Caleb walked back towards the dome, his characteristic easy strides unnerving her. Feinith was following behind, her bodyguard behind her.
But Feinith would see the wounds on her neck. Feinith would know Caleb had fed on her. She’d know what he was. Unless he had lied about Feinith knowing. Unless her suspicions had been right.
Her heart pounded harder.
Caleb wanted her to know. And why wouldn’t he? Why wouldn’t he want the power-hungry love of his life to know how much authority he was going to have in his little finger?
And when, if, Leila killed him, Feinith would be stood right by to watch. Feinith would subsequently slaughter her in vengeance.
She recoiled on the bed as the door opened. She froze as Caleb stepped inside, raked her swiftly with his gaze, even a fleeting moment of eye contact sending her pulse racing.
Feinith followed him in, the bodyguard remaining outside.
Her large grey eyes widened as she glowered down at Leila. She took a few steps closer until she was teetering on the top step, looming over her. She narrowed her eyes at the wounds on Leila’s neck then her head snapped towards Caleb. ‘What’s this?’
‘What does it look like?’
‘You’ve been feeding her to someone?’ She spun to face him. ‘I told you she was to be conserved. Not used for your private punishments. Every drop of her blood—’
‘I’ve not fed her to anyone. I did it.’
Feinith stared at him. ‘You? That’s impossible,’ Feinith said. She stared at Leila and back at Caleb. ‘You can’t.’
‘I can if she’s not a serryn anymore.’
He knew. Her pulse raced. How the hell did he know? He must have sensed it just like she thought he would. Then what was he playing at?
Feinith’s eyes widened then narrowed. ‘This is some kind of joke, right? Some kind of game?’
‘I’m afraid not. Not this time. She’s lost it. Plain and simple. What we have here now is just a regular little witch.’
Feinith’s eyes flared. ‘Don’t be so ridiculous! She can’t lose it.’
‘Clearly she can.’ He folded his arms. ‘But that’s my fateful charm for you.’
‘What are you talking about?’
‘You didn’t know either? It seems she’s committed the ultimate serryn treachery and gone and fallen in love with me.’ He shrugged. ‘It can happen apparently.’
Leila’s blood ran cold.
Feinith frowned. ‘But that’s ludicrous! She is born to hate our kind just as it is instinctive for us to despise hers. A serryn cannot feel such a way for one of us. Any more than we can feel anything for one of them. It has never been and it never shall be.’
‘Maybe you’d like a demonstration?’ Caleb asked, glancing across his shoulder at her as he strolled down the steps towards her.
And he winked at Leila. His back to Feinith, he actually winked at her. Her heart skipped a beat.
Caleb lowered onto his knees behind her, took her wrists in his hands, joining them together before holding them in front of her, one hand keeping both her wrists together. ‘Is it really so hard to believe, Feinith?’ he asked, as he brushed the hair back from Leila’s face, tucking it tenderly behind her ear.
He cupped her chin, tilting her head back against his shoulder.
She winced as he scraped his incisors down her throat, just enough to make her bleed so he could lick it away.
‘She’s delectably sweet,’ he said, looking back up at Feinith. ‘You should try some.’
Feinith’s eyes widened then narrowed in a glare on Leila. ‘You stupid little bitch,’ she hissed, taking a step towards her.
‘Take it easy, Feinith,’ he said, standing again and blocking her way. ‘You’re not going to blame the girl for falling for me, are you? Not you of all people. You should understand it better than most.’
Feinith’s glare narrowed. ‘You did this on purpose! You made her fall for you to do this to me!’
‘It’s always about you, isn’t it, Feinith?’
She scowled. ‘Then tell me, Caleb,’ she said, her voice laced with resentment. ‘Are the feelings mutual?’
Leila’s attention snapped to Caleb as a hint of a smile reached not only his lips but his eyes too.
Feinith exhaled curtly and moved to step past him. ‘I’m taking her with me.’
He moved in front of her. ‘No, you’re not.’
Feinith’s glare locked on his. ‘Yes, I am. And I want her name, Caleb. Her full name.’ She looked across her shoulder, her grey eyes locking on Leila again. ‘Have you got sisters, sweetie? Because if you have, I’m going to find them.’
Leila’s instinct was to retaliate but she knew she couldn’t. She couldn’t give any indication of the truth.
‘Walk away, Feinith,’ Caleb said, his tone mesmerizingly calm, controlled. ‘Like this never happened. You never saw her. You know nothing about her. And you’re going to stay away. Because if you threaten my brother, my business or me ever again, you utter one word of any of this to anyone, and I will have images of our very intimate, very sordid, very depraved moments that I’ve filmed over the years on every fifty-foot-high screen this district has to offer. Then your constituents, Jarin, the whole fucking Higher Order can see exactly what they’re dealing with. They will know of every last one of your darkest most depraved desires, let alone you handing over Seth’s redemption to your lover. I finish you in this locale, Feinith.’
Her scowl deepened. ‘You have no such recordings. You’re lying.’
‘I can give you copies if you want. They make for very interesting viewing. Share them with Jarin. He might learn a thing or two about what makes you really tick.’
Her eyes flared in fury. ‘You wouldn’t dare.’
‘Come on now, Feinith.’ He smirked. ‘All those nights we’ve spent together, all we have done together and you still don’t know me. You’ve always been too busy noticing yourself, haven’t you? Open your eyes and for the first time see what you’re up against. And listen to me when I advise you to get yourself as far away from me as possible. Because if you don’t, I promise you, I will be the one to bring you down. And you don’t want me as an enemy, Feinith. You really don’t.’
Her lips trembled with fury as she kept her glare firmly fixed on his. ‘You could have it all.’
‘I don’t want it all.’ He raked her dismissively with his gaze. ‘And I sure don’t want you.’
Her eyes blazed with indignation, her lips pressed tight together. ‘You’re making a mistake,’ she said through gritted teeth.
‘No bigger than the one I’m looking at,’ Caleb said. He stepped back over to the door, keyed in the code and opened it.
She glowered down at Leila, back at Caleb then spun on her heels, storming out of the room.
Caleb closed the door before turning to face Leila again. His green eyes were troublingly unreadable. And as he loomed on the top step, tension gripped her chest to the point she thought it would snap.
Feinith was one problem he had sorted.
Every instinct told her she was next.
Chapter Thirty-two
Feinith slumped into the back of the car. She dug her nails into the black leather seat, her scowl rebounding off the blackened-glass divide between her and her bodyguard.
She looked at her assistant’s reflection, could feel her expectant gaze boring into her.
‘I’m assuming it didn’t go according to plan?’ Hess remarked.
Feinith glowered into Hess’s expectant blue eyes before staring back at her own reflection.
‘Has he made further demands?’ Hess asked.
‘No.’
‘So what happened?’
‘Caleb Dehain fucked with the wrong Higher Order vampire, that’s what happened.’
‘He’s refusing to hand her over?’
‘Worse,’ Feinith remarked and met Hess’s troubled gaze. ‘She lost it. The stupid little bitch lost it.’
‘Lost it? What do yo
u mean she lost it?’
‘What do you think I mean? How many ways would you like me to say it?’
‘You’re sure?’
Feinith raised her eyebrows, just on the cusp of using Hess as the punchbag she needed right then. And she might have if the woman hadn’t been so talented, so effective, so irreplaceable.
‘How is that even possible?’ Hess asked.
‘It doesn’t matter. What matters is finding out if there’s more of them.’
‘We know there isn’t.’
‘I meant of her. Sisters, Hess. I need to know if she has sisters. Because taken from her reaction when I mentioned it, I’d say she does.’
‘Give me her name and I’ll hack into the population records.’
‘I don’t have a name. But she’s not from here – that much is obvious, so she’s crossed a border somewhere.’
‘You want me to check the records?’
‘I want her name. I want where she’s from. I want to know everything there is to know about her family.’
‘Onto it,’ Hess said, flipping open her laptop.
Feinith leaned forward and banged on the glass for her bodyguard to pull out of the alley. She sank back in her seat. ‘Please tell me we at least have some news on Kane Malloy.’
Hess shook her head. ‘He’s still underground somewhere.’
‘Blackthorn is not a big enough place for me to start losing my temper over this, Hess.’
‘I’ve got the best on it. It’s just not so easy when we’re trying to keep things low-key. And this is Kane we’re talking about. But we’ll find him. If not him, Caitlin Parish should prove a hell of a lot easier. There are ways and means to everyone, as you well know.’
‘Exactly. I want you to book me a pass to the penitentiary.’
Hess’s attention snapped back to her. ‘I thought you were going to give Carter some space for a few weeks until everything dies down?’
‘Needs must, Hess. He’s no good to me locked in there.’ She ran her nails lightly over the leather seat. ‘And get me one to see that Rob as well. There’s something about that one,’ she declared with a smirk, her mood lifting slightly for a moment. ‘Something in his eyes.’
‘Are you sure that’s wise?’
‘It’s pointless being a part of the Diplomatic Unity if you can’t twist its purposes to your own ends, Hess. Anyway, if Kane won’t respond to my summons, he’s going to learn the hard way how I expect things to be done.’ She looked over her shoulder at the club. ‘Besides, there’s nothing like a bit of alpha-baiting to ruffle things up, and something tells me the delectable Kane Malloy is going to be of even more use to me than I first thought.’
Chapter Thirty-three
Caleb sat down on the top step, his phone held against his mouth, his green eyes penetrating hers from across the bed.
‘At least now I know what the seduction was about,’ he said. ‘You needed consummation to finalise it, right? Proper little Black Widow, aren’t you?’
‘How did you find out?’
‘Jake told me.’
‘How did he know?’
‘It sounds like you’re not the only librarian in your family. It seems that on Sophia’s quest for vengeance, she decided a serryn would be the ultimate tool for The Alliance. Subsequently it appears Sophia knows just as much about serryns as her big sister does – except the fact she was one. Very ironic considering her mission. Alisha knew all about it. Apparently those two used to talk a lot.’
Leila felt a stab in her chest, the consequences of her secrecy slicing through her. She also wondered if that was what Alisha had been on the cusp of confessing to down in the club before they’d been separated. ‘How long have you known about me?’
‘Not before I bit you obviously. I may be many things, but suicidal isn’t one of them. I wouldn’t have known at all if Jake hadn’t come tearing up here to tell me. Alisha had let it slip whilst pleaing with him.’
‘Then it seems you owe Alisha for saving your life as well as saving Jake’s,’ she said. ‘That had better count for something.’
‘She didn’t save my life.’
‘She did. You said she sent Jake up here to stop you.’
‘I’d already stopped.’
Her pulse raced. Her heart pounded painfully. She held his gaze, but she didn’t dare utter the thoughts in her head. She’d had it thrown back in her face too many times to swallow her pride again.
‘It’s a shame you didn’t try to do the same instead of resorting to underhand tactics,’ he added. ‘Then maybe the outcome could have been different.’
‘I’d already be dead, you mean.’
He almost smiled. ‘Could your opinion of me be any lower?’
‘So what now?’
‘Feinith won’t let this lie, despite the warning I gave her. You won’t be safe anywhere. Anywhere but with me.’
‘So I may as well give up now – is that what you’re saying?’
‘You don’t give up,’ he said, a hint of infuriatingly easy nonchalance in his eyes. ‘You never do. You could have stopped me, told me how you felt, instead of trying to kill me. All you’ve done is finally prove that, in the end, I was right all along.’
‘That’s not fair.’
‘No?’
‘I know how I feel about you and yet I still couldn’t turn my back on what I was supposed to do, so how do you expect me to believe that you could?’
‘Because you’re so much better than me, aren’t you?’
‘I never said that.’
‘So what are you saying?’
‘I’m saying I gave you every reason I possibly could to stop this and still it wasn’t enough.’
‘You could have told me how you felt.’
‘Like you said, what difference would it make?’
He lowered his gaze for a moment before looking back at her. ‘I had a split second to make the decision before I reached the point where you’d never return. The point where I’d have no choice but to kill you one way or another. So unless you have lost it and I sensed it, my guess is I was feeling something for you that I shouldn’t have. But I can assure you that’s been fast rectified by the fact you tried to kill me.’
She glanced at the phone. ‘So there’s no guessing what call you’re awaiting. Why this is on my wrist,’ she said, exposing the cut.
‘We both need to be sure, Leila, and there’s only one way to do that.’
‘Full circle, right, Caleb? And what then?’
‘I guess the most logical option is that, if you’re still a serryn, we finish what we started. If you’re not, well, I guess I really need to up that search for Sophia. Whilst keeping Alisha on standby, of course.’
Leila’s stomach clenched. ‘You can’t do that.’
‘No? And why’s that, Leila? You have a very low opinion of me, remember? I’ve got to do something to live up to it.’ He looked down at his phone before placing it aside. ‘Unless we can come to some other arrangement.’
Unease coiled its way through her. ‘What kind of arrangement?’
‘We consummate now. Before the phone rings. Before we know the outcome.’
She frowned. ‘Why?’
‘Falling in love is easy, Leila. Trusting not so much. Especially not a vampire, right? Especially not me. A blood test is one way of proving how you feel, but putting your life, let alone the lives of your sisters, in my hands is a whole something else.’
‘You’ve got to be kidding me.’
‘We consummate it now, and I’ll give you those seven days you requested to show me you were right in what you said – that there’s another way. I’ll give you seven days to save yourself and your sisters. If you do believe you love me, if there’s even a chance you’ve already lost your serrynity, you know it’s the only chance they stand.’
‘Or if I’m wrong, I’m knowingly passing on a fate intended for me.’
‘I never said it was an easy decision, but I’m giving you the best g
et-out clause I can. It’s up to you whether you take it.’ He glanced down at his phone then back at her. ‘But that phone could ring at any point, so make your decision quickly.’
As rain smashed against the glass, she stared him down. It was a decision she came to all too quickly, despite the ache in her chest. ‘No,’ she said. ‘I’ve proved myself enough. Now it’s your turn. You want me to trust you? Then give me something to trust you for. I can and I will find another way. The question is whether you want to take a punt on me, whether you care about me enough to give me a chance, to give both of us a chance. Or whether you want to take the easy option. You make the decision, Caleb.’
After his gaze lingered on hers for a painful few moments, he stood from the steps. He almost smiled, but she couldn’t tell if it was out of amusement or irritation. He stepped over to the door, his outline almost a shadow against the amber glow of the distant backdrop.
Leila got unsteadily to her feet. She crossed the bed, avoiding the lethal thorns of the roses. Scooping one up in her hand, she made her way up the steps behind him.
She stopped a few feet away.
‘I know you don’t trust a word I say,’ she said, as she thumbed one of the thorns. ‘But I did nearly stop you, Caleb. I did nearly tell you the truth. But I couldn’t. You once asked me, if I was in your place, what I’d do, and I guess I answered it. Despite how I feel, I was doing exactly the same for my kind as you were for yours. And underneath it all, it’s because, no matter how I feel about you, it doesn’t make any difference. You’ve won anyway. One way or another, you’ll get what you want and I’ll have nothing.’
She looked down at the rose and picked at the thorns on the stem, breaking them off one by one.
‘And yet I still love you, you irredeemable, impossible, arrogant bastard. And I hate you for it, but not half as much as I hate myself. I hate myself for understanding you.’ She picked off another. ‘I hate myself for seeing something I don’t want to see.’ And another, casting the thorn aside. ‘Something that makes this harder. Because I know what’s inside you, Caleb. And you can deny it all you want, but I know the real reason you despise me is because I’ve made you question yourself. And in that respect, I’ve won.’ She picked off the last. ‘So do what you want.’ She took the steps up towards him. ‘Turn your back on me or give us a fighting chance. It all comes down to how much you want to be with me.’
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