Page 22 of Feeding Frenzy (Crimson Coven #3)

TWENTY-TWO

bastien

Much had happened in my absence.

“Ordering for you to be infected is too far.” Tobias had fooled himself where it came to Imogen, but the veil was beginning to lift.

They knew as well as I did that it would have made her maddened had I left. Imogen enjoyed having her nails in me. I had gone along with it, from boredom, and the concept of a powerful Coven. It was becoming clear that we had joined her for that reason. Other than Tobias and Asher, who were webbed in by familial ties.

Asher continued looking toward the door. Anxious to return to our Little One as I was.

It was a visceral urge that gripped onto my throat. Her presence addicted me, but she seemed raw and on edge.

“Give her a bit more time.” I tapped my fingers on my thigh.

What had they done while I’d been incapacitated? Fooled around uselessly.

“Enough with the assumptions, Bastien,” Tobias snapped.

“What’s he thinking?” Asher asked. The whore was always much too nosy for his own good.

“He believes we have done nothing with our time.”

“They are not assumptions,” I offered. “You did nothing.” The edges of my vision blurred. I pressed my palm to the wall to brace myself. If I lost it to my alter ego, there would be no doubt they would shove me into chains again.

“What did you want us to do? We thought gorging you with blood would heal you, but nothing sufficed. There is no cure. If you didn’t find it with all your experiments, we would have even less of a chance,” Asher spat.

“Then explain me ?” I bared my teeth, pointing at myself. They became silent. “There is a cure. I was simply missing a key component. A component to protect the cells from the virus, one to repair the cells.”

Catalina was the answer.

“Is that why she tastes?—”

“Clue me in here, you two,” Asher glared.

“I believe Catalina carries the gene marker I searched for.”

Asher stiffened and he looked toward the hall.

“If that’s the case, no one can ever know. She would be a target.”

“More than she already is,” I agreed, thinking of her feeding on Jax. Feeding on another vampire had always been taboo. Some claimed it was cannibalism. Her blood should not draw us in. “Our little human upstairs has something special.”

“And you plan to poke her up with needles?” Asher hissed.

I narrowed my eyes at him.

“I would never endanger her.” She meant my life. She was my savior and my Beloved.

“Asher, he will need to test her blood to even see if it is still different now that she’s a vampire.”

“Of course it will be different. She’s a whole different kind of vampire.”

Considering she finds human blood repulsive as they informed me downstairs, that was not a far-off hypothesis.

“Why does she fear me?” Her hesitancy wasn’t lost on me. It was as if she fought with herself when she was around me.

“You had her trapped in a cave. You starved her. And sodomized her when she tried to escape,” Asher snapped.

I jolted as if struck.

“She was a terrified asthmatic female when she came into our lives.”

“I do not recall,” I struggled to speak. My fang punctured my mouth. Hurting Catalina was not something I could understand.

“She obviously does not blame you,” Tobias interjected. “Anymore.”

I struggled to collect my thoughts.

“Do I . . .” I stopped speaking. For once, I did not have an explanation.

“Nothing. Do nothing and say nothing.” Asher pinned me with his gaze. “This is pissing me off, so I’m changing the subject.” He sighed. “How did you know how to call me?”

I worked my jaw side to side. The youngling was angry with me?

I fished out all that was left of the rectangle device from my pant pocket.

“I observed you using this.”

“You’ve been regaining your mind since she arrived, haven’t you.”

“Yes.”

“There’s where my phone went.” Tobias snatched the piece from my hand. Half of it crumbled until all he held was a small corner of plastic. I had been unsuccessful putting it back together after I crushed it.

“There’s something else you should know. Not only does she feed on us, but her blood calls us as much as it did while she was human, more so.”

My vision fluctuated.

I snarled at Tobias. Mine. My human. I hissed a breath out.

The violent, mindless beast continued to live within me. I wrenched back control and tugged my fingers through my hair.

“She won’t be safe here, anymore,” Asher said to Tobias. He opened his mouth, but a sharp ringing broke through the room, interrupting him.

“We have a situation, Sire,” the small voice on the other end of the call reached my ears. I turned toward Asher as did the rest of them. “Imogen is here with a Council representative.” I tensed.

“We’ll be right there,” he hissed.

These males had been with Imogen and allowed her into Catalina’s space. A mistake I would not have made. Unlike them, I saw through her madness from the beginning but had cared more about what she could do for me.

“You three need to stay away from Imogen,” Ren ordered.

I turned my attention to the footsteps approaching. And the rest of them became silent.

“Where is she?” Catalina asked, curling her fingers into a fist. “I heard you say her name and don’t lie to me.”

“She is at Crimson Nights,” Tobias said.

Asher gripped her arms and pulled her close.

“You should wait here.”

“No!” Her eyes widened and her heart jumped. “I’m going with you,” she announced, her chin lifting stubbornly. Such a beautiful female. Her eyes flicked side to side. She did not want to be alone.