Page 43 of Call of the Blood

Alexius was standing up as Maria spoke.

“Don’t do it,” Maria said sharply as he turned for the door.

“Excuse me? Don’t do what?” He could hear the growl in his own words.

“Interrupt her. Don’t do it. Let her have this.”

“How…” Maria was good at reading the ways of men and women. Isaiah never gave her enough credit. Maria had read him like an open book, though he hadn’t been working hard enough to keep his feelings private. Or he’d been utterly failing to do so after trying to hold it for so long.

“You need to ask yourself if you can stand seeing her with someone else because if you can’t, you better be ready to fulfill the role. Anything outside of those two options is robbing her of a life she could be enjoying to its fullest, and you know that as well as I do.” Maria laughed. “As for how? Alexius… Isaiah tried to hide the part about you waking up from a healing sleep in a berserker’s rage, but there were enough witnesses to how she lay in front of you, injured and vulnerable herself, and you nuzzled into her and fell back asleep.

“Most ancients already think there is something there. I cannot tell you how many of them are wondering how a fiery little redhead finally claimed Alexius the Hunter in his own household, a place so few have ever been to or even heard a whisper about. The whole world who is privy is five steps ahead of you,” she said, laughing harder before turning back to the glass. “And the only people who are suffering for it are you and her. She, who would throw herself at monsters previously unknown and unfathomable to our kind… for you.”

He walked out, unable to listen anymore.

Damn her…

He growled to himself as he walked into the main club.

I guess it was something I needed to hear, though, the rumors the other ancients are spreading around.

He knew he was about to fuel those rumors, but he couldn’t handle the idea of Everly with some stranger in the club. He hadn’t been able to tell if the person was human or vampire. He didn’t care. It was possessive. It was controlling. It was wildly out of character for him to the point that his step stuttered once he realized just how out of character it was. He wasn’t possessive. No. Not him.

But now he was in a situation he couldn’t get out of.

His eyes met her green ones, and he saw the temper in her gaze. She had realized what he had been about to do. She lifted a hand to the man she was speaking to and dismissed herself from the conversation, leaving him hopefully watching her until he saw Alexius in the direction she was walking. That was when Alexius realized it was a vampire, because the fear that took over could only have been from one.

“What are you doing down here?” Everly asked him very softly.

“I didn’t think…” Alexius trailed off. “You can’t possibly want that,” he finally forced out. “You don’t want him.”

“Don’t tell me what I want,” she hissed.

For the first time, he faced her fury, realizing he had two choices. His avoidance, the third option, was no longer available. He either fell to the lust between them and that became part of their relationship, or he put a final nail in the coffin, killing it and letting her move on with some random man in the club or a vampire in a different nest. Whatever she needed.

He didn’t like the idea of her with someone else.

And he thought she was beautiful when she was angry, and that didn’t change even when it was directed at him.

So devastatingly beautiful.

Some switch in him was flipped now, and he knew there was only one option for him.

“Why not?” he leaned down low, his fingers testing as he reached for her hip. She didn’t pull away, so he grabbed it and drew her closer. “We both know what you want.”

“You arrogant son of a bitch,” she hissed, but there was something breathless in the words. She reached for his hand, grabbing it and trying to pull it without being obvious. Until she told him to remove it, though, he was going to keep right where it was. She knew how to use her words, and now he expected her to.

“I’m done with Maria, and there’s nothing here for either of us,” he said softly, finally turning on everything he knew about seducing a woman, angry or not. “Let’s go.”

18

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

“Ihave too much on my plate to deal with you,” I hissed, trying to ignore the way his face had changed, the way he loomed over me, the way he was holding my hip. My heart rate was skyrocketing for a vampire. I couldn’t stop the instinctual way my breathing was shallow and fast and nervous. “What are you doing?”

He turned me gently and started walking, his arm around my waist.

“Taking us home. Is there anything else you need here?”