Page 74 of Filthy Rich Vampires: For Eternity

I’ll be okay.

From the grim set of his jaw, I knew he was telling himself the same thing. In the end, he only nodded and let me go.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

JULIAN

I wanted to go after her. Every instinct I possessed told me that this was wrong. What if she was walking into a trap? The Council had purposefully snubbed me. I took a step forward, but my best friend blocked my path.

“Don’t,” Jacqueline advised. “She can handle this.”

“I wasn’t planning to.” I grabbed hold of the frame, the wood splintering in my bare hands, as I stopped myself from going after her. “I know she can handle this, but if they try something…”

There was a sharp crack, and half the ancient wood crumbled to the ground just as Aurelia and Lysander turned the corner, already bickering. The argument paused when they met Thea, who muttered something to her personal security guard. I watched as her fiery red hair disappeared around the corner, her footsteps quick on the marble as she took my heart with her. I took a step forward, the separation nearly unbearable—and she was only down the hall. We’d been apart for brief periods since she’d saved me, but never in completely different locations.

Jacqueline placed a restraining hand on my shoulder, her fingers digging in hard enough to make me flinch. “Still don’t,” she said.

Thea’s candied violet and smoke scent faded, and I thought I might actually kill anyone who got between us. Instead, I clamped my eyes shut and fought to get control of myself. Was this the divine gift I’d been granted? Hades had stolen Persephone away, kept her captive, and guarded her jealously.

“No one touches her,” I snarled.

Jacqueline bowed her head. “On my life.” She paused. “Jules, before when Willem took her, I—”

“You weren’t prepared then,” I said gruffly. “It wasn’t your fault. You know what you’re walking into now.”

“I do.” Her mouth flattened into a grim line. “I’ll bring your mate back.”

I took a deep breath and nodded. Lately, my mating urges had fallen into two categories: fuck and fight. Anyone who looked at her the wrong way had me on edge, and every moment she was near me, I longed to be buried inside her. It hadn’t even been this bad when we’d first mated. It had to be a side effect of our new bond.

“Don’t sit around. Get out of here or you’ll go crazy,” she said, patting my arm.

“What am I supposed to do?”

“Can we go already, or do you want Thea to head into Venice alone?” Camila called, interrupting us.

“You’ll think of something,” Jacqueline promised swiftly before hurrying to join the other females.

“What a fucking relief. I’ll just think of something,” I muttered to myself as I watched them go.

“Looks like you aren’t happy about this meeting,” Lysander said, coming over to inspect the damage I’d done to the door. He whistled as he picked up a broken shard of wood about three feet long. “Are you going to do this every time she’s out of your sight?”

I glared at him, and he held up his hands.

“Just asking.”

I stalked back inside our quarters, my brother following me. I slumped into a chair by the fire. A log cracked and snapped, and I flinched again as I remembered what I’d done to the wood. How many more times would something like that happen before I actually lost control? I was glad my brother was here to distract me, because I needed a distraction.

“Have you had any luck finding out more about the curse or the Queen-killer?” I asked him.

“A few cryptic riddles that smack of divination.” He recited one to me.

“Why can’t ancient prophecy ever be direct?” I made a mental note to ask my mother if her second sight was really so vague.

“What would us scholarly types do if we didn’t have to decipher them?”

“You’ve been in that library all week.” I paused and considered my words carefully. “As much as I appreciate having you here, you can leave…unless there’s another reason you’re sticking around.”

“Right now, I’m wondering the same thing.” He went straight to the bar cart. He took two glasses and poured from one of the bottles of Scotch that had been delivered yesterday. “I’m a glutton for punishment.”

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