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“Don’t hang up!” she cried. “Please.”
“I wasn’t going to,” he said softly. Shifting into his wolf and running to her cabin would take less time, but if she wanted to stay on the phone with him, he wouldn’t deny her.
He would never deny her anything.
Nero drove like hell to get to the cabin as fast as possible, and the whole time, he cooed encouraging things to Valentine, who kept crying.
He only ended the call when he walked into the cabin and spotted Val sitting on the floor by a huge pile of dust. Lilliane was in the kitchen, nervously pacing while biting her nails.
He sat beside Val and touched her shoulder gently. “Hey, love. I’m here.”
Val turned her wide, crying eyes toward him. “I killed him. Nikolas.”
He took her into his arms and rubbed her back. “He was actually killed a long time ago when he was made into a vampire. That’s the person who killed him. Not you. You were just protecting yourself.”
“Yeah,” Lilliane coughed. “But this has made everything so much worse.”
“You’re really not helping,” he hissed at Lilliane as Valentine continued to cry in his arms. It broke his heart to see her like this. It wasn’t easy to end a life. Not even when it was clearly self-defense.
Not even when the person wasn’t even a person anymore but a monster who killed humans to survive.
“It’s okay, love. Take some deep breaths for me.” He coaxed her through it, but Val wasn’t calming down.
“I can’t believe I did that.”
“He would have killed you,” Lilliane said from the kitchen. “He would have stabbed you and bled you dry. He might have even forced you to go through the vampire change.”
Val looked up and met her sister’s eyes. “Why were you going to leave with him?”
Lilliane shrugged. “Because I didn’t have a choice.”
“How can you say that?”
“I made a deal. You and Ceecee for me.”
Val frowned, but Nero was starting to see the vampire’s game.
“I don’t get it,” Valentine said through little sobs.
“Because Celestine was mated with a wolf, you were supposed to be the next in line to marry Nikolas’s son. But I knew you’d never agree to that because you’re scared of men or whatever. I thought I should protect you. I made a deal with Nikolas. I would marry his son if the vampire council left you and Ceecee alone. Forever.”
“Why would you do that?” she gasped.
“Why did you kill Nikolas?” her sister asked with a shrug. “Duh. Because I love my sisters, and I was trying to protect you.”
“But …” Val shook her head. “It’s our job to protectyou. We are the big sisters.”
“It doesn’t matter who is older. I love you two idiots, and I did what I thought was right.”
“You could’ve told me,” Val reprimanded as her tears began to dry.
“No. I couldn’t. That was part of the deal I made with Nikolas. I couldn’t tell you what was happening. He figured you would find a way to rescue me.”
“He wasn’t wrong!” Val snapped. “How could you sign your life away like that?”
Lilliane shook her head. “I wouldn’t mind being a full vamp instead of this half-existence bullshit we have going on. You and Ceecee are okay with it, but I’m not. I’d like to have my own place in the world. Not too human for the vamps and not too vamp for the humans.”
“And you thought being a vampire bride was the answer to that?”
