooden I could quickly make a stake with it.”

  Rose glanced around the room before nodding, moving to her dining room table and flipped it over easily. Colt growled like he knew what she was thinking, but it was too late as she snapped a leg off and examined the break.

  “Will that do?” Both girls eyed the extent of the point before Quill nodded her head. It was sufficient and from what she could tell it would easily break the skin and that’s all they needed. She held out her hand, taking it before using the knife to sharpen the point and then gave it back to Rose. She nodded her head and tucked the knife away again before looking down at Colt.

  “You’ve got to be going soon anyways. There’s no harm in dropping her off.” She moved to Quill and wrapped her arms tightly around her older sister, pressing her face into the crook of her neck. They stood like that for a while, each one clinging to the other.

  Growing up was tough, she would’ve never imagined that one day they would be here - like this - after everything they had endured as kids. Rose never spoke of it, but Quill had no doubt Rose’s horrors were just as terrorising as hers were.

  “I probably won’t see you anytime soon, so take care of yourself. Hopefully, I’ll come back and visit again.” Quill’s voice stuck in her throat as she spoke, the weight of her words pressing down on her. She’d lived the last 5 years relying only on herself, worrying only about herself. Now here, she was with two people who were tearing her heart in half and making her sentimental enough to endanger all three of them. “Okay.” She hardened her voice as she pulled free from her sister’s embrace and stepped away, turning to Colt and steeling herself right down to her heart once more.

  “Let’s go.” There was no room for argument as she walked to the door, pressing it open with her palms before stepping out into the soft light of the sunset. Maybe after tonight, if Nero were still alive, this would be the last time she saw a sunset. Night prickled her skin, but her attention was once more drawn to the wolf who brushed along her side. She bent down and gripped his scruff before hauling herself onto his back. He didn’t wait until she was settled to start running.

  She clenched her thighs, pressing them tightly to his ribs as he raced through the village quicker than their trip to it had been. They sped by the houses, monsters and humans alike watching them in surprise before he bounded into the forest. Branches and brush scraped against her sides and caught in her hair, but even that didn’t slow him. For all she knew he could be hauling ass to get her out of Rose’s life and had nothing to do with the impending possibility of her mate’s death.

  Colt was panting when he finally came to a standstill in the clearing she had come to first with Damien. He pressed his nose to the ground and followed, presumably, Damien’s scent around the clearing before coming to stop at the edge of the forest. He let out of bark and she slid off him, looking around for any sign of the vampire.

  “I’m here.” He drawled lazily, stepping out from behind a tree with little to no concern. “Did you not find your sister?”

  “I did, but something has happened back at Nero’s. A stabbing pain went through my stomach around 9 o’clock this morning and then I passed out for the rest of the day. My sister said it’s because we’re mated that I can feel his pain. We have to go back.”

  She took a deep gasping breath as she finally stopped talking, Damien’s eyes flashing dangerously as he swept over to her in a blur and hauled her onto his back. She barely had the chance to protest or gasp when he suddenly began to run as Colt had, dodging through the branches of the trees and zipping back toward the manor.

  Quill nearly felt like she had blinked and missed the whole journey. They had wasted so much of the evening just on her stubbornness. Very nearly, it had taken all but two breathes and Damien slowed on the fringes of the woods by Nero’s property. He slipped her off his back and looked across the grounds, seeing more no doubt with his vision than she did with her human one.

  “Stay here.” It was a command and
not a suggestion but sadly for Damien he didn’t know that she didn’t listen to commands from anyone. It was trouble that Orion and Striker had dealt with on more than one occasion back at the compound.

  Damien zipped away from her and she retrieved the stake she had hastily stashed down the front of her jeans. She twisted it around in her hands with the comfort she used with knives before venturing out.

  If Damien had spotted anything before she was blind to it. So she walked arrogantly toward the house, nothing at all out of place as she would’ve expected given the pain of earlier. Either Rose had been wrong about it being Nero’s pain or they were too late.

  “What did I tell you?” Damien hissed from behind her, all but shoving her out of the way as he skirted up the steps to the front door.

  “I take orders from no one.” She huffed, flashing her stake at him like it was the most deadly object on the planet.

  “You’ll learn to,” he said ominously before pushing the door open. Surprisingly the latch was caught on the door, forcing him to actually use the handle. Surely if there had been a fight or a break in or something there would be signs of forced entry and yet it was as normal as a nest of vampires could be.

  By the time she had stepped into the house Damien had already swept the interior and came to stand in front of her.

  “They’re not here.” She raised an eyebrow, looking around them as if expecting Nero to jump out and shout “boo”.

  “Where are they then?”

  “My best guess is the city.” It was a no-brainer for her then, they were going to the city. But she would guess from the look on Damien’s face that wasn’t actually his plan. “You will stay here.”

  “The hell I will.” She snapped at him, “if your last order didn’t stick what makes you think this one will?”

  He didn’t answer her before sweeping her up into his arms and carrying her straight through the sitting room. Beyond the double oak doors that held back the vampire sex room and before she even had the chance to realize what he was up to he had already thrown her into a cage.

  “Hey!” She jumped up to attack him, but her human reflexes might as well have put her in a pot of cold molasses for all the good it did. She slammed against the bars just as he was locking it up with a smug expression on his face. “Nero will rip your hands off for this.”

  “He’ll pat me on the back and hand over a bloodwhore to me,” he said casually, the derogatory name for the other humans around her slipping off his tongue and curling around her in such a slimy way she felt herself shiver.

  She stuck her hand through the bars and swiped at him with the stake, but he jumped back and laughed at her. She anticipated his next move, thanks to all that training with Tate, moving her hand back in time as he tried to take the stake off her.

  “What are you going to do?”

  “Go to the city and find my master. Help him kill whoever has taken him.”

  “He was kidnapped?”

  “I believe so, yes.”

  “How? There were no signs of kidnapping in the house.”

  “I am trained to see things you would never even consider.” He said it with such a sneer she decided Nero wouldn’t get the chance to rip his hands off because she would do it for him. Damien laughed again, so casually and aloof like the situation Nero was in wasn’t worrisome at all, before walking back to the stairs in a painfully slow way to piss her off even more. When his foot hit the step though he zoomed up them and disappeared.

  “Asshole,” she muttered under her breath, nonetheless feeling foolish for letting him get the upper hand on her in the first place. She looked around the small cage, too small for much movement and certainly not fit for a human to live comfortably the way these ones around her did.

  Her eyes fell on the stake in her hands and she twisted it around, considering it for a moment before moving to the front of the cage. She reached through the bars, angling her hand carefully so the tip of the stake drove into the lock hole. She fidgeted around with it for a moment trying to find the movement that would catch the lock and force it open.

  It didn’t matter how long it took her, by the time she did manage to free herself he would already be to the city. Perhaps even helping Nero but Quill certainly wasn’t going to let him humiliate her this way and treat her like just another bloodwhore. The word made her cringe, refocusing her determination.

  When the lock finally clicked she was more frustrated than anything. She had wasted so much time trying to free herself she felt like there was no point in venturing toward the city let alone attempting to help Nero. Damien would’ve already solved that problem and they’d be back in no time at all. They’d be back before she even got to the city with her snail-like human pace.

  That didn’t mean she didn’t plan on trying.

  There was a garage attached to the back of the property. She recalled seeing it when she walked the perimeter when she first arrived so she decided to start there. She didn’t know how to drive, but she’d learn quickly if it meant getting to the wall faster. From there she would have to scale, not knowing the route into the city from this side of the wall, but that wasn’t so much more than a track hurdle.

  It was too good to be true, believing there might be a car in the garage. Instead, she found piles upon piles of old furniture that no doubt dated back to a time long before she was born or even before the city walls had been erected. It didn’t matter though, she counted this as a mission and she knew she had succeeded on others where all hope had felt lost.

  CHAPTER 16

  Her fingers slipped on the top of the wall just as she reached it. Clinging with one shaking hand to a brick she pulled her hand away to see it come back with the slickness of oil.

  “Clever assholes,” she muttered to herself, wiping the oil off as best as she could on her jeans. She was caught for a moment, hanging on the wall as she considered her options.

  She needed to find a way to get a better grip while avoiding the oil. She looked down at her feet, pulling one away and drawing it up closer to her body looking for another foothold. Her toe slipped into a crevice and it was enough leverage as the one leg did all the work, pushing her entire body up so it was her chest that landed on the oil-slicked surface. She reached over to the other side of the wall and held it before swinging her leg up and over the wall, straddling it awkwardly.

  She hated the fact she was basically a sitting duck for the shooting right now but if there were guards on the perimeter tonight. The chances they were actually at the exact spot she was crossing at was unlikely though. But she still had a problem. Now most of her torso was covered in oil and her body was teetering closer to the edge. She didn’t feel confident enough that she would be able to get a grip to climb back down.

  Shifting her body a little more, she craned over the side to take in the drop she was currently considering. Easily it was eight feet or more and landing on any part of her body down there would hurt like a fucker. Pursing her lips in consideration she glanced along the length of the wall to where a massive oak tree hung closer to the wall than the rest. It was by no means close, but she might be able to jump to it if she wanted to risk standing on the oil-slicked wall top. But then using her feet after that would be useless until she wiped all of it off.

  “Damnit.” Quill sighed to herself looking down at the ground again, taking a deep breath and then rolled ungracefully to the ground. The impact launched all the air out of her lungs and despite that she still coughed in surprise, grabbing her ribs as she rolled off her back to her side.

  “Fuck… fuck…” She cursed, face contorted and body aching in agony. Nero was not going to be pleased about that move but if she reached him, and he was alive, he could give her blood and she’d feel better.

  That wasn’t why she pushed herself to her feet though. However motivating the idea of feeling invincible again with his blood coursing through her, what made her rise and keep going was that voice - was he actually alive still?

  W
ell, as alive as a vampire could be.

  Her legs ached as she walked, no more so than the rest of her did, but it still made the effort that much harder as she navigated the suburbs of this side of the city. This was the section housing the middle class, as low as you would get within the city. Her family didn’t belong here, she hadn’t even gone to school with someone middle class. She hated to admit it, but she didn’t know this side of the city half as well as she did the rest - another handicap to her growing list.

  The main one being she had no idea who actually took Nero and where she might find him. She was going into this with only her training and knowledge to help her. She figured she’d start with the normal places that captives were held and questioned and work her way from there. That was considering it was the agency that had taken him.

  Anger surged through her suddenly, churning her stomach and rippling through her blood. Her fingers clenched at her sides, turning to fists as she heard herself growl. Nero wasn’t happy about something, his captives she hoped and not because he was feeling the dull throb of her body right now.

  Where are you? Where are you? She whispered desperately in her head, trying to pick up on something - anything - that might come through from him. She squeezed her eyes shut, a dangerous move, and just followed the place where the anger was coming from. Fear prickled the back of her mind, slow to join the fray but eventually it came. Not fear for herself though, no, her stomach churned and then knotted and she knew it was fear for her, from him.

  She started walking again, almost in a jog as she weaved through the quiet homes of the suburbs toward the main part of the city. This was where most of the agency conducted its business from and considering what Nero had told her about its alliance it should be where other vampires would be found. She was good at getting information out of people, she reminded herself, this was just like any other search and rescue mission she had undertaken.

  At least that’s what she continued to tell herself as she drew closer to the city centre and a knot of uncertainty lodge itself in her stomach. Her repetition was based on a belief that maybe if she said it enough to herself it would come true.