“It’s over. I’m too good for you,” Liv told him, and slammed the door behind me.
Girl power,I mentally sent to my bestie as I traversed the halls of the society. Liv was one of the strongest women I knew. I loved that she’d had the balls to do that.
“Going hunting?” Maz’s voice made me jump three feet into the air and I grasped my chest, spinning in her direction.
A nervous laugh escaped me. “You scared me.”
She didn’t say anything, eyes on my hunting bag, awaiting an answer. Maz was loving, a grandmother figure, strong woman of God, but sometimes she could be scary.
“Nah, I’m going to get my blades sharpened.” I thought quickly, rattling off an answer as to why I would have my hunting bag. Every three months, we all went to a special bladesmith in the city and sharpened our weapons and got new razor wire loaded. I was due next week but could go early to cover my tracks from today’s festivities.
She seemed satisfied with that, giving me a small smile. “Oh good. Ready for our trip? Get your dress?”
The dress! Maybe I would need Kenz to send three dresses for me to pick from. “Yep. Ready and excited.” I bopped nervously on my heels.
“Listen, I know you and Sterling were an item, so I think it only fair to warn you he will be accompanying us to the gala as leader of our security team.”
I frowned. “Security? We’re both hunters, we don’t need security.” I laughed. The ideawaslaughable. I could bring Sterling to his knees if I wanted, so could Maz. Now it was her turn to look nervous.
She glanced left and right down the hall, before approaching me. Stepping closer, she leaned in and lowered her voice to a whisper: “I have it on very good authority that one of our lead hunters is in bed with the vampires. There may be an attack enroute to the gala to wipe us out, and I want to be fully prepared in that case.”
My eyes widened. Inbedwith a vampire? Attack to wipe us out? “Who?” I croaked.
She shrugged. “Someone in our Chicago cell we think. Best to play along until we have proof, then we’ll take care of them.”
Take care of them? Someone goes “to bed” with a vampire and she kills them?
I swallowed hard. I was so screwed.
“Right. Sterling. Won’t be a problem, but thank you,” I mumbled.
Spending a weekend trip with my ex was the least of my worries right now.
She nodded. “Carry on. Tell Rufus I said hello.”
Rufus, the blade maker.Right.
“Sure thing.”
Could this day get any worse? I didn’t want to tempt fate by asking.
* * *
After frantically dialingRufus and asking him to squeeze me in for a last-minute blade sharpening a week early, I found my way back to the apartment building Luka had been holed up in. My symptoms were getting worse: headache like my brain was being split in two and mouth so dry I thought I might die of thirst. The fact that I was feelinghissymptoms was totally horrifying to me, and I couldn’t wait to kill him and be done with this evil magic bond he’d conned me into. I was going in there guns blazing, taking Luka out and then heading to Rufus’ shop in case Maz checked up on me to make sure I really went. Then I could put this whole thing behind me.
Forever.
I’d run out of his apartment so quickly I hadn’t thought to look at the door number, but I did remember going down four flights of stairs. Or was it three? My hand was on the door that was the entrance to the side stairwell of the apartment, when his voice invaded my head.
‘Aspen?’It was weak but there, and it brought with it a whole host of emotions and feelings that nearly sent me to my knees. How the hell did he know my real name? I’d introduced myself as some made-up name I didn’t even remember right now. Did he read my mind? That made me shiver.
He was hurt. Thirsty. Poisoned. In pain. In need. Ifeltthis.
Good, this would make my job easier. I wrenched the door open and took the stairs two at a time. The closer I got, the more I justknewhis location. It was unsettling as hell. We were connected … and that horrified me.
As I neared his door, the thirst I’d experienced this morning hit me full force. So did the headache right at the base of my skull. This wasnotokay. I should not be feeling things someone else was feeling. It was wrong.
When I jiggled the handle and found it locked, I knew I had seconds to act before he got the strength to fight back. I needed to be quick about this.Walk in, take off his head and be done. With one super charged kick, the door splintered open. I strode inside, slamming it behind me, and followed my intuition as to where he was. I was being pulled to him like a magnet. Passing the couch where he’d first fed from me, my stomach warmed at the memory, but I pushed it aside.
