Page 29 of Greer's Change

Her eyes flash to white, and I move close enough that she can strike. Her teeth pierce my lower lip as she runs her tongue over the bite.

She’s so weak, it’s alarming, and I can sense it fully as the bond clicks into place. She begins to draw from my life force, which I forgot would happen, but it’s fine.

I can pop over to Rut and replenish in less than ten minutes if she drains me dry.

Her teeth retract, and her tongue swipes over the wound. Those beautiful gray eyes of hers are huge and glassy as she pulls back to look at me. “What if?—”

“It doesn’t matter,” I assure her. “We’re in this together.”

Focusing on my magic, I dose her heavily with my pheromones to help combat the pain. She lied when she said she didn’t feel well…Greer is in agony.

“Rest,” I murmur.

It makes my entire chest ache to force myself to leave the room, but I have a stubborn as fuck vampire to negotiate with. And it’s not just Greer’s existence on the line anymore.

Chapter Thirteen

Novak

“Do you truly plan to stand by and watch her turn?” Reign’s eyes narrow. “Seiran would never forgive you. He’s much softer after his time with the old woman.”

I scoff. That incubus was mushy from the moment he materialized in the human realm. I expected any incubus I summoned to be more cunning. Really, he’s one of the gentlest creatures I’ve ever encountered.

It could be because of the sensual nature of his magic. Or it could be the luck of the draw. The Incubus Distribution System sent me and Reign a tender counterpart to offset the ruthlessness that thrived with no one around to temper us.

It doesn’t hurt my feelings in theleastthat Seiran left us to take over caring for an oldhumanwoman he met at the farmer’s market.

It’s so ludicrous that it annoys me.

And annoyance is a very different emotion than betrayal, no matter what that therapist tried to tell me. I don’t feel an ounce of guilt over draining that quack dry, either. I warned him multiple times that he was on thin ice, but he was like a dog witha bone. He kept trying to force me to say that Seiran hurt my feelings when he abandoned us.

My head whips up as the incubus in question thunders into my office.

“Fifty years of servitude. I’ll have Rut back to its glory days before you can blink.”

“No.” My freedom is worth far more to me than a bit of extra income. It’s not like I’m hurting for money.

“Fine, a hundred years. Final offer.” Seiran swipes his hair back from his face using his thumbs.

“Gods, you’re still a terrible negotiator,” Reign says, chuckling. “Ten is his final offer and you’re going to take it.” The mimic directs the last part at me. “He never took a penny from the business that he helped us build from the ground up. Never asked for a single thing?—”

“Except hisfreedom,” I growl.

Yes, fine, I’m still unreasonably angry about that entire debacle.

Not hurt, furious.

I untethered him immediately upon considering him a friend. It’s not my goddamn fault he never noticed. And it still burns me to my core that he honestly believes I only unbound him when he asked to be released.

“Like that was so much to ask?” Seiran scoffs, crossing his arms over his chest.

“It wasn’t, and he gave you your leave,” Reign says calmly.

Seiran’s job used to be that of the peacemaker, but times have changed so drastically, I barely recognize us anymore.

“Well, we bonded. So, if you damn her to change into a ghoul, you’ll be signing my death warrant too,” the stubborn incubus says. “She’ll starve herself to death before she eats flesh, and the bond will pull my life force to offset her starvation?—”

Reign goes rigid, turning to Seiran. “Let me see the bite.”

---