happen. I would make a list and sort through all the issues.
“So the queen is not as placid as she seems,” a silky voice said.
I turned to watch Alexander Sharpe peel away from the shadows, his long limbs moving with predatory grace. He wore all black—black slacks and a black collared shirt and loafers. The only other thing he wore was a gold ring that I didn’t remember him wearing before. Unlike the rest of the group, he didn’t bother with a jacket. He either didn’t feel the cold at all or perhaps he preferred it.
I didn’t like the fact that he’d been listening in to my conversation with Lily. If she was an ally then Alexander definitely qualified as a foe. He would use any information he had on me to leverage his position with Danny. “I don’t think that’s any of your concern.”
“Oh, I think the fact that the Queen of all Vampire is considering time travel concerns all of us.” Alexander moved in and took Lily’s seat. “Though I should warn you I don’t think that’s going to turn out the way you think it will.”
“Because Lily’s lying to me?” I knew she wasn’t, but I was interested in seeing what Alexander would say.
“Because our fair Lily is holding on to hope with both hands. She lost her precious sister, and you suggested a way to get her back.” He tsked my way. “I’m surprised with you, Queen Zoey. I rather thought you were all about kindness. Giving her false hope isn’t well done of you.”
It was time to go to bed. Long past. I stood. “Good night, Alexander.”
“Wait, my queen.” His voice had gone softer. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you. I also wasn’t hanging about eavesdropping on purpose. I hadn’t had the chance to express my true joy at seeing you again.”
I felt my brow arch. “That’s good to hear.”
“But you don’t believe it?”
“I know you, Alexander. I trust you as long as you believe you’re on the winning side. If you decide Myrddin is the better bet, you’ll go with him.” He’d been an ally of sorts in our war with the old Council, but I’d never truly trusted him.
“You don’t think a man can change?”
“I don’t think you’re a man at all. I don’t think you were a man even when you were human. I think you were born a predator and you’ll die one.”
His dark gaze turned thoughtful. “Perhaps. I’ve had a long time to reflect on my existence. Both the one today and my human life. I always find it fascinating how humans study serial killers. As if they can find answers in the past, some point in the killer’s life when a trigger was pulled and they became deadly.”
“Sometimes there was a trigger.”
Alexander shrugged off my assertion. “And sometimes an apex predator is required by nature to thin the herd, so to speak. There was no one event that set me off. I had a perfectly lovely childhood. I had a mother and father who cared about me, a sibling who was kind. My father was what you would call a doctor, and we had a comfortable existence.”
“So how did you end up killing prostitutes and terrorizing London?” I knew I shouldn’t encourage him, but I wanted to know the answer.
His lips curved up in a smile that held no humor. I swear in the light from the fire, I could see a hint of fangs, and his smile looked too large, like his mouth could open far more than it should. Like he could swallow the world if he wanted. “Because I was born to. Because despite my ideal circumstances, I needed more than warm food and Mummy’s love. I was only six when something deep inside me led me to slice open the local vermin to see what was underneath their skin. I looked normal from the outside. I married, you know.”
Despite the fact that I knew I should follow my first instincts and walk away, I found myself sitting again. “No. I didn’t know that.”
He nodded, his left hand playing with the ring he wore on his right ring finger. “Yes, I was. At the ripe old age of seventeen. She was a slip of a girl. Good family, of course.”
Not a smart family. They’d married their daughter to a monster. “Did you kill her?”
“Heavens, no. Why would I ever fuck where I ate? I think she had her suspicions, but she was a devout