Page 33 of The Slayer Seduction

That doesn’t mean that I couldn’t possibly send him back to the void though, right? At least there he wouldn’t be a threat to Ember or Adam, and I guess I’d be free of him, because that’s what I want, right?

He’s an uncontrollable killer.

At least that’s what I tell myself, because when I get home, he doesn’t look like a psychopathic murderer. He looks like a sad man, tied up to my bed, watching Love is Blind with my fox familiar.

This is all far more complicated than I ever wanted it to be. It’s my job to protect my coven, it doesn’t matter this pulling sensation I can’t explain, it doesn’t matter how innocent he looks on my bed, my duty is to my coven and right now Ember needs me.

It’s so much easier to avoid my feelings and just think about the facts. The Slayer is trying to kill Ember’s mate, that she’s in love with, and I just need to suppress all these pesky little emotions and make sure she’s safe.

Chapter 17

The Slayer

Tied up and ashamed of myself, I wait for my witch to return home. It’s been endless hours of sulking, horrible television with the fox, and Adam berating me nonstop.

Always fucking whining; telling me what I should and shouldn’t do when it comes to my mate. He acts as if I don’t know all his memories, as if I don’t know what a pathetic, lonely man he was before all this. I’m the best thing that’s ever happened to him.

“She won’t ever love you,” Adam seethes, and I groan.

“Shut the fuck up.”

“I know you aren’t talking to me,” Scarlett says, biting down on my arm so hard it draws blood.

“No, little fox, I’m talking to the annoying man in my head.”

“What’s he saying?” Scarlett asks.

My hands are bound to the bed again, but I won’t break the restraints. Iris needs to know she can trust me.

“That Iris will never love me, that I should leave her alone.”

Scarlett makes a noise, but doesn’t comment, just curls up and continues to watch her show. When Iris comes home, she’s radiant.

Her skin almost has a shinier glow to it. How she can look even more celestial than before is beyond me. Scarlett told me she had a ritual with her coven tonight and the magic shared between them must make her more powerful.

She places her things on the counter, her wand tucked away, which I consider progress.

“Is your friend okay?” I ask, and she arches an eyebrow at me as she approaches, glancing at my bindings.

“She is, but things could have gone very differently. Why didn’t you say anything before?” she asks.

“Truly, my witch, I didn’t think of it. You must understand I forget the faces of most mortals. I’d just found my mate and barely survived a vampire attack. I was not being malicious.”

Iris clicks her tongue.

“You wish to please me?” she asks.

I blink at her. Surely she doesn’t mean what I think she means. She watches me process her words, and then she gasps.

“No. Not like that. You want me to be happy with you, right?”

“Yes.”

“Then I need you to stay in the house and not leave. I will get rid of your binds and let you roam freely, but you are not to leave.”

I take a closer look at her face. She was so angry earlier; is her friend being safe the only thing that’s changed her mood?

“I can’t be trapped here forever,” I admit to her. “At some point my blood lust will grow too great and I’ll need to leave.”