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“Do you still plan to kill her?”

What an odd question. His nemesis knew him as well as anyone. It was an unfortunate fact that over the course of seven hundred years, they’d spent more time living in each other’s proximity than not. His family, attempting to eradicate the Cheld. The Derricksons, to protect them. An entire world, and he was forced to occupy the same small town in Pennsylvania as one of the most dangerous men—or vampires, to be precise—in existence.

Eternity could weigh on a person.

He crossed the street toward the coffee shop, and Alessandra’s self-appointed bodyguard followed.

“She’s begun the transition,” Kenton said.

Lawrence stopped outside the coffee shop, and Kenton did the same.

“How could you tell?”

So . . . Lawrence was already aware of that fact. From their cozy little run? Or had something else tipped him off?

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Of course it matters. Kenton, listen to me—”

“I’m not interested in your arguments.” He knew them well already. Hadn’t they danced around this issue for much too long? “I will not take that chance, and you well know it.”

“Dammit, hear me out.”

Kenton glanced up at the sign above them. The Witch’s Brew. One of the many coffee shops around the world with that same moniker, which made it a bit less clever than the owner likely thought it. He had no interest in listening to the pleas of a traitor, a man who threatened their very existence with his misplaced sympathies.

“I’d rather not,” he said shortly.

“There is another you haven’t yet found.”

He pulled his hand back from the doorknob. It was the one thing Lawrence could have said to stop him short.

“You’re a liar—”

“You know I am not.”

Kenton studied Lawrence’s face, admitting to himself the bastard was right. His nemesis was a Scot and a traitor, a sympathizer whose actions had led to more deaths than he would ever admit to. The head of a family Kenton’s own people had hated for centuries. But annoyingly, Lawrence Derrickson, once chief of the fiercest border clan in Scotland, was also honorable to a fault.

“I’m listening, although I fail to see how you could have possibly discovered something I have not.”

To some, his words might sound arrogant, but it was a valid question. They’d both lived long enough to have acquired skills that no mere human could match. And of all his brothers, Kenton was the best at finding information and using it against those who would do them harm.

With one glaring exception. But that would likely remain a Derrickson family secret forever.

“It doesn’t matter how—”

“You are bluffing.” But he wasn’t sure Lawerence meant it. Something about the look on Lawrence’s face . . .

“Are you willing to take that chance?”

He wasn’t, and Derrickson knew it. When it came to the Cheld, taking that chance would mean endangering his siblings. Himself. The rest of their godforsaken kind.

“What are you suggesting?”

“I’m suggesting you let her live. Watch her as I will do. As she develops, we will—”

“No.”

“God dammit, Kenton. You know not all Cheld choose to hunt us. They could be powerful allies. What if she—”

“I am done with this conversation.” He twisted the knob and pushed the door open.

“I will not allow you to be alone with her—”

“No, I’d not expect you to offer such a courtesy. But I don’t need a chaperone in the middle of the day at a crowded coffee shop. I’m not an idiot. I don’t wish to draw more attention to us.”

Lawrence made a sound to indicate he disagreed. But he backed down anyway, knowing Kenton wouldn’t strike in so public a place. After all, the reason Alessandra needed to be killed was precisely because she could expose, and kill, their kind.

Even if another seven hundred years passed, he’d never eradicate the memory of his mother’s heart, torn from her chest, lying next to her fallen in front of their London townhome. By then they had been alive for nearly two hundred years. Though immortality had forced them out of their ancestral home, Rockford Castle, they had found a new life in the capital city.

For his mother, it had proven to be her final resting place.

No, it was not possible to develop a wait-and-see approach. The blood that ran through Alessandra’s veins was much too dangerous. Even now, she sat up straighter. Though she hadn’t seen him yet, she knew he was here. Her senses were becoming heightened.

Which meant he had to work quickly. If Lawrence was correct, there were more of them, and Kenton had to find out exactly how many. Then he had to remove the threat.

No matter how beautiful, or intriguing, this Alessandra may be.