“No.” I shook my head. “That’s not what I meant. Samuel, I’m m—”
A small whimper came from inside the opened doorway, cutting me off. I smelled it at the same time I heard it—blood.
I rushed around Samuel, skidding to a stop in the entryway to the basement room. Panic lashed up my spine. There were five human women scattered in various positions throughout the room. All were naked, four were dead—their throats slashed open. One remained alive, but just barely. She lay sprawled on the dirty concrete floor, clutching her throat as blood spilled between her fingers.
“Saint is here,” I whispered, whirling around and jumping at the sight of Samuel so close. “You have to heal her, Samuel!”
“At once,” he said, hurrying into the room. He knelt by the woman, reaching out a hand toward her throat to use his gifts of healing to seal it…
But the woman recoiled from his touch, her mouth gaping open in a silent scream as the rest of the blood spilled to the floor. She slumped limp against it, and Samuel clenched his eyes shut.
“I’m too late,” he said. “I was just coming down here to check one of the storage rooms when I heard a commotion. Saint must’ve brought them here.”
I took a step away from the bloody scene, away from Samuel. Icy spiders crawled up my spine, my instincts roaring at me to run. My eyes darted around the basement as I continued backing into the hallway. If Saint was here, he’d still be in this basement because I’d come down the only exit. We would’ve ran right into each other unless…
The breath in my lungs grew tight, my mind spiraling as I replayed every encounter I’d ever had with Saint. There weren’t many, and any time I’d heard him spouting his evil plans and desires was through closed doors.
I swallowed hard, my entire body shaking with the truth unfolding right before my eyes.
Be smart. Be smarter than him. A little voice demanded in the back of my head.
“I’ll…” My voice wasn’t nearly as strong as I wanted it to be. “Just go get help,” I said, turning on my heels and hurrying toward the staircase. “I’ll alert your guards that Saint is somewhere on the property.”
“Avianna,” Samuel said from only an arm’s length behind me.
My hand gripped the steel rail of the spiral staircase, but I halted at the sound of his voice. If I ran, he’d know I knew.
“Yes?” I asked, hoping the fear in my voice could be passed off for what I’d seen in that room. It was terrifying enough, but the truth I was facing was so much worse. I met his gaze—those charming, gentle eyes studying my face, studying me.
“Oh, Avianna.” His shoulders dropped and he shook his head. He reached up, rubbing his eye as if he were crying. “I wish you hadn’t seen that.”
I furrowed my brow, my fingers loosening on the railing. He fingered his other eye, and I took a step closer to see the tears in his eyes—
A gasp ripped from me and I jolted backward.
There were no tears.
He wasn’t crying.
He’d removed contacts to reveal bloodred eyes. Eyes I associated with Saint, not Samuel. But this wasn’t Saint, I knew that in my bones, knew it in the way he smelled. The twins smelled nothing alike, and Samuel’s scent had been burned into my brain since I’d moved in.
“At least not until we were officially betrothed and you had no way out,” he continued. The ice in his voice chilled me to the bone. I took a step backward, making it onto the bottom stair. He followed, slowly, calmly, as if he had all the time in the world to pursue me.
“You’ve succumbed to bloodmadness, Samuel,” I whispered, taking another slow step up the staircase.
He smiled at me then, a grin I’d never seen before. This was not the prince charming mask he’d always worn around me. This was the smile of a monster, a true thing of evil. “It’s funny how often vampires mistake bloodmadness for insanity,” he said, stepping closer, his hands now poised on the railing, caging me in. “Or for weakness.” He shook his head, his crimson eyes trailing the length of my body before meeting mine again. “It’s not. Bloodmadness is giving in to what our most basic, primal instincts demand. It’s allowing ourselves to be the natural predator we’re meant to be.”
I stalked up another step, never taking my eyes off his. He followed at a slow pace, a tight string of tension stretched out between us. He’d made me a player in a game I had no idea we were playing, and we stood on a precipice where one wrong move would cost me my life.
Swallowing hard, I tried to keep my face even. “I’ll help you, Samuel,” I said, backing up another step. “We all will. We won’t let you suffer this alone.”