Page 59 of Death Game: Supernatural Battle

His gaze darkened.

“Please don’t,” I whispered against the pain filling me, not all of it mine. “You’re older than me. And I—” Taking a steadying breath, I tried again. “I’m not ready for that.”

“Why did you drive off the cliff?”

“Because I trust you to always keep me safe.”

He opened his mouth, and I covered it. “I don’t want this to happen now.”

A lump rose up my throat.God, I felt so fucking trapped. Like my feelings for Kyros were one wall, and my grandmother was another, and they were slowly pressing in. There was no way out.

His beautiful green eyes fixed on me. Right now, all I wanted was him. I wanted to runwithhim.

“My beauty,” Kyros said softly. “I didn’t intend to upset you. I won’t say more on the subject tonight. Come here.”

I resisted his attempt to tuck me against his body. Before he could voice his frustration, I climbed onto his lap and kissed the base of his neck before craning to kiss the corner of his mouth.

“What were those gifts for?” he said, a shadow crossing his face.

My vampire was never darker than in my presence. Dark for me. Light for me.

“Thank you… mate,” I replied, meeting his gaze for as long as I could.

Working myself as close to his warmth as possible, I rested my head against his chest.

His shock battered at me for a long time before his arms came around me.

A perfect fit.

I stared at the fire, doing my best to pretend the world away.

Doing my best to pretend that only this dark creature and I existed in the here and now.

11

When Laurel first handed me theIngeniumrule book, I’d celebrated the Jane Austen thickness of it. Until learning the font size was suitable for a flea.

I had vampire eyesight and still had to hold the book in front of my face.

Beside me was a notebook filled with what sense I could make of the three chapters in the rule book dedicated toVissimo-Human Relations.The edition I held was from last year, so everything from media to technology was covered. These weren’t Monopoly instructions. Like Laurel said, this was a contract—filled with all the lawyer jargon that came with it.

I re-read the section on coercion of signatories.

From what I could tell, I was right. Humans surrounding the signatory could be coerced and compelled, but the actual signatory had to sign of their own free will without influence.

Sandra had detailed what the Tonyi triplets did to her. That was coercion and extortion byhumanstandards.

That’s what worried me.

There was the section under Clause 14.3.Whereby the signatory is believed by either party to be victim to the transgressions listed in Clause 10 to Clause 12.8, proof must be obtained and presented to an impartial clan.

The impartial clan would make the judgment and, if deemed guilty of a transgression, the offending party’s deal would be nullified.

But what constituted as proof?

I didn’t want Sandra dragged before an impartial party. She’d be compelled for sure.

I jotted the wordproofdown and circled it.

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