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I kept my lids lowered, playacting drowsiness, and tried to listen to the world outside, to any scuffle below. But there was only silence, at least for now. Behind my eyes, the monster watched, waited. It wasn’t foggy. And it waspissed.
Soon,I told it. A promise.
Levi moved across the loft, hunting knife in hand. “I’m supposed to be your partner. Your friend.” He stopped, looked back at me. “You’re friendly with shifters—with dogs. I’m disappointed in you. So angry that I gave you my trust.”
I stared at him, trying to pick my way through his ramblingwords, the sentiment behind them. He was past logic and rationality.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m very sorry that I hurt you.” I softened the words with glamour, just enough to make him believe. “It’s just, I only got your note a few days ago. So this is a bit of a surprise.”
“I suppose I did take my time. But I had to wait until everything was in place.” He stopped, looked back at me. “Why didn’t you do what Clive asked? You just had to pick a House, and then I could join you. We’d be married and Masters one day, together.”
“Levi, Clive didn’t give me any time to think. He just showed up and made demands.”
“He is impulsive,” Levi agreed. “Not nearly as strategic, as intentional, as me. He doesn’t think things through,” he said, tapping a finger to his head. “Nicole wanted the Compliance Bureau, but he wanted it more. He doesn’t like cheaters. Rule breakers.”
And I didn’t like the gleam in his eyes when he said that.
“You’re an experiment,” he said, and my blood went cold.
“What do you mean?” I asked, struggling to keep my voice steady. Was this about Testing? Had they wanted to conduct scientific experiments on me?
“For the Bureau,” Levi said. “To see how far its authority extends, how much Nicole will let them do.”
That... had nothing to do with my making, or my monster. “You’re sure?”
“Of course. He tells me everything.”
I doubted that was true. But there was no point in asking Levi more questions about it. He’d just get suspicious.
He walked to the kitchen island. Sat down on a stool. “And Clive just hates you.” There was a hint of dark joy in his eyes when he said that. Was he happy to pit us against each other, with him in the middle?
“He hates me?”
“Of course. You’re from Cadogan House. Spoiled.” He leaned forward conspiratorially. “He doesn’t know you like I know you.”
You don’t know me at all,I thought. Didn’t know me or the monster, and was more than willing to offer up his brother as a foil for his devotion.
“Maybe we were too late,” he muttered to himself. “You saved him—Connor Keene—yesterday.”
While fury burned, I kept it off my face, leaned in conspiratorially. “You tried to hit Connor?”
“Maybe,” he said, pleasure on his cheeks.
“To protect me,” I said, and he nodded, looked relieved.
“Just like I’m protecting you right now,” he said, “from that roughneck you’ve been spending time with. I don’t get why you’re dating a dog. You could have anyvampireyou wanted. After all I tried to do for you—getting you on the right path, saving you from the den of iniquity you grew up in.”
I blinked in feigned confusion. “The den of iniquity? You don’t like Cadogan House?”
“They wouldn’t let me in,” he said, his laugh a bubble of madness.
I stared at him. “What?”
“They wouldn’t let me in. I applied. I wanted to be in Chicago; it was close to home. They let you run wild, but they wouldn’t let me in.”
My parents hadn’t said a thing. Had they known, but not told me? No. They absolutely would have. So, assuming he was telling the truth, they hadn’t made the connection.
“Clive said the House was never good enough for me,” Levi continued, “that it was full of lawlessness and disrespect. But look at me now. Now I’m here, in your place, with you. I’ve come full circle.”
