Page 41 of Blades and Bone

Ann smiled, fangs down. “Will you break the treaty? If you do, we will not take him back. He will become unaffiliated.”

Vivian’s gaze was on him. He could see why someone else might break the treaty. And if he hadn’t enjoyed that disobedient streak last night, he might’ve been tempted. But Hamish was a pretty problem…one he wanted. “I believe he can be trained.”

Hamish’s heart gave a heavy thump that every vampire in the room must’ve heard.

“Very well. Let us proceed with the more pressing problem. And work out how you allowed your territory to be infiltrated.” Ann made it sound as though they were careless.

But Brodie also wanted to know how it had happened. And how the Orlans had found out about the talks between the families.

“May I speak?” Hamish asked cautiously as if he expected to be told to shut up.

Ann gave Brodie a pointed look, as it was his decision to make.

Brodie nodded. “Go ahead.”

“Give me a list of everything you ate yesterday and the day before. While you deal with treaty stuff, I can work out what it was. Then we can work out if it was made on-site or came from the main resort.”

He could’ve sat there and kept his mouth closed until he was told to leave, but instead he was still trying to help. Brodie had to admire his stubbornness. “That is a good idea… Would you like to supply someone to follow him around since he will need to speak to Elizabeth?”

Ann inclined her head. “Acceptable.”

Brodie pulled one notepad towards him and wrote his name and everything he could remember eating yesterday. He then passed it to Vivian. The list carefully went around the table, and then to the vampire standing by the door, before making its way back to Hamish.

Ann pointed at the Reid vampire by the door. “Follow him. Do not lose him, or you will be the next one we feed off.”

Hamish went to stand, but Brodie put his hand on his arm. “Do not attempt to escape this guard. You speak with Elizabeth and narrow down your list, and then return here before doing anything else. Understood?”

There was no defiant glint in Hamish’s blue eyes this time, which was both a relief and a disappointment.

“And do up the top button…in fact, find some long-sleeves to cover your wrists.”

That earned him a glimmer of defiance, but in response Hamish only gave a single nod.

Brodie released his arm, and Hamish picked up the notepad and pen and left the room with his guard following.

It was only then that he noticed Garrick had been watching their interaction intently.

Chapter Twenty

The bites on Hamish’s wrists and neck throbbed in time with his pulse. He did up the top button on the polo shirt to better hide the marks on his neck, and if he kept his hands by his side, no one would notice his wrists.

Felix led him upstairs as if he didn’t know where he was going, but instead of taking him to Elizabeth, he took him to his own room first and shut the door.

Hamish tensed.

“Relax, I’m just giving you a shirt. I don’t want to get my balls busted because you’re a fuckup.” Felix pulled out a long-sleeved black shirt and tossed it at him.

It wasn’t clean and smelled of his cologne. “Thanks.”

Hamish pulled off the polo shirt and slipped the black shirt on over his T-shirt, buttoning it up so the collar hid the bites on his neck. They would already be healing, but they were still annoying, and he was far too aware of them.

He didn’t like that he’d been offered as the blood sacrifice. It was humiliating, but that had been the point. He wasn’t a Reid, and he’d disobeyed Brodie. He was going to pay for that later, and he wasn’t sure how he felt about his impending punishment.

Was it better to enjoy it or worse?

He held out the resort shirt. “The guard is at the back gate without a shirt.”

“I don’t care. The orders were to speak with Elizabeth and her guard, figure out which food is poisoned, and then return to the meeting room. I’m not making a detour to give the guard his shirt.” Felix opened the door and stood there waiting for him to step out.