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Peering up, I see Raphael’s face above me, contorted with murderous fury.

Surprisingly, this time around the rage flickering in his eyes, causing them to shift between red and black, doesn’t phase me in the least.

Nor does all the blood covering his face.

There’s blood splattered across his forehead and covering his entire chin. He looks like he tried and failed to drink from a bloody fountain.

“We’re trying to get her to safety!” Caden growls back and clenches his fists.

Raphael cradles me in his arms and pulls me into his chest. Holding me like one holds a small child. “You’re terrifying her. I should rip your spine out through your ass!”

“Oh yeah?” Caden smirks angrily and starts cracking his knuckles. “Why don’t you come over here and give it a try?”

Raphael’s lips peel away from his fangs and he takes a step forward, as if he means to do just that, even with me in his arms.

“What the fuck is going on now?” Raphael’s sire says with exasperation as he suddenly appears in the space between the two angry vampires.

“Caden is terrifying my stars,” Raphael answers, his voice guttural and bordering on demonic.

I blink up at Raphael in confusion. His stars? Isn’t that what he was calling me earlier? Before he discovered I’m tainted?

What does he mean by calling me that now? I thought he hated me…

“I was only trying to take care of her,” Caden growls back. “Something you should have been here doing. Instead, you decided to run off like a fucking crazed animal!”

Asher opens his mouth to speak, but Caden isn’t done yet.

Caden’s face tightens with disgust and loathing. A look that ages his boyish features a couple of decades. “You finally found your soulmarked, your other half… Something we’ve all beendying to do since the night we were reborn! And you left her! You fucking abandoned her!”

A pang of pain slices through my chest where my mark is, like I accidentally swallowed something too quickly.

Reaching up and rubbing at the spot, I suddenly feel a faint emotion that confuses me.

Shame. I feel a deep, dark shame, like I’ve done something wrong and unforgivable.

But why would I feel shame over anything Caden said?

Raphael’s head dips and my eyes fly up in reaction. On his face, I see the shame I’m feeling reflected back at me.

Is it his emotion? How…

Out of the corner of my eyes, I see Caden take a step forward with his fists still clenched in anger. “You don’t de—"

“That’senough,” Asher orders with so much power and authority, I swear a ripple of it flows over me. “We will discuss this matter, like a family, later.”

Caden’s foot is literally in midair as he comes to a complete stop.

Tearing my gaze away from Raphael, I watch in fascination as Caden unclenches his fists.

Putting his foot down on the floor, he grinds out, “Yes, Sire.”

It’s creepy. Yet, thanks to Chloe’s compulsion, I still can’t freak out over it.

I can, however, totally freak out when Asher says, “Get to the cars, it’s time to leave.”

Fear rushes through me at the thought of returning to Boston.

But before I can voice it or scream again, Raphael is grabbing my face and forcing me to look back up at him. “What’s wrong? Why are you so afraid?”