Succubus Unchained - Heather Long Page 0,44

wrong, but better to stare at it than him.

“Very,” he murmured, his voice dark like it had been dipped in chocolate and danger. He stroked his hands up and down my arms. “Tell me why you are angry. You abandoned the party and fled before you could be presented. I understand you wanted to insult me. Message delivered. I forgive you…”

The acid eating away at my insides caught fire, and I wrenched myself out of his grip. Well, to be honest, I did try to wrench myself out of his grip. One of the things I’d learned over the last few weeks of freedom was that my strength and speed had increased infinitely. So not only did I know how to fight, I could seriously back it up.

Score one point for being a badass.

Didn’t matter a damn against any one of them. They were faster. They were stronger. It sucked.

“You forgive me.” While I didn’t growl, I did grit out each word through clenched teeth.

“Yes,” Asshole told me. Definitely Asshole. So much Asshole. “You are still acclimatizing, so running is normal. But it isn’t safe for you yet.”

“I was doing fine.”

I was the one who took out the daeva. I was also the one who took out the assholes in the alley. If Fin hadn’t shown up with the vampire posse on his ass, I would have been fine at the club. I had friends.

Fine, I had one friend. The point was, I didn’t need them.

“Dallas’ court is now a blood-soaked massacre.”

“That’s not on me.” I’d be fucked before I let him pin the blame on me.

“No,” Asshole agreed with me. “Not at all. Fin has cleaned house. After their attack at the club, he followed them back. Cleared the whole nest. Then brought me David.”

Well, bully for Fin.

“He also told me you were there and fled, albeit far too swiftly for him to follow or track.”

“So you assumed I’d taken her.” Rogue’s quiet words reminded me he was still there. With the iron-walled Asshole at my back, I didn’t dare turn to look at my Viking elf. The curl of disappointment at his betrayal eased. He didn’t sound any happier about Asshole’s presence than I was.

“Correctly presumed.” Asshole stated it as a fact without any heat in his voice. “You facilitated her initial journey. It did not require a great deal of consideration to wonder if you participated in the second.”

“He didn’t know Fin had found me.”

That much I was certain of.

“Fin didn’t tell you he found me immediately, either.”

Asshole stilled. “Hellion, what are you afraid of?”

Afraid? “Nothing.” I pulled at the grip he had on my arms, and this time at least, he released me. Taking three fast steps away, I pivoted to face him. Rogue stood a couple of feet to his right and back. His expression was far more remote, and his eyes glacial. They weren’t pinned on me, but on Asshole.

Trouble in paradise?

“Then what is the problem?” Asshole dragged my attention back to him, and I curled my lip.

“You.”

That wasn’t quite what I meant to say, but it’s what came out. The word flew like a bullet fired from a gun, and it struck him at velocity.

His dark brows gathered together, and he canted his head. I imagined that the look he wore was the same one he’d had when he’d first seen Maddox stranded and wounded by a spear—calculating and cold.

He’s one of the seven.

Yeah, I didn’t give a fuck. Vampires at this point gave me hives, and I wasn’t going to be impressed by their myths, their legends, or their boogeymen.

If he didn’t like it, he could just…

I’d been about to say bite me, but I wasn’t issuing that invitation.

“How have I offended you?” What the hell? Why did he sound genuinely puzzled?

“Would you like me to go alphabetically or in order of occurrence?”

The placid, unreadable expression rippled as he lifted his brows. “In whatever order pleases you, Hellion. I have indulged this need to run long enough. It is not safe for you to be in the open.”

Before I could spit back about his fucking indulgences, Rogue said, “We’re not in the open here.”

“You have no defenses here.” Asshole cut a look at him.

“Maybe because he’s not a prima donna with a god complex.” My teeth clicked together as I snapped at him.

“The defense is no one knows of this location, though clearly I must rethink that if you found it so easily.”

Asshole sighed. Genuinely exhaled a long, almost aggrieved breath. “So