“I’m glad you invited me to come, master,” Takashi said.
“I’ve been so preoccupied these last few weeks that I must apologize for not taking time to get to know you better,” Seamus replied. “Between raising my son, my duties, and everything else going on, I’ve simply been too busy. I hope you don’t feel neglected in any way.”
“Not at all.” Takashi knocked away a piece of imaginary lint from his knee.
Seamus laughed smugly. “So you’ll continue to play the part of a well-mannered guest. Takashi, you’re part of my household. You can speak your mind.”
Such an invitation was bound to be a lie. Yet it couldn’t be ignored either. “I worry about Zack. He told you what my sire commanded?”
“He did. He doesn’t seem concerned that you’ll obey her.”
“Why would I?” Takashi said, feigning a light air. “I love him, and I am part of your coven, master.”
“Yet you called her.” Seamus’s grin turned sharp. “One might wonder why.”
“I feared she was worrying over me. I called her to let her know I was all right.”
“You weren’t calling her to scheme about putting Zack in my stead?” Seamus asked.
Silence would be better than outright lying, but Seamus was staring at him like he expected an answer and already knew what it was. “Does it matter? She wishes your territory for herself, master. She’d rather him dead than another competitor.”
“I’m surprised you don’t want to take my position for yourself,” Seamus replied. “But then, you would have to take responsibility, wouldn’t you?”
“I don’t know what you mean, master.”
“You slide from one place to another.” Seamus moved to sit beside him and put his arm along the back of the seat, crowding Takashi. “Jumping from one lover to the next. You have beeneverywhere, and for some reason, you were willing to settle with Roger? I should have doubted that loyalty. No sooner than I bring you into my house do you begin to worm your way toward my Anton.”
“Anton and I have never?—”
Seamus caught Takashi by the jaw and held him tight to cut him off from speaking. His words were laced with a deep-set anger that trilled every alarm in Takashi’s mind. “I have seen the way you and my beloved have been talking. The closeness. You saw his chamber below, and yet that hasn’t altered your opinion of him, has it? You find him captivating. He believes you’re fascinating. But you’re just another leech, aren’t you?”
“I don’t?—”
Seamus forced Takashi’s head up farther, making speech impossible for him. The air in the limo was growing cold, and Seamus’s eyes were bloodred, the whites becoming pitch-black. “Zack confides everything in you, doesn’t he? And now, my lover is raising your offspring. That wouldn’t be a problem, except he considers you a co-parent, of all the fucking absurd things. But do you know what has truly gotten under my skin?”
Takashi put his hand on Seamus’s elbow and tried to push his arm down, tried for any sort of leverage, but couldn’t find any. He scrambled, and his tormentor wasn’t showing the slightest bit of strain in holding him.
The glare in Seamus’s eyes was that of a devil’s about to slice the wings from an angel. A longing to rip and rend pulsed out from him. “I didn’t have a reason to check the mansion’s footage until you and Zack invaded my office. Zack took off in such a rush I had to track his movements. The two of you went to the dungeon, and that’sfine. You should know what’s down there so you know what may still become of you.
“I figured that since I had the footage pulled up, I should catch up on the last few weeks. See what my beloved has beenup to. I have to keep an eye on him, you understand. His proclivities need monitoring at times. That’s why he has that little chamber down there in the first place. But do you know what I discovered?
“That little shapeshifting shithead has been turning intoyou. He’s been doing it for weeks now. My beloved has been fucking him while he wore your face. Again, not the problem. We’ve been together for centuries. We have a love that will last. We’ve even invited others into our bed before. Roger, for example.” Seamus dug his nails into Takashi’s jaw, cutting into his flesh. Through clenched teeth, he continued. “But thewayhe fucked that facsimile of you wasn’t fucking at all. He was tender. He was caring. He was talking.Sharinghimself. Succubae feast on all kinds of desires, you know. None so much as budding love.”
Takashi clutched onto Seamus’s wrist. He still didn’t have a prayer in moving his hand. Without being able to speak, he couldn’t defend himself. Letting Seamus read his emotions would only result in him pillaging his psyche, and that would do more harm than good.
“I will not share him,” Seamus growled in Takashi’s ear. “Is that understood?”
Takashi gave the best affirmative grunt he could manage.
“Excellent.” Seamus released Takashi and slid to the other end of the bench seat. With a casual dismissiveness, he withdrew a handkerchief from his pocket and tossed it at him.
Slowly, Takashi took the offered cloth and wiped away the blood from his now healed wounds. His hand threatened to shake, but he stilled that nervous energy. He let himself grow cold rather than hot with defensiveness. An overly quick response could lead to the wrong one, and he was in dangerous enough territory.How did Roger do this for so long?
The kiss at Devil’s Cove came back to him. Roger had been onstage, had killed a hunter at Anton and Seamus’s beckoning,and then let Seamus kiss him in front of everyone. Roger had been trading his body for his safety. He must have been doing so the entire time he was a vampire.I cannot do that. I don’t have the stomach.
“Nothing slick to say, ambassador?” Seamus teased. “No pleasing words you think I want to hear?”
The malicious note in Seamus’s voice was a red flag that one would have been able to see from across an ocean. Takashi tucked the handkerchief into his pocket and fussed with his cuffs. “Your point is made, master.”
