Page 29

Ahead of him, Alex raced along the corridor, her hips swishing with irritation. He didn’t need to be a sympath to sense the raw emotion pouring off her.

“Alex. Dammit, stop.” He snagged her uninjured arm, and she spun on him, whipping her hand free.

“What? What do you want? I did everything expected of me. I came to the creepy conservatory, met with your leader, and had my fuckingmind rapedwhile you didnothingto stop it. Go on. Tell me. How may I serve you, oh Lord and Master?”

The force of her outrage had him backing up, hands raised as though she held him at gun point.

Mind-raped? Was this how she saw her evaluation? His gut tightened. “Alex.” He reached for her, and she withdrew.

“Don’t. Touch. Me.” Each word hit him with the force of a bullet. “You think you’re so honorable. You probably believe Liam is the misguided soul, and you’re the righteous one. And yet, Liamneverwould have stood by while Victor violated me in such a way.”

Jericho raked his fingers through his long hair. Her words challenged his morals, something few would attempt. Unfortunately, she wasn’t finished with him yet.

She stepped closer. “Admit it. You enjoyed watching Victor violate my mind.”

Did he? When she confessed to having Liam in her thrall, he’d never known such rage.She is a faerie,his mind defended while guilt crawled beneath his skin.

Had Victor violated her? The same way Sivanah once violated Jericho’s emotions? He steeled his resolve, the reality of what he’d allowed to happen to her too dishonorable to consider. “Victor did you a courtesy, evaluating you here. Or would you rather face the Council instead?”

Alex stomped away, then returned, poking her finger in his direction. “Their faerie registry is bullshit, and you know it. There hasn’t been a faerie with the kind of power Queen Rayna wielded in centuries. Still, the Council persecutes us. Murdering those they deem a threat. Enslaving the rest. Sure, they claim becoming a vampire’s Chosen is mutually beneficial. That the benefactor and ward relationship is for our protection. Reality is, it’s all about control.”

He noticed she’d skillfully avoided his answer, not willing to admit she’d have fared no better with the authorities.

Jericho scrubbed his face, his anger dwindling. What was done was done. At least Victor’s evaluation had proved Alex was out of touch with her ability. She was too inexperienced to even defend herself.

“Your confession was a lie. Liam wasn’t in your thrall.”

Her expression of indignation wasn’t feigned. “Truth. Lie. What does it matter when you’ve already been judged and found guilty?” She paused before adding, “If I could, don’t you think I’d have used my gift to stop Victor? Or hell, maybe I’d have used it on you.” She dared to lean closer. “To think, with the snap of my fingers, I could have made you my adoring slave.”

Jericho winced, his insides pulling tight. What he felt for her was far from adoring. Sivanah had him in her snare from the moment they’d met. Damn if he didn’t believe her. Inside his mind, a tempest brewed. This faerie, who was his Chosen, was nothing like he expected. Where did he go from here?

Alex paced down the corridor and back. She ran her fingers through her red locks, gripping her head. “I need to get out of here. Out of Claymore. Out of this freaking mausoleum. I can’t… I can’t breathe in here. No way am I spending another night underhisroof. Liam too. I need to move him somewhere safe.” At the admission, she looked almost panicked. Like a mad person clawing the walls of their cell.

“I know of a place.” He’d failed her where Victor was concerned. While he wasn’t sure if he could trust her, justice demanded he make it right.

She stopped pacing, studying him with suspicious eyes. “I thought I was under house arrest.”

“As my Chosen, you go where I go.”

She stepped back, distrust apparent even to one without her gift. “What about Liam?”

“Liam is better off with Doc and Ivy. Only at Claymore can he get the care he needs. To move him would endanger his life.”

He held out his hand. After what she’d experienced with Victor, his expectations of her accepting this temporary truce were low.

She hesitated, arms locked at her sides. “I meant it when I promised to help find Liam’s attacker. And not just to keep him from being punished by the Council. Even if it means I’m forced to work with Victor, Liam deserves justice for what they did to him.”

Her words resonated deep inside Jericho. In this, they were the same. “Come with me. Together,” he grated the word, “we’ll make Liam’s attacker regret the day he was born.”

“For Liam,” she said as though it were an oath.

“For Liam,” he agreed.

She nodded and took Jericho’s hand.

Eight

Jericho wastrue to his word. In a matter of hours, he’d made the necessary arrangements for her release. Victor agreed with the stipulation that she return to Claymore tomorrow to discuss the role she would play in his investigation.