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I swore. “You’re cold.”
“Well, yeah. I’m not a vampire. I feel the cold.”
Her rueful smile trembled at the edges. Still trying to be the badass.
I stripped off my T-shirt and handed it to her. “Here,” I said gruffly. “Put this on.”
When she didn’t take the shirt fast enough, I pulled it over her head myself, then took her hands and shoved them through the armholes.
“Thanks.” She pulled the T-shirt tighter around her body, still shivering.
My teeth ground together. It fucking killed me not to take her into my arms. Or, even better, get her out of this damn dungeon.
But I couldn’t. Not yet.
I stepped back and nodded at Cain, who’d returned with the key to the silver cuff and leather gloves to protect his skin from the poisonous metal.
He knelt on one knee and unlocked the cuff. It fell open and Twilight stepped out of it. Cain came to his feet, stripping off the gloves, and stood next to me.
Twilight shifted her weight to the opposite leg, rubbing the ankle that had been cuffed against it. The heavy ring of metal had left a red mark.
My mouth tightened. “Tell me what happened,” I told her. “Starting with my father. He attacked you first, didn’t he?”
I eyed her scratched throat. My anger rose again. That was on me. I hadn’t done a good enough job of hiding from Jules what she meant to me, especially after she’d told me he’d attacked her once.
But then, Jules should’ve been locked safely away in his apartment.
She dipped her chin. “I—he must’ve been watching me from the shadows. I didn’t see him until he was there.”
“Hades.” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Self-defense isn’t an excuse. Not when a thrall stakes a vampire.”
That’s how the syndicate would see it, anyway—the older vampires, especially. They’d demand I make an example of her.
She lifted a shoulder, let it drop. “I understand.”
I growled. “You understand nothing.”
“Brien,” Cain said in an undertone. “We don’t have time for this.”
He was right. I considered Twilight.
In the oversized T-shirt, she appeared to be a large-eyed waif who wasn’t capable of swatting a fly, let alone taking out my father. But I’d run my hands over every inch of her body. That delicate appearance was deceptive. The woman was pure muscle.
“Is that why you’re here?” I asked. “To slay Jules?”
“No.” She twisted her hands in the hem of the T-shirt I’d given her. “But I’m not sorry I did. He was blood mad—and don’t tell me you didn’t know. Hesmelled. The man was sick. I did him a fucking favor.” She threw a look at both me and Cain. “I did you all a fucking favor.”
Her words slashed at me. I’d screwed up, and now we’d both have to deal with the consequences.
Cain narrowed his eyes. “That’s not an answer.”
Her brow furrowed. “What?”
“The prince asked why you’re here,” he said. “If you’re not here to slay his father, then why? And don’t give us any bullshit about the auction. You were in that club for a reason. You must’ve known Brien was searching for you.”
She shrank into herself. “That’s not true. I didn’t know he was looking for me. I swear I didn’t—”
“Answer the question,” Cain said in a hard voice. “Including how you managed to get your hands on a silver blade.”
