Reyna sucked in a breath. “You know what he’s working on?”
Graves turned his gaze back to hers, his irises swirling dangerously. “I know much about William Harrington. He’s a man that I keep tabs on for business purposes. I’ve never much cared if vampires spread like parasites on the surface of the earth,” Graves said. “They can lay claim to the world they believe they own. It matters not to me. As petty as human wars.”
Reyna saw then the machinations behind that beautiful face. Humans and vampires were ants to him. Moving around and waiting for someone to stomp on their ant hill. He wheedled away his time lording over it all and accomplishing his own obscure goals with none the wiser. A true master.
“Will you help us?” Reyna whispered.
Graves snapped his finger and moved away from the table. “Yes. I think I will.”
Reyna breathed a sigh of relief.
“But there’s a cost.”
“We already paid,” Beckham reminded him.
“That gaudy necklace covered as much as I’ve told you about your blood match anyway.” Graves turned from the bookshelf he was inspecting. “We both know it really meant nothing to you.”
Beckham balked at the accusation, but there was some sincerity to it. Material possessions mattered little to Beckham. He enjoyed living in luxury, but the objects were always replaceable. The only thing that truly mattered, that he fought for, was her.
“What’s the price?” Reyna whispered, fear pricking her.
Graves looked at her from under long black lashes with his devious, wicked, trickster mind at work. For that moment, she wondered if hehadread her mind and that the thing that was going to come out of his mouth was the one thing she could not give.
“A bite, if you please.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
“No,” Beckham said.
“Becks,” Reyna muttered.
“I’m not going to bite her for your fucked-up pleasure of watching.”
Graves turned his palms up and arched his eyebrows. “I haven’t witnessed a bite between blood matches. This isscience, if you prefer.”
And Graves didn’t care that Beckham was averse to biting her. Beckham had never willingly given in to his lust for her blood. Even while he was recovering, he couldn’t bring himself to do it except while they were having sex. That’s how much he feared the monster within. That carnal beast that threatened to break free to the surface. To end up in the same position they’d been in when he’d first bitten her. When he hadn’t been able to stop.
She couldn’t do this to him.
Not here.
Not now.
Not in front of Graves.
“We can’t,” she whispered.
“Something else,” Beckham barked. “Ask for something else.”
“Don’t bite her, then. Just lose your war and any future with her.” Graves stuffed his hands in his pockets. “Your choice.”
Beckham moved so fast that he was just a blur. Reyna could hardly process it. One minute he was standing beside her, the next he was holding on to Graves’s throat and glaring into his stormy eyes.
“I think I’ve had enough of you,” Beckham snarled. “I should snap your fucking neck or rip out your throat for half of what you’ve done tonight.”
“Becks,” she cried. “Stop it!”
Graves didn’t even look bothered by the fact that Beckham was attacking him. Reyna had never seen anyone look like that. It was unsettling.
