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Alexei pulled the car off the road wildly, making me gasp more curses. But then the car was parked and he was everywhere. His hands brushed my hair back from face, down the planes of cheek still burning with fire. His thumb pushed at my lips, dragging down until his skin brushed the blunt edges of my teeth.
I bit down on the fleshy pad in warning, but it only spurred him on.
The sound of the seat belt ripping echoed through the silent car, and then he pulled me over the console and into his lap. Like a wanton, my thighs straddled his hips, my fingers taking his inky waves captive in my punishing grip as I forced his head back into the headrest.
“You don’t get to be upset here, Alexei,” I reprimanded, my eyes flashing from his glowing eyes to his panting lips, edged past his sharp, needle-like fangs. “We’re both doing our best with a shitty situation. But perhaps you should have lingered longer with those nymphs. Then I could have searched the entire house and found the staff before Trystan realized you were amiss.”
His hand wrapped a fist around my hair in retaliation, baring my neck to him in a submissive position.
“What did I say when we arrived?” he seethed with a heated exhale. “The Prince of Pleasure is merely a mask I wear rather than the truth. You know better than to believe I’m anything but yours. That I want anyone but you. Or was last night a fluke? A mistake you’ll blame on the alcohol though we both know the truth?”
It shouldn’t fill me with lust, having him manhandle me this way, yet he was right. No one had ever made me feel the way he did. Why must the male who made me feel pleasure unlike anything I’ve ever known also be the biggest pain in my ass? Why must he push when I desperately needed to protect myself? Because if he broke my heart, I didn’t know I would recover.
Our breathing slowed as we watched each other, the heightened tension between us slowing and tempering to something less frenzied. Alexei’s eyes returned to their normal coffee flecked with crimson, and they held apology as he lifted me back to my seat.
“I’m sorry,” he grated. “My instincts took over, my wrath boiling over the surface. But that’s no excuse. Please forgive me.”
My heart stuttered as something akin to disappointment flitted through me. “Don’t worry about it, vamp. I’m used to your mood swings by now.”
He looked as if he would say more, but he brought the car back onto the road, and at a much safer pace, we returned to Salem. The edge of the Coven’s boundary protected us from any vampires who may have followed, and I felt my pulse finally slow.
Alexei bit his lip with a rare look of uneasiness. “If you’re okay staying out a little longer, I would like to meet with Henry and give a full report on our mutual findings. Perhaps we can stage another search before he leaves Boston.”
“Okay,” I agreed easily, though I knew the odds were not in our favor.
The quiet grew taut once more, but this time, neither of us bothered to break it.
* * *
Henry listened to our explanations with a blank expression, his fingers tapping steadily on the bar top beside his undrunk cocktail. “And you’re sure the magick you felt coming from Trystan was the staff?”
“Of course.” I swallowed from my glass of brandy, enjoying the warmth that slowly drew down my throat, heating my chilled body from within. “Even with my spirit magick training still so fresh, the dark magick within the Bled talismans are unmistakable. And this one felt powerful beyond anything I’ve seen before except maybe the amulet.”
Alexei drank his blood-wine silently, still furious from earlier, though he tried to temper it for me in the car.
Henry’s tapping increased in speed. “There's little we can do tonight without causing more suspicion. We must wait until tomorrow evening when we can safely get intel from Luca Castillo and hope Trystan hadn’t fled to Slovenia yet. We can regroup after we know Trystan's next move.”
“The Winter Solstice festival is tomorrow—” I started, but Alexei cut me off.
“That’s not good enough! What if he flees tonight or worse, was successful in using the staff? Luca Castillo and the rest of the east coast elites may be under his control as we speak.”
“If that’s true, we’ll deal with it,” I argued.
When Alexei’s head snapped to mine irritably, Henry suddenly stood, angling himself between us. “When did you last drink, Alexei?”
My brows furrowed with confusion when Alexei didn’t reply with a snide comment but merely growled low, watching Henry’s proximity to me as if he longed to tear the vampire to pieces.
“I told you this would happen, my friend,” Henry said, almost too quiet for me to hear.
I nearly wrung the two vampires’ necks with frustration. “What would happen?”
“Don’t,” Alexei warned, looking more dangerous than he ever had before. His eyes appeared deadened in their intensity, his body poised with lethal energy.
Henry released a foul curse when Alexei crept closer, his hand braced menacingly on the dagger hidden in his suit jacket. “Bloodlust, Jade. What you're seeing results from this fool abstaining from drinking warmbloods and putting everyone at risk. Especially you.”
My stomach sunk like lead.
Alexei had been starving himself by not drinking from another?
