Desecrated Beauty (Twisted Fairy Tales #1) by Kyleigh Castronaro

turning and running up the stairs of the manor, rushing through the hallways until she found a bedroom that was unoccupied and slammed the door shut like a child.
    She was still shaking even after she closed the way between her and Nero. Not that he couldn’t have stopped her if he wanted to. Still, she stepped back from the door and pushed the dresser in front of it, hoping to block him out completely. When she determined she felt safe enough, she slumped to the ground in a heap.
    Vampires… Vampires were real. How was that possible?
    She couldn’t’ very well believe it let alone wrap her head around it. It couldn’t be real if vampires were real what else was real? She had seen the blood baths herself, there had been nothing supernatural about them. Just savage destruction, literal rivers of blood had streamed down the streets. Why would they have wasted so much?
    She shook her head, covering her ears like it would block out the words he’d said, stop her memories and keep reality as she had known it intact. But beyond the darkness behind her eyelids she could see her father, his insistence that she had to be stronger, faster, better than anyone else. Was he trying to save her? Was he trying to ensure she was strong enough that she was useful to them and never a possible meal plan? But if that was true, why did he let Rose go? Why did he push her toward having a patron? She could’ve been broken the way Quill had been, she could’ve been made into the same well-oiled machine as her sister. It wasn’t fair. The lack of childhood she had possessed and the pain she’d endured at the hand of a man who had said he loved her and that what he did, he did to make her stronger.
    She had the scars lining her back from his belt where it had broken the skin. She could still feel the trickle of blood running down her spine from the slight slits he’d created. Her heart was permanently broken because he had beaten her so badly her heart had been unable to cope with the stress of it. He had signed her death warrant. There was no love, no protection in that. She would’ve been better off with a patron like Rose if that were his intention - would she not have been?
    But the idea of spending the rest of her life at the beck and call of someone who only wanted her for her life force… She couldn’t bear it. She wouldn’t.
    A knock echoed through the room after a few moments and she turned her head sharply to look at it.
    “Fuck off!”
    “Now, that’s no way to speak to your host.”
    “I don’t care. I’m not going to be your meal.”
    “I told you, Isabelle, that’s not what I want from you.”
    “Quill, my name is Quill.”
    “I think Isabelle is more suiting for you than that silly nickname.” The dresser rattled a little as he tried to open it and she jumped to her feet watching in horror as he managed to move it by pushing the door open. She moved quickly around the room, feeling naked without her knife as she searched around for something to use instead. It was stupid, but she brandished the lamp without its shade like a sword as he entered the room.
    Nero took one look at her and laughed, “Isabelle…” He tsked her like a child before moving closer, “I know you’re scared right now. This is why I wanted to tell you with time. I wanted to get you accustomed to the idea before giving you the whole truth. You put me in an awkward position…”
    “I’m not scared, I’m freaking out okay! I don’t…” She didn’t know anything, she didn’t know what the point of her whole existence was anymore. The rebellion was a sham, they would never be able to take down a nest of vampires and there was no military conspiracy like most of them assumed. They were all just sitting ducks, waiting for the vampires to descend on their compound and tear their throats out. Her sister was no safer there than she had been here. In fact, with Nero’s protection she might’ve been safer. At least other vampires