7. Julian #2
He gives me a sharp look. I shiver, suddenly not so sure I should be arguing with him. But I can’t let him sideline me. This is about my father. I need to find out what happened and who is responsible.
Isidoro spins around, moving faster than my eyes can keep up with. I find myself with my back pressed against the wall and both hands pinned above my head. His face leans in close to mine, too close, as the celebration carries on unaware of my predicament.
“You got what you wanted.” His nostrils flare and he sucks in air through them. “You tricked me. For that alone I should cage you.”
I push off the wall as much as I can, putting us even closer to each other. “You would’ve done the same.”
He rubs my left wrist, then the right, sending tingling heat through me. “I don’t need you. I have Ria, and she seems caught up to your father’s demise.”
I grit my teeth. I don’t know how she figured it out, I made sure only the investigation team knew. And I’ve not heard anything about them since my capture, so they’re probably in hiding, trying to avoid capture by Isidoro’s ruthless raids.
Still. I look him square in the eyes, using all of my willpower not to cower under his intense scrutiny even as my knees shake. It’s not fear per se, it’s something else, more dangerous and scarier, which I can’t let myself examine too close.
“It doesn’t matter. Even with her help, you won’t get anywhere. She doesn’t know what I know. She wasn’t there. If you want to solve this, you need me.”
He squints, suspicious. “So this is still not everything. There’s more you’re hiding. What—”
“Let’s make a deal,” I cut in, returning his scowl.
“Another one?” He lifts an eyebrow, clearly intrigued, but quickly composes his expression back to that authoritarian disapproval.
Ha, too late. “Yes. Or call it an extra clause to our existing one. Whatever floats your boat.”
“Enough with the nonsense. Tell me everything you know right now, or I swear on my father’s grave, I will send you back to Mexico tonight.”
I yank, attempting to slip free, but his hold is just too unforgiving. For a man who’s leaner than me, he’s impossible to overpower. “Do I get to take Mary Eli?”
“Julian,” he growls in warning.
Fuck, teasing him is so satisfying. But I fear I’m skirting along the limits of his patience, so perhaps it’s not a smart idea to continue.
“Okay, just hear me out. I promise I’m not trying to trick you.
This time.” He cocks his head for me to go on, but I get the feeling that all he wants to do is roll his eyes and strangle me.
“Let me stay here and help you. Just until we figure out what happened to my father. That’s all I’m asking.
I’ll tell you everything I know, share all my findings and evidence.
In exchange, you can parade me around or whatever, and tell everyone you killed my father.
That should discourage anyone from digging, and it will keep the other clans occupied.
I promise I will back you up, and I can even cry a little in public if you want. No one will dare get in your way.”
I hold my breath and wait, my body stiff with anticipation.
He will agree, he has to. Fessing up about my father’s murder was only part of it.
His death is more than just a homicide, it’s a precedent.
One that hasn’t been possible for over three hundred years because Andras Corvath made sure of it.
No vampire stronger than him was allowed to live, no human went unvetted, no supernatural could touch him.
I know that. Isidoro knows that. So then, he must be asking himself the same thing I am.
Who killed Andras and how, when for all intents and purposes, it should have been impossible?
For another minute, I simmer under his unforgiving focus.
My every sense is on edge, every nerve-ending tuned to him.
His scent surrounds me, a cage I can’t escape.
His touch not only keeps me trapped, it burns and twists me on the inside.
My body is a conduit to his thoughts as they are born and die inside his mind.
Shit, what will he do? I need to be part of this, I need to find out what happened to my father. I am the only one who can, I have the only clue.
“You keep surprising me, Julian. Offering to credit me with your father’s death to silence any rumors…” His leg slides between mine, forcing them apart. Pleasure stabs me with a million blades as his thigh brushes against my cock, stirring it to life. “Perhaps you are a lot more cunning than him.”
Is that a compliment? Or an insult?
His words catch me off-guard, so different from the scolding or attempt on my life that I expected. His heat flows into me from where we are touching, assaulting me with need. I feel like I am drowning, my blood pulsating in a way I can’t fight, demanding things I shouldn’t want.
Isidoro’s incisors make an appearance, his tongue swiping over them and his lips. It leaves a shiny wet trail that I clock in immediately. My eyes are drawn to his mouth against my will, my mind struggling to control the impulses of my body.