A vampire appeared beside the booth almost instantly the second she lifted two fingers. Ezra took the fresh drink from him without looking away from me once. Then slid it across the table.
I stared at it. Then at her.
Her brow lifted impatiently when I didn’t grab it immediately.
Another test.Everything with her felt like a test. Dominance. Pressure. Observation.
My mates flashed through my mind suddenly. Calix’s grin, Rack’s steady calm, and I grabbed the drink. Alcohol splashed over my fingers while I lifted it and swallowed every drop hard enough my throat burned and I slammed the empty glass onto the table between us.
“I’m not giving up,” I said before I could stop myself.
Something sharp crossed Ezra’s face. Not anger. Interest.
Then another drink appeared, and another, and another. Each one slid toward me silently and each one I drank with vigor.
Around us, Nova and Aniyah had stopped dancing completely. I could hear them now over the pounding music.
“Ezra…” Nova warned quietly.
Aniyah looked genuinely nervous for the first time all night, but I still kept drinking, because every time Ezra watched me withthose cold assessing eyes, something stubborn inside me refused to back down. I wanted her to see I wasn’t weak. That I belonged beside her brothers.
Finally the drinks stopped and my head hung low, heavy enough I struggled lifting it again. The room tilted strangely beneath the alcohol.
A floating hand made of shadows wrapped around my chin, tilting my face up to see Ezra only inches from me now. Close enough I could see the fire burning beneath those pale pink eyes for the first time tonight and fear crawled straight through my bloodstream.
“If,” she said softly, “you ever betray this family…” Her grip tightened slightly. “If you ever betray Calix, I won’t kill you.”
My pulse stumbled hard beneath my ribs.
“No,” Ezra murmured. “I’ll let you live just so I could strip your life apart piece by piece until every breath hurts.”
The club disappeared around us completely now. Only her voice existed.
“I’ll tear your mind down slowly. Until fear becomes the only thing you recognize. And when you finally beg me to let you die, I’ll let you think you escaped.”
A tiny smile touched her mouth.
“Then years later, when you’ve finally convinced yourself you’re happy again…” Her eyes darkened. “I’ll destroy you all over again.”
Fear hit me so hard my entire body reacted before my brain caught up. My hands started shaking first. Then my stomachtwisted sharply enough to make the alcohol turn sour in my throat.
Every single thing she described wrapped around my mind in vivid detail. Years of suffering, years of being hunted and broken down piece by piece until nothing was left of me but pain.
There wasn’t a single ounce of doubt in me that Ezra could do every horrifying thing she promised and sleep peacefully afterward.
But even through the fear clawing through my chest, one thing stayed painfully clear inside me. I would never betray my mates.
Never.
Not if my own life depended on it. Betraying the Syndicate would mean betraying him too, because this familywashim. His blood. His heart.
I dragged together the last scraps of courage left floating around in my drunken brain and forced myself to glare back at her.
“Then do it.”
Ezra’s brow lifted slowly.
The words shocked even me a little, but the alcohol had apparently burned away whatever survival instinct normally stopped my mouth from running wild, so I kept going.
