Richard: Blood Brotherhood – Erotic Paranormal Dark Fantasy Romance Read Online Free Page A

was doing was a mystery to her. Not that Lucia cared, but if Ryiah was having fun or enjoying something, Lucia would put a stop to it. Lately, that had been harder to do. Her sister didn’t seem to enjoy anything anymore.
    “Serves her right in not dying when I wanted her to.” Wiping at the window, Lucia pretended to remove Ryiah’s head. “If only it were so easy, I would have done it long ago and be in full power with her magic.”
    Lucia looked around, and when she saw no one near her, she sat down and let her fear take her. She was very afraid of Ryiah. Terrified that someday she’d figure out that Lucia was the younger of them and not the oldest by the hour that really separated them. Her mother had had a plan, one that she was sure now she’d meant to profit from.
    Her mother had told Lucia that if she wanted to get ahead, she must make her sister heel to her. For Ryiah’s power was going to be great, and that once she came to her own, it would destroy all that Lucia wanted. Men would not adore her, nor would she be able to have the finest of things. And Lucia, even then, had wanted it all. The pretties that should be hers, her mother told her. Jewels and money, more than she’d be able to spend, would be hers for the taking, but only if she would take the place of her sister. Lucia hadn’t understood that until Ryiah came into her power on their thirteenth birthday first. It had been something so grand and amazing that Lucia had been sorely disappointed when her turn came.
    Hers had no bright lights before her eyes as her sister’s had. No marking on her body had come to her, and no magic had come to her from the earth. Lucia was given more magic, yes, but not on the scale that her sister had. Lucia had been devastated. But her mother once again had stepped in and helped her.
    Shutting her away in the shed, her mother told Ryiah and anyone else who asked that Lucia was overwhelmed by the magic that had come to her, and she needed quiet to deal with it. When she’d been freed of her confines, people were disappointed that she looked no different. But Mother had said it was because Lucia was so beautiful, and that her magic wasn’t something to take away from that.
    It had broken Lucia’s heart when she’d had to have her mother murdered by the Council. But she simply knew too much. Even when her mother told them what she’d done, screaming at Lucia to tell them, she’d turned her back on her only ally and decided that with her gone, there wasn’t anyone to gainsay her on killing Ryiah. But that hadn’t worked out either.
    But by then she’d taught her sister that she was the stronger and by far more magical than Ryiah would ever be. Lies and deceit seemed to be easier for Lucia than telling the truth and being nice to Ryiah. Thankfully her sister had been beaten down so much over the previous years that Lucia hadn’t had to do much to keep her there. Had she not done what she had, Lucia would be the one trailing after her sister, doing the worst jobs possible and hating her to the point where murder would be all that she thought about. Looking down at her sister now, Lucia saw her sit in the grass and look out among the trees, and she wondered what other things she could do that Lucia could not.
    “She would never have treated me the way I do her. Her heart, at one time, was soft, and she too kind. Because she’s a sap, I would have gotten some of what I wanted, but not all. Ryiah would have been kind with her magic. Sharing what she had with me. Keeping me in the manner that I wanted, and she’d never have harmed anyone.” Lucia laughed. “She’s very lucky that I was smart enough to know that to get ahead in this world, you have to cut a few heads off.”
    But what to do with Richard.
    His family had been a pain in her ass since she was young. His brother first. Malcomb had shunned her twice when she’d gone to him about becoming his lover. Yes, she was younger than him, but she’d been