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BLAKE

W atching Evangline disappear down the hallway with Malachi in tow made every bit of primal rage surge viciously to the surface. Rage that turned to a killing calm as cold as a glacier.

I wanted to rip his head from his shoulders. Gut him. Toss him back out through the ward and let Ravok finish what he’d started.

“You look like I feel.” Riordan’s soft voice was sharper than a razor’s edge. “Let’s get through these next few hours. With a little luck, Ravok will take care of our problem for us.”

“Your mouth to God’s ear,” I muttered, trying to keep my furious magic under control as I looked to the front drive, where Nash was giving his men their final instructions. “Remind me again why we never killed him.”

“Because he’s a valuable asset. And now that he’s wormed his way into Evie’s good graces…we just…can’t,” Riordan said, the picture of calm neutrality.

There was a moment when I could have. A moment when the darkest urges overtook me and the only thing I thought about—the only thing that existed in this world—was Evangeline’s scent, her soft body, her wet lips. Her perfect, curvy body, crushed against mine, the heat of her pussy grinding against my aching cock.

Pure lust tingled through my body.

One brush of her magic against mine and I’d been oblivious to the fact half the Knightsguard were watching, along with Fiona, and apparently Angel and Bex, whose cheeks were still tinged bright pink.

And when Angel stomped out of the front doors a few minutes later, muttering under her breath, no sign of my mate or Draven, Riordan wrapped his hand around my arm to stop me from charging like a rage-blind bull.

“You have to give her space, Blake. Just…don’t push her right now, no matter how much you want to. I’m talking to you as a friend, not her lover. She’s been through too much for either of us to put more pressure on her.”

“Easy for you to say.”

“No,” Riordan snarled through bared fangs, “this isn’t fucking easy . This is the hardest thing I’ve ever done, because every part of me wants to go in there and rip that bastard away from her and drive a knife through his heart.” I reared back, reevaluating his coldness for what it was—pent-up fury.

“This is worse than torture, and things will get a whole lot worse before they get better, but…let’s survive these next few hours, then we’ll—you and me together—decide how we handle Draven.”

Seeing my friend as unhinged as me—albeit locked down beneath a veneer of cold calm—made me feel incrementally better.

And when Evie came out of the house, a little paler, a little pinker in the cheeks, I decided to follow Riordan’s lead and crossed the yard, taking her hand. “Now it’s your turn.” Her eyes went wide when I tugged her closer. “You feed him, I feed you. That’s how this works, mate. Let’s go.”

“But I need to help.” She glanced toward Fiona, looking like she’d swallowed a bucket of poison as she instructed Malachi on where to reinforce the ward, her brother making unhelpful, smart ass comments the entire time.

From the frustration on Malachi’s face, I decided Eldric could keep up the good work.

“You know how to reinforce a magical ward that has existed for almost four hundred years?” I asked innocently, secretly pleased when she shook her head. I bent my head and nipped her ear. “Then let me take care of you, before the mated male in me loses his fucking shit in front of the whole world again.”

Because I’d be goddamned if I used the same room, I led her in the opposite direction, to Domonic’s old study, a room I despised on principle, but far enough off the beaten path we wouldn’t be disturbed.

“This is nice.” Evie swiped her finger through the layers of dust with a nervous smile. “So romantic.”

I leaned my ass against Domonic’s old, heavy desk, gripping the edge to keep from launching myself at her. “You know me, always ready to sweep my mate off her feet.” Her tentative smile turned real and something inside me loosened.

I wanted nothing more than to pull her into my arms, to tell her everything would be alright. That we’d beat Ravok and never have to worry about him again. To cover the scent of her arousal—arousal from Malachi’s bite—with my own scent and make this about the two of us again.

But it would never just be the two of us again.

“We need to talk about everything, I know we do,” she murmured, finally crossing the room to me, wrapping her arms around my waist to stare up into my eyes. “But…”

“But Ravok is coming.” I dipped my head and tasted her lips, wishing I had time to lick and bite and mark every gorgeous inch of her, but… Later.

“There isn’t a lot of time, but…I need something from you, Evie. I want your fangs in my throat. I need to know I can give you something… he can’t .” Fuck, I hated how my voice broke, how fucking desperate that sounded, but when her hand came up and cradled my cheek, I closed my eyes and sagged against her.

“This is hard, Evie. I’m angry and I’m confused and I’m scared of losing you. Everything is about to change and I can’t stop it from happening.”

“You’re not losing me, because I’ll never leave you.” She cradled my face between her palms, touching me so gently, something inside me broke. “Look at me. Blake, look at me, please?”

What she didn’t know was I couldn’t stop looking. She was so fucking beautiful, my heart ached. Her eyes were the color of a stormy sky, her pale skin flawless, her full pink lips parts slightly, the points of her white fangs barely visible.

“I love you. I have loved you since the second our eyes met across that room, remember? In that moment, I felt like I’d finally come home, and I’ve never stopped feeling that, not once. You protect me. You cherish me. You and I were meant to find one another and I will never, ever let you go.”

At some point, I’d closed my eyes again, my chest collapsing beneath the weight of too many emotions. She was too fucking good for me. Too fucking good and that’s why she was going to leave me and…

Something tugged at the end of the mating bond, like a giant hook around my heart, pulling me up from the depths. When I opened my eyes, she was still there, staring up at me, her eyes lined with tears.

“Don’t do that,” she murmured. “Don’t you ever think you’re not good enough, Blake Marten. You are my anchor. My rock, and until I met you, I never knew what it meant to love someone so deeply I didn’t know where I ended and they began.” She ran her lips up the side of my throat.

“Now, what was it you said about feeding me? Because that’s an offer I definitely can’t refuse, my love.”

I tugged her against me and tipped my head back, offering myself to her. There was more to say, but…the dark edges of my feral violence had settled, doubts quieting, all my worst fears softening into something that felt more like…the possibility this might turn out okay.

I hissed when her fangs sank into my throat, hard and fast, greedy for my blood and I felt a surge of male satisfaction at her first strong pull, followed by a deep, contented moan.

I let her feed until a dark halo of power hovered around her, until she lay supine against me, her weight supported by my arms, her tongue gently laving over the punctures.

I lifted her up, cradled her against my chest and went outside to face a monster.

Or, as Evie called him, a bad guy .

I might be a petty bastard, but I didn’t give a rat’s ass about Ravok right now.

I needed Malachi to see my mate strong and fierce. To see her content and satisfied and cared for. To know that while he might use and endanger her, I was the one who would always protect her.

He would never come close to the love we shared, even if he lived another thousand years.

And when the bastard’s head shot up as we emerged from the house, eyes narrowing, face tightening—his jealousy was the sweetest revenge I could have ever hoped for.

* * *

“Stay here, I’ll check on progress.” I carefully settled Evie on a stone bench overgrown with ivy, giving her cousin a hard glare that told the sniveling human he so much as looked at her wrong, I would gut him like a pig.

“Was that really necessary?” She sighed, still caught up in that foggy, post feeding trance. “Virgil is scared out of his mind right now.”

“He’s a human in fucking enemy territory, he should be scared.”

“Yeah, well, Virgil took a good share of beatings on my behalf, so don’t be too hard on him, okay? He’s a decent person, despite having Dante as a sperm donor.”

“What do you mean, beatings?” I growled, before I could stop myself. Evie had always been close lipped about her past. What little I’d gotten out of her was mostly about Aurora and Angel, and the night Silas found them.

“Oh, you know…” Her focus faded in and out as she blinked dreamily up at me. “Running too slow, moving too slow, not reacting fast enough to an attack. Getting pinned on the mat, getting cut during hand to hand. Basically, any failure of any kind. We got whipped pretty much every night. But Virgil was the only one who cared, he was….” Her eyes drifted closed and I motioned to the wide-eyed human.

“Get your fucking ass over here and make yourself useful.”

He hoofed it over, gaze bouncing between me and my mate. “See that she sleeps off the feeding and nobody disturbs her. I’m checking on a few things, then I’ll be back. You so much as think about hurting her, I’ll give you the most painful death you can imagine.”

“Blake, stop,” Evie whispered in her sleep.

“Tell me this.” I fisted a handful of his shirt and dragged the little fucker closer. “Is everything she told me true about how she grew up? Your shit-for-brains family abusing her? Hurting her?”

“They were hard on all of us,” Virgil murmured, his gaze sliding to Evangeline, “but especially her. I think Silas wanted to break her. She spent way more time in the hole than the rest of us put together. Once they even…”

“The hole?”

“A hole dug into the ground with an iron grate over it. You couldn’t move, couldn’t sit or lay down and the walls were dirt, so it was always cold and wet. Silas left her in there for five days once. It rained, and by the time we got her out, the water was up to her chest. I thought she was dead when they hauled her out, but….”

Motherfucker.

I was going to rip that thrall motherfucker’s head off and piss down his throat.

And that was after I made him suffer.

“But Evangeline was stronger than they were. That’s what pissed them off the most.” Virgil dropped his voice. “They tried for years to break her, but they never managed. Joke’s on them now, I suppose.”

“Watch her.” I stalked away, violence gnawing away at my control faster than I could shove it back into place. All of this…I didn’t know what to do with the pictures now in my head, the fury pounding in my veins, this overwhelming need to hurt something.

Kill something .

Despite the previous urge to prove my dominance, I passed Fiona and Malachi without a second glance, heading straight for Riordan, on the far side of the grounds with Nash and a small contingent of guards.

I need to show you something. Rohr’s head snapped up, tracking my approach as I poured everything the cousin had just told me, plus Evie’s own revelation, into Riordan’s head.

By the time I stopped before him, Riordan shook with the same cold fury as me.

“Ravok needs to die, obviously,” I noted, in a voice somewhere between a rasp and a growl, “but Silas and the uncles are fucking mine.”

“Unless I get to them first.” Then he pointed out the obvious. “How could we not know any of this?” He was staring past me, to where Evie drowsed on the bench, the cousin standing guard, as if a human could protect her from anything.

“He tried, Blake,” Riordan said softly. “At least someone tried.”

“What are you two wankers looking so glum about?” Malachi ambled up, his naked torso encrusted in dried blood, his braided hair matted, and yet somehow, the fucker still managed to look imposing.

“Killing Silas. And the rest of the Silverwoods.”

“Ah.” His gaze narrowed on us and he dropped his voice. “I see you looked through Virgil’s memories and saw what those bastards did to Evangeline?”

A growl built in my throat and Malachi bared his teeth right back. “I didn’t know, if that’s what you’re so pissed off about. Not until I read the little shit’s thoughts and decided…maybe he was worth saving, given he was the only one who tried to help her.”

“The little fucker told me what they did to her.” I tipped my head, reevaluating Draven’s very real anger over Evie’s mistreatment. “ Some of what they did to her.” Because of course, there was more. With those sadistic bastards…there was always more.

“Do yourself a favor, Marten and leave it at that.” For once, Malachi dropped his usual blustering arrogant facade. “Some things aren’t meant to be dredged back up. Pain doesn’t have an expiration date, and Evangeline…” His gaze drifted over to the bench, his lips thinning out. “Just leave the past be, at least until she’s ready to deal with it.”

That meant there was more .

Now I was definitely killing those bastards.

“A word of advice. I think she’s attached to Virgil, so do yourselves a favor and leave the poor kid alive.”

“Three of us, three Silverwoods,” Riordan said casually as he shoved between us. “Once Ravok’s out of the way, I say we take Silas and the uncles somewhere quiet and go to work on them, take our time.”

“Now you’re speaking my language.” Malachi nodded thoughtfully. “I know just the place, too.”

“Nothing like bonding over bloodshed,” I muttered. “But at least we have something in common.”

“You mean besides Evangeline?’ Malachi suggested with a knowing smirk that made me want to rip his head off all over again.

“You just had to open your big fucking mouth, didn’t you?”

“Honestly, your buttons are too easy to push, Marten. Ease up, I’m simply pointing out the obvious. We have to figure out how to get along, at least for the time being. Ravok’s not going to be easy to defeat.” Malachi narrowed his eyes. “He’s stronger than he ever was, and I’ve been racking my brain for days, but I can’t figure out how.”

“He can’t be stronger than all of us together,” Riordan said. “Glamour, fire, and shadows. We have three of the most powerful magicks in existence. We combine them together to create something to kill an Elder.”

“If Ravok even gets through.” I watched Fiona layer yet another spell on top of ward. The ancient barrier formed a glowing dome over the Crimson House grounds, stronger than it had ever been before. Nash had over a hundred guards armed and ready for battle, the air was thick with magic. We were on familiar territory where we had the advantage. Besides the three of us, we had Eldric and Fiona’s fire backing us up.

“Chances are, this will be the end of Ravok and his thralls.”

“You two have no idea what you’re talking about.” Draven’s quiet voice was edged with panic. “Ravok is stronger than any vampire you have ever faced. The only reason these wards will hold, is because there are twenty different types of magic layered together. Ancient magic. But if he gets through, face to face…” Malachi shook his head, “you won’t survive, even if you combine your power.”

“Just because he bested you, doesn’t mean…”

“That’s not what this is about,” Malachi snarled. “You should let me take Evangeline away. I have a friend who can keep her safe. Somewhere far from here, where Ravok can’t find her.”

“Oh, you’d like that, wouldn’t you?” I snorted, my insides going loose at the thought. “Another chance to win her to your side? Well, it’s not fucking happening.”

“She’s not going anywhere with you. Once this is over, you are gone, Draven.” Riordan turned to face Malachi, not a shred of warmth in his expression. “It’s only a matter of time before Evie sees your true colors and ends this charade. We all know you’ve never cared about anything but yourself and I will not allow you to hurt her more than you already have.”

He crowded Malachi, forcing him back a step. “Know this. You have sanctuary because of her. But once Ravok is dead, I will do everything in my power to remove you from her life forever.” His cold smile sent a shiver down even my spine. “No matter the means.”

Something changed on Malachi’s face. A flicker of something I might call righteous indignation, before his expression smoothed back out.

“We’ll see about that. In the meantime, I’d tell your Knightsguard to take up positions inside the building, because once Ravok arrives, this whole area will become a kill zone none of them will survive.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Evie stand up, wobble, then take Virgil’s arm as she swept her gaze across the grounds, waving when we made eye contact.

“You two can think the worst about me,” Malachi was looking in her direction, too, “but I would never hurt her. All I’ve ever done was protect her.”

Anger crawled over my skin at the lie. This fucker threatened everything I had. My mate, our happiness, the security of the clan, but I also knew if I overplayed my hand, she would resent me and…

I would be the one left out in the cold.