by ERIN BEDFORD
I held my hand up, making the others back down. "I did it. I killed Valentine."
Boris sighed and lowered Piper to the ground. "There we go. That wasn't so hard, now was it?" None of us relaxed, even though Piper was out of his grasp. He could easily take her and break her neck before any of us could stop him. He might not have extra powers like the rest of us, but he was faster and stronger.
"Now, what to do. What to do. How should I punish you?" Boris paced back and forth before us, drawing it out as much as he could. "Perhaps I'll have you offer up one of your brothers as my plaything." His eyes locked on to Rayne, who flinched back from him, making Boris smile. "That's always a good time."
"No," I snapped. "You will not get Rayne. You will never touch Rayne again. If you want someone to play with, take me. It was me who broke code, it should be me who should be punished."
Pouting, Boris let out a bored sigh. "Now where's the fun in that? A punishment isn't really a punishment unless you can make it hurt and you, Antoine...well, we learned a long time ago that you have nothing to break. No soul. No heart. Except now..." His eyes trailed back to Piper. "It's such a pity too. She's such a pretty thing."
Drake let out a low growl but didn't move.
"No, I think I know what I want." Boris grinned, his gaze moving over to Theresa. "I need a reward for my lovely girl here and she is so partial to Wynn. I think I'll make him my gift to her."
Theresa smiled broadly, clapping her hands together. "Oh, yes please. We used to have so much fun together. Didn't we, Wynn?"
I opened my mouth to deny him once more, but Wynn cut me off. "Done."
"What?" Drake barked. "No. You can't seriously be thinking of giving into this hag."
"Hey!"
"Enough, Drake." Wynn walked over to the desk where Boris and Theresa stood. "It's done. Just get Piper out of here."
"This is stupid. Antoine." Drake grabbed my arm and shook it. "We made a promise, Antoine. Remember." He ripped open his shirt to show me his tattoo. "Blood of my brother, now and forever. Are you breaking that promise now? For her?"
I glanced down at Piper and then up at Wynn, who nodded his head. To Drake, I said, "It's Wynn's choice. Marcus, get Piper. Rayne, tell Darren to gather our things. We are cutting our visit short. We're going home."
While the others did as I asked, Allister tried to calm Drake down. I watched Wynn as he let Theresa paw all over him. Though we couldn't read each other's minds, I knew he understood the message I was trying to pass on to him. This wasn't the end. I would come back for him, and even if I had to bring the whole house down on top of us, I would bring him home.
Chapter 22
Piper
A humming sound filled my ears as I woke up. My eyes blinked open and I checked my surroundings. I was in the bedroom Antoine and I had...I tried to push up off the bed, then cried out as a sharp pain ran through my arm and I fell back onto the mattress.
I glanced down at my arm with tears in my eyes. My right forearm was bound and splinted. I wiggled my fingers and winced.
Oh, right. That bitch Theresa broke my arm.
Carefully pushing up with my other arm, I glanced around the bedroom. I was back on the plane, which meant we'd left Boris's house of terrors. Part excited and part pissed off that they hadn't woken me so I could kick Theresa's ass, I hopped off the bed.
Someone had changed me out of the red evening gown and had put me in a slinky pair of pajamas. The way my nipples were poking through the material of the tank top told me they'd also removed my bra. My legs chilled in the short shorts, and I was tempted to put on pants, but I wanted answers first.
One step toward the door and it opened. Darren walked inside, looking even more like he had a stick up his butt than usual. He wasn't even dressed in his usual butler attire. He had jeans and a t-shirt on, and his hair was all messed up.
Frowning, I stared up at him. "What's going on? Why didn't anyone wake me? And who changed my clothes?"
Letting out an exasperated sigh, Darren shook his head. "We're going home, if that wasn't obvious enough." He moved farther into the room and I backed up until I sat down on the bed. "The masters didn't want to wake you while your arm healed. They fed you their blood while you slept, but we had to wait until we got on the plane to do it. So, it'll take a bit more time to fix it. As for who changed you, Antoine did." He knelt before me, gesturing to my arm so he could look at it.
Wincing, I lifted it so he could check the wrappings and adjust the splint. "Where'd you learn to do that?"
Darren gave me a small smile. "Before I was a butler, I was a field medic. I had to fix all kinds of injuries in the war. Well, before I got sick."
"Oh," I said, staring down at my arm as he unwrapped and rewrapped it. I was always learning new things about these guys. I wondered if I'd ever know everything. Well, I had plenty of time left to find out.
My eyes drifted over to the side of the bed where my red dress lay discarded with my lingerie. My face heated. Antoine had seen me in those garters and corset. I wondered if he liked them. It was unfortunate that he hadn't been able to take them off of me while I was conscious. Maybe I'll have to wear them again for him. Just to see what would happen.
"Is everyone else in the other room?" I asked when he was done, standing. "I'm starving, but I want to know what happened to Theresa."
"Theresa?" Darren arched a brow. "What about her?"
I lifted my arm, growling, "That bitch is the one who broke my arm. Please tell me they at least slapped her around a bit. I wasn't doing anything to her and she just up and breaks it. So rude." I huffed and held my arm close to me.
Darren shook his head, not smiling at my joke. There was something off about him. Something off about this whole thing.
"I'm sorry to say that Theresa did not get slapped around. In fact, they didn't even know she had done it." Darren sighed and turned toward the door.
My brows furrowed in confusion and I stepped closer to him. "What do you mean? How else did they find me?"
"They didn't," Darren replied, leaving the room before I could pester him for more answers.
Irritated by the non-answers, I stomped into the other room to find the guys all lounging around in their seats. They weren't laughing or playing games. They hadn't even turned on the big screen TV. They were talking quietly until I came into the room and then suddenly, they were all silent.
What was really messed up was though I stood there scantily clad, not a single one of them ogled me or tried to hit on me. It was almost as if someone had sucked all the joy out of the room.
Getting more confused by the minute, I took a seat next to Rayne on the couch and I waited for one of them, any of them, to tell me what the hell was going on. When several minutes passed and no one offered up any information, I snapped.
"I give up. What's the joke here? What am I missing?" I scanned their faces and tried to read something in their expressions, but they were giving me nothing.
"There's no joke, babe." Rayne patted my knee with a reassuring smile. "I promise you, we aren't being dicks this time."
"Then what's going on?" I almost cried.
"What do you remember?" Antoine inquired from his chair, one leg crossed over the other as he watched me.
I slumped back onto the couch and winced as I jostled my arm. "I was dancing with Drake and you were all acting weird. A bit like now, actually, but worse. Then I told Drake that I wasn't stupid and knew you were hiding something. Then I ran out. Drake and I argued some more."
Allister snorted and Drake held his hands out in front of him in silent apology.
Not wanting to let them know that I knew they had killed Valentine, I sighed and continued, "I decided to go to the kitchen to get something to drink, but then I ran into Theresa. She said some mean stuff and then broke my arm. Next thing I know, I'm waking up here with you guys acting like somebody died."
"Valentine's dead," Antoine announced like it was no big deal. "That was what we were hidin
g."
"I know." I nodded and then guilty added, "I overhead Drake, Allister, and Rayne talking about it."
Rayne arched a brow.
Chewing on my lower lip, I admitted, "I was hiding around the corner, listening in."
Drake shook his head and chuckled. "Of course, you were."
"Well," I began with a huff, crossing my arms over my chest, but being careful of my broken arm. "You guys were being assholes. If I'm part of this family now, you have to trust me. Which means letting me in on the plans. You already said before it wasn't safe for me to not know stuff. Well," I held up my broken arm, "exhibit A." The masters around me at least had the decency to look guilty about it. "I'm getting tired of getting bit and beaten by your enemies because you leave me out of the loop. I hope this is a lesson to you, because I'm running out of things to break."
Antoine nodded. "Of course. You have a valid point. We will do well to include you in the future."
I nodded my head. "Good. Now, tell me how you killed Valentine."
Suddenly, it was like I'd asked Antoine to stand on his head, because everyone fell silent and became even more depressed than before. I searched for some kind of explanation but didn't find any. Even Marcus was looking more grumpy than usual.
"What?" I questioned. "What is it?"
Once more, it was Antoine who answered, "As Drake tells me, you already saw Wynn and I follow Valentine outside to the terrace. Wynn broke his neck to knock him out and then we jumped the balcony."
I gasped and leaned forward, listening intently. I didn't know why I wanted a play-by-play of how they killed Valentine, but something inside of me needed to know. Like it wouldn't rest until I knew for sure that he was dead. Antoine continued on to explain how things went down, and with each word the others were becoming more and more upset. "Then we dumped his body in the well and returned to the party."
I hummed and frowned. "Why do you guys look like this is a bad thing? Valentine's dead. You're acting like he was one of your friends. Do I need to remind you that he almost killed me? That he, wait—" I jumped to my feet, my head swiveling around the room as my heart jutted against my rib cage. "Where's Wynn?"
Want to know when the next book comes out?
Be one of the firsts to know when I have a new release, get exclusive sneak peeks, and giveaways. Also, just having fun in general!
Join my reader group and be part of hive mind!
Also by Erin Bedford
Alice was wrong – Wonderland wasn’t so wonderful after all.
Kat never expected to be back in her hometown, but when house sitting turns into a mad rabbit chase, Kat finds herself with a whole new set of problems.
A two headed bird with a Game of Thrones obsession, a party full of tea addicts, and a Cheshire Cat who could seduce the pants off her grandma? And if the citizens weren’t bad enough their prince was off his rocker.
This wasn’t your run of the mill Wonderland. This was the Fae world, where rules are rules, and some things are exactly as they seem.
Start the series!
The road to heaven is paved with Mary Wiles’ victims.
Los Angeles isn’t just a playground for those searching for a new start. It’s a darker and more dangerous place than they’ll ever know. But Mary’s not fooled.
With her hands full trying to play human while looking for a way back to heaven, Mary doesn’t have time to polish her halo let alone solve a murder case. But when she finds out demons are responsible, Mary just can’t help herself.
When Mary makes a mistake causing her best friend to be taken, she will have to make a choice: sacrifice an innocent for the chance to get her revenge or lose everything she has worked for. Mary starts to realize there is no clear path back to heaven without becoming tainted herself.
Start the series!
They call them the Crimson Fold. High up in their castle they look down on my little world and wield a silent control. That is, until the invitations are sent out.
I never dreamed I’d be selected. They tell me it’s a privilege. I should be honored. But the fear in their eyes doesn’t lie.
If I refuse to go, my family will be shunned. If I go, my life and my body will no longer be mine. It’ll be theirs.
At midnight it will be over. At Midnight I’ll be his.
Start the series!
About the Author
Erin Bedford is an otaku, recovering coffee addict, and Legend of Zelda fanatic. Her brain is so full of stories that need to be told that she must get them out or explode into a million screaming chibis. Obsessed with fairy tales and bad boys, she hasn’t found a story she can’t twist to match her deviant mind full of innuendos, snarky humor, and dream guys.
On the outside, she’s a work from home mom and bookbinger. One the inside, she’s a thirteen-year-old boy screaming to get out and tell you the pervy joke they found online. As an ex-computer programmer, she dreams of one day combining her love for writing and college credits to make the ultimate video game!
Until then, when she’s not writing, Erin is devouring as many books as possible on her quest to have the biggest book gut of all time. She’s written over thirty books, ranging from paranormal romance, urban fantasy, and even scifi romance.
Also, third person is really weird when writing about yourself. Just putting that out there.
Come chat me up!
www.erinbedford.com
Facebook.com/erinrbedford
twitter.com/erin_bedford
Don’t forget to follow me on Goodreads, Pinterest, Instagram, and YouTube!
Want to be the first to know about my new releases?
Erinbedford.com/newsletter