Page 43 of Fang Fiction

“Do you think I don’t know?” he spat.

“Know what?” Isobel tried to keep her tone casual, but she was inwardly quaking with fear.

“About your betrayal.” He grabbed her dress and yanked her close—even through her terror, she could sense desire pulsing through him, and she felt her own respond in kind.

“You know every detail of my betrayal.” She snaked her arms around his neck, and though his skin was icy as always, his breath was hot. “Because you’ve been here for every second of it.”

He kissed her deeply, pressing his body against hers, and she cried out with pleasure from the feel of him, the endless torment of wanting him so badly—no matter how much he gave her, she always wanted more. He dragged his fingers through her hair, twisting it into a rope at the base of her skull, pulling her head backward to expose her neck.

“Yes,” she breathed. She wanted to feel his mouth against her skin, to give herself over to his most savage desires. But he just leaned in and whispered in her ear…

“I don’t mean your betrayal of Felix,” he snarled. “I mean your betrayal of me.”

Isobel went absolutely still. It wasn’t possible. There was no way he could know that she was the one who’d overheard his plans and shared them with Felix, who’d sentenced his clan to a humiliating and bloody defeat in their latest battle. She’d been so careful to cover her tracks, to tell Callum it was Felix himself who’d overheard Callum and Nantale discussing strategy in the forest. Callum had seemed to believe her at the time…but the way he was looking at her now, she knew she’d been a fool. He knew the truth, and he was going to punish her for it.

“Please,” she whispered. “Callum, I do care for you, really—”

“I don’t need you to care for me.” He pulled her hair tighter. “This thing with us—it isn’t love. I’ve never needed that from you—I’ve certainly never asked you for it. But ten members of my clan are dead because of you. What would you do if the situation was reversed, Isobel? What would you do if your friends were dead because of me?”

“My friends are dead because of you!” Isobel snapped. “How many members of my clan have you killed, ripped apart with your bare hands?”

“Didn’t stop you from getting into my bed,” Callum growled. “Where, as I recall, you had no complaints about what I can do with my hands.”

He kept her hair firmly gripped in one hand, then ran the other down her side, moving it dangerously close to her center.

“Do you regret me?” she asked him. “Because I don’t regret you. Even with the deaths. Even with the betrayal. I would do it all again, because it felt so fucking good.”

“Sweet Isobel,” he exhaled, and he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close. She sighed into his embrace, a sigh of deep relief—for how good it felt to have his body pressed against hers, for how lucky she was to be able to live one more day while double-crossing the two most powerful men on this island.

“I don’t regret you.” He kissed her softly. “But I also don’t regret this.”

And then, without warning or ceremony, Callum Yoo snapped Isobel’s neck so hard that her head broke clean off her body, ending her immortal life for good.

It took Callum hours of hunting to shake off the feelings of anger and humiliation that lingered on his skin like a palpable stench after his outing to the graveyard with Tess. Usually, hunting was when he felt most himself: attuned to every sound and movement, the thrill of stalking his prey, the indulgence of sinking his fangs into a living creature’s neck, feeling the fresh blood slide down his throat and course through his body with a fizzy, powerful sensation. But today, everything felt fucking wrong.

He couldn’t shake how stupid he’d felt laying his hands on that damn statue. As if Octavia were playing some kind of joke, laughing at his expense from wherever she was. Back in New York, as Tess claimed? Maybe, though Callum doubted it. It struck him as a bit too convenient that the sister he missed so desperately would send a messenger to his doorstep, especially considering how badly they’d parted.

He didn’t want to think about that—not the fight that had driven his sister away, not the fact that she was probably dead, not the human who’d arrived out of nowhere to toy with his hopes, and certainly not the sweet fragrance of that human’s auburn hair. He just wanted to hunt the fastest animals the Isle had to offer. But no matter how many hares streaking through the forest Callum caught and sank his teeth into, he didn’t feel satisfied.

By the time he stalked back into Nantale’s compound, hours after leaving Tess in the graveyard, he was exhausted, vexed, and in absolutely no mood to see anyone. But Nantale had instructed him to report back the instant he returned, and his loyalty to her ran deeper than his foul mood.

“So?” Nantale looked up from her desk as he trudged through the door to her private chambers. “How did it go?”

Nantale kept her rooms simple—wooden furniture, clay walls—in stark contrast to the rest of the compound’s grandeur. She said they reminded her of her childhood, of home. Nantale rarely allowed anyone into her rooms, and Callum never took the privilege of being invited for granted.

“My liege, it wasn’t good.” He poured himself a glass of whiskey from one of her bottles. “We went to the graveyard, I put my hands all over a statue like a fucking idiot, absolutely nothing happened, and we’re no closer to getting off this island than we were two days ago. Cheers.”

He drained the glass and poured himself another.

“Slow down.” Nantale put a hand on his arm.

“What for?” He shrugged her off. “Why are you so keen for me to have hope?”

“Why are you so keen to refuse?” She narrowed her eyes. “It was your hope that brought this clan together in the first place. Your hope that saved my life. And now, when there’s an actual reason for hope, you want to ignore it?”

“I didn’t save your life,” Callum grumbled.

“Felix and his goons would have killed all of us who refused to join his idiotic vampire hierarchy if we’d stayed living on our own,” she chided. “You convinced me to form this clan, and you convinced the others to follow me.”