Page 215 of Cruelly Bitten

Michael’s lips curled. “A brilliant maneuver, my liege.”

“Exceedingly, yes.” Cane smiled, his gaze returning to mine. “Lilith wasn’t entirely divested of her pesky humanity, so I orchestrated an informative event to show her what mortalswere capable of when left to their own devices. The results were rather immediate.”

I blinked at both of them. “You arranged for Michael… to be killed?” I translated.

“Hmm, I more so created a situation that led to his brutal demise. One where the mortals could have left him alone but chose to follow herd mentality instead.” He lifted a shoulder. “Mortals have always been easily manipulatable, their minds… fragile.”

Meaning he compelled the humans,I realized.

Or perhaps only compelled one human, thus provoking the others around him or her to follow suit,Cam replied.Ask him what happened next. Tell him I want to know.

Clearing my throat again, I repeated Cam’s request.

Which resulted in Cane’s gaze practically glittering in triumph.

“Michael was Lilith’sErosita. Hence, he survived the violent assault. But Lilith felt his death. And, more importantly, she saw how he died. What those humans did. Then, right as her compassion toward mortals was beginning to fracture, I had Cam sire Michael, thus severing Lilith’s ties to her humanity entirely.”

Swallowing, I repeated the explanation to Cam. Not that it seemed to be needed; he was so in tune with my mind right now that it was almost as though he sat beside me on this couch.

I wouldn’t be surprised if he could sense everything I did, including the rumbling of the jet as we made our final approach.

It was loud. Fast. Overwhelming.Concerning.

Because I could see the calculative glint forming in Cane’s gaze, his urge to repeat his actions on me. To kill me. Force Cam to feel it.Then turn me.

Or leave me for dead.

“Cam says not to do anything rash,” I told Cane, the lie rolling easily off my tongue. “He’s already pissed that you lied to him, that you made him believe he was the Liege. Taking this choice away from him would infuriate him.”

Hmm,Cam hummed.

I ignored him, my focus on Cane as he drawled, “Or free him.”

I shook my head. “No. You took his memories away, Cane. Now I’m his only link to the past. And he’s not done using me yet.”

Cam grunted but didn’t otherwise comment, mostly because he was too busy following my frantic thoughts to their inevitable conclusion.

A conclusion I knew Cane would appreciate.

“I’m a means to an end for him now,” I informed him flatly. “Our bond was broken the second the weapon zapped that part of his brain, but I’m his only connection to his past right now. If you remove me before he’s done with me, he’ll be even angrier than he already is.”

Cam fell silent, my words repeating throughout his thoughts as a dark part of him wondered if what I’d just said might be true.

He had been using my mind to discover information from his past, his psyche constantly caressing mine for answers and experiences as needed.

But he swiftly disregarded it in the next instant.It’s simply one of the many benefits of having a mate,he told himself.And that’s definitely not why I’ve kept Ismerelda for as long as I have.

“Cam isn’t Lilith,” I said as the jet’s wheels hit the tarmac, my entire body jolting backward into the couch at the impact. “What worked for her won’t work for him. Especially after everything you’ve already done to him.”

Cane had yet to officially confirm he was the one behind Cam’s imprisonment and treatment. But the flare of his nostrils as I delivered that last line confirmed it all.

He was concerned.

As he should be,Cam murmured into my mind.I’m starting to wonder if it wasn’t Lilith I intended to meet with that fated day, but my brother. And I failed to tell anyone else about it, my arrogance making me assume I could handle it on my own.

If you were hiding other things from me about Cane, that could explain you blocking me out entirely.The words sounded like grating rocks to my ears, my irritation mounting.

Because Cam should have trusted me with the truth.