“Vex?”Blade’s voice is careful.Controlled.“You good?”
The honest answer is no.
Hell no.
Every instinct screams at me to go upstairs right now, lock Tessa in my room, and stand guard until this nightmare is over.To claim her so completely that nothing, not the Khorvath, not heaven, not even death itself, can take her from me.
But that’s the monster talking.
The man knows better.
“I’m good,” the lie tastes like ash.“Tessa’s safety is my priority.I’ll do whatever it takes to protect her.”
“Even if that means stepping back?”Blade presses.“If I reassign her protection to someone else, can you handle that?”
The question is a knife to the gut.
Step back.Let someone else guard her, touch her, be close to her.Let another brother stand outside her door at night, listening to her breathe, ready to throw himself between her and danger.
My hands clench into fists under the table, and I feel my eyes starting to shift.White creeping in at the edges of my vision, predator mode activating whether I want it to or not.
“No,” the word comes out rougher than intended.“I can’t.”
Blade’s expression doesn’t change.“Why not?”
“Because she’s mine.”
The admission echoes through the room like a gunshot.
Silence.
Then Rooster laughs, sharp and mocking.“Called it.VP’s gone soft over some human.”
Before I can move, Blade’s on his feet, his hand slamming down on the table hard enough to crack the wood.“Shut.The fuck.Up.”His voice is pure alpha command, the kind that makes even hardened killers sit up and pay attention.“Vex has earned the right to speak without your commentary.You don’t like it, you can leave.Permanently.”
Rooster’s smile dies.
Blade’s eyes find mine, and there’s something almost sympathetic in them.“Explain.”
Where do I even start?
With the two years of watching her from the shadows?The nights spent in trees outside her window like some lovesick stalker?The way her scent drives me half-mad with hunger every time she’s near?The fact I’ve broken every rule I ever made for myself just by being in the same room as her?
“It’s not just attraction,” Prophet says quietly, saving me from having to articulate the impossible.“The bond between them isn’t natural.Or rather, it is, but not in a way we fully understand yet.”He looks at me, and there’s pity in his eyes.“Heaven is watching this, Vex.They’ve been watching since the moment that mark appeared.Your connection to Tessa may be part of something larger than either of you.”
“What are you saying?”Blade asks.
“I’m saying trying to separate them now might do more harm than good.”Prophet’s voice drops lower.“The creature wants her.And it’s going to keep coming.But it’s also afraid of something, something about her, or about Vex, or about them together.Why else would it project through the mark instead of manifesting fully?Why not just tear through the wards and take her?”
“Because it can’t,” Scout realizes.“The wards are holding.Barely, but they’re holding.”
“Exactly,” Prophet confirms.“And I think part of why they’re holding is because of him.”He nods toward me.“A vampire standing guard over a warden bloodline.It’s not an accident.That’s providence.”
“Or a test,” Blade mutters.
“Or that.”
The room erupts into argument, half the brothers insisting we need a different strategy, the other half grudgingly accepting that maybe, keeping Tessa and me together is the only option that doesn’t end with everyone dead.
