Page 123 of Vipers and Vendettas

The library door opens, and Alex is the first to come through the breach.

I approach him as soon as soon as his entire clan is in the room.

‘Thank you,’ I say, putting my hand on his shoulder. ‘This means a lot.’

He looks surprised. ‘You’re my brother, Daemon.’ He smirks. ‘Even if you are an asshole.’

I grin back and catch sight of Jane at the back.

‘You brought your mate?’ Maddox asked.

‘Jane doesn’t get left behind,’ Alex says, drawing her forward and ensconcing the heavily pregnant succubus in a chair by the fire.

‘Do you really think a pregnant woman should be coming?—’

‘Jules is my friend,’ Jane interrupts me, ‘and I’m a pregnantbadass, thank you very much. I’m coming!’

Alex turns away and gives me a look.

So, they’ve already had this argument … and he lost.

‘What do we know?’ Sie, Alex’s first lieutenant, asks.

‘She was taken twenty minutes ago,’ Maddox says. ‘Krase has a tracker on her. We know where she is, and we have a key to get in. But we have no idea of numbers. Tamadrielle isn’t one of the Ten, but he is just as powerful.’

‘Why would some High Fae lord take a human on-call girl?’ Korban asks.

‘Because he owns her and because she isn’t a human on-call girl,’ I say. ‘She’s a succubus, and she’s our mate. We need to get a plan together now. We’re going in to get her.’

The shock and surprise from the other clan is palpable.

‘Hey! You guys finally found one!’ Paris says, giving us a thumbs up.

‘Indeed,’ Maddox mutters.

Jane frowns at Paris. ‘If Jules is with one of those High Fae psychos, he could be taking her to be executed in the Meridian as we speak. I could call Fiona. She could contact that fae girl, Gisele, the one who helped get me out of that place. She could do the same again. She’s still part of the resistance as far as I know.’

I shake my head.

‘Tamadrielle won’t execute her,’ Maddox says. ‘He’s always known what she would grow up to be. He wants a succubus.’

‘Why?’

‘We don’t know.’

* * *

Jules

I’m locked in the cold cell for a long time. I don’t know how long it’s been exactly, but I’m hungry, and I get the feeling that if I don’t remind the fae that I need to be fed, I’m going to starve here before Tamadrielle lets me go.

I’m going to say yes to him. I’ll be his slave and at his beck and call if he guarantees the clan’s safety. It’ll buy me some time and maybe one day ... I sigh.Maybe one day,that won’t be the motto of my entire life.

But there’s one thing he will never have, and that’s Jellybean. She will never be his possession. I’ll find a way to kill him sooner or later. He’s already underestimating the crass sex demon as badly as he did the stupid slave girl, and if there’s one thing I know, it’s that the fae never do anything by accident. Gigi said the succubi were more powerful than the fae, and that’s why they were culled, which means they must have been very dangerous to the fae. I’ve been postulating since they put me down here, and I think that if I can give Tamadrielle magick on purpose the same way I did by accident with Iron, there must be a way to use it to my advantage. Maybe I could force too much into him,over-juicehim. Would that kill him, or would he simply not take in the power he didn’t need?

I stand up as I hear Toramun coming down the hall before I see him, still letting ideas roll around in my brain.

‘I’m hungry,’ I say as he comes closer. ‘I haven’t eaten since I got here.’