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Axe makes sure his voice doesn’t carry his last words. “But now that you have, I have an excuse to do what I wanted since I discovered you touched her the first time.”
“Folks, there’s been a horrendous violation of rules. Please sit tight while we deal with it. Or feel free to watch if that’s how you get your jollies.”
Bastian doesn’t move to stop him. Enzo, who I didn’t even see get on the stage, cheers Axe on. “It’s completely justified. They’ll have no recourse.”
“I know that,” Axe snaps and rips Vlad’s throat out.
The life bleeds out of the vampire’s eyes, his gaze fixes and does not move again.
Axe rises, blood dripping from his fingers. “Auction’s fucking over,” he snarls before grabbing me off the platform.
He pulls me close and blinks us out.
The others are already at the lair when Axe and I get there, yelling and screaming and looking like they’re about to rip each other’s throats out.
“I fucking told you to handle it!” Bastian roars at Dashel.
“I did! He didn’t get in through any approved means.”
Enzo laughs. “You’re saying Vlad blinked in? Vamps can’t do that, moron.”
Dashel turns to yell right back. “No, but witches can.”
“Some witches,” Bastian points out.
Axe stares down at me, not joining the argument. His eyes scan my face. “Are you OK? Did he hurt you?”
Before I answer, he pushes me away, hands still on my shoulders as he looks for any signs of injury.
“Dove, I need you to answer me.” Axe’s voice is softer than I’ve ever heard it. He puts a finger under my chin and gently lifts my head to meet his gaze. “What did he do to you?”
A lump, hard as stone, lodges in my throat. I can’t swallow against it. “You saw everything.”
Axe nods, malicious rage burning in his eyes. “I should have made him suffer.”
And that… that lands in me…
In a way I didn’t expect.
“No,” I say, voice low. “You should have never put me on that fucking platform.” I turn and storm off to wash Vlad’s scent off me.
I lock my bedroom and bathroom doors and cry my eyes out in the shower.
Under the bloodlust of an angel, Vlad wasn’t in his right mind.
But that doesn’t negate what he did. Again.
He touched my body without consent.
And that still feels fucking awful.
Chapter Twenty
Lacking the necessary structures of the brain, demons have no capacity for empathy or compassion. It’s been proven time and time again.
- The Book of Grace – Addendum 3
Surprisingly,the heirs leave me in peace the rest of Saturday night. Sunday, I’m not so lucky.
