Page 39 of Wedlock (Vampire Bachelor Games #3)

Lying on the table, still too shocked to move after Asumpta’s attack, I breathe his name like a benediction as he saunters close and holds his hand out to help me up.

“Jag.”

His eyes, warm as always, yet also holding a wariness I’ve never seen before, meet mine as I take his hand and sit up, one hand flying to my neck gingerly, but thankfully not coming away wet.

‘That was close. Too close. I’ve got to stop putting myself in compromising positions with these fucking vampires.’

Even as I think this I know the vampire before me would be an exception to that rule.

“Are you hurt?”

“No,” I smile shakily as I give his hand a quick squeeze, frowning as he withdraws it hastily and steps back.

I can’t help feeling hurt. I know I’ve treated him terribly, seduced him, whispered sweet nothings, confessed undying love.

Hell, I’d even told him the child I bore was his.

There’s no excuse for any of it. Except, there is.

It wasn’t really me saying or doing all those things.

But that doesn’t matter now as I look at him, this man who’d risked everything for me.

Because it may not have been me, but all along it was really him.

“Jag, can you ever forgive me?” I whisper, moving closer to try and meet his eyes.

“There’s nothing to forgive,” he says gruffly, looking away from me and over to where Asumpta is preparing to slink from the room.

“Asumpta!”

She pauses mid-step and turns to him.

“Yes?”

“Thank you.”

“For what?”

“Exactly,” he nods.

I frown as she grins at him and nods back. Clearly, he knows she killed Viper, because surely he couldn’t be thanking her for trying to eat me?

“But,” he goes on, “I don’t know what I just interrupted,” he holds up his hand to stall her interjection, “just know that if you ever threaten Lady Dragonspur again, if I even get a sniff of an intimation that you’re being anything but respectful, you’ll go the way of your bastard brother — I won’t hesitate. ”

Asumpta swallows hard and nods once before turning to leave, but stops mid-step and spins back.

“How do you know that?”

“That Viper was a bastard?” Jag shrugs. “Eleanor phoned me this morning. She’s been banished from the castle. Falcon offered to send her to a dungeon or a nunnery; she chose exile.”

I grimace and blush.

“Oh shit!”

“You knew?” Jag turns to me, surprised.

“Ah, yeah. I was kind of the one who let the cat out of the bag. Eleanor made me swear never to tell. I feel like shit about it, but…”

“You are a piece of shit,” Asumpta snorts.

“Don’t,” Jag shakes his head. “Viper was the piece of shit, through and through, and nothing but a thorn in Falcon’s side. His death is the best news my friend could have been given.”

“I don’t think he saw it that way,” I murmur.

“Falcon hates secrets,” Jag says gently. “His mother keeping this from him all these years would have been what really shocked him, not the fact Viper wasn’t truly a Dragonspur — in time he’ll see that was obvious.”

“And he probably feels doubly betrayed finding out that Viper knew all along he wasn’t a true Dragonspur, and kept it from him too,” I muse.

“He was still a Dragonspur,” Asumpta raises her chin, “as am I. Had his life not ended he would have assumed the title.”

“That was never going to happen,” I snap. “Your little scheme with your half-brother had holes all through it.”

“He was her full brother,” Jag adds quietly, “isn’t that so, Asumpta? And what scheme?”

“Really?” I frown, ignoring his question. “Eleanor told me the twins’ mother was a favourite mistress, but Viper’s mother was one of her lady companions.”

“One and the same,” Jag says, his eyes not leaving Asumpta.

“Falcon’s father favoured their mother above all his mistresses; she was a companion to Eleanor and from a reputable human family.

When Eleanor insisted on saving Asumpta and Attracta, and was declared unable to have any more children, it was no stretch for him to choose to keep Viper a few years later.

I imagine Eleanor had no choice but to agree, given she was under hupotasso. ”

“Ahh,” I frown and chew my lip as I consider, out loud, this new information. “That makes much more sense.”

I turn my attention back to Asumpta.

“You actually hoped you’d get Viper into the seat and then he’d name you as his full sister and you’d become a royal.”

“What?” Jag growls.

“Now, wait,” Asumpta holds up her hand as I clap mine to my mouth. Lately I seem to be spilling beans left, right, and centre.

“Angie?” Jag’s expression turns dark.

“Asumpta knew I was under Viper’s thrall,” I babble quickly. “She was working with him and Spider to destroy everything and everyone that Falcon loved. Including you and I. That’s why she was going to kill me just now — I’m the only one alive who knew, well apart from Spider, I guess.”

“Eleanor said nothing of this,” Jag growls. “She told me Asumpta was protecting this house by destroying Viper.”

“Asumpta was only protecting you, not this house.”

Jag turns slowly from me to face the procurer.

“Jag, you can’t believe this,” she whispers, her face ashen as she begins to back towards the door. “After all the years we’ve haunted these kitchens together. You can’t take the word of this scrawny human over mine.”

“How could you betray Eleanor, the woman who’d saved you, raised you? How could you undermine a house she and I love?”

“A house, or a human?” She shrieks, her voice echoing through the otherwise still kitchen and seeming to bounce from wall to wall.

“Does it matter?” Jag asks, his voice low and deadly.

I stand stock-still and slide even further behind Jag as her wild eyes flick to me. I wonder if she’s contemplating ripping me to pieces; it certainly looks that way. But somehow she overrides her base instinct and instead spins and runs from the room.

It’s a long, full minute before Jag turns from staring at the empty doorway she’d run through to face me.

“She loves you,” I whisper when he meets my gaze.

“Cupid's arrows often go astray,” he murmurs.