I closed my eyes for a brief moment, knowing everyone was waiting on my move.
One thing at a time. I needed to find the vial first. I’d face the hard decision of what to do with it after that.
I wasn’t walking out of here with Jeoffrey, so how else could I get the vial?
A lightbulb went off.Rin.
“Are you going to sit there and meditate over what to do?” Jeoffrey taunted just before my eyes snapped open. “You’re out of options, bitch. Admit it.”
Maybe I would have felt like I was out of options if I was still the same girl I was the night of the attack on my family. But now? I was a woman who knew she wasn’t going to roll over and take whatever Fate sent her way, crying over how unfair life was after the fact. I was going to grab my own destiny in my hands and mold it into what I wanted it to be.
I kept my face void of emotion with my lips in a tight line as I nodded at him. “Not quite.”
I tuned into my bond with Lincoln.I’m going to threaten to kill Rin if Jeoffrey doesn’t give us the vial, which I know he won’t do. He doesn’t care about Rin—but that gives us an excuse to remove Rin from the room under the guise. Rin has to know where the vial is. He’s been against Jeoffrey this entire time and clearly knew about the poison to begin with. There’s no way he didn’t track where the poison and antidote went. Assure him that the dose will go to Lo, so he gives up the location. I think he’s holding back his knowledge because he doesn’t want Jeoffrey to kill him, and he doesn’t trust us to not use it on Serena.
I’ll take him to the backyard, so Jeoffrey can’t see me talking. I’ll squeeze the answer from Rin and let you know when I have the location.
Jeoffrey crossed his hands across his chest, puffing it out with self-importance as he scoffed at me. “Enlighten me.”
As quickly as I could, I conveyed the plan to Andrei and Drake before I cocked my hip out and tapped my finger against my lip as if in deep thought. Neither objected, so I continued on.
“I’m going to kill your partner here if you don’t tell us. Then who will you have left to do your bidding for you?” I asked, letting my voice drip with condescension as I crossed my arms to mimic him. “It’s clear that you don’t have the strength or numbers to carry out your coup, so what now Jeoffrey?”
I stepped closer to him, seething as I shot him a look of pity. “Run away with your tail tucked between your legs? We all know you can’t finish this on your own.You’reweak,” I bit out. “A pathetic excuse for a man who used fear to control those around them.”
His features contorted, fury painting his face as his lip curled up in a snarl and blood rushed to his face. “I don’t need Rin to finish what I started,” he barked, flinging his hand at him. “Kill him. I don’t hide behindanyone.”
I held out a hand and snapped for Lincoln to move, swallowing the urge to laugh at how easy it was to manipulate the manipulator. Everything was going according to plan so far. Rin thrashed in Lincoln’s grip as he forced him past Jeoffrey toward the back.
A hocking sound came from Rin seconds before he let a glob of spit fly and land of Jeoffrey’s cheek. “I hope they give you a long, painful death, you piece of shit.”
I couldn’t agree with his sentiments more, but I kept my face neutral despite loving the disgust lingering on Jeoffrey’s face as he wiped the offending spit away. Swiping his hand on the front of his shirt before crossing his arms again, he made one last attempt—a desperate sort of one that I saw coming from a mile away. He was so fucking predictable, using anyone’s life to save his own.
Get out of the way, Andrei.
Jeoffrey whirled on his foot to use his son as leverage, but I was already at his back, biting into my lip on instinct and calling Devorare forth. My hand wrapped around her hilt as Andrei darted to the left at the last possible second, sending Jeoffrey crashing into the wall with the burst of speed and momentum he had going.
My blade dug into the back of his neck before he could react. “Make one move and I won’t hesitate to cut your head from your body,” I hissed, letting my words come out with a strength that dared him to test me. “I’d love to do the realm a favor and rid it of one less monster.”
His cheek flattened against the wall when he craned his face to look at me out of his peripheral line of vision. His bravado echoed around us once more as he laughed and spluttered, “As if you would risk the lives of both of those women.”
I have the location. It’s here in the house, upstairs in his old bedroom. Third door on the left and tucked into a small hole in the beige teddy bear on the bed.
Drake darted up the stairs when I relayed the message, and the sound of my mate taking the stairs two at a time made Jeoffrey’s teeth gnash together as a guttural growl vibrated through him.
“Turn around and face me,” I ordered, voice tight through my clenched teeth. “I want to see the look in your eyes when you see that you’ve failed.”
To my surprise, he did turn, holding his hands up in surrender. But instead of the scathing anger I expected to see in his eyes, a look of victory gleamed in the dark depths instead. “You won’t kill me, Alina, because I know everyone who was involved in the slaughter of your family.”
A cold wave of anger burst through me, threatening the loosening grip I had on my control. I felt the pulsing, primal energy of a bloodhaze threatening to pull me under.
I had to play the best bluffing game of my life.
Forcing a smile to my face, I cocked my head and blinked at him, pushing the tip of Devorare into his throat just enough to draw rivulets of blood from the wound. “It’s cute that you think I don’t already have answers about that night. I already know the witch that helped you get into our territory. You really underestimated me, Jeoffrey.”
My thirst for vengeance filled me, and I gave into the bloodhaze, baring my fangs at him as I hissed, “The only reason I kept you alive was to get the antidote. Now that we have the location from dear old Rin, who you let us walk out the door with without second thought, give me a reason why I should let you live. I want to hear youbeg.”
He blanched, the color draining from his face as his mouth popped open in shock. His eyes bugged, and he worked his jaw for a moment as his breaths puffed through his lips faster and faster. “Please, no,” he begged, fear finally beginning to shine in his seedy eyes. “You can’t possibly have all the answers. Even if you knew Astaroth helped, that doesn’t mean you know everything.”
