Chapter 6 Blaise
What was Roman thinking by bringing her here? This woman who tried to steal from us and who was now quickly weaving her way into our little world.
Katarina needed to go.
I didn’t care if my heart was telling me something else.
I watched Dorian and Aiden fawn all over her since the moment we found her stealing that damn necklace, and now they were making total fools of themselves in the place that was supposed to be our sanctuary.
This was our home. Our safe place where we didn’t have to hide what we were and where we didn’t have to always be in control.
It wasn’t a place for women.
We’d all agreed on that a long time ago.
My breath hitched when I accidentally touched Katarina’s foot underneath the table and she turned her sparkling green eyes my way.
She’d done an excellent job on her makeup, and I would be lying if I said I didn’t find her extremely attractive and extremely fuckable.
Her smile. Her hair. The way she made a point of making eye contact with everyone in the room so we all felt like we deserved her attention…
all of it was messing with my head so much that I was starting to lose my appetite.
“You doing okay, big guy?” Pasha nudged my shoulder and whispered the question to me, lips hidden by the wine glass he held in front of his face.
Pasha was a good man. He may be here as our resident computer genius and Roman’s main source of blood, but I liked Pasha and I felt confident in calling us friends. “I’m good,” I grumbled, glaring across the table as Dorian played with his crabs.
“Okay,” Pasha said, turning his attention back to something Roman said to him.
Katarina laughed and the sound pierced my blackened heart. No fucking way. Nope, she was not going to break through this wall I spent decades building around myself. She was a human. A petty thief. And most importantly, she was our prisoner.
“So, Katarina,” I ask sharply. “Tell us how you got into the business.”
Everyone shut their mouths and stopped moving. Well, everyone except for Dorian who glared at me with his yellowish and wolfish eyes.
“The business?” Katarina asked.
“How did you become a thief?” I snapped.
“Oh.”
The little “O” she formed with her pursed lips smacked my heart with another jolt of pleasure.
I clenched the fork in my hand and discretely pulled it down from view.
With a quick stab to the thigh, the pain from the fork piercing my skin sent all feelings of lust back where they belonged.
Pasha shifted uncomfortably in his chair beside me.
He didn’t like watching me punish myself, but he knew better than to say a word about it to me.
“I…uh.” Katarina turned to face Roman and asked, “Do I have to answer that?”
Roman chuckled as the rest of us watched. “Why are you asking me? Don’t you want to share your story with us?” His dark voice trickled through the room like smoke from a snuffed candle, giving even me a feeling like I should tell him all my secrets.
There was definitely a hint of compulsion in his words.
Roman wanted to know the story of Katarina just as much as I did.
I gave my friend a quick nod before glaring at Aiden who was now touching his thumb to every finger and putting out a small flame on each one. Katarina didn’t see him do it, but I knew it was a warning from the fire fae.
And I honestly didn’t give a shit.
Katarina used her napkin to wipe at her mouth before setting it in her lap and looking at me and Roman. “Well, the truth is, I was always a thief.”
“Explain,” I demanded, earning me another round of scowls from the two men flanking our prisoner.
“I was an orphan,” she started. “I lost my mom when I was five and I never knew who my father was. When my mom died, there was no one to take me in, so I became a warden of the state.” As she took a sip of wine, Roman and I exchanged a knowing glance.
The coven liked preying on those who wouldn’t be missed.
“I had no money, so when I was ten, I started perfecting the art of pickpocketing.” She smiled. “I was good, too. No one ever suspected me.”
“I bet,” Aiden said. “A beautiful little redheaded girl could easily dazzle the best of them.”
Katarina blushed and I stabbed the fork into my leg again to stop my lustful thoughts from wondering what it would take to make her blush like that for me.
With a laugh, Katarina added, “It was true that no one bothered to consider I could be the reason for their missing wallet.” Pausing a moment to take another drink, her eyes met mine. “By the time I was thirteen, I was getting paid to steal.”
“Who hired you?” Pasha asked.
“At first, just some of the people I met in foster care. The parents or the older kids…they always wanted things in exchange for taking care of me.”
Dorian let out a low growl, pressing his body possessively against Katarina’s. She giggled as she pressed her hand on his arm. “Not like that, Dorian. They wanted stuff to sell, and I was quick with my hands.”
This time, the rumble came from my chest and Roman snapped his head in my direction.
I lowered my gaze to the table, not wanting to give him any hint as to what was racing through my thoughts.
I forced the idea of Katarina’s hands doing…
things to the back of my mind and relished in the pain of another stab of the fork.
Pasha winced beside me as though he could feel the sharp sting of agony himself.
“And the coven?” Roman finally asked once he tore his gaze from me. “How did you end up working for them.”
Katarina’s heartbeat increased and her cheeks flushed red again. “They…uh. They helped me out of a situation.”
“Roman, can’t we just enjoy our dinner without cross-examining our guest?” Aiden asked.
Roman dabbed the napkin against his lips and pushed Pasha’s hand off his arm when the man tried to give him a subtle warning. “Katarina needs to answer,” he snapped.
“Roman—” Dorian tried to intervene but Roman held up his hand.
“She will answer,” the old vampire said, locking Katarina’s gaze with his and forcing his compulsion on her. Both Dorian and Aiden made a move to stand, but I cleared my throat in warning. Now was not the time to disobey Roman. As they reluctantly settled into their chairs, Roman continued.
“Tell us, Katarina,” he said her name with a hint of the Eastern European that he once was. “What did the coven help you with?”
She blinked several times, still staring at Roman. “I killed someone,” she whispered.
“What?” Aiden shrieked. He threw a glare at Roman. “Please stop. Don’t make her do this.”
“We need to know what we are dealing with,” Roman calmly replied. “We need to know why the coven is so interested in her.”
“Why?” Aiden shouted, getting a little too mouthy for my liking. “So you can find yet another thing to fight with them about, Roman? It’s all you do…pick fights with the people who pose a threat.”
“It’s how we survive in this world,” I snarled at the insolent man. “You would be wise to remember that.”
Aiden snapped his glare in my direction. “Katarina isn’t our enemy, half-breed.”
“Call me that again and I will—”
“Enough!” Roman’s shout filled the room with power, making all of us obey. Even Grim lowered himself to the ground, letting out a little whine. Roman eventually sighed and set his napkin in his lap. “Continue, Katarina. Who did you kill?”
“His name was Alex,” she replied like an obedient robot.
“When did this happen?” Roman continued to pry.
“When I was eighteen.”
“How did you kill him?”
“I don’t know.” Her eyes filled with tears, and I hated how my heart skipped when I noticed it.
“What happened?” Roman narrowed his eyes at Dorian who looked ready to jump up and steal her away from us. A part of me sympathized with him.
“I don’t know,” she repeated.
“Katarina, you must tell me the truth.”
“Roman, please,” Aiden begged. “Can’t you see this is a memory she doesn’t want to share?”
Grim whined again but wisely stayed on the floor.
Dorian shifted in his seat, tossing back the rest of his wine and grinding his jaw together in anger.
Jesus, in less than twenty-four hours, this woman had ignited a fire in the wolf and the fae in a way I’d never seen before.
It was clear to me that they were willing to fight for her and protect her…
even if that meant destroying the sanctuary we spent decades building here.
“I don’t know how he died,” Katarina said through her tears. “One minute we were…well, we were having sex and then he just died.”
“Was he old?” Pasha asked quietly. Having shared blood with the vampire gave him the ability to piggyback off Roman’s compulsion. It was a trait new to our group and I was still doing some research into how it worked exactly
Katarina wrinkled her face in disgust. “No, he was my age. Another orphan.”
“And he just dropped dead?” Roman continued pressing.
“Yes. Well, not suddenly. It was like his heart gave out or something. We finished, you know, having sex, and then he collapsed. I tried to revive him, but he was dead.”
Dorian and Aiden shared a look I couldn’t interpret. Were they scared of her or were they intrigued? I was betting on the latter.
Roman cleared his throat in warning to the two men. “So how did the coven find out?”
“Ramona found us. She’d stopped by to ask for a favor and instead, I ended up owing her.” Katarina dropped her gaze and took another sip of wine. It gave all of us a chance to assess the situation without saying a word to each other.
That seemed a tad too convenient that one of the witches happened to stop by right after Katarina got herself into a jam. I knew Roman and the others were thinking the same.
“They covered it up?”
Katarina swallowed hard and then nodded. “They covered it up. Got rid of the body. Destroyed any proof that Alex was ever alive. And then they told me I needed to work for them until I paid off my debt.”
Roman ground his jaw together. “For how long?”
“Seven years.” A faint smile passed over her lips. “Stealing that necklace was the last job I needed to do.”
And now she was indebted to Roman.
It was a truth that wove its way under my skin and inched toward my dead heart. Trading one debt for another—something I knew all too well.
“Okay, Roman,” Aiden said, rubbing his hand over Katarina’s back. “I think that’s enough for now.”
Roman stared down the fae for several moments.
The two of them had always had a love-hate relationship.
Aiden joined our team in the early years, having no other choice but to hide in the human world.
He’d done something very bad, just like Katarina.
Only our little thief didn’t have the luxury of crossing into another realm and creating a new life for herself.
The searing heat of the fork prongs slamming into my thigh forced me to stop thinking about her as a victim. I needed to stop thinking about her…period.
Roman finally nodded his head and released Katarina from his hold. She sucked in a deep breath and looked around the room with a smirk on her face. “Jesus, who died?” She giggled at her joke and Dorian quickly did his best to move the situation forward.
“No one died, Kitty Cat. We all just ate too much.”
Pasha offered Katarina a warm smile as he pushed the food around on his plate.
Roman didn’t miss how uncomfortable the man was and I turned my gaze away when Roman gently laid his hand on Pasha’s arm.
The two of them were still a mystery to me.
I mean, sure, I knew what happened behind closed doors, but Roman didn’t usually keep his blood whores so close.
In fact, Pasha was the only one Roman fed on who was also allowed to roam the house freely and even take a paycheck.
In all our years together, fighting and partying and fucking our way through the city, Pasha had made an impression.
“I think I’d like to go to my room now if that’s okay,” Katarina said quietly, shaking her head to rid it of the cobwebs. It wouldn’t work.
Dorian jumped to his feet. “I’ll take her,” he offered, and Katarina blushed again as he reached for her hand.
“I’ll take her,” Roman commanded instead. “You all meet me in the study in an hour.”
Dorian groaned as Aiden refused to leave Katarina’s side.
Those two were going to get their asses kicked if they didn’t man up real soon.
But when Roman extended his hand to the feisty redhead, and she accepted, the two of them didn’t argue as Roman led her away.
Grim slowly pushed up to standing, stretching and staring at the wolf and the fae, before trotting off behind his girl.
God. It was like she had some magical hold on every single male species on this planet.
“You’re an ass, Blaise,” Dorian spat at me.
“What’s your problem?” I stood, towering over the man even from the other side of the table.
Dorian opened his mouth to say some kind of witty rebuke, but then he sniffed the air and his gaze immediately dropped to the fork still clenched in my hand.
“Never mind,” he said as he shook his head.
“Try not to bleed all over the floor, half-breed.” With that, he turned and stomped out of the room, but not before grabbing another glass of wine and tossing his old one into the fireplace.
I winced at the high-pitched sound of shattering glass on stone.
Aiden shook his head at me like a disappointed parent and strode out of the room too. When I looked down at Pasha, who was still sitting in his spot and playing with the food on his plate, I sighed. “Do you have something insulting to say, too?” I snapped at him.
“No.” He didn’t look at me and the animal hidden deep inside my bones wanted him to give me respect. But the mostly human part of me knew it wasn’t fair to be mad at Pasha. He didn’t do anything wrong.
“I’ll see you in an hour,” I muttered, downing my wine and tossing the bloody fork onto the table. The wounds in my thigh were already healed, but the never-ending pain in my heart crushed any semblance of compassion I may have for Pasha or Katarina.
I wasn’t supposed to covet anyone like Katarina.
I wasn’t meant to have feelings for her.
And I certainly wasn’t designed to handle the increasingly growing stab of jealousy I felt thinking about the other men having her attention.