Isabella > Recent Status Updates

"Erik was so silent while I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and pinched life into my cheeks that I very-nearly forgot he vas there. Apart from the fact his aura was like a bell ringing in my ears and my neck prickled with the awareness of a vicious predator at my back."


/ Montana

"Listen to that," I said as I hurried to match his fierce pace, refusing to let him leash my tongue with fear.

"What?" he demanded, stopping suddenly and making me stumble as I followed suit. He cocked his head to listen for whatever I'd heard, and I stamped my lips together to stop myself from smirking.

"Your silence," I continued, uncertain why exactly I was taunting him aside from the fact...

“Hey, rebel?” He glanced over his shoulder as his hand landed on the doorknob. “The next time you want to wound me, don't bother aiming for my heart. It’s impenetrable to you or anyone else for that matter, and it is long beyond feeling.” He gazed at me icily, showing the true monster beneath, his glassy eyes holding no emotion at all.

"Enlighten me..." He purred, his gaze moving up my hair to stare directly into my eyes. Into my goddamn soul.

"Why did you walk into that courtyard looking like a rebel today?"

"Maybe I am one," I whispered truthfully, letting him see the fight in my eyes, the dreams I'd of killing his kind for all they had done to mine.

"Lucky for me then, because a rebel is just what I need."

"He might have been all kinds of terrifying and a complete asshole, but the vampires would think so too."

/ Callie

"It was more than fear, it was curiousity in its most perilous form, an intrigue I would never voice out loud. From their pearly skin to their inviting eyes, their beauty was a wicked spell that was designed to draw the gaze of their prey, and sometimes they drew mine."

/ Montana

"Besides, if you're a monster, what am I? If you're depraved, l am, too, you f*cking asshole. You don't get to claim my worst actions as yours. I make my own choices. And this thing between us?"

She steps in close, reaching her hands up to cup my face. And with her touch comes connection - she opens herself mentally, and it's faster than ever this time, sliding into that place in our minds.

"Besides, if you're a monster, what am I? If you're depraved, l am, too, you f*cking asshole. You don't get to claim my worst actions as yours. I make my own choices. And this thing between us?"

She steps in close, reaching her hands up to cup my face. And with her touch comes connection - she opens herself mentally, and it's faster than ever this time, sliding into that place in our minds

"I hate to be the person to make her cry when every part of me screams that I'm meant to guard her... But this is the only way to protect her in the long run.

To protect us both.

Because she will live to regret me, and I don't know that I'd ever be able to let her go."


/ Stark

"We should get some sleep," Stark says quietly. "We have a long journey tomorrow."

We ready the sleeping pallets in silence. Get into them next to each other in silence. Close our eyes, pretending to sleep in silence. At least I'm pretending.

Because all night long I burn and I burn and I burn.


/ Meryn

"Anassa circles around Saela and Meryn, snapping at anyone who gets too close.

It's a relief to be unleashed, after weeks - months, really - of being on passably good behavior.

This is me at my best. At my worst.

Myself."

/ Stark

"Bad choice, boys," I growl out, tasting the promise of bloodshed in the air. My broad body dwarfs the weak man in front of me. "She might be inclined to show you mercy as your Queen. But I'm no royal."

/Stark

"What happened to "My Queen"?" I ask, bristling at his commanding tone.

"Act like a filthy little Princess and get treated like one, Your Highness."

/Meryn

"What happened to 'my queen'?" I ask, bristling at his commanding tone.

"Act like a filthy little princess and get treated like one, Your Highness."

/Meryn

"Our country needs her to be a steady leader, and I'd only corrupt her. The depraved part of me longs for it."

/ Stark

"If someone told me I'd one day lose sleep to keep a Siphon safe from harm. I'd have laughed in their face. And then probably snapped their neck for good measure because they were too stupid to live."

/ Stark

"She's ruined and regal in the same breath.

Heat lashes through me, urgent and unyielding."

/Stark

Shaking my head, I clutch the bars tighter. "If you're my ..." Not my, he's not mine. "If you're my family's protector, why have you been trying to kill me since the moment I got here?"

Instantly, his expression twists with rage. Menacing energy explodes from him. It's that intense, overpowering presence he embodies when we spar, when he kills, when he goes to war.

Stark, meanwhile, have coordinated this whole operation.

I find myself mesmerized by him, here in this cold mountain wilderness, closed in on every side by darkness and danger.

He's the consummate Alpha - no trace of the man who seemed so worried about the scars on my thighs yesterday. I almost don't believe it happened at all, watching him now.

"If you're going to be reckless, princess, at least let me keep vou alive."

I look at him with a start. Is that concern in his voice?

He meets my gaze with the usual scowling intensity, but there's no malice in it. No condescension. Almost like he guessed what passed between me and Anassa just now and he's trying to ... what? Reassure me?

What the actual f*ck?

Stark's voice quiets, but only slightly. It's still loud enough for the whole training yard to hear, laced through with menace.

"You are a powerful Rawbound, but strength is not the only thing we value in Daemos. You'll do well to remember that if you want to make it through the rest of Proving. And in case my implication is not cristal f*cking clear : You touch her again and I'll cull you myself."

"The Alpha's time is too valuable to waste on pointless questions," he says.

Stark's dark gaze fixes on me with the same intensity it always has, like the rest of the room doesn't matter as long as he keeps his prey in sight. He tilts his head slightly to the side, and a lock of his dark hair falls across his brow. It's like a tether has snapped taut between us.

I keep seeing flashes of the Kryptos boy behind my eyes. Hearing his horrible screams. His death hangs over me like a cloud, leaving a bitter, metallic taste in my mouth.

And when I'm not thinking about him, my mind is on the prince wearing my lover's face.

"F*ck, Stark is so hot," the first woman chokes out slumping in her seat.

I raise a brow and study Stark again. I... guess?

Or, yes.

It's obvious. It's really obvious. He's probably six and a half feet of bulky, toned muscle with a perfect jawline and eyelashes prettier than mine. His lips are full and his perpetually messy dark hair is actually artfully tousled and thick the kind of hair you'd like to pull when

A thought hits me with absolut certainty: If I take the slow path, that wicked man and his wicked wolf are going to hunt me down. The only way to survive is to go where they can't follow.

His face is viciously beautiful, with thick eyebrows and full lips pulled into a condescending smirk as he looks over the crowd. It's unfair how all the Bonded are so... hot. Even assholes like him.

"I hate you,"

"No, you don't, Moonbeam. You love me. You're just too busy feasting on my heart to notice."

I scowl. "And what if I don't want to have this talk you speak of? Ever?"

He shrugs. "Then you'll have to kill me on your way out of Dohm. Simple as that. Otherwise, I'll be on your f*cking heels for the rest of eternity until you decide you're ready to face your past."

I physically recoil, like he jabbed me with a shiv and marginally missed a vital organ. "You're horrible."

His smile is soft. Gentle even.

But my hope is a flame that will never give out. Not when it comes to her. She could sink me to the bottom of the Loff, and I'd still burn like a sun.

I'd mulch her enemies with my bare hands to see those dimples. Or at the very least, pave a bloody path for her to slaughter them herself.