He tried to ignore her, loosening his tie and tossing his jacket onto the bed. He pretended not to notice when the little mouse of a girl hung his jacket in the closet, but then she stepped over to him and finished removing his tie, and he couldn’t ignore her any longer.

“Where is everyone?” he growled the question at her and instantly regretted it. He knew that she had a crush on him. It wasn’t as if she had ever tried to hide it even when Megan had been around. And she hadn’t done anything but try to help since she was assigned to his team years ago back in the eighth grade.

“Watching the house like you told them to,” Stephanie replied timidly, and she scampered back, dropping her gray eyes to the ground. She started to nervously wind her long mouse-brown hair around her finger.

“Right, good,” Cole said hastily and started unbuttoning his dress shirt. He hated the stiff feel of the suit, constricting and confining, and he was dying to get out of his clothes.

“I’m guessing Megan didn’t willingly follow you?” Stephanie asked, her voice squeaking with nerves, and it made his heart twist. He wasn’t supposed to be the one they feared, and he hated himself for letting Megan get under his skin this much. His Dad had warned him not to get attached. Megan was just a tool. A means to an end. But did he listen? Of course not.

“I gave them two days to come to their senses.” He closed the distance between them, and he reached out to caress her cheek. Stephanie flinched at his touch, and it made him feel sick with disgust. He dropped his hand and sighed. “Megs will call. She always comes back.”

“You still love her, don’t you?” she asked. The heartbreak in her voice was unmistakable, splitting through the air like a warm knife through butter. “That’s why we haven’t killed them yet, isn’t it?”

“I don’t love Megan,” Cole said, turning his back on her and pulled off his shirt.

Stephanie laid a warm and incredibly soft hand on his back, sending a tantalizing shiver over his skin. “Cole, Megs is never going to feel that way about you,” she whispered. “She’s tied to him now.”

“I don’t love her,” he shouted, and then, as if he had no control, as if his body was moving on its own, he grabbed Stephanie, pulled her to him, and pressed his lips to hers.

CHAPTER 25

Time stood still. Mitchell stopped his pacing. Angelle stopped fidgeting. Luke and Lola looked as if they had stopped breathing. Everyone was gawking at Eric, wide-eyed and open jawed. Everyone but Amelia.

Amelia narrowed her eyes. Eric was glaring at her, flashing his fangs in a toothy smile. This version of Eric should have been terrifying, but it wasn’t, and she couldn’t figure out why.

Amelia scrutinized him. Scanning his lax but deadly pose. Taking in his rolling muscles, poised for attack. It wasn’t until she met his eyes that she noticed it. Even with the red tint, there was that familiar glint of mischief hovering around the edges.

He’s setting the stage, Amelia realized with a start, and she almost let a nervous laugh burst out when she clued in. She risked a quick peek over her shoulder at Megan, who gave her a tiny little nod, as she stood up and started towards her.

“You want to just give Megan over to the hunters?” Erin asked incredulously. “That’s your big idea?”

“Yeah,” Eric said. He was leaning against the doorframe with his arms folded over his chest, and his eyes were slowly changing from slightly tinted to a muddy red. “Megan doesn’t want to be here. She made that pretty clear last night when she was talking in her sleep about that damn hunter, and we all know Millie has been trying to find a reason to leave since she found out what we are.” His lips turned into a terrifying, snarling kind of grin, and he shot a look of pure hatred at Amelia.

Eric pushed himself off the wall and began to stalk towards her. At the same moment, Megan stepped beside Amelia, taking her hand, and instantly, a steamy heat simmered in her belly.

Amelia’s gut twisted, and beads of sweat began to drip down the back of her neck. Maybe she had read the glint wrong. Maybe he was serious. Because the way Eric was staring at her was starting to make her feel as if she was a juicy steak.

Lola tossed her hands up in annoyance and leaped up from the couch. She stepped in between Eric and Amelia as if she was going to keep them from lashing out at each other. “Hold up,” she said, looking at Eric as if he had lost his mind. “Are you suggesting that we give them the girls because they want to leave?”

“Yup,” Eric said, never breaking his burning gaze from Amelia, but thankfully, he stopped moving.

“Mitchell, do something,” Luke said, exasperated. “We don’t have time for this crap.”

Amelia glanced at Mitchell, and the icy look he gave her confirmed everything she needed to know. She sucked a noisy deep breath and said, “Glad you think it’s a good idea, Eric. ‘Cause Meg and I, well, we were planning on going anyways.”

“You want to go?” Angelle asked. She gave her head a shake as if she was sure she hadn’t heard it right, and she was trying to loosen whatever it was that had clogged up her hearing. She looked lost and confused, and she began fidgeting again, crossing her right leg over the left and then uncrossing them, just to do it all over again.

“Want to?” Amelia said, and she fought not to cringe when she heard the tremor in her voice. Megan squeezed a little tighter, and a soft glow began to surround them. Amelia soaked up the energy, cleared her throat, and summoned up her best Fiona impression. “You seriously have to ask that?”

Amelia’s flippant attitude must have been believable, because Angelle blanched and began stuttering, “But…but…you guys…”

“Don’t look so surprised, Angelle. You knew better than anyone else how much I hate it here. How much I hate him.” Amelia narrowed her eyes to little slits and turned up her nose in Mitchell’s direction. “Did you really think I’d just let this chance pass by?”

Amelia held her breath as she waited for a remark, a grunt, a laugh, anything. Except it never came. To her amazement and her distress, Angelle was rendered speechless by her cold and callous words.

“You bitch,” Erin breathed. “You selfish little bitch.”

That hurt and Amelia’s nerve faltered for about half a second until Mitchell spoke up. “I’ve got a better idea,” he said with a freakishly terrifying—but damn was it sexy—grin. He looked over to Eric. “I think we should just get rid of them ourselves. Why let the hunters have all the fun?” He let his fangs slide down lazily as he spoke.

“You’re right,” Eric said. “The blood supply is getting low again, and I figure it’s their fault Mabel’s dead. No point in wasting any easy food.” He locked Megan into his sights and slowly started to stalk towards them.

Amelia didn’t have time to think. Mitchell was moving in on her, and her family looked so stunned and disbelieving that none of them seemed even able to move. She jerked Megan’s hand and started backing away.

When she backed herself into a corner, Mitchell chuckled. “Amelia, I’m not letting you join them.”

That sound, his deep voice mixed with the smooth chuckle, made her heart jump erratically, and her knees turned into jelly. It called to her, smothered her thoughts with warmth, filled her soul, and in that moment, she hardly noticed his blazing eyes or his razor-sharp teeth. A gentle buzz drifted around her, softly pushing against her limbs, manipulating her body, and as if she had lost all command over her limbs, she released her death grip on Megan’s hand and took a wobbly step towards him.

Someone tugged at her dress. She heard the tear of the fabric, and a frantic scream bounced around her mind begging her to stop, but she couldn’t. The buzzing softened to a sweet musical hum. A tune she had never heard before but yet, it spoke to her, called to her, as if it was a part of her. His song lilted around her, sugary and alluring.

Mitchell smiled and held his hand out to her, and her breath caught in her throat. It was in that moment that Amelia’s brain registered that his eyes were no longer red. They had taken on a milky incandescent hue, and a small voice whispered in her ear, he’s persuading you.

Air hit Amelia’s lungs in gasping and painful breaths. She collapsed to the floor in a heap, and it shuddered underneath her. She scurried back as fast as she could, trying to put distance between them. Megan pulled her up and cut her a frantic look, her brows lifted in confusion and fear, and Amelia could see the violent shiver that prickled over her cousin’s skin as Eric whispered her name.

“What the hell is wrong with you two?” Luke boomed. That’s when Amelia noticed that he was gripping onto Mitchell, and Lola had Eric pinned against the wall. “You can’t kill them!”

Mitchell and Eric both chuckled and exchanged a look. “I should have killed her a long time ago. She’s been nothing but trouble,” Mitchell said nonchalantly, as if he was only talking about the weather.

Amelia’s laugh sounded hollow and empty. “You think you can kill me?” She squared her shoulders and puffed out her chest. Her mind whirled around in circles trying to understand what Mitchell was doing. She tried to look into his mind, but each time she made it in, he physically pushed her out, using her own magic against her, before she could get much of a glimpse. It was when she searched his eyes that she got a hint of something that she thought she understood.

Suddenly a phrase swarmed with her thoughts, buzzing around like a nest of bees. The words just came to her almost as if they had always been there, buried deep within her brain. Energy licked over her body in tantalizing, luminous bursts. “Meg, it’s time,” she said.

Megan laced her fingers through Amelia’s fingers. A jolt of raw energy rushed up Amelia’s arm and traced over her body. She closed her eyes and expelled any doubt that lingered with a puffed breath. She let the power soar through her veins, and for a moment, she focused on it, letting everything else, the voices of her friends, the pull of the bond, Mitchell’s mouth-watering scent, disappear.