Page 42 of Nightshade

Viktor’s weren’t as long and sharp as a vampire’s, but blunter, meant for tearing rather than piercing. His snarl was a low rumble that took up the space between us, and something in me bristled at the threat.

No, this place and these people weren’t mine. They were Viktor’s. I was very much the interloper he thought I was.

So why in heaven’s name was I so bothered by him treating me precisely how he ought to? I was an outsider, a predator, and a threat. We both knew it, and the fact that anyone here had been kind at all was the surprising thing.

But then there was Leo.

The feeling of Leo’s warm arm wrapped around my waist hit me out of nowhere, the strange bubbly sensation in my chest when he smiled at me. He’d pulled me in and held my eye steadily, like I wasn’t some craven thing. He saw me as somebody.

I remembered Katya telling me not to disappoint Leo, and how sharp my desperation had been to avoid just that.

It wasn’t only to save my own skin either. Sure, Leo was undoubtedly my closest ally and supporter within his pack. If anyone would be driven to defend me, it would be for his sake before mine.

But that didn’t account for the comfort I felt at his side, or how the only person I wanted to see at the end of every day was him.

I didn’t dare let myself hope for anything more, but I thought we might be friends. I could be his friend. If I could just unwind myself from fear, I’d like to be his . . . friend.

For me to pull away, to shrink again, would disappoint Leo. Perhaps it was self-serving to keep him happy, but that didn’t change how I wanted to.

With a snarl of my own, I stepped into Viktor’s space. I had to tip my chin up to look at him, and I narrowed my eyes. “I’ll put my fangs wherever the hell your brother wants me to.”

“He doesn’t want you biting him. He’s just taken you on as a pet project. That’s all this is—Leo trying to save another lost fool.”

I scoffed. “I wouldn’t be so sure of that.” I knew I was tempting fate when I stepped closer to him, and I didn’t give a damn. When I leaned in, I lowered my voice. “I think your brother likes it when I sink my fangs inside him.”

A growl tore out of Viktor and he gripped the front of my clothes to haul me half off the ground. “If you hurt him, I will end you. I’ve seen what a vampire can do when they lose control.”

A manic laugh bubbled out of me, and Viktor reared back, surprised. I used the distraction to swing my arm and knock his grip off my shirt, and when I teetered back onto my heels, the world tipped off balance.

Oh, I kept mine, but the very idea that he’d say such a thing to me—it picked off a scab I had ignored for more than a century.

My laugh cut off abruptly, and a pressure of fury like I’d never felt squeezed my skull. “So. Have. I.”

I marched past him, up the porch and into the kitchen. Leo was sitting at the table with his mother, and they were alone.

Cash and Aleks were spending their first night in their new home, and they must have decided to have dinner there. It was a reasonable choice, and any couple settling into their own space might’ve made it. In all likelihood, it had nothing to do with me, beyond how I’d upended the living arrangement within Katya’s home.

Still, I couldn’t help feeling it was my fault, and I knew there was no way that both Viktor and I would be at that dining table for supper. Only one of us had to eat, though, so that made the choice pretty clear.

I swallowed down the strange, harried panic that squeezed my throat and nodded to them both. “Good evening.”

They both stared at me like I was mad, and maybe I was.

I hurried upstairs, shut the bedroom door behind me, and sat on Leo’s bed, doing my damnedest not to think about what, precisely, happened when a vampire lost control. Trying not to think about Leo, surrounded by bloody sheets, his face gray and lifeless, his wide eyes blank because it was too late for fear or betrayal.

I knew what happened, and I’d kissed him anyway.

And if he let me, I’d do it again.

CHAPTER 21

Leo

Mama and I sat there at the table, not looking at each other, listening to the entire conversation between Viktor and Altair. Altair might not know how good werewolf hearing was, but Viktor had no such excuse.

He was standing there talking about me, knowing I could hear him telling someone that he was my protector. No, not in so many words, but the result was the same, wasn’t it? Leo is helpless and needs me to protect him.

I wanted to go out on the back porch and shake him, shouting, “I killed Barry,” because . . . not that I was proud of it, but damn him, didn’t that single action prove that I was capable of protecting not only others, but obviously myself?