Page 28

Hmmm. Elio walked on thin ice here.

“I loved you.” Marie pointed the gun at Silvanus without looking at him. “I love you. And you shat all over me. You broke us. You ruined what we had for that?” She shrieked, the damager clearly a lot deeper than we’d ever understand.

But my sympathy couldn’t get it up. Screw her and her broken heart. Because what the fuck was this shit with cursing us? How was this our fault?

I climbed over Silvanus, pausing for a few moments in his lap. His hands settled on my hips, our position a little too intimate.

Nope. Not now. Even if his scent drew me in, even if straddling him seemed like the most perfect position to be in, this was the definition of appalling timing.

On my feet, I brushed myself down, forcing all of my focus on the mermaid. I wanted to grill her, to get the answers I needed. Disarming her first would be smart.

Her eyes found me for a few seconds. “You’re just collateral damage.”

“Along with every vampire in existence?” I countered.

She sniffled, saying nothing back.

That seemed to spur the vampire king into action. He sped at her, got the breaker out of her hand, and pinned her hands behind her back.

“Let go of me!” she wailed. Her struggles were useless, the vampire king’s strength basically steel, concrete, titanium, and everything else thrown into one hot body.

There would be no escaping him.

Silvanus’s scarlet eyes blazed in his face, threatening to leave me in a gooey puddle of lust and ecstasy while also, well, unnerving me. His deadly aura had a way of doing that.

I twisted my get-shit-done head back into place.

“You need to start talking,” I demanded.

Elio didn’t react, standing straighter than a pole, his arms tightly folded.

Marie’s shoulders sagged, her head dipping. “You’ll never understand my pain.”

Her playing the victim rubbed me the wrong way. But I remained cool, keeping my fury in reserve.

“Try me,” I responded.

With a heavy sigh, she said, “I wanted him to hurt like me.”

“By hurting us, too?”

She looked up, her eyes narrowing. “Have you ever had the love of your life leave you for someone else? No. Because he’s right here, hurting my arms.”

Elio paled, his bottom lip trembling for a moment.

Silvanus’s gaze burned into me.

He is your one true love.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

“It hurts,” the mermaid continued. “A broken heart is worse than anything else in this miserable world.”

Her comment got to me a little, but I gave it the boot before anything accidentally slipped free.

She continued. “Revenge is the only cure. When Elio left to be with the king, I decided the best way to hurt him was to hurt the one he loved.” Her eyes flickered to my…my brother. “Remember the morning you left, Elio? When you confessed your love for him to me? How you gushed over his beauty, his power, everything? Then told me you’d volunteered yourself to be a thrall. To be close to him, to serve him. To taste.” She winced and shook her head. “Delusion. Pure delusion. He doesn’t love you. He fucks you, he drinks your blood and dresses you in pretty clothes. You’re a tool, a toy, and not him.” She nodded her head in my direction.

Elio didn’t move, didn’t make a sound. But a vein in his neck pulsed rapidly.