Page 34 of Vipers and Vendettas

I do as she says, using one finger to cover the bruises. The need I felt before she left and downstairs just now rolls through me, impossible to ignore. Her sharp intake of breath has my eyes searching hers.

‘You feel it too, don’t you?’ I ask quietly.

She hesitates but then nods.

‘How are you doing it?’

‘I’m not,’ she whispers brokenly.

I take a step back, my hand falling away. I grab the lid off the bed.

‘You’ll be staying here for the foreseeable future. Don’t try to escape, you’ll only hurt yourself … or the baby,’ I can’t help adding to see how she reacts.

Her eyes widen, and she wraps her arm protectively around her stomach.

To my horror, she begins to cry.

‘Don’t take my baby,’ she whispers. ‘Please, Julian. I know you hate me, but please don’t take it from me.’

‘I … won’t,’ I say dumbly, shaken that she’d think something like that.

What does she take me for?

My hesitant words don’t reassure her, and she erupts into soft sobs, sliding down the wall and putting her head in her arms.

‘No one’s going to take your baby from you, Jules,’ I say more forcefully than intended, and she cries harder.

At a loss of what to do or say that won’t make this worse, I back toward the door. ‘This isn’t like the dungeon before,’ I tell her. ‘I’m going to tell the others that you’re here. I’ll … be back soon. Get some rest.’

I leave the fold, feeling more than a little horrified. What the hell is going on? Again, the notion that there’s much more happening here takes over my mind. I go back down to the library, and I watch the footage of Jules stealing the diamonds. This time, I leave the sound on, and I make myself listen to all the vile things she says. There’s nothing that would alert me to the fact that this was all some kind of pretense.

But if it weren’t, she’d have taken the money and run. She didn’t. She used it to pay Daemon’s debt with the vamps. She knew what they’d done to him before we did. Why did she do all this? Why say all those things to make us believe she was actually what we feared and thensaveone of us? According to Daemon, she was living in poverty, working as a waitress. She could have lived well for a long time if she hadn’t paid McCathrie.

An idea comes to me, and I bring up the other camera, the one I had Paris put just over the safe itself. We never looked at the footage from that cam. Why would we? We knew who’d stolen from us, heard her nasty little monologue. What else was there to see?

I bring up the date and the time and play the file.

I watch as she walks into the room and chooses a book, then calls someone, looking upset after she hangs up. With a frown, I fast-forward the footage until I see her again. She comes into the library and stands in front of the safe. I watch as she takes a deep breath, and then it’s as if someone says, ‘Action!’. Her expression becomes the one I know from the other camera, but then I see her turn back, and the anguish in her features makes me pause it, staring. I press play and watch the rest, see the tears in her eyes as she closes the safe. She wipes them before she plasters that awful grin on her face and waves at the other cam.

I’m dumbfounded and reeling as I watch her go through the portal.

She didn’t want to steal the diamonds. She didn’t want to leave. It was an act—a good one. Though I suppose we already thought the worst of her from the first time she did this to us. It wasn’t a leap to think she’d do it again. She was counting on that.

So, what happened the night of the party that made her decide to do all that?

A low growl sounds in my throat as I ring the bell for Tabitha, and I message everyone else to come to the library.

While I wait, I watch the video again, unsure if I’m angry at myself because I didn’t see it or because I never suspected. I continue to be so blind. Didn’t I learn my lesson where Krase was concerned? For someone who prides themselves on logic and being able to overcome their emotions, why do I continue to allow the worst of mine to get the better of me?

The door opens, and they all trail in, Tabitha notably absent. Axel too. He’s never here anymore.

‘Daemon found Jules,’ I say without preamble.

* * *

Jules

I clamber onto the bed and try to sleep, but the fold is musty, and my stomach is turning. In the end, I put the pillows behind me and sit up on the bed, resting my back against the wall. I try not to cry, but I’m well and truly stuck in here.