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“You know, you’re really scary, but I can see you’ve got a big heart under all that growly exterior. You should try being less demanding and more asking.” She folded her arms over her chest.

“I like her,” Thana stated.

“Shut it. I have enough females ordering me around. I don’t need a...a teenager adding to the mix,” Savage muttered, pointing a finger at Thana.

“Anyway. That cop dude grabbed me and several others out of a group home with a promise of a job that paid two grand each. He said we’d meet on the dock, travel for a day, clean a warehouse, get paid, and then get a ride home. Easy money, stupid decision.”

“What’s your name, girl?” Savage asked.

“Well, it ain’t girl.” She rolled her eyes. “Marianna. My friends call me Mari, like Mar with a y, not to be confused with Merry like Christmas because there’s nothing joyful about me, my mama always said. My family has a saying. Hell has no fury like a psychotic woman scorned, and trust me, you never want to cross my mother. I’m sure she’s tearing up all of Boston looking for me.”

“Why were you in a group home?” Thana asked, sensing that Savage was using the girl’s distraction to go through her thoughts.

Mari blew out a breath. “I got in a wee bit of trouble. Lex and I kind of borrowed a car and got busted.”

The girl she named sat huddled with the others, looking pale and scared.

Thana lifted her head, stiffening as she felt him. She didn’t want to give his presence away to the others, but wasn’t sure why she was protecting him.

Severin watched the interaction between Thana and her people, and noticed similarities between how Savage and his crew operated and how his own Clan did.

He flowed through each female’s mind and saw the web of spells inside, hiding secrets and identities.

The girl named Mari kept Savage, and the others, engaged as he undid the damage in their heads. He saw the male she’d called Cop, but he was really Victor Gambino’s hired man. Shockingly, the fucker wasn’t human.

The dead gave him more answers than the living. Three poor young females, their lives taken too soon. He sifted through the old memories without the natural defense barrier humans carry. Mai Jao visited the humans in Boston with a smaller Asian male. He recognized her scent on them, but the others carried no trace of her.

He wanted to flash to where she’d slivered off to and drill through the bitch’s mind to find the answers he sought. Their earlier meeting was a setup. Or maybe she’d hoped to kill him and frame him at the same time. Fuck. He should’ve killed Mai.

The dead didn’t have all the answers he needed.

Severin moved away from the last female’s body at the bottom of the container. As the conversation filtered into him, he moved closer to where Thana stood with Savage and his brother. The vampires hovered around the brave human girl who had hidden abilities. He wondered whether she was aware she had them, or if she was hiding what she could do.

Thana’s head rose. Her gorgeous green eyes blinked once, then she slowly swept her surroundings. Anyone not perfectly in tune with her wouldn’t have noticed her body stiffen slightly. However, Severin noticed everything about the female. Her heart had pulsed two beats more in the last thirty seconds than in the previous. Again, no one else would’ve counted them or said they mattered. Severin wasn’t normal. Since she’d stood on a roof and asked him if he was going to jump, she became more than just another female. No, he saw her inside Club Jus Sanguinus and found himself drawn to her for more than her beauty.

He thought back to the first time he’d scented Bianca, compared to Thana. The draw was there, similar to what he’d experienced with his bonded female. They were complete opposites in both looks and personality. His mind was scattered with memories he’d banished to the farthest parts of his brain. He’d learned to create boxes to place things he never wanted to see again. He wouldn’t open any of them in the warehouse, especially when he couldn’t control everyone around him.

His father accused him of being blind, reckless, and unyielding. Unlike Scepter, whom he was sure he could mold into what he believed was the perfect nobleman. For years, he did his best to be that male. He growled, nearly losing his grip on the invisible form he’d taken.

Severin noticed Thana’s change in position. She sensed his presence. Well, he wasn’t so full of himself as to think she sensed him. She was very aware of her surroundings.

Too aware.

He left the warehouse, flowing back to the bar where Uriel and the shifter had met.

The dim interior let him materialize unseen in a darkened alcove. Not that he gave two shits if any of the drunks did see him. It wouldn’t take but a snap of his fingers to wipe their feeble minds of the incident, but he’d rather not waste the time.

“Hello, Severin. Please, have a seat.”

Severin took the seat the shifter had just vacated, using his abilities to trace the male’s history for the past few hours. “How was your drink, my friend?”

Uriel raised a brow. “I’ve had better overseas, but at least I didn’t have to pay.”

Severin chuckled. “Would you like to tell me what you learned, or do I need to look for myself?”

“You’re a bastard, Boss.” Uriel signaled to the bartender, who hurried over with two tumblers of amber liquid.

“Yeah, well, you made me show the others more than I was prepared to.” Severin took a sip, enjoying the fiery burn as it slid down his throat.