Another pause. I could almost hear the gears turning behind Angelo's silence—calculating, strategizing, deciding how many bones to break and in what order.
"See that you do." The line went dead.
I let Steve's face split into a grin that would have terrified him if he'd been awake to feel it.
The pieces were falling into place. Angelo would go after Rocco now—hunting him, pressuring him, backing him into a corner. And Rocco, desperate and cornered, would do exactly what desperate creatures always did.
Something stupid.
And when he did, they'd turn on each other. Vampire prince versus vampire mafia king. Two predators ripping each other apart while I slipped away with everything I needed. By the time they realized they'd been played, the shard would be at Dracula's castle and the Solstice would be upon them.
Too bad I'd be long gone and not able to watch the fight. That was the only real shame in all of this. I would have loved afront-row seat to the carnage—Angelo's cold fury colliding with Rocco's desperate rage. It would have been spectacular.
But I had bigger things to destroy than two vampires' egos.
I peeled myself out of Steve's body and left him slumped against the wall, drooling. He'd wake up in an hour with a splitting headache and no memory of the call. Just another blank spot in his mind he'd chalk up to stress or too many drinks.
Vampires were supposed to be superior creatures. Steve made a poor case for it.
Chapter Thirteen
Selena
My eyes fluttered open.
Something was rocking beneath me—a slow, rhythmic sway that made my stomach lurch. Water. I could hear it lapping against something nearby. And there was a smell... murky and green, like wet earth and rotting vegetation.
The bayou?
Sunlight filtered through plantation shutters, casting stripes of gold across an unfamiliar ceiling. But I didn’t have shutters on the inside of my house. They were outside. And I definitely didn’t have wood-paneled walls or the faint creak of a boat shifting on water.
Where the hell was I?
I tried to sit up, but my arms shook violently and I collapsed back onto the bed. My whole body felt drained, hollow, like someone had scooped out my insides and left nothing but the shell.
Fragments drifted back to me like smoke. The party. The toast. Rocco’s empty chair. Then—Julienne’s office. The safe.Rocco’s face, desperate and wild in the moonlight. And then his fangs glistened in the dark, and everything went black.
My trembling hand flew to my throat.
Two small punctures. Already healed, but tender.
Rocco had bitten me.
The memory came flooding back—his fangs sinking into my throat, desire exploding through me like wildfire, overwhelming every sense until the world went dark.
He'd knocked me out. And then he'd taken me... here. Wherever here was.
I groaned, squeezing my eyes shut against the pounding in my skull. I could still feel him beneath my skin, a low vibration I couldn't shake. My blood was in him now.
And I didn’t know whether to be furious or terrified.
Or happy. This was what I always wanted. Or was it?
A shadow passed over me and I flinched.
Rocco emerged from the doorway. He’d taken off his jacket and tie. His shirt was unbuttoned, and sunlight reflected off his abs. He held a glass of Chosen Blood. I could smell it from where I was lying—rich and intoxicating.
“Here.” He crouched beside the bed. “You could use this.”
