Page 21 of The Coven’s Sacrifice

“The passing of days are vastly different for us, but I still have my memories of it, however short that time was.”

“How old were you, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“29.”

“Yeah,” I sighed. “That’s not a long time at all.”

He laughed, a beautiful sound and more joyous than his earlier laugh. “It truly is not. Especially not when I have been a vampire for eight-hundred.”

Fuck. I would never get used to them being so old. I turned to humor instead, needing to divert from the sensitive topics. “You look like someone who’d just spent hours in the sun.” His freckles were obvious and damn cute around his nose.

“I had been.” He seemed saddened by it, and I remembered why. He’d been a soldier with hours in the direct sun each day.

“Sorry,” I began, but he cut me off with a wave of his hand.

“It does not matter anymore. I am no longer that man. I have accepted that. I apologize, dear Colin, but I must bid you goodnight now.”

I just nodded, feeling awkward all over again. I’d kissed this man. Had his fangs in my throat for the second time.

“But before I leave,” he whispered, caging me against the wall. His lips found my neck, then he licked the wound from his feeding. It hadn’t hurt, but I knew it had been there. Now I felt the soothing effect as he kept lapping at the skin.

A moan slipped out, unable to stay inside.

The most unnerving growl filled the room, freezing us both in place. It had not come from Harland.

Wind swept in front of my body and I watched in horror as Harland was flung into the opposite wall, Jacob shaking with anger next to me. “Mine!” he roared, and with that inhuman speed, he ran to Harland.

“Stop!” I yelled, terrified of whatever it was Jacob was about to do.

Jacob ignored me, his teeth now embedded in Harland’s arm. Harland screamed out, flinging Jacob off him, making Jacob crash into one of the walls.

“He is mine, too!” Harland growled. Both their eyes glowed red and I just stood there terrified.

I’d feared Jacob hadn’t truly wanted me, but here he was, fighting his own lover because of me. As they both snarled and ran towards one another, I blurted the only thing I could think of, “Both or neither!”

They froze, their attention now fully on me, their unnervingly glowing eyes enough to make the hairs stand to attention all over my body. But I had their entire focus and I wasn’t about to waste that. “I will either belong to both of you, or no one at all.” I still didn’t know Harland well enough to want to be his, but I also didn’t want whatever this was to go on. I would be here for twenty-nine years and I wanted to have fun. I also wanted them to stay together. I’d seen the love in their eyes when I arrived. I wasn’t about to be the cause of that breaking apart.

They then glared at each other, before sighing and nodding their agreement. I could tell they weren’t happy about it, which was so weird. They were literally lovers! I needed to read through the question book Sienna had given me. I had to know if our blood changed them in some ways. I shivered at the thought of having to fight off sixteen vampires at once. Maybe that was what the first sacrifice had to deal with. That poor soul.

“What the hell is going on here?!” Alexander boomed from the doorway, glaring at me as he entered, then took in my trashed living room and his two lovers. Their bodies were littered with bite marks that were slowly healing themselves. Their clothes and hair were a mess, and they were obviously still angry.

“You,” Alexander snarled. “Have you not done enough damage?!”

I jumped back, startled by his ferocity. I knew he didn’t like me, but what the hell?!

Harland and Jacob both snarled at Alexander. I wasn’t the only one that felt surprised by it. Alexander’s eyes widened. Then I saw in real time as he masked his surprise, snarling at them both before leaving the room, banging the door shut behind him.

I let out a deep sigh.

I was so dead.

Chapter Fifteen

Colin

“Colin,” Jacob started, but I held up my hand, quieting him.

“I want you both to leave.” I felt shaken seeing them attack one another like that and my living room was a mess. It wasn’t until now that I noticed my little dining table and chairs were ruined, the broken pieces of wood scattered around the area.