Chosen by the Vamprie, Book One

Chapter Four

Summoned.

The word coiled tight in my mind. I'd never get used to being summoned like we were less than a human. Less than anything but a pet, a slave at their beckoning... it was exactly the Sinfuls' intention. They planned to suppress us, break us, and it burned me up with hatred. I'd planned this moment for years, practiced controlling my emotions, memorized the rules.

Never escape.

Never say no.

Never look ungrateful.

I was theirs and I'd better like it or they'd know. Didn't matter that we were the payment to cover our family debt to the Sinful. None of that was important anymore. Just survival.

That brunette in the woods had run for her life... her terrified scream still rang in my ears. The devastation twisting her parents' faces would haunt me for eternity. No one should go through such horrific loss, no one... my heart clenched at the memory I wished I'd never witnessed.

The shuffle of shoes on the stone floor had me raising my head toward the servant, who retreated from our room, leaving the door ajar. No locking us in, and I exchanged puzzled looks with the two girls who shared my room.

Willa pushed loose strands of red hair out of her face, green eyes watery and fearful, her chin quivering. "Y-you t-think it's a trick?"

I stared at the door. "I wouldn't put anything past them."

"They summoned us," Chaska's words trembled as she pushed toward the door, shoulders stiff, arms swinging by her sides.

Instinct tore through me. I lunged after her, snatching her arm. "I wouldn't do that."

I shouldn't have bothered, but I couldn't get the brunette's scream out of my head, couldn't stop picturing the old man being dragged away. The Sinful showed no mercy, no second chances, and I'd had enough of death for one day.

Chaska ripped her arm away. Her breaths came hard and fast as she turned toward me, her wide eyes filled with fear. "You're going against their command if you stop me."

I was shaking my head. "No, we don't leave our rooms until we're called on. The servant never gave an order. He simply said we were summoned."

She stared at me with those black-rimmed almond eyes, long lashes, and arched brows like I was losing my mind, but everything I'd discovered about the Sinful showed them as ruthless, taking joy in playing games. Nothing would be simple with them. Nothing.

"It could have been an order?" Willa asked.

"See, even she agrees," Chaska answered, not bothering to spare a glance at Willa.

"And what if you're wrong?" I murmured, my arms trembling with the need to make her understand. "You're willing to risk everything?"

"What if you're wrong?" she insisted. "Have you forgotten what they did to that girl in the woods?" The color drained from her face, and Willa winced, turning toward the window, where the wind shook the trees in the distance. We were so far high up on the mountain, so far from our homes.

I dragged in a harsh, raspy breath, unable to stop remembering the girl's scream, wanting it wiped from my mind, but it clung to my thoughts like cobwebs.

"Eira was scared," Willa muttered and turned to us, swiping at her eyes. "I knew her from Windtorn, you know? Her family's had bad luck since she was born. She broke her arm three times, caught the pox twice. The flooded river took out their house completely and didn't touch another. Some say she was cursed as a baby."

Chaska rolled her eyes. "Superstitious nonsense. This has nothing to do with being unlucky and everything to do with our families not paying their debts. Now we're the ones to pay that price. That's what we are to them, currency. At least Eira did what all of us were thinking of doing."