“Of course,” Caleb murmured.
Braith leaned back, closing his eyes as he tried not to think about the depth of her betrayal. He would not hunt them down, he would not go into the woods after the two people he had come to rely on and trust the most. But if they were captured and brought back here, he would be the one to make sure that Jericho was destroyed, and he would be the one to hand her over to Caleb, one of the most vicious vampires he knew. And then he would sit back, and relish in the sounds of her screams as Caleb did what he did best.
Until then, he was going to gorge himself on as much blood as it took to help him forget this horrendous mess. He moved toward Caleb, finally beginning to understand his brother’s cruelty and hatred as those emotions started to curdle through his gut, move through his chest, and bury him beneath its crushing force. He had never experienced these emotions to this depth before, but he relished in the hatred and bloodlust as it was the only thing that buried his betrayal and hurt. “Clean this mess up,” he growled at the servant.
Keegan whimpered softly as he padded slowly after Braith, following him down to the dungeons. The wolf had never been here, it had been years since Braith had been down here, mainly because he despised it. But now he found himself craving it, needing it, desiring it with a ferocity that left him shaken. He threw the doors to the dungeons open, the scent of humans and fear assaulted him. These were the blood slaves of the royal family, at least until they were drained dry, and discarded to make room for others.
He moved swiftly through, stopping only briefly to pick out three women from behind the bars. He did not know what they looked like, but the scent of their blood was not as repulsive to him as some of the others. “Have them cleaned and brought to me,” he commanded the guards.
He may not have Arianna now, but he sure as hell was going to satisfy his hunger and attempt to ease some of his fury. It was funny; a skinny wisp of a girl had managed to do in one month what his father had failed to do in over nine hundred years. And that was to turn him into a coldhearted, blood thirsty monster.