[ BOOK TWO ]
Erin Gilbert's life had become one supernatural catastrophe after another, not that she should've expected any different when her sister's boyfriend and his brother turned out to be vampires.
The years of chaos that followed should have...
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PAIN GREETED ERINWHEN the smallest bit of awareness returned to her mind. It ached, pulsing harshly across the right side of her neck. With every breath, a sharp sting would ripple from the top of her shoulder to the base of her skull. Every twitch her body made caused the sensation to worsen. And in doing so, her consciousness returned quicker than it would've otherwise.
Erin squeezed her still closed eyes tighter together, wincing as she moved her head. She raised up from where she laid heavily against her left shoulder, willing the pain to subside. At least she figured out why her neck hurt.
Slowly, Erin pried her eyes open and blinked through the groggy haze. Tears gathered, stinging against the silicone contacts that remained in place. She so hated sleeping in them. She always made it a habit to take them out before she went to bed. So, why were they still there?
When her surroundings registered, Erin's heart seized inside her chest and her entire body lost every ounce of heat it retained. A stone mausoleum stood around her, glowing warmly by the various lit candles that dripped wax down every flat surface. It would've taken a miracle for Erin to not recognize where she now resided. Lafayette Cemetery.
The thudding of Erin's heart returned, threatening to burst from its holding. She went to scramble up from where she sat on the cold floor, but she found herself unable to when something held her in place. Her gaze shifted toward her right arm, finding it secured beside her head with a thick metal cuff around her wrist. The other was bound in the same fashion.
Erin adjusted her hands to grasp the chains connected to the stone at her back. She took a deep breath and yanked at them. Again and again and again. They didn't budge. The only thing she achieved was making them clang throughout the empty crypt.
Or what she thought was an empty crypt.
"It's no use, child."
Erin snapped to where the voice sounded. The figure of who had once been a witch named Lenore strode into the mausoleum. She wore a long thin vest that flowed behind her like a cape, swooping at her heels as she moved further into the stone room and closer to where Erin sat against her will.
"Save your strength. My chains don't break so easily," Esther voiced, raising her hand to point at a place above Erin's head.
Erin looked up and found what appeared to be a cloth doll of some kind, hanging from the wall beside the rusted chains. She didn't know what it was exactly, but from Esther's words, she could only assume it would prevent her from escaping on her own.
