Chapter 16
Francesca, Lady Seagrave, eyed the big vampire who prowled around the refuge she and Baron had created together and felt the hatred sizzling in her blood along with the silver that burned like acid.
He was lost in the recording he listened to on her wireless headphones, his face a mask that revealed none of his thoughts.
But he had to hear what she’d heard through the bugs she’d placed in his hotel room.
The tenderness and affection that had developed between him and his mortal lover were evident in every word they spoke to each other, every breathless cry and pleasured moan.
It would wound him terribly when he lost her, perhaps even break him, considering how long he’d gone without anyone being necessary to him.
The crash of something breakable shattering on the floor sent a jolt through her.
There were others in her home; two men Raze had called to assist him.
They were presently rifling through her things, watching the videos she’d made of certain memorable kills.
They watched and listened with such horror as if it was a surprise that a vampire should hunt prey.
That’s what was fundamentally wrong with those in power of the vampire nation—they acted like animal rights activists who advocated vegetarianism, an impossible stance when ruling those who could be nothing but carnivores.
Mortals were food and sport. It was a joke that vampires should hide their existence and scrape for scraps to eat when there was so much to be had.
The Sentinels were powerful, but Syre had never once attempted to break out of their rigid boundaries.
Who knew what they could accomplish? She and Baron envisioned a world in which vampires ruled as they should.
She hadn’t Changed to live like this. What was the point of having so much power if you never wielded it?
Raze yanked the headset off his ears and shot daggers into her with his gaze.
Her mouth curved. “It’s my right to take her from you. Baron gave her to you as surely as if he’d introduced you. You wouldn’t have been in Chicago to meet her if not for us.”
“Were you planning on going through my entire black book?” he shot back. “Taking out every person I’ve fucked?”
“Oh no,” she crooned, nursing her vicious fury like a babe at her breast. “She’s special to you, not like the others.
Otherwise, you wouldn’t have been at her place this morning.
You would’ve taken what you wanted and left before sunrise.
I miscalculated how quickly and deeply you fell for her, but it doesn’t matter.
Whether or not it’s my hand that kills her, she’ll die.
You have so many enemies, Raze. She won’t last a minute in the grand scheme of things. ”
Francesca had to give him credit; his face and body language gave nothing away. But she knew the impact of her words. Tossing her head back, she laughed.
“You’re a crazy bitch,” he said grimly. “I’m just wondering if you were always psychotic or the Change warped your brain.”
“I Changed for him. We Changed for each other, so we’d always be together, and you’ve taken him from me.
And for what? You’re as much of a Sentinel pet as the lycans.
Now you’ll lose something irreplaceable.
You’ve finally found what you’ve been missing, and it’s about to be ripped from you.
I hope you’ll see what’s done to her. I hope you watch while she’s cut, torn, and broken. I hope her screams stay in your head—”
She registered the gun in his hand in a split second. And then there was nothing.