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“These are not my pets.”
“The Princess has been dead for how long?” The King made a show of looking at the cages. “With her gone, the only explanation for this continued husbandry is that you’ve formed an attachment of some sort. There is no longer any duty for you to uphold.”
Blade continued to smile, though in his heart, a dark hatred kindled. But then that emotion was exactly what the King was hoping to elicit, and therefore, it was easily corralled.
“Habits die hard,” he murmured.
“Perhaps I need to give you a job.”
“I am ready for my orders.” Blade bowed slightly. “Whatever shall you have me do, my Lord—”
The King moved so fast, he was untrackable. One moment Rehvenge was over by the door; the next, he was right up in Blade’s face, looking like he was prepared to bite something until he got to bone—after which, he would keep going.
Blade purred in the back of his throat. “I had heard you were happily mated, but mayhap the gossip is wrong. Would you like me on my knees? Or were you planning on forcing me to accept you in another fashion? I am a top, but as you are my King, I believe no is not an option.”
Rehvenge’s lips peeled off his fangs, the daggers in the roof of his mouth flashing. “I want you to stop fucking with your sister.”
For a split second, Blade gave an honest reaction: “What are you talking about?”
“You’re going to stop fucking with Xhex, or I’m going to take out my frustration with you on your little collection here—among other things.”
Besotted with his ruler, Blade leaned in so they were chest to chest, nearly mouth to mouth. Tilting his head to the side, in case his King wanted to sample his lips, he murmured, “I am doing nothing to her. You can ask her yourself—you all but live with her, don’t you.”
“In the last three weeks, at least two vampires have been found in Caldwell with their eyes taken out by alys.”
“Mmm. Sounds like you have a collector on your hands—or someone who is making a hearty stew.”
“And last night, somebody shot at John Matthew.”
“Remind me who that is again—”
The grip on the front of Blade’s throat prevented him from going any further with the line of bullshit he was spouting with such enjoyment.
“Don’t stop,” Blade squeezed out as he rolled his hips. “You’re turning me on.”
The pressure was released not in the slightest.
“Quit framing her for trouble,” Rehvenge ground out, “and leave her mate alone. If there are any more bodies in the alleys down there, or another oopsie with a lead slug and John’s chest cavity, you’re going to wish for your grave.”
With a quick shift, Rehvenge stepped back and took his death grip with him.
Blade coughed as he dragged oxygen down deep. “What… motive. Do. I have. For that.”
“Your family has never needed a motive when it comes to her. Or do you think I’ve forgotten who put her in that fucking lab in the first place.” The King jabbed a finger across the tense air between their faces. “You people eat your own. You always have. You want me to spell out your motive? It’s what’s in your veins.”
“As if you are not one of us yourself. Or has the Brotherhood worn off on you? If that is the case, I would beware down here.”
The King leaned in, his jeweled robes shimmering as if he were covered with blood. “Try me. Please.”
That amethyst stare glowed with menace, and in the back of Blade’s mind, he thought… ah, yes. This was why the male was King—and kept that mantle. With every fiber of his being, Rehvenge relished conflict, his favorite meal, always consumed with hunger.
Evidently finished with delivering his message, the King walked for the door, that robing flaring behind him.
“My sister is nothing to me,” Blade said in a low voice. “I would no sooner waste energy upon her as I would beat a stray. Not because I am moral, but because I am logical.”
Rehvenge looked back across the quarters. “Then you better hope whoever’s setting Xhex up loses interest in their pet project. Because the shit is going to come down on you if it keeps up, and I will enjoy what I do to you.”
“I won’t be gone long.”
