𝐁𝐋𝐎𝐎𝐃𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐌
❝like a moth to a flame, she always returns to me❞
Dakota Elkins is no stranger to the supernatural with her being a telepath and vampires out of the coffin, but when one winds his way into her cousins...
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DAKOTA DIDN'T THINK SHE COULD MUSTER SUCH ANGER TOWARDS SOMEONE SHE LOVED. It wasn't in her nature. It never had been. Right now it felt as if she wasn't even physically standing there anymore and all noise surrounding her ebbed away as she glared at the viking. The world had sunk away from beneath her feet.
"Russell Edgington, alive?" scoffed a vampire from the authority, seated at the table. "What an epic fucking disaster!"
Eric would not meet her gaze at all, he couldn't muster the courage as he did not want to see the look on her face anymore. Dakota pursed her lips and slowly nodded her head as she kissed her teeth in disgust. She did not care if the authority would obliterate them and herself. She didn't care about anything at the moment.
"Let me deal with these traitors, guardian," the man said, rising slowly. "They will beg for the true death."
"Shouldn't we at least consider their proposal?" another voice interjected that gained their attention.
"Since when do we negotiate with apostates?" a child snapped angrily.
Salome glanced at them with a smile and suggested, "If they think they can smoke out Russell Edgington, why not let them try?"
"The odds are they won't survive the fight."
"And what kind of precedent does that set, rewarding these traitors for what exactly?"
Murmurs of agreement rippled through the vampires. Dakota kept her head high, standing off to the side with a stoic expression as she stared at the wall. Russell Edgington was the reason she was the way she was. He had killed her, and Eric had promised that he was taken care of. She had assumed that meant dead.
That's what she had believed all this time. It was what he had allowed her to believe.
"Not following orders in the first place," argued Rosalyn. "We cannot condone such blatant insubordination!"
"Rosalyn," Kibwe shot, "you'd sentence your own maker to the true death if it served your political agenda."
"My maker was a pioneer! A true mainstreamer, unlike some people—"
"Chancellors!" Roman's shout cut through the arguments as he stood before Eric and Bill, holding a stake. "Thank you for your input. Rest assured, I will consider it. Blessed be the blood."
The chancellors echoed his last words with a small bow and got to their feet before scurrying out of the room. Roman took hold of Salome's hand and stopped her from doing the same and shook his head.
"The Sanguinistas," Roman began, circling the table, "have turned Russell Edgington into some sort of hero for ripping out a man's spine on TV. He has become their poster boy for the anti-mainstream movement... their Osama bin Laden. Do you know what's more dangerous than a martyr? A three-thousand-year-old vampire who hasn't fed in over a year. Suffering does not kill the appetite for power. It exacerbates it."
