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“And I was this thrall thing to Dylan?”
“Yes. He may have been trying to resist killing you, if it’s any consolation at all. But he’s declining rapidly. Our teams couldn’t save him, and he escaped from the hospital in New York. We’ve been after him ever since.”
“And then he started looking for me again. Why?”
“It’s hard to say. New vampires often come after their families and the ones they loved in life. It’s not at all uncommon. Malone was more or less a half-blood, at least he was at first. Though still too far gone to save. But maybe when he found you, he couldn’t quite bring himself to kill you. He still loved you—you told me so a dozen times.”
“But you think now he’s faked his own death. Why has he tried to pin the blame for that on me?”
“It’s hard to say what’s in his mind. Maybe he wanted you to think you had no other choices but to let him turn you so you’d come with him quietly. Who knows? From what we can tell, Malone was a narcissist even before he was turned. A narcissist needs an audience. Likely he had psychopathic tendencies as well. The two often go hand in hand, in fact. Let us keep looking into it and try to come up with some answers. We may find that he knew this Suzanne or was even related to her.”
“Oh no, I don’t think that could be true. Could it?”
I took his hand and squeezed it. “Maybe. Nothing is certain yet. You’re not to blame for any of this, Jace, and so far, none of the evidence he tried to plant against you has held up. The email, for example, threatening Malone was sent from your computer at a time the police know from the security cameras you weren’t even in the building. Malone and whoever is helping him aren’t nearly as smart as they think they are.”
“Whoever’s helping him? You mean, Suzanne?”
“I think you have to believe that’s possible, baby. The fact she gave you that bonus to take the job where she could be close by. The access someone had to your building to send emails and notice your costume. Now this cabin. She could be setting you up for Malone. But I’ll do everything in my power to keep you safe until we find him.”
I pulled him back over in my lap because I couldn’t be so close to him and not be touching him. I slanted my mouth over his for a kiss, and thank God, he kissed me back. I dropped my hand to part his robe and squeezed and stroked his cock. He lifted up into my touch and rested his forehead against mine.
“I need you,” he whispered to me.
“Then let’s go.”
He gave a shaky little laugh. “Twice in one day Logan?”
“Honey,” I said as I picked him up to carry him to the bedroom. “You either underestimate my stamina or the way you look in that cute little robe. Twice, hell. We have hours until bedtime.”
Chapter Fifteen
Logan
It was after midnight when the attack came.
I never heard Malone come inside the cabin. He must have had a key, and he was noiseless as he entered the bedroom. I was still awake, which probably saved me. I was lying on my back, thinking about the danger Jace would be in until I could kill Malone, and how I could keep him safe. All I could hear was Jace’s soft snores beside me.
But between one breath and the next, in the soft, dim light coming in from the bathroom, a savage face suddenly appeared right over mine, His long white fangs jutted from his mocking grin as he hung over me only inches away.
I had the presence of mind to shove Jace hard and knock him out of bed to land on the floor beside me, “Run, Jace!” I shouted. “Try to make it to…”
The creature slapped a savage claw against my cheekbone, laying it open as blood sprayed across the sheets. I put up my hands to hold him off and he seemed surprised when he felt my own strength. I began choking him as I shoved his fangs away, and he grunted as I managed to get a leg up under him and then kicked the bastard off me so hard he flew across the room. He smashed into the bedroom wall. I could hear Jace yelling beside the bed, his voice full of horror, but I had no time to soothe him. I was fighting for both our lives. I scrambled to my feet, in time to catch Malone’s body in mid-air as he leaped toward me with a sound hallway between a squeal and a roar. His wretched, rank smell of grave dirt and rot filled the air, and I could tell that he had steeply declined since any human had seen him last and lived to tell the tale. He had managed to get his claws around my throat, and he leaned down to blow his rancid breath in my face.
“Your heart is beating so fast. Are you frightened? I’ll enjoy the taste of fear in your blood.”
I managed to free one hand long enough to grab for the lamp beside the bed and then crash it into his skull. “Taste this, motherfucker!”
It wouldn’t stop him, of course, but I was trying to buy time to get to my daggers. I rolled off the bed and began scrambling for my pants that I’d left somewhere in the floor. I had a dagger in my pocket if I could just get to it. But I felt his claws wrap around my ankle again and jerk me back toward the bed. He raised his hand over his head and brought it down sharply on my forehead. It slammed into me, and I heard the sound of Jace screaming as I slipped into darkness.
****
Jace
I thought Logan must be dead after that devastating blow. I screamed out my pain and disbelief at what I was seeing, but some vestige of instinct made me run toward the door to try and save myself. Dylan caught me and whirled me around just steps inside the living room.
“Where do you think you’re going, little mouse? Aren’t you happy to see me? He’s been in here fucking you all night, hasn’t he?” He leaned over me, leering at me and I was beyond horrified to see what he’d become. He was so different and could no longer pass as human. Maybe that had been part of why he’d disappeared.
“I waited all evening for his car to leave,” he said in a low growl. “Then I figured out what you two must have been doing in here. Before you die, I’ll make you suffer for that.”
