THIRTY-THREE
asher
Jax wove through the crowd, through the hall, and toward the staircase. I hurried to catch up, but had to keep a reasonable pace to not call attention to myself. I could have turned invisible, but too many eyes were on me already. It would make more sense for me to head to the feeding stations upstairs. The onlookers wouldn’t know I was attempting to catch up to Jax before he let his temper shove its dick down our throat.
He was hot on Charles’s heels, chasing him down. I could only fucking imagine what Charles had been running his mouth about to set Jax off.
I reached the base of the stairs and zoomed up. Jax hadn’t grabbed Charles yet. Just in fucking time. Picking up speed I grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back. He rounded with a hiss, and I flicked his forehead.
He shut up.
“We don’t want to start a fucking feud, Jaxon,” I hissed. “You kill or maim the fucker, he’s going to go crying to his Sire, and once that happens, one of our allies turns their back on us.”
“You should have heard the repulsive?—”
“Don’t even tell me.” I put my hand up. “Think of Pet.”
“I was thinking of her.”
I narrowed my eyes. “What did he say about her?”
“About who?” Ren appeared at my side, gaze flickering from me to Jax.
“You’re not with Catalina?” I stared at Ren, horrified.
“I left you with her.” Ren’s eyes slitted.
I groaned. I felt like I hung onto my control by a thread. We were foolish creatures, struggling to keep our temper more than our human.
“Keep this one out of trouble.” I poked Ren. “Look at what kind of responsible pussy you’re turning me into.” I sneered at my brother and turned on my heel.
If Catalina’s safety didn’t depend on our behavior, I would have been wreaking all the havoc. Now look at me, behaving like fucking Tobias.
No one could know the grip she had on us, and for that, she needed to stay out of touching range from other vampires. Charles made a comment about her earlier and I’d been close to losing it on him.
I arrived at the base of the stairs in time to watch Calliope detach a human male’s hand.
Fuck. Her gentle soul would struggle seeing that.
Look at me, I was getting better at considering human feelings. I smiled, satisfied with myself and went hunting for my female.