Page 30 of Feeding Frenzy (Crimson Coven #3)

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I took my time trailing after Asher as he showed me the third and second level of the new place. He’d accurately described it. The floors mirrored the first one. The only difference was the spot where the library was on the top floor didn’t exist on the rest of them. I couldn’t help but compare the houses. The one I’d become used to, that had started to feel like home while this was a monstrosity.

The narrow staircase spiraled down. I reached the base of the stairs, and it spit us into a slim hallway. Asher continued forward, arms swinging at his side.

“I prefer this location,” Jax mused from behind me.

“Right? Secluded, less windows. Getting the mechanical shutters installed was one of the first things I had Baron do. Cost a pretty penny, but I’d rather spend it all than let Imogen get her bitchy hands on it.”

“How did you get the money withdrawals past Tobias?”

“All of you were too busy?—”

“Got it,” Jax snapped, interrupting him.

“Do you need Tobias’s permission or something?” I wondered.

“Or something, Pet.” Asher slowed, and it allowed me to catch up to him. He threw his arm over my shoulder. “All our assets have been combined for decades. Just another attempt for Imogen to get us under her thumb.”

“And you just realized that?” Jax drawled.

“Of course not,” Asher huffed, almost offended.

And what Imogen wanted from Jax, she got it. I peeked over my shoulder. Jax’s eyes weren’t focused. The trauma bond he’d had with Imogen was for him to unpack. I couldn’t do it for him. He was coming to the realization of just how toxic and manipulative she’d been. Or more accurately, he’d known, and that was what he struggled with, the fact that he never should have gone along with so much of it.

“I need to check in with Tobias about something,” Jax muttered and was then gone in a flash. He'd been in a dependent relationship. That was what Jax struggled with—I based this assumption on nothing more than a guess. I could totally be wrong. But theorizing about it helped me feel better about his past.

Men’s minds, even vampire males, were something I didn’t want to begin taking apart. The hallway leading from the base of the staircase ended and opened to the left. This was one similarity to the other house, the foyer, except it stretched more in a rectangle than a square.

The front door was wide open, and the sconce light caught the little knocker. I approached and using a finger, lifted the bat knocker and released it. Metal clanged against metal. Unlike the one at Crimson Manor, this bat was upright, and its little wings were spread out upwards.

I pursed my lips.

“I’ll be right back,” Asher muttered and crossed the foyer, walking down to the left exiting hall. From the opposite direction Asher went, soft chatter reached my ears. I focused and made out Ren’s deep voice echoing from the opposite side. He’d saved my computer, and he’d gotten this place with Asher. I passed a small living room area and hurried around the bend of the second threshold and stepped into a huge kitchen. His back was to me as he spoke to Tobias and Jax, they were deep in conversation.

I was hyper-focused on Ren.

“We need to have Talia vet another human to work here?—”

I threw my arms around his waist, clinging. His body stiffened and his hard abdomen flexed.

“Cat?” he said, a slight question in his tone.

His palm covered my wrist, and he squeezed. Not letting go of him, I shuffled until I was in front of him with my arms still around his waist. My neck craned to look at him.

Ren’s eyes flicked to the side then returned to mine. He seemed almost uncomfortable with my show of affection. I dropped my arms, but before I could back away, he pressed his palm to the middle of my back and forced me back to him. I grunted from the force he plastered me to his chest. He avoided looking down at me.

I rolled my lips into my mouth, keeping my smile from blooming. I’d interrupted whatever conversation he’d been having with Tobias.

“Son of a bitch,” Asher hissed. I whirled to see him storm through the entrance beside the fridge in a huff. He beelined right to the fridge. He yanked open the door and pulled out a blood bag and collected a glass cup from the cabinet to the side. He yanked open the packet with his teeth. I didn’t watch him pour it in, because my attention was on the doorway where a woman stood with her mouth hanging open. Fangs poked out, framed by her bright pink lipstick.

Her long curly hair swayed around her shoulders.

“Jaxon,” a woman cried out. She clapped her hands together and flounced forward.

Her bright pink dress fluttered around her knees and her tall heels clicked on the cream tile. Those pumps were to die for.

She charged right toward Jax. He grabbed my bicep and yanked me away from Ren so I was between her and them. Just in time for her to smack right into my forehead. She hissed, cupping her chin, and in the process hit me with her elbow.

I winced.

“Catalina,” Jax gasped. He cupped my face and smoothed his thumb across my lower lip. I sucked it into my mouth to lick up the blood from my fang slicing into my lip. Tonguing the area, I didn’t feel the cut anymore.

“Be careful,” Asher hissed. She flinched, her nose wrinkling.

The woman, dark haired, willow-y and painfully beautiful, stared with her lips parted.

This must be Baron. Her eyes flicked to me and then to Jax.

“I was just going to say hi.” An accent thickened her voice. She huffed, eyeing Jax over my shoulder. I cleared my throat.

“Catalina.” Her big brown eyes focused on me, she threw her arms around me, squishing my boobs against hers. She pulled back, keeping hold of the outside of my arms. “Please do not misunderstand, young vampire. I saved myself for Jax, and he only tossed it in my face.” Her eyes narrowed at him over my shoulders.

“How is that my fault?” Jax snapped. “Let her go.”

Baron dropped her hands and crossed her arms with another exaggerated huff. She dropped me with the speed of a vampire doing as their Sire ordered.

Ren bunched the back of her curly hair and yanked her back another step. She stumbled on her heels.

“Do not touch her.”

Baron put her hands up and tried to pull away, unsuccessfully.

“Apologies,” she mumbled. “I did not know you were serious, Asher; you are never serious about these things. Especially females.”

I touched Ren’s arm. He let her go and crossed his arms, not looking like he’d just yanked her around. She patted her hair down with a frown. Her brown eyes focused on mine, and she pursed her lips.

“I mean no disrespect,” she said, her eyes wide and flicking side to side. All of her earlier energy tamped down.

“Don’t even worry about it, they’re being dramatic.” I flicked my gaze from one too-stiff vampire to the other. “Asher told me you helped find this place. I love it.”

“Yes.” She perked up. “I did . . .” She continued to ramble on. She smelled pretty good. Not as good as their blood, but something that would do. I couldn’t look away from her throat. Was she stepping close to me? A hand yanked me back and I bounced against a chest.

“Be a dear, Baron, and purchase some more items for the house and some clothing for everyone,” Asher ordered, sounding rushed. I shook my head to snap myself out of the craving.

“I will compile a list!” She clapped and turned to me. “I will show you when I am done.” Her heels clicked as she rushed away.

I waited until she was gone to exhale and buried my face in my hands.

“Why am I like this?” I mumbled.

“I might have an answer for you,” Bastien said. I whirled to him, where he stood at the entrance of a different area connected to the kitchen. He wore fresh clothes, and his slacks were attached to shoulder straps, keeping the pants up. “But I need to take a look at your blood to confirm my theory.”

“What’s your theory?”

Bastien scratched the bridge of his nose.

“That you are a predator to vampires.” I only blinked, because what the hell? Me as a predator was hilarious. “We all know about evolution. Vampires are apex predators. It would make sense for the gene to mutate. But I do not think it was quote, unquote, ‘nature’ which caused this.”

“Hunters,” Ren added and by his tone, I could tell they’d already talked about this.

“Hunters? Like Vampire hunters?”

“Before we got rid of them, they’d been collecting vampires, trapping them and experimenting on them,” Bastien said.

“And you think they created me?”

“Not necessarily you, but a gene that developed and evolved with time, making you, for lack of a better phrase, a vampire’s predator.” I could only gawk at Bastien.

“So, my blood heals vampires like yours heals humans?”

“That’s my theory.” But if that was the case.

“Am I able to compel you?” I whirled and stepped in front of the closest vampire. Jax stared down at me. “How would you do this?”

Asher pressed against my back and leaned down until his lips brushed against my ear. “Relax, look into his eyes, and push your order at him.”

I rolled my shoulders and looked into Jax’s lapis blue eyes, making sure to feel my desire behind the order. “Shift into Binx.”

“It’s called morphing,” Jax offered. Damn, it didn’t work.

“What about humans?”

“If you can’t compel vampires, why would you be able to compel humans?”

I pursed my lips.

Asher chuckled against my ear.

“Maybe you’re wrong?” I said to Bastien.

He still watched from a few feet away, rubbing his chin pensively. He shook his head.

“Jaxon, are you absolutely sure you were unable to feed her your blood?”

“I am sure, she didn’t swallow anything.”

Bastien nodded slowly.

“The gene must have been in her already,” Tobias murmured. “It makes sense. Her immunity to being compelled. Her taste, her scent.”

“So, I was never human?” They were beginning to confuse me.

“You were human, you simply carried a gene.” A gene that would have been passed down.

“Why didn’t my parents turn when they died?”

“I believe it has to be activated by vampire blood or being bitten. I am not . . .” Bastien trailed off, a slight glaze crossing his red eyes.

I touched his bicep. He shook his head and focused on me. “What was I talking about?” He palmed his head.

“That I was essentially genetically engineered, and my change was activated.”

Bastien hummed, straightening, as if he’d never hunched forward.

“You attract your hunt. The way humans are attracted to vampires.”

“Why don’t I have any neat ability?”

“Genetics can be influenced by other sources.” He shrugged those large shoulders, and the suspenders stretched over his shoulders flexed. “Once my lab equipment arrives, I’ll be able to further my study.”

A ding prompted Asher to pull his phone out. His jaw fluttered and he looked up at Tobias and slightly turned his head.

Tobias’s eyes narrowed.

Asher pressed a kiss to the top of my head.

“We’ll be right back, Pet.”

Ren and Tobias had already disappeared.

“Wait—” The rest of my sentence was cut off by an arm banding around my stomach. I grunted from the force of being smushed to a chest. Bastien jerked me back so quickly it gave me whiplash. I yelped and shoved at his arm, but he snarled in my ear.

“What are you doing?” I huffed. Jax was gone too. I struggled in Bastien’s embrace, but he only gripped onto me tighter. I gritted my teeth and smacked at him. Bastien jolted. Ha, now that I was a vampire he’d feel it. I wiggled until I turned in his arms.

I shook my head.

“You’re Jekyll one minute, and then peekaboo, here comes Hyde. No warning, no nothing.” He didn’t react to my comment.

“Bastien,” I shouted. He shuddered and closed his eyes, leaning all his weight forward until his forehead rested on my shoulder. His fists perched on the kitchen table, corralling me between them.

I gripped his shoulder and shook him a little. “Bastien?”

His arm wrapped around my waist.

“That was an unfortunate lapse.” He cleared his throat, straightening as he smoothed his palm down his chest. “Did I harm you?”

“I’m fine?—”

A shout echoed from the foyer.

My slowed heartbeat jumped. What was it now?