“Why?” he whispered.
“I told you,” she said. “Everything happened so fast. When I woke up this morning, I promised myself I’d come clean about—”
He shook his head, cutting her off and drawing even closer to her mouth. “Why did you let me kiss you?”
Fucking hell,the look in her eyes nearly gutted him. It was the kind of look that could lead a man to his death, and Gabriel was five seconds from following her right over the cliff.
Her lips curved into the softest smile, warm breath ghosting across his thumb.
“Because for all your threats and tough-guy bullshit,” she said, “you’re the first vampire I’ve ever felt safe with.”
Gabriel tried to force out a laugh, but all he managed was a sad little huff. “Thatwas your first fuckup.”
“It wasn’t a fuckup.”
“Then it’s willful ignorance, which is even worse.” He lowered his hand and turned his back on her, desperate to break their intense connection before the last of his anger abandoned him. “I’ve told you, witch. I’m not your white knight.”
“And I’m not some damsel in distress waiting on a fucking fairy tale, so you can take that white knight bullshit and shove it up your arrogant ass. Do you really think that’s why I let you kiss—”
“Arrogant ass?” He spun around to face her again, the air between them crackling with electric heat. “You’ve gotsomenerve speaking to me that way, considering what you did.”
“Me? You came here, intomyhome, and threatened to kill me!”
“This ismyhome, witch. And you nearly got us both killed this morning with that sister of yours—a secret that’s about to destroy a lot of innocent lives.”
“And I said I was sorry. So we can either move forward from there and talk about how to stop Viansa, or you can do what you came here to do and send me to hell in peace.”
“Oh, you’d love that, wouldn’t you? Martyring yourself, leaving the rest of us to clean up your mess.” Gabriel scrubbed a hand over his jaw, his hatred for her deepening by the minute. “I bloodydespisedemons.”
“Good,” she snapped. “I bloodydespisevampires. Way worse than hellspawnanyday of the week.”
“Is that so?”
She folded her arms across her chest, defiant as ever. “Damn straight.”
“So you’re telling me you’d rather I killed a few of my own instead of Chernikov’s mutts? Instead of the bastard whose tongue I ripped out this morning just for sending you into a death trap?”
“You… what?” Her eyes widened, and she reached for him, trailing her fingers along his blood-stained shirt.
But Gabriel didn’t want her touch. Didn’t want to see that fucking look in her eyes again.
He ripped open the shirt and shucked it off, tossing it to the ground with a snarl of disgust. “I’ve bathed in more blood on your account in two months than I have in my entire life as a vampire.”
“I’d say thanks, but if your hero complex gets any bigger—”
“Yes, and we all know how much you appreciate being saved.”
Her gaze burned hot again, then dimmed, a cascade of unbidden tears rushing down her cheeks. She swiped at them hastily, her anger rising right alongside his. “Say what you want about the demons who hurt me, but there’s one thing worse than a monster who brutalizes women for fun, Gabriel. And that’s a monster who sanctions it. A monster who trades favors, using a woman as currency. A monster who offers up a woman like a piece of property to buy or sell or give away, just because he woke up that morning with a burning desire to impress some rich scumbag. You want to hate demons? Fine. Be my guest. But let’s not pretendyourkind aren’t the ones sitting at the top of that fucked-up supernatural food chain, bloodsucker.”
“You’re talking about Duchanes,” he said. It wasn’t a question, and Jacinda didn’t answer. She didn’t need to.
Images of Duchanes flashed behind Gabriel’s eyes—his smarmy smile, his meaty hand on Jacinda’s lower back the night of Dorian’s fundraiser. Even then, Gabriel could see how much the vampire repulsed her—and that was just from the thirty-second public display Duchanes had put on. He couldn’t even imagine what it’d been like for her at home, when all Duchanes’ servants had taken their leave and the doors were shut tight against prying eyes.
Guilt knifed through his gut, mixing with a white-hot rage that burned only for Renault Duchanes.
“Why didn’t you kill him?” he demanded. “You’re a bloody demon, for fuck’s sake. You could’ve lit his ass up with that hellfire and ended your troubles in an instant.”
“And become House Duchanes’ Most Wanted? No way. Besides, I needed the job.”
