Page 2

I just hadn’t expected the rest.

I hadn’t expected to find out Dad had murdered his mother. I hadn’t expected to have things in common with Roman. The same fierce loyalty and love for my family and friends that had forced me to make moves on Bjorn’s coven was present in every choice Roman made. In trying to find answers about his brother, I’d discovered he was capable of the same things I was.

I allowed him unfettered access to my heart, and he has molded it exactly to fit his hands.

And yet, I made this choice to betray him all the same. This final act of depravity is mine alone.

But at least his brother is alive, I remind myself. That’s more than I can say for the countless people I’ve loved and seen killed by this coven. Roman has his loved one back, and I’ll never get to experience the heartstopping relief I can see etched into his face.

Roman’s eyes water, and I’m afraid he’ll see how powerless I am to my own emotions. If it were up to me, I would dig them out at the root. With a deep breath, I staunch my feelings.

“That’s enough. Hang it up.”

Roman turns a hateful glare upon me. His brown eyes are bright and glassy, and I’m tempted to call my new bloodsworns to stand between us. His expression is a promise, of that I am sure.

“Where are you? Where do they have you? What?—”

“Hang it up right now, or Sasha puts a silver bullet in his fucking skull. We have shit to do.” I steel myself, ready for him to rush me, but his brother defuses him with endless apologies before the line goes silent.

Absently, Roman wipes at his bloody lips, and I can’t stop staring. He’d done many things with that mouth. With it, he’d been an asshole and an enemy, a lover and a friend. And now I’m certain, more than ever, the fangs hidden within will be my death. Blinking slowly, Roman turns his flat gaze upon me before huffing the slightest breath.

Good. He understands the power I hold. Clearing my throat, I reach for the phone, but he isn’t paying attention as it slips out of his hand. He stares at his hands as if he doesn’t know what to do with them. A low, guttural noise comes from the hallway outside the ballroom, but it doesn’t seem to unnerve him. Not like it did before.

“Now, get up. If you ever want to see your brother again, you’re going to help me kill my father.” This draws his attention, but he clearly hasn’t figured this part of it out. Even I’m still refining the plan, inspiration smeared in Bjorn’s blood on my hands, with an image still taking shape on the canvas. “Well, you woke him up, didn’t you? That’s him roaring and shit, isn’t it?”

“What?”

But I don’t need to explain. It takes only a moment for him to close his eyes, and a second later, he smiles.

“Clever, sweetheart.” He laughs, as if my parentage amuses him. Or perhaps it’s my willingness to take advantage of it that makes him chuckle. With Agnarr, one of the very first vampires, as my biological father, I am a threat. I am just as strong as Roman is, and I’m sure it displeases him. But he sits there, his soft smile reminding me of his demeanor when I’d successfully managed to drink from a human without killing her. It’s something like pride, I think, but I try not to dwell on it.

My eyes are drawn back to his mouth and the bead of blood welling on his lower lip.

“You’re bleeding,” I say. Bending, I breathe him in. This might be the closest I find myself to Roman Sauveterre ever again, and if that knowledge doesn’t kill me, he certainly will. Gently, I swipe the blood from his wound with my tongue, knowing all he needs is a little push, and maybe he’ll give me what I’m truly craving.

He snarls, baring his piercing incisors. “You crazy, fucking bitch.”

You don’t even know.

2

ROMAN

“Start rippingtheir hearts out and put them in a pile,” she commands, and the coven fall upon the dead bodies like scavengers. Without hearts, there will be no healing of what she’s done.

I don’t allow myself to scan the faces of those who survived Gwyn’s attack. The reason I can’t look at them is two-fold. The coven I’ve been trained to lead as my own had needed me, and I hadn’t been there. But worse, I’d been stuck in a dungeon, punished for falling for the very woman who destroyed them.

This was my fault—for bringing her here, for letting her infiltrate them. For letting her infiltrateme.

If I don’t look at them, perhaps I won’t see the impact of what I’ve done. At the very least, I won’t be able to see exactly which faces are missing from the crowd.

Less than an hour—that’s how long it took for everything to change.

Less than an hour ago, I was screaming her name, telling her I loved her as Bjorn dragged her away. An hour ago I was fighting against his command, against Emile’s command, doing everything in my power to get to her. Though my knuckles have already healed, my time spent slamming my fists through stonefeels fresh. My fear and determination when running past the recently awakened first vampire, my disregard for the dead body of my ex-girlfriend, had propelled me forward—toher. To Gwyn. To the woman I loved.

Less than an hour ago my father was alive, and the coven was his.

Less than an hour ago my brother was still dead.