Page 50 of Promised in Blood

Stop!Ophelia internally admonishes us, her wide eyes still fixed on Enora.

“Torn out?” Alexandros asks.

Enora sniffs and then rolls back her shoulders. “Yes.”

Alexandros’s jaw tightens with the telltale sign that he’s pissed, but his voice remains eerily calm and controlled. “Are you here to accuse me?—”

“No, old friend,” Osiris says. “Nobody is accusing you.”

Ophelia shakes her head, her eyes darting between the three professors. “What? Why would you think that? Why would they…?”

Alexandros twists his neck until it cracks. “Tearing out a witch’s heart was my…” He pauses like he’s searching for the appropriate word.

“Calling card?” Enora offers.

Your what now?I can’t help myself from asking.

He offers a low growl in response, and I’m not sure if his ire is directed at me or Enora. Perhaps both. “It was much less than they deserved.”

A tear rolls down Enora’s face, and she brushes it away and turns her face from him.

Alexandros lets out a weary sigh. “What happened with the girl? Where did you find her?”

Enora gives him her attention once more, her jaw set and her shoulders rolled back. “She was found in her bed this morning.”

Alexandros frown of confusion mirrors my own. “This happened inside the Silver Vale house?”

She nods. “It was made to appear like a vampire attack. There was a bite on her neck, and her body was almost completely drained of blood.”

“Vampires cannot enter Silver Vale unless invited by you, Enora.”

I thought that was all a myth—vampires not being able to enter buildings?Ophelia asks through our bond.

The Vales are all protected by magic that prevents demons and vampires from entering,I explain.

But not wolves?

No,Malachi says, his eyes boring into Osiris.Nobody ever suspects the wolves.

“I know this, Alexandros.” Enora’s voice is slightly raised. “The only vampire I have ever invited into Silver Vale was you.”

Ophelia’s eyes blow wide as Professor Enora’s accusation ripples around the room. “He would never!”

Enora directs her fierce glare toward my girl, and my hackles rise. “Yes, child, he would. You have no idea of the things he is capable of.”

Both Xavier and I growl a warning, poised to act if anyone so much as looks at her wrong or throws out any more wild accusations about Alexandros ripping out some witch’s heart.While Enora is right that he is capable of such a thing, he wouldn’t disrespect House Drakos and Ruby Dragon by breaching university policy and vampire law that way. All society members are protected. Untouchable unless they have broken an oath or a rule.

Relax.Alexandros’s calm, commanding voice fills my head.If she actually believed I had done this, she would not be sitting here.

I sit back with a grunt. Ophelia sits back too, leaning against Malachi as he wraps an arm around her.

“What else is it, Enora? What have you not told me?”

“When I found her—” The curve of her throat thickens as she swallows. “She looked like all the others, Alexandros. I admit that I suspected you.”

If he’s bothered by that, he doesn’t show it. But all the others? What the fuck is she talking about? She pauses like she’s waiting for him to react, but he goes on staring at her, his expression still unreadable. “So I called Osiris to see if he could determine whether it was your scent.” She looks to the wolf.

Osiris rubs his right temple and frowns.

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