Page 58 of The Coven’s Sacrifice

She tilted her head. “Then how did you manage to end the blood vow?”

“I freed the last three vampires,” I said, not wanting to refer to them as monsters anymore. They weren’t in my eyes.

“You set them free?!” she gasped, her tone bordering on angry. “Colin! You can’t just release these monsters out into the world! They’ll just kill innocent people!”

I rolled my eyes at that. “Mom, I need you to listen, okay?” She nodded, and I then told her how the blood vow really started. How these men were soldiers, celebrating a big win. How one woman had cursed them all. They remained silent as I talked, then I explained that each sacrifice chose one vampire and were free from the mansion. Mother didn’t seem to believe that part, and why would she? Her sister was supposedly out there but had yet to reach out to her.

Dad took the phone. “I just don’t understand how you freed them then? Didn’t you say each sacrifice picked one monster?”

I shrugged. “I fell in love with three.”

“Fell in love?!” Mom gasped. “You come home this instance! These monsters have ruined you!”

I sighed. “Mom, listen. I love them and have claimed them as mine. I will not ever leave their side, okay?”

She shook her head, eyes wide. “They have broken you. Corrupted you!”

Jacob sighed next to me. “We will ask Sophie to call her if Jetty finds her. Maybe she will listen to her sister.”

“You dare mention her name, you monster!” Mom shouted.

I glared at my mother. “I love the man you just called a monster. I will not accept anything but respect when you talk to or about them, you hear me?”

She just shook her head and hung up on me.

In a flash, I had my men around me, their arms holding me tight. I hadn’t realized I was crying until they begged me not to. They hated seeing me this upset, but how could I not be? My own mother had been so against me being in love with them, that she’d failed to even hear me out. The worst part was that somehow, I knew they’d never change their mind about this, no matter if my aunt Sophie showed up. I knew deep down that me being with them was a deal breaker. I’d seen it in her eyes, so cold and hurt. There was detachment in them. She’d literally cut me out of their lives while we were talking. And to think I’d been so blindly loyal to these people, enough to risk my own life coming here.

“I am so sorry, my precious,” Alexander whispered. “Had we known they would react like this…”

“You would what?” I chuckled, wiping my eyes. “Hold my phone hostage?”

His smile was sad. “No, I would have prepared you for how it felt to lose your family.”

“Oh.” Now that I thought about it, I’d never really asked them about their families. “You never got a chance to say goodbye, did you?”

They shook their heads, grief taking over their emotions, and anger. “The witch coven picked some of our family members for us to…” Jacob began, cutting himself off and clearing his throat. He was truly affected by whatever he was about to say.

“Some of the sacrifices we were fed were our family members,” Harland finished for Jacob. “I killed Jacob’s sister.”

Jacob cried, allowing Harland to comfort him. I was just gaping at them. “They fucking did what?!”

Alexander nodded glumly. “We thankfully never attacked our own families, but they were eaten by the others. We could only watch.”

“Your entire families?” I dared ask.

Harland shook his head. “I lost two family members, Alexander and Jacob lost three each.”

“We were lucky,” Alexander laughed without humor. “Some lost their entire families.”

“I hate this coven with all that I am,” I stated, feeling so unbelievably incensed.

They each kissed me, lingering just a tad longer than normal.

“Let us not mourn the past,” Alexander said, wiping my eyes. “Let us instead honor them by dealing with the coven who started all of this.”

“Agreed,” Harland and Jacob said. I just nodded.

And then Jetty appeared out of thin air, startling all of us.