Page 143 of Claimed By Fangs and Darkness

“I can feel your distrust, precious Evie. It must’ve been terribly difficult to take care of yourself for so many years,” he said softly. “Often, when we are afraid—especially from childhood hurts—we turn to comforting savior fantasies. Fierce protectors, white knights, grand battles of good versus evil. But reality exists in shades of gray, not in absolutes. There is always more to a story and its characters than our first clouded initial assumptions.”

I clocked the manipulation immediately, but I furrowed my brow, pretending to be confused and deep in thought.

“Why did you have Juliette kill all of those innocent mortals?” I asked point-blank.

“Prime example of an assumption.”

“So she’s wreaking havoc on the city entirely of her own accord?”

“We protect the people we love, don’t we, Evie?” Aster sat on a wooden bench, handing me a small bunch of wildflowers that I couldn’t imagine him collecting himself. “Juliette’s magick is protective. She heard a group of students talking about my assassination, and she lost her temper. She’s blessed by Lillian—her magick is divine wrath. Not always easily contained or predictable, but her heart is in the right place. She’s a wound that bleeds.”

Aster looked bizarrely genuine as he stared out into the trees, tall grass, and blooming flowers.

She’s a wound that bleeds.

“When we first met, all she did was cry. I hadn’t planned to take another bride, but I couldn’t just leave her with thosepeople. It took months to get her to speak to me. A year to get her to talk in full sentences. Her magick was slow to develop as well. It came alive as she did.” He smiled. “She’s trying to protect me the way I protected her. That’s all.”

That was absolutely notall. “There were hundreds of innocent people in that build?—”

“And a great many of them were actively planning their lords’ demises,” Aster snapped. “I am being honest with you, so please do me the courtesy of giving me the same respect. Hundreds more mortals would be sacrificed to war. Both sides are enacting violence upon the other. You cannot pretend the mortals and turned freaks of nature are these poor, nonviolent innocents when they are actively plotting against us and slaughtering our kind in the streets. We didn’t enforce harsher laws in this city to destroy it. We did so to preserveorder. We do not want war.No sane person wants war.”

His words landed heavily, a sharp contrast to the gentle summer air.

I extended my witchy senses, confirming what I could see plainly in Aster’s features. By all appearances, his convictions were honestly held. Even if his aura was otherwise disgusting, evil, and horny.

There was something interesting in the way he emphasized the avoidance of war. I thought about our hunch that Aster was vying for the throne, and how he might achieve that with minimal bloodshed.

Dissenters in the council. A coalition of southern born elites. The ties to the burgeoning slave trade.

You’re going to find what you need. Watch carefully where authority flows…

“I find you to be contradictory,” I said. “You speak as though you don’t have any control over the Servants of Lillian and the abuse these cults foster. Like taking us as brides was the only way to save us from the institutions you allow under your rule.”

Aster stared forward, blond hair bathed in the golden light of a falling sun. His lip twitched, his amber eyes a cool mask. “The hawk eats the snake. The snake eats the bird. The bird eats the insect. The insect eats the grass. Death, brutality, decay, senselessness… it’s all a part of the cosmic design, wouldn’t you say?”

I frowned deeply. Was I the snake or the bird? Either answer pissed me off. “A convenient perspective.”

“The Servants have been around for centuries. They fall in and out of fashion, like bloodlines fall in and out of power. Everything serves its purpose. Cut off the head of a snake, and two heads may grow back in its place. Some may believe themselves to be, but we vampires are not gods. If witches wish to abandon Selena and serve our Dark Mother instead, who am I to stop them? It is not my place to exert control over the world; that is a futile and misguided urge that only leads to suffering. I merely exist within its natural order just like everyone else.”

I was beginning to understand how much manipulators loved to evade basic questions and answer with long, pretentious monologues. I asked Selena for patience.

“I am a man, Evie,” Aster said, his amber eyes molten now. “I will not apologize for my natural desires for female companionship. For sex and beauty and romance. I am also a vampire, which particularizes my desires of the flesh. This does not mean I have no values or ethical codes. I pursued brides from the Servants for a reason. If I hadn’t stepped in, someone worse would’ve.”

I almost laughed at the absurdity of his logic. Anger boiled my blood until I was afraid I was close to leaking shadow. I took a deep breath to calm my magick.

Aster truly did think of us as rescue pets.

Rescue pets with magickal gifts that may prove useful to his political agenda.

“I gave Juliette an education. I have been a faithful partner, mentor, and guide. She has never once asked to leave me. I give her everything she needs and more. Our roles are mutually fulfilling, and I will not apologize for taking care of her the way she innately desires.”

It was so sick. The grooming, the justifications, the rejection of criticism or accountability. My stomach turned over. The haze of trauma reached for me, blurring the edges of my mind, while I fought to stay present and sharp.

“I don’t need anything from you,” I said. “Why would I agree to marry you rather than remain free?”

Aster pinned me with a hard stare. “Are you free, Evie?”

No. Not entirely—not anymore. But true freedom was a myth. Loving and serving others meant a loss of personal freedom, but the trade-off was well worth the fulfillment, community, and justice.