Chapter 14 #5
“I assure you I am quite secure in my power, Alex. But you are vulnerable not only to me, but to Beckett. I think you are intelligent enough to know which of us is the bigger threat.”
A surprised laugh broke from me. “I think I’d rather take my chances with the crazy one.”
He lifted a pale finger and ran it down my cheek.
I jerked away with a hiss, even as I wanted to rub my face against his skin.
“Stop it,” I growled, the feel of his insidious magic flowing over my shoulders.
Something tugged inside me, a pulse drawn from deep inside my blood that urged me to go to him, to surrender.
Fear pierced my heart. Everything else could wait. I had to figure out a way to break Alric’s hold on me. He was toying with me now because I interested him, but he wouldn’t wait much longer for me to come to him.
I didn’t expect his next words.
“I can purge Beckett’s blood from your body if you allow it.”
Something about this was bothering me. Alric was too calm, too superior. His best chance to grab Beckett was slipping away, and he seemed unbothered.
That sent a skitter of warning down my spine.
I reached up and pulled the flower from my hair, freeing the rest of the upswept curls. Alric blinked as my hair flowed around my shoulders, the curls bouncing as they fell.
“You could do so without my permission.” I suspected Alric could do whatever he wanted and no one would question him. What would it be like to have such unrestrained power?
Alric’s pupils dilated. “You know less about us than you believe. I do need your permission. I am the Prime, but Beckett has a claim on you that usurps mine. While my blood is far more powerful, Beckett’s claim came first. We do not take our people’s humans unless they allow us.”
It sounded like he could, but he wanted to play nice. For now.
“You would do this at no cost?”
Alric’s smile was slow and sexy. “I am not a philanthropist, little witch.”
“And yet you fed a pretty lady dinner this evening and didn’t charge her.”
“Hmm. Perhaps I did, but even that was not without an ulterior motive.”
I lay my hand against my heart. “Color me shocked.”
The flower rested in my hand, a deep black and burgundy peony. Its heady fragrance rose and teased my senses, along with a hint of a little extra something I’d added to the sharpened stem and the piece of silver I’d threaded through the wood to act as a hair pin.
“You cannot escape me, no matter how much you wish to. Your blood and mine are entwined. I’ve tasted your essence and know you hold secrets within your blood. Secrets I will figure out. But I can take one of your complications away if you wish.”
“As long as I yield to you. Become your little puppet?”
He tilted my chin up with his finger. Our eyes met, a hint of a glow in his jade irises. “You have two days to decide.”
“And if I say no?”
His eyes crinkled at the edges. “Then you will see exactly why the women in this city do their best to avoid Beckett.”
True fear made my blood freeze. “You’re a monster,” I whispered. “To know what he is, what he’s doing, and still try to force me to do your bidding is despicable. Why can’t you locate him? What happened to the bond between you two? Did he break it? Is that why you can’t locate him?”
Alric took a step forward, his eyes burning green. I took a step back, but the Prime stalked further forward, grace and power personified, venturing too far inside my personal space.
His knuckles brushed the column of my neck, before his hand opened and he palmed my throat, closing his fingers just tight enough to restrict my breathing to the point of it being uncomfortable.
Alric backed me against the car, the dress’s zipper digging into my spine. He held me firmly enough to keep me from bolting, but he wasn’t choking me. Not yet. And we both knew he could snap my neck in an instant.
I stood frozen, my heart pounding like a scared rabbit’s.
“We are all monsters here. But I am the monster giving you a choice.” He raised his other hand and gently drew the back of his knuckles against my cheek.
His fingers were cool but surprisingly rough.
“Tell me, Miss Damona, am I so hideous, so terrifying you refuse to work with me even to save yourself?”
Even with him so close, he didn’t push, didn’t try to press himself against me in a way I would not welcome.
But his presence overwhelmed me in confusing ways.
He was beautiful, yet horrifying, and I could feel the frustration he tried to keep banked.
Beckett was a problem he couldn’t fix without help and it enraged him he had to ask me.
He wasn’t as large as the Shifter King, but in no way did it diminish him. His arms were corded with muscle, his forearm flexing as he held me in place.
I tried to jerk away, only for Alric’s hand to tighten in warning.
“Do you really think you have a choice, Alex?” he murmured as he leaned closer. His cool breath brushed my cheek. “Relent now and I will treat you like a princess.”
I raised the flower pin and stabbed the Vampire Prime through the heart.