Page 51 of The Baritone's Rival

“What?” That was not the sentence he’d expected to hear. “Who? Who exactly arethey?”

“Elliott. His coven.” Justin swallowed, and his eyes darted nervously to the surrounding trees. “They’ll kill her if they find out I told you.”

“Well, I’ll killyouif you don’t tell me everything. So either way, you’re dead.”

Justin sighed. “I guess I deserve that.” He took a step toward Oscar, who held out his hand to stop him. He wouldn’t be letting his guard down. Justin was no longer his friend.

“What coven, Justin? He acted like he was coven master.”

Justin reached up and scratched at the back of his neck. “The Azarians,” he said sheepishly.

Oscar scoffed at the name. “The Azarian coven is dead. New York City is Grosvenor territory.”

“The few elders that were left gathered in Canarsie, as far away from the Upper West Side and the old covenhouse as they could get. Elliott either convinced everyone he should be coven master or killed all other contenders, I’m not sure which.”

Rage spiked in Oscar’s chest. There was something wet on his lips. It tasted like bitter iron. In his anger, he’d pierced his own bottom lip with his fangs. It had been an instinctual response to the news thatanyof the cruel assholes from his old coven were still in the city.

“How many vampires?”

“I…I don’t know.” Justin shrugged and shuffled his feet in the grass. “They never told me. The new covenhouse is a converted old church. I’ve never been inside. They didn’t want me. Elliott said it was better I was out, loose, under his control. That he would call on me when they needed me. They…they won’t let me see her. My Aunt Lavinia. They keep saying she has to pay off her debt. But I don’t even know what that is!”

Justin’s eyes were welling with tears, and his bottom lip trembled. Oscar couldn’t help but feel sorry for him.

“Justin…”

“They’re keeping her for blood, I think.” Justin’s focus went far away, as if conjuring up an image of his aunt in his mind. Then he spoke in a soft, sad tone. “I don’t think they’ll ever let her go.”

Oscar stepped closer in, his self-admonition to keep his distance gone. He put both hands on Justin’s shoulders and locked eyes with the young vamp.

“Why didn’t you come to us? We would have helped.”

At the touch, Justin shook, the tremors wracking his body as the words spilled out in a ragged whisper.

“Elliott threatened to torture her. To kill her. I couldn’t risk it. I hid the fact that you were still alive for as long as I could, but once he found out you were at the old covenhouse, that you were part of the Grosvenor coven, he became obsessed. He insisted that you were his mate, that you had to be returned to him. Then, after Rick didn’t bring you to him, he made me tag along on your trip to Maine.”

Oscar removed his hands from Justin’s shoulders. His empathy was a warm ember in his heart, but it wasn’t without conditions. Justin had ignored all the opportunities he’d had to find another way. He hadn’t even tried.

“You’ll have to come back to the Grosvenor covenhouse. Freddie and Lillian will want to speak to you. You have to tell them everything.”

Justin shook his head, fear flashing in his eyes. “I can’t. If they see that I’ve gone there after this, they’ll kill her. And what do you need me for? You’ll be safe with Freddie. Who cares what happens to Trent? He could be at the covenhouse with you, totally protected, but he won’t go because he’s a spoiled brat with some kind of childhoodtrauma. Who cares? We’ve all got trauma!”

With a growl, Oscar was on him, his right hand gripping the twink vamp’s throat. Justin struggled in his grasp, uselessly pushing at Oscar’s chest to free himself.

“I care what happens to him.” Oscar’s voice was flat and deadly.

“Please,” Justin said, forcing the words out past Oscar’s grip around his trachea. “The man’s a human. He’s not good enough for you. He’s been a brat this whole time. Just because he sucked your dick?—”

Oscar tossed Justin to the side. The vamp managed to recover before hitting the ground, but he was off-balance, staring wildly at Oscar with his hands up in front of his face.

“You asshole,” Oscar growled. “You heard us having sex. That’s when you told Elliott where we were.”

Justin’s fangs dropped as he stood tall in defiance, puffing his chest out like a wooden soldier.

“You should be mine! I could give you so much more —”

“He is intelligent, and sexy, and underneath that protective outer shell, he cares about people. He could have kept walking that day in Brooklyn, but he stopped.” A breeze picked up around them, whipping through the leaves and blowing Oscar’s hair about. “He saved me. He wasn’t afraid. He did it even when it made his life more difficult.”

“He doesn’t want you!” Justin was yelling now, gesturing to the cabin which housed the human he despised. “He hates vampires! You’re deluding yourself if you think he’ll stay with you.”

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