Command My Heart ~ Book 2 - The Royal Blood Collection

Chapter 18

I didn't think that I was able to run, but I did it. Nisha didn't want Violet exposed to anything that might be inside the house; it was bad enough that she'd seen too much already. Of course, I knew the truth. It wasn't completely about Violet. No, Nisha didn't want to see her family slaughtered.

This wasn't just her brother or her uncle. There were children here. I worried for Otanawa but it was too late now, I had to accept that if something had happened, then there was nothing I could do about it.

Reaching the front of the house, I saw a lot of dead bodies, and they were all on the other side of the fence.

"Stop!"

Freezing still, I watched as the guard approached. His eyes narrowed at me.

"Nisha and Violet are safe at the back of the property."

He nodded, a little annoyed at something. Probably me. I seemed to make a lot of people annoyed.

"Did you go outside the fence line?" The guard snapped. "That damned alarm is deafening, don't do it again."

"Violet ran into the forest. Is everyone alive?"

"Everyone important, yes. They're in the panic room."

"Are there any bodies in the house?"

"No, they didn't get past the fence line."

"In the forest, there are two bodies: Ceroni and my sister. And no, I don't want a proper burial for her. She picked him over me."

The guard stared for a moment and then nodded.

"Alright, her personal effects?"

I was about to say that they could have whatever they wanted, but then I remembered what my father had given her.

"She might be wearing a diamond ring. It's a small stone, not very valuable. If it's on her, then I'd like it back. Anything else you can do whatever you want with it."

He nodded, and I turned back to return to Nisha and Violet. If I didn't have the tracker in me, I'd go and search for the ring myself, but at the moment, it was impossible. I've always been happy that my father gave Jos our mother's wedding ring, but now, I despised the thought. She'd ruined the memory of a beautiful woman, tainting it with her nastiness.

When they saw me, Nisha and Violet stood and rushed over.

"Everything is fine. They didn't make it through the fence, and those within the house are in the panic room."

It was eerily quiet as we walked into the house, Violet rushed down the stairs to the basement, banging on the door. Nisha and I looked at each other, a little perplexed at Violet's behavior. It was almost like she didn't believe me when I said they were alive.

The door opened, and Violet crushed herself into Emmeline's arms, sobbing quietly.

"She told me that they fight a lot."

"They're both stubborn," Nisha muttered. "But they always find a way through their differences. It's something that they have to learn because neither of them have been in a relationship before and Emme's not human or a vampire. We don't know what a normal trait is for her. Violet doesn't see everything, and I guess that she's focusing on what she can hear, keeping the worst of it at the front of her thoughts. When they argue, they step away. Once they've calmed down, they reassess the situation, and when it's done, they turn to how Emme felt and her emotions. It's almost like a study in progress."

As everyone emerged from the room, I saw Nisha turn to me in the corner of my eye. Warily, I turned to look at her. I was cautious because I knew that she was going to say something. Make or break, I hoped for one but believed I'd get the other.