Page 53 of Hot Vampire Next Door: Season Five

We cross the porch together, but she’s down the steps in a blur of movement and in front of Bran a half second later, examining him with a sweep of her hands.

“It’s not mine, Jim,” Bran tells her.

When I come up behind her, and the light from the streetlights hits him just right, I can see what she was worried about. There’s blood splattered across his face, dribbling down his neck, smeared across his shirt.

“What happened?” I ask.

“Ran into a bit of trouble on our exit,” Baspin answers.

“Bran took care of it,” Bianca fills in.

Jimmy steps back, giving me room. “Are you okay?” I ask him.

There’s still a faint pulsing glow to his irises, but I don’t see any wounds. “I’m fine,” he tells me. “But it’s hard to say how he’ll feel about it all when we make him fae again.” He tips his head at Arion still in wolf form. “Were they friends of yours, fae?”

Arion growls at us.

“How long will the Qua rrel’s command last?” I ask Baspin.

“We have at least a few more hours.”

“Good. Bianca, turn him back?”

“Of course.” She steps forward and whispers two sharp words. There’s a soft WHUMP, then a flash of light.

When the air clears, Arion is crouched in front of me on all fours. He stands to his full height, rolling his shoulders, stretching out his joints. There’s anger etched into the space between his dark brows. “Never do that again,” he warns me.

“We did what we had to do,” I tell him, squaring myself against him. “You never would have come otherwise.”

“Well I’m here. Now what?” He grits his teeth. “I’m still at your command, Your Highness.”

He says the later with enough venom to sting, as if the title is a sham. Maybe it is.

But I’m not going to let him get beneath my skin.

“We need to talk.” I turn back for the house. “Come inside, listen to what I have to say, and then you’ll be free to go.”

He frowns. “Just like that?”

I pause halfway up the stairs to glance at him over my shoulder. “Just like that. No one will hurt you. You have my word.”

Arion, Lord of the Summer Court, paces around my living room, eyeing the forgotten stack of magazines, the framed family portraits. I pour us each a glass of wine.

Bran agreed to give me and Arion privacy, but I can see his shadow on the porch, and I know he’s hanging on every word just waiting for an excuse to barge in. I’m glad for his protection.

“You really did live an entirely different life, didn’t you?” Arion’s squinting at a framed picture of me and Kelly at the aquarium several years back.

I hand him the glass of wine, then take a sip from mine. “It seems like someone else’s life, if I’m honest.”

“Do you wish you could go back?”

“No. Never.” I tip my head at the photo. “That was a lie and I felt it every day in my bones, even if I didn’t know what it meant.”

I watch him for recognition.

Does he know?

Does he know he’s being used, that the summer throne will be his if the summer queen is deposed?