God, do I know anything?Roger put a hand to his forehead to shield his eyes while he gathered himself.Focus on the next step. He cleared his throat. “I didn’t hang around solely to discuss Zack. Candide was able to help me figure out our next target.” He dropped his hand away. “Seamus has been hiding that we’ve demolished his and the coven’s accounts. With vampires flying in from around the world, there would be one thing he couldn’t cover up that would weaken him, damage his reputation, may free Zack and Takashi, and be an extremely loud ‘fuck you.’”
“What do you propose?” Thomas asked.
“We burn his mansion to the fucking ground,” Roger replied. “And we plan the attack near the dawn after the party.”
Slowly, a sly grin crossed Thomas’s lips and brightened his eyes. “Well, that would be extremely hard to ignore.”
Roger nodded, and then he and Thomas launched into a conversation about what they would need to bring a plan to fruition.
CHAPTER 44
For the better part of a week, Anton had kept Takashi busy from sundown to sunrise. Seamus had taken Zack on errands nearly every night, and what time he didn’t spend with him, he spent in the library or reading books in their suite. Takashi had read a few that Zack had brought into their bedroom.
Zack had been tight-lipped, and Takashi worried but didn’t blame him. Though Zack was growing in his defenses, Takashi could still read his emotions plainly. The greater evidence was in how they went to bed each dawn. Zack cuddled him close, always making sure they were together.
The nights passed. The debut party was the next evening. Takashi’s stomach was a pendulum, threatening to sway until he lost his balance and crashed. And Zack was quieter than usual.
“You’ve been extremely pensive lately,” Takashi said as he buttoned up his black dress shirt. As subtle as he could, he watched Zack dress in the corner of his eye. Vampirism had made him slightly leaner than he’d been as a mortal, and his tailored slacks perfectly hugged his delectable ass. Takashi swiftly looked farther away. Since sharing blood with Zack, horniness was easier to come by, and that was opposite of hisintentions. “One might say you’re developing Brooding Vampire face.”
Zack finished fastening his pants and turned to lean his backside against the dresser. He folded his arms over his chest and pursed his lips.
“Now I am worried,” Takashi said and raised an eyebrow.
“Promise you’re not going to be pissed at me,” Zack said seriously.
“Never an auspicious start.”
“Takashi, please. I’m trying, okay? But I’ve got like five hundred pounds on either arm, and I’m having to balance walking a wire over an endless chasm, and I’ve never walked a wire before.” Zack raked his hand through his hair. A hopelessness was in his eyes.
Gently, Takashi took his hands. “I will not be pissed.”
“He knows.”
“What exactly does he know?” Takashi said slowly, though he could piece together the answer.
Zack looked down at the floor, staring at a spot as if it would suddenly sprout a mouth and speak for him. After a moment, he lifted his chin, and his features smoothed to an expressionless mask only vampires perfected. “I told him that Nell’s gunning for me. He’s known about our ambition for me to take the coven for weeks. Probably since we came up with it.”
Takashi had to quell his instincts to keep from stepping away from Zack. The connection he shared with Zack was muted, but rather than opening it, he kept it closed.I was a fool to trust him. “You told him about Nell?”
“Don’t pull away from me,” Zack said.
“I’m right here.”
“I can see it happening.” Zack tightened his hold on Takashi’s hands. “He claims some bullshit about how having a goal is good for me, and I know we can’t trust him in the long term. Buttelling Seamus about Nell wanting me dead is the right move. If she thinks you won’t do it, she’ll find someone who will. And this might be a huge shocker, but I don’t want to die.”
“But youtoldhim,” Takashi said. “You hate him, and you told him our secret?”
“Nell wanting me dead shouldn’t be our secret!” Zack walked away from Takashi and spun to face his desk for a long moment. When he turned back, he was wiping bloody tears from his eyes. “I don’t want to trust him. But apart from you, he’s the only one that’s cared about me this much.”
“Zack, he doesn’t?—”
“You’re not part of this bond. You don’t fucking know what I’ve felt.” Zack put his hand to his heart. “Everyone in my entire life has been planning to use me or threw me away because they saw no use for me. Even Roger. At least what you wanted for me, you wanted forus. So that we could have the power to make the rules. You and me and Roger could take the bent pieces of this coven and form a better picture. I want that future for us.
“But we’re also in over our fucking heads here! He knows where I am all the time, and he is stronger than we’ve given him credit for. You should have seen the way his eyes morphed. I’ve never seen anything like it.” Zack gestured to the books on his desk. “I haven’t found anything like it yet either. I know it’s insane, but hewantsme to be his son. I hate what he’s done. I hate who he hurts, but until I break this link with him, what choice do I have? The best I can do is make sure he doesn’t hurt us, and he won’t because he’s got this weird need for me to like him. To trust him. And he trusts me, or we’d be dead by now.”
“Zack—”
“He knows we broke into his secret office! He knows we saw Anton’s torture chamber!” Zack shouted. “He actually admired us for breaking in.”
