Page 60 of Vengeance and Vipers

‘Because I loved it.’

His brow furrows, but he doesn’t ask me anything else. He rinses my hair and conditions it. Then he washes my body, carefully getting the grit out of the scrapes on my knees. He helps me stand and wraps me in a warm, fluffy towel. Before we leave the bathroom, he insists on putting healing crème on my knees and all the other various scratches and scrapes.

Out in the main bedroom, Iron is sitting in a chair by the window.

His piercing gaze lands on me, and I freeze, wanting to go straight back into the bathroom, but Krase just picks me up and cradles me against him. He sits with me on the bed.

‘Is she okay?’ Iron murmurs.

I feel him nod. ‘Just a little overwhelmed.’

I hide my face in Krase’s chest as they continue the conversation like I’m not even there. Krase strokes my hair as he holds me.

‘You shouldn’t have done that,’ Iron says. ‘If Maddox learns—’

‘So long as you keep your mouth shut, by the time he does, it’ll be too late.’ He snorts. ‘You’re just jealous because you weren’t allowed to participate.’

‘Too late? What does that mean?’

Krase’s hands continue to absently caress me. ‘Not here. You’ll understand soon enough.’

‘Jayce and Axel lost perspective once they’d had a taste of her. Has the same thing happened to you?’ Iron asks warily.

A rumble of laughter goes through the demon holding me. ‘I haven’t hadperspectivein months.’

I peek up at them and find Krase looking at me with a reverence that I don’t understand, but it makes me feel safe and cared for.

‘She saved me,’ he says, and my eyes widen. ‘And so long as we have her, the dark part of me has agreed to let me hold the reins … most of the time.’

Iron stands up. ‘What does that mean, Krase? Are there two demons inside you, and the rogue one is kept in check by a lone human girl? Can you hear yourself? You sound insane!’

Now, Krase laughs loudly. ‘I am!’

Iron swears and walks to the door. ‘I won’t tell Maddox about any of this, but you need to stay away from her for her sake, if not yours. She’s a human girl. You’re going to hurt her, Krase.’

‘I’m not the demon in this room who hurt her.’ Krase’s tone is arctic, and I shiver in his arms. ‘I heard from my brother what happened in the mountain, the things you did to her when you let that power go to your head.’

I tense at the reminder, and Krase’s arms hold me a little tighter.

Iron doesn’t say anything but leaves quietly, and Krase lets out a long sigh.

‘They don’t understand, but they will.’

I peer up at him. ‘Idon’t understand.’

He smiles at me. ‘You will, too.’

ChapterTen

DAEMON

‘Will you stay with me?’ she asks Krase.

‘Would that please you?’ he murmurs.

She nods her deceptive little head, and my eyes narrow from where I’m watching from the hole in the hidden door. That’s three. Half of us are under her spell, and if Iron’s constant doe eyes at her are anything to go by, it’ll soon be four.

Are Maddox and I the only ones here who remember what she is, what she did to us, that we can’t trust her?