Page 117 of Eternal Obsession

“Excuse me?” I snapped. “This is my home. I’ll creep around in it all I want.”

She followed me into the dark, maintaining a little distance.

I hunched in the shadows.

Ingrid’s eyes adjusted. “You look a little rough.”

Silence.

My heart churned with turmoil.

Ingrid stood, a feminine echo of that one extraordinary night we had shared. Where time paused, and for the first time in centuries, I felt the warmth of true affection. She reminded me of what I had been starved of for so long. But now, the ache was sharper than ever, knowing we could never be more than this, adversaries bound by fate. I was everything she opposed, a creature of darkness undeserving of her love.

More than this, if she ever learned the truth, the passion in her eyes would dim and turn to sorrow, and she would spend the rest of her life chasing my ruination.

“Jadeon?” she said, waking me from my reflection.

“Please, leave.”

The last few hours had been a waking nightmare. Staging a body at Stonehenge just to give them a reason to release Alex. Getting roughed up by Orpheus’ thugs, and then . . . then losing Alex altogether.

I couldn’t exactly ask her about the ancient site. I wasn’t supposed to know about the body placed there, or the chaos I’d unleashed.

“Jadeon, we need to discuss your brother⁠—”

“I can’t talk.”

Ingrid is so close to me, and the yearning that rises in my chest nearly unmakes me. My heart splintered by everything unraveling around me. Even so, all I want more than anything is just a few stolen moments with this extraordinary woman. And yet this anguish, twisting inside me is relentless, a torment so cruel that I can barely draw breath.

Finally, I said, “What happened?”

“With what?”

I glared at her. “I warned you to let him go.”

“Your brother?”

“Alex.” His name caught in my throat.

“Where is he?” she said.

“What?”

“Alex?”

I studied her. “What happened to him?”

“I know your lawyers expedited his release.”

“What lawyers?”

“Are you telling me those lawyers weren’t sent by you. . . ?”

I sprang to my feet. “Who are you talking about?”

“Alex was released from the holding cell about an hour after you left. Three men, all lawyers, took him out of the police station. I thought you knew about it.”

“Did Alex leave before dawn?”