“Later,” she says.
My beast nearly trips over himself.
Cruz appears out of the gloom, dragging Moira by one hand while she curses in three languages.“Are you two flirting during an ambush again?”
“Again?”Moira snaps.
“It’s becoming a pattern,” Cruz says.
Briana and I answer together.“Shut up.”
The banshee wails.The sound rips through the glamour like claws through silk.Darkness tears open in strips, revealing the room in pulsing red light.Lucius is moving toward a door beneath the stairs to the holding rooms where they do all sorts of despicable things.
The bond turns cold.“We follow,” she says.
“Aldron said wait.”
“Aldron isn’t wearing my fucking trauma.”
A growl rises, not at her, but at the truth.
I touch the charm in my ear.“Lucius is going below.”
Aldron’s voice answers instantly.“Don’t pursue alone.”
“I’m not alone.”A pause.
Then Ari’s voice cuts in.“Briana?”
“I’m here.”
“Be careful.”
Briana’s mouth curves, but her eyes stay on the door.“I brought a Minotaur.”
Ari snorts.“Valid.”
Aldron says something sharp in the background that we all choose to ignore.Briana releases my hand long enough to lift her skirts and move toward the stairs.The loss of contact bites, but then she reaches back without looking, and I take her hand again.And the beast settles.
The door beneath the stairs opens into a narrow, sloping hallway.Red velvet covers the walls.The floor is concrete under a threadbare carpet.
Briana stops, and the bond floods with memory.Smoke.Hands.Music through walls.Pain at her throat.
I step closer, my chest nearly against her back, but not touching until she leans into me.She leans, and I lower my mouth near her ear.“It’s fake.”
Her breath shudders.
“You aren’t theirs.”
Her fingers tighten around mine.
“You are mine because you chose me.”
“And you are mine,” she whispers, “because you chose me too.”
The bond warms, and she moves forward.At the first landing, two vampires guard a black door.They see her and smile.
“Lucius said the marked pet would come running,” one says.
