Chapter Twenty
Mateo
Smiles That Know Too Much
Harlow eats her meal in silence after Aziel leaves. I can feel the nervous energy pour off her in waves, but she doesn’t say a word. I want to ask her what she is thinking, but I know she will tell me once she is ready.
When she is done, we head back to my quarters, and I leave her sitting on the bed. I shower quickly and dress in my tactical gear. Strapping blades to my thighs, I hear a soft sigh escape from my consort, drawing my gaze.
“I don’t want you to go,” she says softly.
I stride to the bed. Cradling her face in my palms, I kiss her deeply before resting my forehead against hers.
“I know, mi alma,” I reply. “But this is how I keep you safe. Once Noah is gone, we can rest easy.”
“You mean, until the next one comes for blood.”
“There will always be danger. There will always be someone who wants to kill us because they fear us and don’t understand us. But right now, Noah is the problem, and I have the opportunity to end this.”
She nods. “I understand what you’re saying, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.”
I kiss her quickly before I return to the cabinet that holds my weaponry. What I wasn’t expecting was for her arms to wrap around me from behind. She rests her head between my shoulder blades as she whispers.
“If you die, I am going to be very pissed off.”
Using my advanced speed, I turn and pin her against the nearest wall.
“I’m not going to die,” I murmur, kissing down the column of her neck. “I am going to kill the monster who wants to harm my consort, come home, and spend the next week making sure you know who you belong to.”
She mewls. “You should remind me before you leave.”
I chuckle, pushing my hand beneath the stolen shirt she is wearing. I cup her breast, running the pad of my thumb over her nipple. “I don’t have the time to do this properly.”
She huffs. “You’re hundreds of years old, Mateo. Do you not know what a quickie is?”
In an instant, I have her flipped around to face the wall with her hands splayed against the surface. I quickly push the oversized brief down her legs and expose her rounded ass to my gaze.
“Oh, I am well aware, my consort. I just prefer to take my time.”
She wiggles her ass as she looks at me over her shoulder. “You can take your time when you come back to me, vampire. Right now, I need a reminder.”
I don’t argue, only free my already raging erection from its confines. Swiping my finger through her sex, I test her readiness to find her dripping. I don’t hesitate. I take her hips in a brutal grip and enter her with one smooth stroke.
In the back of my mind, I know she must be sensitive, but I can’t stop.
“Fuck! You feel so good, Harlow,” she mutters incoherently as I thrust harshly into her tight pussy. “You take my cock so well.”
“Please,” she begs with a moan.
“I know what you need, mi alma.”
“Yes!” she hisses as I thrust even harder.
I can feel the walls of her channel flutter around my cock, and I know it won’t take much more to push her over the edge. Fisting her hair in one hand, I pull her head back and to the side, exposing her throat before I sink my fangs into her flesh.
The moment I bite her, she screams, long and loud, as her orgasm explodes through her. I feel her pleasure through the bond that pulses between us, and my own orgasm crests and bursts forth. Pleasure draws us both under as we stay locked in bliss.
“My legs are Jell-O,” she whispers.
I can’t help but chuckle as I slip free from her heat, scoop her into my arms, and carry her back to the bed.
“I’ll take the compliment.”
She smiles softly, but already she is drifting off to sleep.
Tucking the covers around her, I place a soft kiss on her forehead before righting my clothes and gathering my weapons.
Before I close the door, I take one last look at my consort and know that I will do everything I need to get back to her. No matter what.
****
The night tastes like iron.
Aziel’s voice still echoes in my skull as we ride out, ‘We found where Noah ran to lick his wounds ... We’re taking him off the board tonight.’
I should be focused, locked in, ready to gut the bastard who’d stalked my Harlow like prey. But the bond pulses warm and new under my skin, a second heartbeat that isn’t mine. It is hers.
Every time the wind shifts, I swear I catch the faintest brush of her emotions, drowsy contentment, the lingering ache from what we’d done, the softness of trust she never should’ve given to a monster like me.
Leaving her asleep in my bed nearly broke something inside me. Turning away from her felt like tearing out a piece of myself. But this needs to end. Noah needs to end.
The derelict church stands at the edge of the old highway, a dark silhouette against the moon. Stone walls pitted by time, the roof sagging but still clinging to its bones. Once, beautifully stained glass shattered into jagged teeth.
And the crucifix, still nailed above the door, hangs sideways like it has given up.
“Why the hell is he hiding here?” Rowan mutters, peeling off his helmet.
Aziel answers with a shake of his head, “Because he thinks he’s ironic.”
I push the door open, the hinges shrieking like a wounded animal.
The smell hits first—wet stone, rotting wood, and the faintest trace of blood old enough to crust into the cracks. My fangs push against my gums. My instincts sharpening to a blade edge.
Noah is here. And he’s been waiting.
We step inside as one, boots echoing across the broken tiles while the shadows twist and bend wrong around the edges of my vision. The ghosts are the worst. I can’t see them the way Harlow can, but I feel the ripple of cold that always follows them, the way the air thickens and turns viscous.
This place isn’t just haunted. It’s infected by the dead that cling to Noah.
Aziel signals left while Rowan breaks off to the right. I stalk straight down the center aisle toward the altar.
A voice drifts from the dark, raising the hairs on the back of my neck. “You came alone.”
I don’t flinch. “Not quite.”
He steps into the fractured light spilling through the broken stained glass still clinging to the window frame. I take in his lean, pale form. There is blood drying on the corner of his mouth. He is a man half-dead but propelled by something uglier than survival.
His eyes land on me with something close to pity.
“Of all the monsters she could’ve been tied to...” he whispers hoarsely. “She ends up with you.”
My jaw tightens. “Mention my consort again, and I will rip your fucking tongue out.”
He smiles. Slow, cold, and unhinged. “I know more about her than you do.”
My pulse thunders in my ears. “You know nothing about Harlow.”
“Oh?” Noah tilts his head, assessing me. “But I knew her parents.”
The world stands still. Rowan’s low curse comes from behind me as Aziel stiffens at my side. But Noah only watches me, savoring the moment he pierced a hole straight through my chest.
“Liar,” I growl.
He steps closer, dragging a hand over one of the broken pews. “They weren’t random. They weren’t human, either—not fully. Witch blood. Old blood. Tainted with what your Council fears and worships in equal measure.”
The world around me narrows.
“Her parents were hunted,” Noah continued. “Eliminated by the Blood Council. Because they wouldn’t hand her over.”
A sharp, electric pain cuts across my ribs as Harlow stirs through the bond.
She isn’t awake, not yet. But something in her soul senses this conversation and the distress it is causing me. Fear and confusion ripple through us both.
My voice comes out low and deadly. “Why would the Council want a child?”
Noah laughs softly. “Because she was showing signs even then.” He taps his temple. “The gift. The visions. The ghosts whispering to her. Harlow was born marked.”
My stomach twists at each word that falls from his lips. Truth or manipulation - my body and mind can’t tell the difference.
I step forward. “Why hide in a church?” I change the subject as my mind reels, trying to separate the truth from the lies.
“Because it’s where my sister died,” Noah says simply. “And I’m sentimental.”
I freeze.
“Noah, stop...” Aziel commands, but Noah ignores him.
“Have you ever wondered why she was raised in that sweet little institution?” he asks.
“Did you think it was random? Fate? Bad luck?” He shakes his head.
“The Blood Council funded it. Operated it. Staffed it. They were watching her. Studying her. Waiting for the moment she’d be ripe enough to harvest.”
My vision darkens at the edges as rage surges through my body, hot and feral. “You’re lying.”
“If only,” Noah breathes out. “But you know I’m not. You’ve felt it, haven’t you? How wrong her memories feel. How the gaps don’t make sense. How she flinches at shadows she can’t name.”
He leans forward, his voice dropping into a whisper that scrapes at my skull. “Harlow was never supposed to be free.”
I lunge, but Aziel grabs my shoulder. “Mateo, no!”
Noah raises his hands mockingly. “Ah. Temper, temper. Just like the coven that killed my sister.”
I stop mid-stride, my breathing fractured. “What did you just say?”
Before he can answer, the church door slams open behind us. The wind howls in, the candles flickering violently. I am momentarily distracted, and Noah uses the opportunity to his advantage.
He bolts toward the side corridor with a speed that is more than just human, slipping through the fallen beams and broken plaster.
I tear free from Aziel’s grip. “Don’t let him get away!”
Rowan shoots after him, but the shadows have already swallowed Noah whole.
I sprint down the aisle, leaping over debris, crashing into the narrow passage he’d vanished into, only to hit a wall of ice-cold darkness. The air vibrates with ghostly whispers. It feels wrong and distorted. Echoing in a dozen unfamiliar voices.
This is Harlow’s ‘gift’ manifesting through the bond. I finally understand what she has been living with her entire life.
I hear a voice, soft as a breath against my ear, ‘Don’t believe him.’
A ghost, the voice familiar but not at the same time. The voice isn’t physical, like the wind fading in the background.
‘Mateo, please... Don’t believe him.’ It hits me then, my sister.
I stumble in the dark corridor as the truth pummels me. She was killed a lifetime ago, and I never dealt with the loss. But now she is here, beside me, talking to me, and it almost brings me to my knees.
‘He is distorting the truth to suit his narrative.’
I step out of the church in the forest, and somewhere in the darkness, Noah laughs cruelly.