Page 63 of Bitten

“No. He won’t trade. Not for anything in the world. And you aren’t telling him we asked for it. You aren’t telling anyone we asked for it, got it?”

Caelian’s mind was a buzz. He felt sick. His mouth was dry. His legs shook, and he held on to the shelf of books in front of him to remain standing.

It was a nightmare.

A little part of him had thought his happily ever after might’ve been within his grasp.

Stupid, stupid, stupid… I don’t get a happy ever after.

“You steal it, and you keep your big mouth shut as to who asked for it, or else we come back. We kill you. But not before we kill Reginald Kane… while we force you to watch.”

“Who said I cared about Kane?” Caelian asked flippantly, knowing it was a lie. In truth, he barely knew Kane. Yet those memories… that bond he felt… he knew Kane almost as well as he knew himself.

He already cared. Maybe even already loved the man a little.

And he suddenly knew why Kane had said he wasn’t going to claim a mate. The Halfling hadn’t wanted to put him and Ralnur in danger. And here Caelian was putting him into danger.

The vampire smiled, baring long fangs. “You don’t care about Kane? Is that what you’re trying to tell me?”

Caelian lifted his chin. “Yeah. I don’t care about all this mate bullshit.”

“Then why did you flinch the minute I said his name? Don’t try to lie and lead me to believe you don’t care for the male. You obviously do.” The vamp moved an inch closer, trying to intimidate. Unfortunately, it worked. “We’ll make it hurt. He’ll suffer… and we’ll make sure he knows it was because of you. He’ll die hating you. Cursing your name. Cursing your very existence.”

Caelian swallowed back his fear. “There has to be something else. Anythingelse,” Caelian said. “Please. Don’t make me do this. He’ll never forgive me.”

“Better than you both being dead.”

Caelian eyed the vampire, feeling as if he was dying a little on the inside.

“The gem. Steal it or you both die. It’s as simple as that, Caelian.”

He lowered his head, unable to think his way out. Nodding, he knew he was between a rock and a hard place. “Okay.”

“Good boy,” the vampire murmured before backing away. “You take it and hand it over to Cannon for safe keeping.”

It was that bastard! Anger roiled through him.

He watched as the vampires all slowly exited the stacks. His legs felt like rubber—his heart beat a mile a minute. After breathing slowly and trying not to puke for a few minutes, he stumbled back to the table where he’d been working. Cannon sat on top of the table, a few seats down, an apple in his hand. Without a word, he bit in, staring at Caelian.

“You have no shame?” Caelian asked.

“I know which side wins this war,” Cannon said, his mouth full of apple mush. “If you’re smart, like I think you are, you’ll see it’s best to make friends with them now before they take this city. They’ve got eyes everywhere. You go sing again, and everything you love is going to die.”

Caelian felt the sickness rising again. “You spied on us last night?”

“I heard things. That door’s not all that thick. And my hearing’s pretty damned good.”

Did he know about Ralnur? Nothing had been said about the king’s uncle, so he wondered. Deciding to test a bit, he took a deep breath. “On another note, that meeting with Ralnur I asked for?”

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll put in a word with Theis and see what we can come up with—although I hear he doesn’t remember much of anything.”

“Any little tidbit could help me in my research.”

Cannon shrugged. “Whatever. This is all a wild goose chase anyway. You need to focus on Kane and getting that amulet. That’s the job at hand. Not this.”

Garret, Cannon’s partner, arrived a few minutes later to relieve Cannon.

Caelian eyed the guy. Garret had always seemed like the good cop to Cannon’s bad… but now he didn’t know who to trust. If Cannon was dirty, who else was?

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