I frowned. “What is it?”
“Because you were not born but bitten, and you have vampire’s blood in your system, you won’t complete your transition as a shifter unless…”
“Unless I kill someone,” I finished the sentence for him.
“Yes.”
I looked at the night sky with its bright moon and stars, seeing it as if for the first time, dangerous yet delicious temptations swirling in me. “No worries. Joshua, make the call.”
CHAPTER 40
BELLE
I went into my apartment alone, Declan’s phone in my hand, my heart and stomach cold as ice. My feet felt their way in the dark as I closed the door. I turned on the lights and swallowed. “Declan?”
Nothing answered me. I pressed my nail as I walked to the living room. “You said to meet you here. It’s very smart of you. No one will ever think to look for you in my apartment.”
Silence remained my only companion.
“I haven’t told anyone where I am. No one is following like you asked.” I turned on my heels, looking at the empty room. “I can assure you I’m alone. You’re making nervous. Please, come out.”
I checked the bedroom, kitchen and bathroom but the place was empty. The phone boomed in my hand. I jumped with a shivering gasp. Then I answered. “I’m here as you asked. Where are you?”
“I had to make sure no one was following you,” Declan said.
“No one knows where I am. No one is coming.”
“For your friends’ sake, I hope it’s true. I left you a little gift in your wardrobe. Wear it until I come up.” The son of a bitch hung up.
I shoved the phone into the pocket of my jacket and went into my bedroom. Opening the wardrobe, I found a sheer babydoll glaring at me.
Bile filled my stomach and I slammed the wardrobe shut, almost breaking it.
A key turned into my door, and my heart leapt. I froze in place, listening to the footsteps until I saw him coming through the room.
Declan’s sickening gaze behind professor glassed hovered over my body. The smile of a psychopath stretched on his face as he moved closer. “My sweet, Belle. We meet again.”
My mouth too dry to swallow, I nodded. “That’s close enough.”
“You’re telling me you didn’t miss me at all?” He reached a hand to my face, and I slapped it away.
His disgusting smile widened. Then his fist was in my hair and the back of his other hand ringing on my jaw, throwing me on the floor. Before I could recover, he grabbed me up and pushed me on the bed. “Didn’t I tell you to wear my gift?”
“I’m not wearing that thing for you,” I said between my teeth.
“You prefer to spread your legs naked for three men at once but not wear dirty lingerie for your husband?”
“You’re not my husband.”
He cackled, his hand reaching in his back. Then the laughter stopped, and a gun was in my face. “Say that again, and you’ll have a lovely bullet in your pretty head.”
My hands lifted in surrender as my heart pounded violently against my ribs. “What do you want, Declan?”
“You. I wish I could get a fucking whore like you out of my head, but I just can’t. I’m obsessed with that face, that body, that filthy cunt you let other men defile. You’re mine, Belle. It’s either I have you or no one else does.” He waved the gun at me. “Strip.”
A strange calmness washed over me. “No.”
He unlocked the gun safety.
