Page 218 of Claimed By Fangs and Darkness

It was as if he refused to look at me to preserve his own focus. Relief and love flooded my veins.

“He’s what you wished you were,” I whispered, trying and failing to stand again. “And so much more.”

Aster had me flush against his chest with the dagger to my throat before Kylo could make a move.

Juliette didn’t stir from her puddle of grief.

“I can see now that your wife means little to you,” Kylo said, shooting Juliette an irritated glance as if she’d gone off script in whatever scheme was currently unfolding. “But what about these?”

He pulled folded papers from his back pocket with a casual grace that stirred something inside me. I was surprised I could get turned on at a time like this.

For Kylo, only for Kylo. I sighed dreamily, perhaps drunkenly.

Aster tightened his hold on me until I was sure he was leaving more bruises. “And those are?” he asked, failing to sound even remotely as cool as Kylo.

“An admission of guilt,” Kylo drawled. “Need I say what for?”

Aster stammered. He hadn’t picked the papers up off the ground after I’d dropped them. He might not have even noticed them fall with his fangs buried in my flesh.

“Let Evie go, and you can have Conrad’s damning little diary entries back in your possession. You can even keep youractualwife.”

Aster didn’t glance Juliette’s way, as if she was already dead to him. Yet, his grip loosened. “Fine.”

I shook my head, warning Kylo not to trust him. If Aster couldn’t have me, no one could.

Kylo and I finally locked eyes for the very first time. I lost my breath. His intensity was a drug, an anchor in the storm.

My shadows weren’t yet tangled with his. But it was as if I still heard his whisper in my mind.

Hi, angel.

“I’m going to drop her,” Aster said. “And you’re going to drop the papers.”

Aster slowly retracted the blade from my throat. He was trembling with rage. I could smell the bloodlust in the air, hitting me from all directions, including from inside myself.

“Ready?” Aster asked.

I could hear it in Aster’s voice, feel it in his aura. Kylo wasn’t looking at me anymore. He was watching Aster and the movement of his weapon. Again, I shook my head.

Don’t trust him,I screamed inside my mind, willing the message to reach Kylo.

Kylo nodded.

Aster released me. Kylo dropped the papers.

I felt an excruciating pinch in my back, straight through to my heart. I gasped and fell to the earth.

A deadly fast vampire tackled Aster from behind, catching him off guard. “Get the fuck away from her!”

“Idris,” I breathed.

Idris stabbed Aster in the back, right through the heart.

Juliette shrieked.“No!”

She strained against her magickal cuffs, scrambling toward them until Harmony grabbed her and pulled her back. Harmony was out of breath, glancing around at all of us to assess the situation.

Idris didn’t stop. He rolled Aster over only to stare him in the eyes. He was yelling in a primal, grief-stricken way I’d never heard from him before. He stabbed Aster again and again until tears streamed down his face, and he still couldn’t stop, couldn’t stop,couldn’t stop.