I nearly doubled over from the pain slicing through my skull. “Newly installed alarm system,” I gasped finally. “Motion sensors. Exterior cameras. Reinforced locks.”
“Good.”
Bogdan’s fingers paused suddenly on another page. A small hand-drawn flower sat beside last Sunday’s date. Mother’s Day. His gaze lingered there. Then slowly lifted toward me. “You almost told him who you are. How unfortunate that must have been for you.”
I said nothing.
Bogdan studied me carefully. “Do you think he would have accepted you?”
Some awful hopeful part of me had wondered. Conrad had accepted every strange thing about me so far. The clothes. The habits. The odd knowledge. The hearse.
He had looked at me like I was precious long before he ever kissed me. And for one risky, stupid moment after Mother’s Day, drinking tea together while the children slept upstairs—I had imagined telling him the truth about me.
Bogdan read the answer on my face immediately. His smile turned almost pitying. “Oh, darling.”
I hated that tone most of all.
“As though mortals ever survive loving creatures like us.”
“We are not talking about this.”
“No?” He leaned back comfortably. “Then perhaps we shall discuss your punishment instead.” Bogdan closed the planner. “You trapped me beneath the Atlantic Ocean for a hundred-and-seventeen years.” Every syllable landed with terrifying calm. “You humiliated me.”
I forced myself not to react.
“I should kill you for that.”
I already knew this conversation would end with my death. The certainty of it had settled into me the moment I opened the cottage door. But if he intended to kill only me?—
Fine. I could survive that. I could survive almost anything if it kept Conrad and the kids safe.
Bogdan rose slowly from the chair and crossed the room toward me.
I remained perfectly still while he adjusted a loose strand of my hair behind my ear with maddening gentleness.
“You always were at your prettiest when frightened.”
Revulsion crawled through me. His hand lingered briefly against my cheek. Then he smiled.
“I want you to put them to rest.”
Everything inside me stopped. For a second, I genuinely could not breathe.No.
No, no, no?—
Bogdan’s expression remained pleasantly conversational. “The widower. The children. I’d like for you to drain them dry.”
My entire body recoiled instinctively. “I won’t.”
Pain exploded instantly through my nervous system. I dropped hard against the kitchen counter, teeth clenched against the cry clawing up my throat.
Bogdan watched calmly. “You misunderstand, poppet.”
The bond tightened harder. Just enough to remind me exactly who owned my blood.
“You do not possess the ability to refuse.”
22
