“Nothing. Clothes.”
Suddenly, Roark grabbed at her again, and all the rage simmering deep inside Echo threatened to escape. She spun in his arms, pressed her palms to his chest, and flew them across the room at vamp speed, slamming him so hard into his wall, the plasterwork crumbled around him.
“Touch me again without my permission, and I’ll cut off your cock and make you watch as I cook it for William’s wolves.”
Roark shoved her off and she stumbled back, readying to fight.
Instead, he gestured at the damage behind him. “You owe me a wall.”
“You owe me two nights of my life I’d like to throw up and forget, so I guess we’re even.”
Finally spotting her jeans and shirt, Echo whipped them from the floor and threw them over her shoulder. “I’m using your shower. Follow me and die.”
“One day, you’ll be mine again,” Roark taunted.
“Again.” Echo looked back at him pitilessly. “We fucked, Roark. If that was all it took, there would be a football team of men out there calling me theirs. But that’snotwhat it takes. So get this through that thick skull of yours now … I will never,everbelong to you.”
As she stepped into his luxurious shower, unable to relax for fear he would ignore her and follow her in, Echo washed the dried blood from her body as realization settled over her.
She would never, ever belong to anyone.
She wouldn’t live long enough to.
Not after she executed the plan forming in her mind.
It was a vampire’s supernatural sixth sense to know when the sun had risen and set. As Echo rinsed the last of the blood from her hair, she perceived the sun had disappeared behind the horizon. Relieved, she dried and clothed herself and stalked out of the bathroom. Roark was again in bed with the still-sleeping twins.
“Your cell rang.” He tossed it at her and smirked. “It was Daddy Dearest. I hope you don’t mind that I answered.”
Shaking her head at his childish antics, Echo checked the call list. It didn’t matter if Roark answered. Echo was fully aware William had her under surveillance since her move to Munich. The Garm’s headquarters were here. She wasn’t constantly tailed, but her apartment was bugged, and now and then, she sensed she was being followed.
William would already know about Roark.
She let herself believe William’s measures were put in place because of his position and his fear that someone would use Echo against him. Now she knew differently. It wasn’t about love. It was about control.
She was nothing more than a tool of revenge.
Without another word to the asshole, Echo strode out of his apartment, hurrying down the stairwell and into the open night air. She took in a lungful of oxygen. Vampires weren’t dead like the myths suggested. They breathed, their hearts beat, and they ate and drank human food. But they needed blood so they wouldn’t starve. Unless they were decapitated, staked in the heart with wood, or had their heart ripped from their chest, a vampire, like the fae, would live forever. Despite breathing, a vampire’s supernatural healing powers meant they’d never die of oxygen deprivation.
And yet, maybe because she knew that, Echo had never really experienced the joy of her lungs filling with crisp, fresh air since she’d turned. So many little things, so many big things she missed about being human.
That grief crawled across her, and she shoved it back.
No time for that.
Hitting speed dial on her cell, she called William.
“She lives,” he answered coldly.
“I fucked up. Got drunk. Hated it. I’m currently disgusted with myself and would appreciate a distraction.” She said all the words she knew William needed to hear.
“You do realize this will only make him hunt you for longer, and his financial resources are too important for me to kill him for touching you.”
Hearing the true anger in William’s words, Echo strode down the street toward her apartment. She was William’s possession. His to give to whomever he wanted. How was she only starting to see this now? “I can deal with Roark. Is that why you called? Or is there business I need to attend to?”
“Headquarters. Now.” He hung up.
Roark owned the entire apartment building he lived in, an art nouveau residence in the heart of Maxvorstadt. It was an impressive investment, his penthouse the height of luxury. But even it didn’t compare to The Garm headquarters, only several blocks from Echo’s apartment in Seeligerstraße. Pulling shadows around her body to hide her unnatural speed from the humans, Echo sped across the city, covering the hour walk in just ten minutes.
