Heart of Vengeance (Alice Worth #6) - Lisa Edmonds Page 0,27

his arms around me. He stayed where he was because he didn’t know whether his touch would be welcome in the wake of his admission. That was fine with me, because I didn’t want comfort right now. I needed space, and to finish this thing with Charles, once and for all.

“Alice—” Charles began.

“No.” My voice was quiet. “What you did was the worst and cruelest thing anyone has ever done to me, and there is a hell of a lot of competition in that category. My free will is the most important thing I have. It’s the only reason I’m alive and not in chains, and you knew that.”

His eyes blazed. “My honesty has meant nothing to you?”

He just didn’t get it. He never would.

“You don’t get a medal for doing the bare minimum, Charles—especially when you only did so because you had no other choice.” I headed for the door of the office. “And no, it doesn’t.”

It didn’t escape my notice that nowhere in all those pretty words had there been any facsimile of an apology. If he had apologized, it wouldn’t have changed how I felt, but it might have made a difference. Then again, if I’d learned anything from years of working with vampires, it was that they seldom if ever felt the need to apologize for anything.

“Alice, a moment, please.” Suddenly, Charles was in front of me, in one of those uncanny flashes of movement vampires could do when they didn’t care about appearing human.

He grasped my hand. You will regret choosing the wolf, he said in my head, his voice grim. The sorcerer’s power has changed him. He is not the man you knew.

Magic blazed from my other hand, forming a black-edged blade. I slashed at his throat, but he released me and moved like lightning to avoid the deadly edge.

“Don’t ever touch me again,” I warned him. “The next time, I won’t miss.”

Sean joined us by the office door. “The next time you touch her without her permission, she won’t have to lift a finger,” he said, his voice cold. “It will be me who kills you, and I won’t make it as quick and painless as cutting off your head.”

Charles’s eyes met mine. In them, I read a message: I warned you. He has changed.

“You might be right, but I’ve changed too,” I said aloud. I lifted my hand to show him the magic blade on my fingertips and the rainbow spiral of magic down my arm. I let my wolf raise her head and stare out through my eyes, turning my vision gold. She growled, and the sound rumbled in my chest. “You’ll never play me for a fool ever again, Charles. Not ever again.”

My wolf snapped her teeth at him. He recoiled.

I turned to Sean. “You two can work out the particulars for the restitution. I’m going to Northbourne. I’ll talk to you when I get home.”

I turned on my heel and walked out.

5

On my way to Northbourne, I summoned Malcolm, who was spending his evening with Liam at Moses’s haunted mansion. I wanted backup for my meeting with Valas.

I gave the ghost’s trace in my mind two gentle tugs, a signal I needed him to jump to me but it wasn’t an emergency. About a minute later, the blue crystal on my new bracelet buzzed. I touched it. “Release.”

Malcolm appeared in the passenger seat area. He took one look at my face and flitted in place. “What the hell happened at your meeting with Vaughan?” he demanded. “You look mad enough to knock a satellite out of orbit with your glare alone. Did he deny he’s been messing with your head?”

I flexed my aching fingers, loosening my white-knuckled grip on the steering wheel. “At first he denied it, of course. Then he admitted that’s exactly what he’s been doing, and Valas knew and approved of it. And he knew there was no weapons deal at the mansion that night, but he lied to me so we’d walk into Moses’s trap.”

Malcolm let out a string of creative expletives. My ghost didn’t swear much, but when he did, he could scandalize a sailor.

But when I told him what Sean had said about having once wanted to turn a mage to be his mate, Malcolm was silent for a long time.

“Are you okay?” he asked finally, then snorted. “That’s a dumb question; of course you aren’t okay. Are you going to be okay?”

“About what Sean told me, yes, eventually. I obviously wish he’d