More intoxicating.
Not sexual with him. Just hunger.
But her control never slipped.
She took what she needed, released the would-be attacker, and licked his wound closed with the healing properties in her saliva. William had been blown away by her discipline. She’d glowed under his obvious pride. Said she was one of the most composed vampires he’d ever met. And she knew that’s why he trusted her, most likely why he wanted her to become his second-in-command despite her youth.
Echo wasn’t so sure about her control, even then. She had a vengeful streak. The next evening, she’d gone out to stalk the human she’d fed from, to take away his ability to attack women … only to discover he was already dead.
Drained of his blood.
She’d never asked questions.
Assumed William had disposed of him for the same reasons.
Now she knew better.
He wasn’t called William “the Bloody” Payne for nothing.
How could she have blinded herself all these years?
“Stop it,” Echo muttered angrily. She threw back her shoulders. Odette was counting on her to get this right. To get Elijah Webb exactly where they needed him.
Odette, who was so human her biggest problem right now was a girl bullying her at the same boarding school in New Brunswick that Echo had attended. Twelve-year-old girls were the worst. Echo had given her sister some advice on how to handle her bully, hoping it would be enough until she could come for her herself.
“It’s so unfair,” Odette bemoaned. “My dad and sister are these scary, badass vampires who could break her neck just looking at her, and yet I can’t tell her that because?—”
“She’d have you committed,” Echo said in a warning tone.
Just like Echo, Odette was raised with knowledge of the underworld that existed beneath most human awareness. Unlike Echo, Odette was far more eager for the promise of becoming a vampire than Echo ever was. She’d turned to please William. Odette, however, was filled with childish romantic notions about immortality.
If it was the last thing Echo ever did, she’d save her sister from the reality.
“Hold on a bit longer, little darling,” Echo whispered.
A knock sounded on the hotel room door, drawing Echo out of her meanderings. Elijah Webb’s golden energy pulsed from beyond it. The fool really needed to learn how to mute that. The door suddenly clicked open and in he stepped, holding the room card up that she’d left for him at reception.
His tight expression relaxed as his gaze dragged down her body and back up to her face.
“You’re really here.”
She tried and failed to ignore the shiver his deep voice elicited. He had an unusual East London accent. Not quite fully Cockney. As if he’d sought to refine it over the years, but the Cockney slipped through.
“Did you expect to find someone else?”
“I wasn’t sure. This is all very cloak-and-dagger.” He closed the door behind him, and his eyes dropped to her legs and heated before they returned to meet hers again. “You look incredible.”
Her heart raced, and she willed it to slow. If he was fae, he could probably hear it.
Come to think of it … Echo could hear Elijah’s.
Fast and pounding.
Huh.
His excitement? Nervousness?
A little surer now, Echo took a step toward him. “You look far too good for a man who’s been on an exhaustive world tour for nine months.”
