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Ice shrugs. “Since Mathias already attacked, I’m not telling her anything she doesn’t already know.”
“Enough. We can’t waste time squabbling while his power grows,” Bram snaps. “In the past month, reports of missing men among the human male population in England are up threefold. There have been two full-scale attacks on magical families, one on the MacKinnetts, a member of the ruling Council. The other on a Privileged family with two breedable daughters. One of the girls is already dead, the other still missing.”
I single out one of the images. “This picture shows what Mathias did to the dead woman?”
Ice nods. “It’s called Terriforz.”
“Tell her.” Bram cedes the floor.
Menace rolls over Ice as he prowls closer. “Mathias gets off on torture, and his version, Terriforz, kills slowly. He forces a woman to beg for him but leaves her fully aware that she’s being raped. After Mathias got tired of the victim depicted here, he gave her to his army. She was used to death. He’s already moved on to the next unfortunate female.”
“Let us help keep Olivia safe from this fate,” Bram goes on. “Train us in human combat.”
Marrok hesitates, then sets his jaw. “I want no part of this. Staying here places Olivia in greater danger. I will take her elsewhere and—”
“What if he follows you? Finds you?”
“He will not.”
“Can you be sure?” Bram challenges. “Now that Mathias knows who has the book, he will hunt you, no matter where you hide. Don’t you see? He already has.”
Marrok dismisses Bram with a wave of his hand. “He had help locating me.”
“Agreed. Someone at the party overheard Olivia’s thoughts and came after you, but we don’t know for certain who betrayed us. And that doesn’t change the fact that Mathias—”
“I have an idea who double-crossed us,” Lucan breaks in.
Marrok whips around to face the wizard. “Tell me.”
I tense, hoping like hell Lucan has a better theory than Marrok. It can’t be my father. Granted, I don’t know him well, and he was once Mathias’s second-in-command, but it doesn’t make sense to take the evil wizard out once, then help him regain power.
Lucan’s burning blue gaze snaps across the room. “Shock can read others’ thoughts. He heard Olivia’s. His family is crawling with Mathias sympathizers. How many turned Anarki, Shock? Zain, the one we captured, for sure.”
At the sound of his brother’s name, Shock snorts. “Congratulations on catching an idiot barely out of nappies. Very brave of you.”
“He’s old enough to don Anarki robes and kill people. You’d stand to gain a lot if Mathias’s ideals about equality were adopted…but my mate still wouldn’t want you.”
Shock lunges over the sofa to leap at Lucan’s throat. “Motherfucker!”
Lucan holds off Shock’s attack—barely—with a raised hand that creates some invisible forcefield. But the effort costs him. Sweat breaks out across Lucan’s forehead. He tenses, the tendons in his neck standing out as he strains to maintain control. My jaw drops. And still, Shock keeps charging and cursing Lucan.
Finally, Shock flings a hand in Lucan’s direction. A buzzing fills the room. Lucan gasps as if a thousand-pound weight landed on his chest. Then he twitches and drops his hand. Shock invades his personal space with a growl and wraps his hand around Lucan’s neck.
“Listen, you holier-than-thou fuck, I—”
“What’s your magical blood mixed with?” Lucan croaks. “Your whole family is known for their evil tempers. Did your tainted blood win out after Bram’s get-together? Did you get cozy with Mathias and put Olivia at risk?”
Shock’s fingers tighten around Lucan’s throat. “Anka is too good for you.”
Lucan growls in Shock’s face. “But she’ll always be mine. Did she refuse you because you’re part vampire? Because you’re infected with darklust? What are those sunglasses you never remove hiding?”
“The exact moment I’m going to rip you apart with my bare hands.”
“Stop, both of you!” Bram demands.
I can’t blame him for being exasperated. Lucan enjoys baiting Shock. And Shock… Is there really such a thing as being part vampire?
Bram, though not the biggest badass in the room, carries the mantle of a leader, cool most of the time but commanding when he has to be—like now.
