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He caught my hand, and I swung our arms between us as we walked through the halls and down the stairs. Once on the first level, we crossed to the right of the foyer and entered the kitchen.

Three vampires sat at the tall dining table, staring at the red liquid in the wine glasses. A smiling Baron stood across from them, her arms crossed. All of their eyes flung in our direction as we entered. They looked at my face, dropped to our clasped hands, then to Tobias. They seemed especially focused. I followed their gaze.

The front of his hair stuck straight up. He looked recently fucked. I pursed my lips and reached up to smooth the hair sticking up.

“Catalina,” Baron said, sounding pleased. She flowed over to me. “Let me introduce you to everyone. This is Damien, Violet,”she said, motioning to the vampire with blonde stripes in her hair. “And Laney.” She pointed at the last girl. The girls wore very pink clothes, while Damien had on a too big shirt.

“Hi—”

“Thank you so much.” Laney stood so fast the chair scratched the ground. She laced her hands together and cleared her throat. “For letting us stay.”

“Kiss ass,” Violet muttered. She lounged in her chair. I caught Damien’s wince.

“I am so sorry about her.” Laney glared at Violet. “We won’t be a problem at all.”

“Sit down,” Violet hissed at her. “And you don’t need to apologize for me.” Laney’s lips twisted and she dropped on the chair.

“You know what Sire said,” Laney murmured at Violet.

“Sire?” I sighed. “Asher talked to you.” I didn’t need to ask him to know. I clicked my tongue. I looked up at Tobias. “He’s such a busy body.”

His lips twitched.

“That’s why he’s the contact person.”

“Well, then. As I was saying. We are not going to have feeders here. There are enough blood bags to satisfy your thirst.” Baron turned to me, but my attention was still on Violet scrunching her nose at the wine glass. “Your things should be delivered soon.”

“I thought you needed me to check the list?”

“Asher confirmed it already.” Her eyes widened. “Do you need me to cancel the order?”

“Not at all, he knows what I like.” And he had great taste.

“He knows what a lot of people like,” Talia said, standing near the fridge. I whipped to look at her, lips pressed together. My stomach dipped to the floor. I scanned the faces looking at me. They were all Asher’s Progeny.

Footsteps shut everyone up.

“Pet,” he exclaimed with a grin, walking toward me. I couldn’t relax my stiff posture. His hand on my shoulder slid off.

“Asher,” I said wryly, trying to keep my cool. Talia really did not like me. Baron glared at Talia and Laney had dropped her eyes, while the rest avoided looking at us.

I wasn’t stupid, I knew he had a large body count, but she didn’t need to be cruel about it.

“Pet.” His lips thinned, and he scanned my face. “What is it?” He sounded so serious.

I sidled close to him and slid my arms around his waist.

“You’re mine?”

He nuzzled the top of my hair. “For eternity,Älskade.”

THIRTY-THREE

jax

I closedthe pliers around his finger and the gush of blood and crack of bone came with my squeeze. His blood spurted onto my drenched shirt. The chained vampire jerked against the chains binding him to the chair. He was limp and the chains were all that held him upright. Vampires could not regenerate appendages, but if he spoke up, I’d do him a solid and keep his fingers so he could have them sewn back on. Eventually, they could heal up.

“Are you going to talk?” I asked him.