Page 121 of Feeding Frenzy

I didn’t like Calliope’s smirk. I narrowed my eyes at her, pointedly. She lifted her hands in the air and backed away. “Ren and I are taking care of the dead, so I’ll get back to it.”

Those two really behaved like siblings. Hated each other one moment, threatened to kill each other the next.

“So, we’re not leaving?” I didn’t take my eyes off the broken glass I’d thrown Imogen and me through. The sheer curtains fluttered from the wind. It would suck leaving. I really liked this place.

“We’re not going anywhere,” Asher said from behind me as his arms curled around my waist. I peeked up at him. His grin almost split his face.

“You seem happy?”

“The bitch is gone,” he whispered in my ear. He nuzzled me closer. “Thank you.”

“Oh,” I mumbled, red-faced. I preferred not to think about it.

“She no longer has a hold on me or Jax.” He shuddered against me. “Knowing someone out there could order us to do whatever they wanted . . .” He exhaled harshly and huddled me even closer to his body. I didn’t know he’d felt that way. It sounded like a weight had been ripped from his shoulders.

As much as I hadn’t liked killing Imogen, I wouldn’t take it back. She was bad news, and she would have eventually used Asher, Tobias, or Jax to hurt the rest of us. Good riddance to her. I hugged his arm curled around my belly.

FORTY-SIX

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I swipedthe back of my hand across my eyes. One of Calliope’s vampires wielded a vacuum, and the loud hum sucked up the ash littering the foyer. Laney and Damien didn’t deserve to be vacuumed up. Nor did the humans Imogen brought to attack us deserve to be stuffed in the back of a van to be disposed of. Knowing her, she’d compelled all of them.

“You already informed the people that care for them?” I whispered.

“My emotional Little One,” Bastien murmured, smoothing his hand over my hair. During the attack, Bastien had been bound outside, wrapped in chains. He believed Imogen’s intention was to take him captive. We would never know for sure.

“There was no one for them—for us,” Violet said. “We were each other’s family. That’s why we came here for shelter.” She sounded so sad. I walked over to her and squeezed her arm. She’d lost a lot. Violet refocused on the line up of dead bodies littering the floor. The clean-up had already begun before I’d come downstairs.

Tobias approached with quick steps and stopped in front of me.

“The contractors we hired to build a garage in the back, will be here soon. Is there anything you want changed?”

“A garage for the cars, huh.”

“Raining season is no joke,” Asher huffed, entering the foyer.

“Priorities,” I mumbled, shaking my head.

“We have lived through a lot of loss, Love.” Tobias smoothed his hand down the back of my head.

A loud sniffle dragged my attention over to Talia as she careened around the corner. Talia ran at Asher, bloody tears streaming down her face. He yanked me in front of him, using me as a barrier, like Jax had done before. She smacked into me and clung to my neck. “You’re not dead,” she sobbed into my chest. I glared at him over my shoulder. At least this time I hadn’t come out injured.

I stood with my arms at my side, letting her sob into me. She shuddered and let me go, stepping back and swiping the back of her hand across her face. My fangs had burst free, and I kept my lips shut, so it wouldn’t be obvious.

“Speaking of priorities, you need to feed more.” Asher bopped me on the nose with his fingertip.

“I got it,” Ren announced, and suddenly I was tossed over his shoulder. My face swung near his lower back and his shoulder dug into my stomach. I grunted with his swaying strides.

“You could have just asked me to follow you,” I grumbled.

“You needed a pick-me-up.”

I hesitated.

“Are you making a joke?”

Ren only grunted. As he climbed up the steps, his shoulder dug harder into my stomach.

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