Vanished Pride (The Seven Sin Sisters 4) by Paloma Beck Page A

He’d always
assumed the women of the Magdalena Circle knew far more than the Valendite Breed. The Circle
of Magdalena , as referred to in modern day, is the only vessel for
procreation and life sustenance of the Valendite breeds. The determinate for
finding their mate was in finally partaking in or being free from their soul sin.
Passing down this history from one generation to the next was paramount, which
is why Donovan kept his family’s books well preserved.
    Donovan often wondered about the times of the Italian Wars in the early
1500s, and the eventual consequences.
    Those living on the Italian peninsula had no alliances when the war
started, and the Italians stood no chance of victory. He understood why their
scientists developed these chemicals that transformed men into the ultimate
soldiers.
    It was the actions after the war, after these men were no longer needed,
that chafed him. Since much of their strength had been hidden, and their
unanticipated need for blood was concealed easily enough on the battlefield, no
one knew of them. They had resumed as normal a life as possible once the Peace
of Cateau-Cambresis was signed and the French renounced
any further claims to Italy.
    Normal was relative. Their need for blood meant they lived in solitude
among their own kind for years, eventually returning to wives who possessed no
understanding for what had happened to them. Some men mistakenly killed their
own wives. Mistrustful of those who might be frightened or threatened by their
gifts, they had nowhere to turn and the scientists who worked in the labs had
since past away. The Valendite Breed learned to drink from one another, a blood
exchange that left them unfulfilled and empty. After they settled into life on
the Italian hillsides, the wives who survived weren’t able to conceive, and
soon began to die anyway as their husbands lived longer lives.
    In desperation, the men assembled their women at the steps of the
cathedral in Rome, the place most known for sanctity, to ask for God’s
intervention in their lives. Pleading, one woman by the name of Magdalena, offered
a sacrifice in exchange for fertility. Her plea was granted. Each woman present
that day – seven in total – were filled by one of the seven deadly sins in
exchange for the honor of bearing breed children, continuing the race and
nourishing their breed mates.
    Donovan moved to kneel before Paige. “Why read history on our
Pronouncement?”
    “I want to feel a connection to all those women who came before me. My
mother raised us to believe that since we are connected through the earth and
the elements, we are linked through past generations. Imagining their lives
humbles me,” Paige smiled up at Donovan and shrugged. “We both know I need that
humbling every once in a while.”
    Donovan leaned forward and kissed Paige. “You are transforming before my
eyes.”
    “Thank you,” Paige replied warmly before turning her attention back to
the book in her lap. “Did you know the leader of the rebellion in the late
1800s was by a woman said to carry the soul sin of pride?”
    “That is not your burden.” Donovan knew she was referring to the
generation of women who became unhappy in their roles and sought out
independence from the bonds that held them to the breeds. Without their mates,
the women could survive; the breed mate was the only to suffer from separation.
Upon learning this some women began leaving to travel to other countries and
begin lives apart from the Valendite Breed.
    “And what if it is? Surely, this prophecy is coming to pass. I can feel
it. I can also feel that I will have some important role in it, Donovan. I’m
worried.”
    “Do you remember the part of the story that tells of the women who
disobeyed being killed in the great storm of Samhain in
1804? An apparition appeared outside the cathedral ruins that day and spoke to
the women present...”
    Paige finished his story, “And she said to them, ‘You shall call