Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 72056 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 360(@200wpm)___ 288(@250wpm)___ 240(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72056 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 360(@200wpm)___ 288(@250wpm)___ 240(@300wpm)
“Linked how?”
“His bite marks were found on the chests of both corpses.”
I should probably feel something. Two vampires dead. Despite my paternity, though, I don’t feel a connection to the Brotherhood. “So? Lots of vamps get bitten by weres and live to tell the tale. Lycans are hardly lethal to us.”
“They are when they literally eat our hearts out.”
This time I feel something. Chills slither along the back of my neck. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me. The victims’ hearts were gone, and Rogan’s marks were all over them.”
“Still circumstantial.”
“Circumstantial how? You think he attacked them, left them immobile, and then someone else came along and sliced out their hearts?”
“Why not? The lycans know better than to mess with us.”
I can’t help a sarcastic chuckle. The lycans know better than to mess with us. That was my thought at the time.
That was before I met Victor Rogan.
Victor Rogan is as alpha as they come, and he’ll mess with anyone. Vampire, demon, you name it.
Rogan is badass.
But he’s not a murderer.
I felt it then, and I feel it now.
And yes, he may have killed, but he’s not a killer.
I know this as well as I know anything. I feel it in the deepest recesses of my soul.
If he killed, it was because he had no other choice.
And it occurs to me…
Who were these vampires? Why didn’t I get more details from my father?
Easy enough to answer the second question. I didn’t care at the time. I feel no connection to the Vampire Brotherhood or even to my father.
Now? I want to know. Not because I care about the vamps in question, but because I care about Rogan. If Rogan felt these vamps had to die, he had a good reason.
And I’m going to find out what it is.
“Start talking,” I say to him, “and don’t leave out a single dirty detail.”
30
Rogan doesn’t speak at first. I’m not overly surprised. Clearly he’s been lying to me from the beginning.
But I’m not in any hurry. I have nowhere to go. Hell, I don’t even know where we are. We’re simply in a bedroom.
So I wait.
And I wait.
Seconds pass…and then minutes.
Until—
“It’s not what you think,” he finally says.
“I have no idea what to think. According to my father, your bite marks were all over those two vamps. And—”
I drop my jaw open.
“What?” he asks.
Until this instance I had forgotten my father’s most important words—the words he said to me when he first put me on this assignment.
I was so taken by Rogan at the sight of him that I forgot.
“There’s been a threat to the Brotherhood. One of the lycans has allegedly aligned with a demon.”
My father was talking about Rogan.
But Rogan can’t be aligned with a demon. He just fought demons for me. He got me the hell out of my stepfather’s lair.
I consider my father’s words once more. He didn’t say Rogan had aligned himself with all demons, just one.
And it can’t be my stepfather. Can it?
“You going to answer me?” Rogan says.
My mouth is still dropped into an O. I don’t know what to say. He has admitted to killing those two vamps, but he claims he’s not the one who cut their hearts out. Is my father mistaken? Is Rogan not aligned with a demon?
And if he’s not, why did he kill those two vamps? He claims it was to defend members of his pack. If that’s the truth, why isn’t he telling me?
“Start talking,” I say.
“So you’re not going to answer me then. You’re not going to tell me why you had a look on your face like you just figured out the meaning of life.”
Hardly. “No. I’m not going to tell you anything. I’m not the one who’s done something wrong here. You killed two of my people.”
He scoffs. “Your people? Since when do you even consider them your people?”
Rogan has a point.
“Does it really matter? Does it matter whether they were my people or not? What matters is you killed, Rogan. You killed two people. I don’t care if they were wolves, vampires, humans, or whatever.”
“What if they were demons?”
I meet his gaze. His green eyes are blazing with fire.
“Maybe you should tell me,” I say. “Tell me about all those demons who work for you.”
“Everyone in Las Vegas has demons on the payroll.”
“And why might that be?”
“You already know the answer to that, princess. Demons are great at security.”
“Not as great as you think. Your penthouse sure wasn’t secure. I was abducted by demons in your walk-in closet.”
“I’m still not exactly sure how that happened,” he says.
“Yeah, and I’m just that gullible. Don’t lie to me, Rogan.”
“I’m not lying, princess.” He curls his hands into fists. “You’re my fucking mate. Do you think I’d put you in danger intentionally? I don’t know how the fuck they got to you, but trust me—as soon as we’re able to return, I’m going to figure it out.”