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I closed my eyes, contemplated letting my hand wander below the waistband of my suit pants.
I wasn’t sure where we stood now. I wasn’t sure of anything at all. But she had slept in my bed last night, her body tangled with my own. Whatever fire had kindled between us during our first meeting, it had grown into a roaring blaze.
“You were always prone to daydreaming. I see nothing has changed.”
A familiar voice, low and foreboding and far too close for comfort. My eyes flew open and I jolted forward in my chair, scowling at the handsome man who stood in the center of the room.
“Jeremy.”
My cousin chuckled, shoving his slender hands deep into his coat pockets. “Jordan. It’s been a while.”
“What do you want?” I wasted no time with pleasantries, biting out the words as I got to my feet.
I had no familial love for this man. Jeremy had proven himself a monster time and time again. I would have been a fool to assume he was here with good intentions.
Jeremey pretended to look wounded, donning a pout as he spoke. “So abrasive, cousin. Do I not deserve a simple greeting? It’s been two years, after all.”
“You deserve to have your head detached from your body,” I hissed, drawing myself up to my full height in an attempt to intimidate. “Why are you here?”
While Jeremy’s presence in my office enraged me, far greater was the terror that sluiced through my heart. Jeremy was dangerous, unfeeling and uncaring. If he could get to me as effortlessly as he had, he could get to anyone I loved. He knew turning up here would unsettle me, and he did it despite the bounty on his head.
Jeremy cocked his head to the side, his charismatic smile accentuating the dimples in his cheeks. He looked like he hadn’t slept in days. Deep purple bruises had formed beneath his eyes and his skin had taken on a papery quality. Greasy blond hair fell over his face and into the cavernous collar of his coat.
Despite his bedraggled appearance, the man was handsome, and all the more dangerous for it. Jeremy was a wolf in sheep’s clothing, a predator always on the lookout for his next prey.
“Can I not simply pay a visit to my dear cousin?” Jeremy drawled, walking a lazy loop around my office as he inspected the space. “I just wanted to catch up, Jords. Have the Leyore vampires missed me?”
I balanced on the balls of my feet, ready to pounce if he so much as twitched a muscle in my direction. “You know damn well how they feel about you.”
Jeremy tutted at my expression, feigning disappointment. “They can’t still be mad about the debacle with the witches. I was simply exerting revenge for Alberich’s sake.”
“No one knows the truth of Alberich’s death,” I spat.
I knew he was baiting me, bringing up painful topics to stoke my fury. But I couldn’t stop myself. The very sight of Jeremy disgusted me. “You had no right to take justice into your own hands.”
Alberich’s lover, we had come to learn, was a witch. When my brother was found dead in his home with traces of the woman imbued in his clothes, the obvious answer was that she had been the one to kill him—further feeding the age-old feud between witches and vampires.
I believed the story myself. Until we discovered his children—the twins—only a few hours new to the world and delivered to my doorstep in the dead of night. Not even Jeremy knew of their existence, and I intended to keep it that way.
After news of Alberich’s death got out, Jeremy had decided to enact his own revenge. Dozens of witches had died that day, all innocent parties who’d done nothing to deserve it. I had never looked at Jeremy the same way after that.
And now he was vying for the throne. I shuddered to consider the kind of place the city would become with Jeremy calling the shots.
“Come on, Jordan,” Jeremy said in a sing-song voice, leaning on the edge of my desk and toying with the digital clock that sat there. “The Leyore coven needs a real leader. You and I both know you were never cut out for the role.”
My nails elongated as I flexed my fingers, fangs protruding from my mouth as I hissed at the unsettling older man.
Jeremy’s eyes darkened at my defensiveness and he faced me head on, stamping his foot like a child throwing a tantrum. “You know why I’m here, Jordan. You know what I want.”
He wanted me to step down, to pass the throne over to him instead.
I wanted him to go sit on a stake.
I told him as much, and felt a tinge of satisfaction when Jeremy bristled, anger twisting his beautiful face.
“This is the last time I will ask nicely, Jordan.” Jeremy breathed deeply, flexing his fingers that had been balled into fists. “This is your last chance to go quietly.”
I did not plan to go quietly. I would go down kicking and screaming before I let Jeremy take a smidgeon of my power.
