wouldn’t even be broaching the topic. To Maddox, Rogue said, “You hate that she fed from me and that she is replete because I made sure to give her enough.”
The dragon still scowled, but the recrimination seemed to turn inward.
Not to leave him out, Rogue switched his attention to Fin. “You resent she already has comfort with him. You want to claim what he’s already found.”
“You’re not wrong,” Fin agreed. “But I can be jealous because I want to know her, too. I’ve dreamt about her for centuries. Unlike the rest of you, I knew she was coming. I never broke faith.”
“Lust-filled dreams about her breasts are not what I would call prophetic,” Maddox stated drily, and Rogue gave a half-laugh.
“Oh, if I’d dreamed about those tits, trust me, I’d have found her a whole lot sooner.” As it was, the little succubus hadn’t even been on his radar until the day she awoke changed. Then the whole world had seemed to ring with her presence. He couldn’t not leave immediately on a quest to find her.
The mental anguish alone would have drawn him like a beacon, but it was the raw and primal fury that kept him on target. He’d arrived a day after the sense of her all but muted. It had only taken him interrogating a half-dozen vampires in Dallas to find out where she’d gone.
He knew the name of her maker. The vampire was in hiding at the moment. When he brought his head above ground, Fin would deliver it to her on a platter. Though in truth, they owed him—it was a bumbling and idiotic attempt on the vampire’s part to try and turn her in the first place.
By all rights, it should have killed her.
Fiona let out a little sigh. “You know, if you want to talk and keep me awake, you could discuss something more interesting than my breasts. Like, why I’m here and what this great plan was that I had to listen to before I could take off?”
With a slow shake of his head, Rogue slid down into the water. “You need more rest.”
The fact that he addressed her directly sent Maddox’s eyebrows skyward, even as Fin raised his own.
“Uh huh,” Fiona elongated the two syllables even as she stretched. The action shifted her away from Maddox and brought her glorious breasts above the water. They really were quite spectacular. While slighter than he generally preferred in his women, Fiona’s curves might also be lacking because of her half-starved state. The denial of her nature and her reliance on a shadow demon meant she might be alive, but she wasn’t as healthy as she could be.
Rogue’s blood had made a great deal of difference.
“Look,” she continued, glancing from Rogue to Fin and finally to Maddox. Fin was almost disappointed he hadn’t rated a longer look. Almost. Though the narrowing of her sleepy eyes gave her a harsher appearance. “We had a deal, right, Mad-Dragon?”
“We did,” Maddox confirmed, not even batting an eyelash at what she called him. “I have not forgotten, Kitten.”
“Good. I’d hate to think of you as an oath breaker. But we’re going to put a little clock on this. I’ve been stuck in a cell for weeks, and this girl has places to go and people to kill. So let’s cut to the chase. Why did you bust me out of that place, and what is it you’re expecting in payment?”
“No payment would ever be asked,” Fin told her smoothly. It had been their privilege to retrieve her, and pleasure. Or at least, it would be to all their pleasure.
“Wasn’t asking you, Astral-Boy,” she retorted, though the flash of her glance in his direction had him sitting up. “Though you are pretty, I will give you that.”
He grinned.
“But I was talking to tall, dark, and ruthless over here.” She jerked her thumb at Maddox.
Rogue chuckled.
“What are you laughing at?” Fin demanded, but the blond lifted his hands, palms out, as if saying not his problem.
With a sigh, Fin focused on Fiona, but she stared at Maddox and his dragon stared back at her.
“You’re a hybrid,” Maddox said finally, almost reluctantly. “You were right when you said vampires cannot turn other supernaturals, right in as much as that’s all current thought holds to it. However, what they know and what is fact are two vastly different things.”
Fiona stared at him for a bit, her lips pursed. Keen intelligence flickered in her eyes as she studied him. “So I’m a