Page 27

Eesh, that must have stung. I rolled my lips between my teeth to stop my smirk.

Asher crouched and lifted my good leg, leaving me on my aching one. I gripped his shoulder to balance. I could stand on it, but a dull pain speared through my shin.

His shoulder bunched. The muscles were quite nice?—

I clenched my teeth and shoved on the other heel and let him go. Fucking vampire was too tempting to be around. My mind and body battled. They drew me in like a month to a flame. I’d get incinerated soon enough.

As they argued, I hobbled over to the window to peek at my obliterated rental.

The charred, half-turned-to-ash building, sprawled below. I had a clear view of my driveway from here.

I pressed my palm to the cold window pane, and an outline of condensation formed around my hand.

My room no longer existed. It was a gaping hole now, just like the one in my chest.

Believing in vampires got me that. I couldn’t make the mistake again.

Not that my decisions mattered since I’d be dead soon.

TEN

jax

If she were alive,Jax. The truth of Asher’s words stung and I stepped on the gas, speeding down the winding road as fast as the sports car could handle it.

I grew tired of denying myself. Catalina needed to go. Death by my hand or death by Ren’s hand. Those were the two options. And the only way she would no longer haunt me. If she was alive out there . . . I would hunt her down. To fuck her, to feed on her—to keep her.

I’d be like pathetic Asher, following the whims of a human.

I shook my head. Fuck that.

As good as her pussy was and as sweet as she tasted, I would deny myself. She was nothing. And as a human nothing, she should not be touching Imogen’s things. The thought came with less hostility than I liked, and I found that happening much too often.

The clothes did not suit her. I didn’t want them touching her . . . but, it was because I didn’t want the reminder of what I’d lost.

Catalina and Imogen were absolute opposites.

Imogen would rip the human apart if she were around. The human would run in fear, cowering.

The thought unsettled me.

I ran my palm over my jaw. Meaningless thoughts to have. They would never meet, fortunately for the human.

She was too weak, as displayed by the state of her body when she arrived. Broken down, wrapped in casts, and bruised. The image returned me to the dirty streets of the Kingdom of Sweden in the late 1700s where I’d survived as a thief. Imogen found me beaten, on the brink of death when she changed me. I squeezed the steering wheel a brief moment before releasing it.

She’d changed Asher for me, as well.

I owed her everything.

Then why didsheaffect me? Seeing the broken human caused a violently visceral reaction in me. I could not contain the things happening in my chest. I’d gone deep into the woods, morphed, and slaughtered every animal I came into contact with, relishing in their squeals of pain.

I scratched the back of my neck so hard I gouged into my skin.

I craved a traitor.

ELEVEN

catalina