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“Fun like Dani’s having?” I shook my head. “No, thanks. Let her go, and I’ll take her back to her room.”
I moved forward, but Cade jumped in front of me, his face suddenly less than pleasant. “Does this girl not know the rules, Avari? Do we need to put her in her place right here and now?”
“You’ll keep your fucking hands off her if you know what’s good for you, you prick.” Kage’s voice was so calm you’d never have known how pissed he was. But I was close enough to him that when he folded his arms over his chest, I could see his muscles trembling as if in eager anticipation of a fight.
“Come on, baby,” Brocklin, the highblood feeding from Dani, said. He started to pull her away by the hand. “You’re mine now, right?”
Dani nodded eagerly without even looking at Kage and me.
Brocklin glanced over at me. “There. That good enough for you?”
I shook my head slowly. “Not even fucking close.”
He laughed. “Well, too bad. This is how it works. Sounds like you need some more schooling.” He looked at Dani. “Let’s finish this somewhere more private.” He looked over at the other high-bloods. “You two coming?”
“Wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Cade said darkly, glaring at Kage and me.
“Hope she tastes better than she looks. I’d have preferred … something with a little more red,” Silvio said, looking at me wistfully. “You sure you don’t want to come along, curls?”
“Fuck off,” I said flatly.
“We’ll see you around,” Cade said to me, his eyes cold. “Sounds like Blake hasn’t done a very good job instructing you in proper respect for the Pure of Blood. But the Bloodguard will correct that soon, don’t you worry.”
I refused to show him just how disturbed I was by that statement. Kage, on the other hand, let out a low growl that said he wasn’t going to play around like this much longer. I wondered if we could take them, Kage and I together.Would he turn into his wolf form? Then, we might actually stand a chance. But the boys were already moving back down the hallway, Dani eagerly skipping behind.
“Are you really just going to let them take her away?” I demanded of Kage, my voice low.
He looked at me, his face suddenly tired. “You saw how it was. She’s enthralled.”
“So un-fucking-enthrall her,” I suggested.
He shook his head. “Doesn’t work like that.” He gave me a curious look. “Sometimes I forget how little you really know about our world.”
I leaned towards him. “I know a little. I know vampires aren’t all what they seem. Isn’t that right, Wolf Boy?”
He raised his eyebrows. “Wolf Boy?”
I glared. “I’ll come up with something better, but the description is fairly accurate.”
He shrugged. “You all right? Did they touch you?”
“I can take care of myself. I had things under control.”
He stared down at me. “Sure you did.”
My face heated.“They tried to touch me, and they failed. I’m fast, you know. I’m not completely helpless.” I suddenly thought back to that moment in the Dragon Court.To that feeling of being trapped. Trapped because Kage’s hands were pinning me, confining me.
“You have a lot of nerve,” I said, my voice low. “Trying to play the hero after what you did to me. But maybe that’s how you really see yourself. Kage Tanaka, champion of the weak, protector of the blightborn. Is that it? Do you really think you’re any better than they are? That you’re somehow superior?”
His black eyes searched mine, and I looked right back into the eyes of the man who’d betrayed me mere days before. I’d started to trust Kage. Hell, I’d started to like him a little. He was my House Leader; I’d purposely asked to be in Avari. I thought Kage could offer me more choices than I’d find in Drakharrow.What a fool I’d been.
He’d felt entitled to lay hands upon me. To hold me back as I struggled to protect Nyxaris.
I closed my eyes. Remembering that terrible moment. If it weren’t for him, Florence might have …
“No.”
My eyes popped back open. “No?”
