Page 85 of For Love and Blood and Fury

“What in theFifty Shadesis going on here,” she muttered before taking a pair of joggers and a tank top from the wall of drawers at the center of her closet. Could she really think of anything here as hers? She hadn’t worked for it. Hadn’t earned it. She’d only healed Elena by accident and she wouldn’t even have lucked into that without Zuri.

When she returned to the bedroom, it was empty, and the door was open. As soon as she neared, she heard a vaguely familiar voice. Feminine, but low.

The tall brunette with eyes like oxidized blood was standing in the living room with Elena. Marisol might have gotten distracted by Elena’s painted-on, plum-colored suit, but the vampire staring at her made it nearly impossible to think.

Even without vampy senses, she knew in the clenching in her belly and the cold sweat prickling her back that her presence was unwanted. That the woman who’d acted as Elena’s bodyguard the night before was trying not to hiss at Marisol. Apparently she’d been cool with her being in the club, but not Elena’s home.

“I don’t know anything about her,” the woman said with very little inflection in her voice. “She cannot be trusted.”

Before Elena did more than part her lips, Zuri appeared out of nowhere and stood in front of Marisol, a coffee mug in her hand. A mug that she shoved into Marisol’s hand.

Blocking the vampire’s direct view, Zuri’s energy was a sonic blast radiating destruction. “Can’t be trusted?” Her caustic laugh was terrifying even when standing out of firing range. “I must have fucked up my timelines.” She turned her head like she was possessed, nearly knocking Marisol over with her eye contact.“Marisol, babe, why didn’t you tell me Elena almost died on your watch? Or right.” She turned to the unreadable vampire. “That was you, Librada.”

“Zuri—”

Elena couldn’t stop whatever train Zuri was on, and Marisol wasn’t sure she wanted her to. In the last two weeks, she’d learned that she had no clue what she was into. That her type was apparently borderline murderous.What the hell is that?

“The only person who has proven themselves untrustworthy is you.” Zuri’s words came slowly and deliberately, like she was weaving a curse. Slow and deliberate and chilling.

Librada’s face morphed into something terrifying and inhuman. With her mouth open wide and displaying fangs that were every bit a lethal weapon, she lunged in a soundless attack. Moving faster than Marisol’s ocular nerve could transmit the message to her brain, Elena gripped the back of Librada’s shirt.

The sickening tearing of fabric was followed by Zuri barreling forward like she intended to actually fight a freaking vampire. It was suicide, Marisol knew in her gut, even if the rest of her was processing too slowly. Instinct made Marisol surge forward, body alive with an electric hum that coursed through her veins, pushed at her skin, and erupted from her shoulder blades.

“Stop,” Marisol shouted while diving between Zuri and Librada, mug landing on the tile with a crash.

Her voice was foreign to her own ears, deep and bouncing off the high ceilings. Energy rushed from her chest, her palms, her mouth. She was outside of herself. She was Lilith suspended in the sky. She was light and ferocity and willing Librada not to take another step toward Zuri.

Like she’d run straight into an invisible wall, Librada dropped to her knees. Eyes wide and bleeding with fear, Librada looked up at her like a supplicant rather than an assailant. All the anger in her body was gone, replaced with… awe.

“This is who she is.” Elena helped Librada to her feet, even as her mouth hung open. “And I trust her,” she added, eyes fixed on Marisol and dripping with something like pride or affection or both.

Marisol was still trying to decipher the world around her when Zuri was suddenly shoving Marisol to one side. All at once she realized what she’d done and her body went numb below her knees.

“Come at me one more time, parasite.” Zuri was a solid six inches shorter than Librada, but that didn’t seem to factor into her decision-making. She was staring down a running chainsaw inches from her face without breaking a sweat.

A rush of belated adrenaline wracked Marisol’s body, making her hands shake while she resisted the urge to puke. Why had she stood in front of a freight train and expected to survive? Had she pushed Librada down or had that been a result of shock? She couldn’t think.

“I’ve never seen…” Librada stretched a tentative hand to where Marisol guessed her wings had been. The wonder etched in her face made her appear mortal when her fangs disappeared. Like she was a wide-eyed young woman in her early twenties, not a supernatural being.

At Librada’s lack of engagement with her threat, Zuri relaxed her shoulders the tiniest fraction. “I told you I didn’t trust her,” she snapped at Elena, whose expression was unreadable.

“You did levy the most offensive insult.” Elena’s jaw was tight and her body stiff. “For a daughter to turn on their mother?—”

“And yet someone tried to fucking kill you and your two prize guard dogs were nowhere to be found,” Zuri said like she was back to looking for a fight. “Strange, huh?”

The accusation snapped Librada back to herself and the hardening in her eyes made Marisol hold her breath. This conversation would not end anywhere but in disaster.

“I would open my own throat before harming Elena,” Librada replied when she took a step forward, showing off her height advantage again. But this time, she wasn’t angry. She was heavy with regret. With palpable pain.

“We’re all on the same side, aren’t we?” Marisol asked with a shaky voice. She moved between Librada and Zuri again, but this time stood at their sides so she could look them in the eyes when she spoke. “I can’t pretend to know anything about how any of this works, but it seems to me that everyone here wants the same thing. To find out what happened to Elena and why.” She took a steadying breath. “And we probably shouldn’t waste time fighting each other when there’s someone out there who means her harm.” She glanced at Elena, who was regarding her with a flicker of amusement.

“Librada has been at my side since nearly the beginning of my second life,” Elena said after an unnerving silence. “I trust her, Zuri.” She stepped into her personal space, but didn’t reach out for her. “In centuries, she’s never acted against me.”

Taking a step back, Zuri rolled her eyes. “What’s a few hundred years to someone who might live forever?” She turned her back on all three of them. “Sounds like it would be pretty fucking easy to bide your time.”

Marisol looked down at the broken ceramic mug, but didn’t get the chance to clean it before Zuri spoke again.

“It’s her mess, Bambi. Don’t you dare pick it up.” She paused and glanced over her shoulder. “Come on, let’s sit outside and strike while the wings are hot.”

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