Page 5 of How to Entice a Fiend

“Oh! Sounds a bit like I definitely don’t want to look at her wrong. I will probably refrain from looking at her at all then because I’d rather keep my head attached. I feel like you’re a wee bit feisty, you know?”

“Or you could just leave?”

“I would rather help in your time of need,” he says.

I ignore the man and tear open a door, but it merely leads to a bathroom. I’m so wound up that I can’t even focus. What if she’s not here? What if she’s already dead? What if…

“You’re just absolutely adorable! Hey there, sweetie!” the man coos.

I nearly trip over myself rushing into the room. I push him out of the way and snatch Rylee up before he can hurt her. Quickly, I pull her into my arms as I glower at the man who is hugging the wall after I’d pushed him into it.

“EN!” Rylee cries as she grabs me.

“You’re fine,” I assure her as I notice the vampire staring at me.

“If I pretend to be a part of the wall, will you not murder me? Because I definitely did look at her when I had clear instructions not to. But she looked so sad and scared I couldn’t help it. I would rather you didn’t remove my head—Marcus! Twice in one day, such a pleasure!” the man says as he sees Marcus enter the building. He stops hugging the wall and straightens up, even fixes his shirt, like he’s wanting to make a good impression.

“Yeah…” Marcus says, sounding as full of “pleasure” as I was dealing with the man. “Ender, did you kill these people?”

“Does it look like I killed them?” I ask. Because if I had, there’d have been a whole lot more blood.

Rylee desperately clutches me with one hand. “En, I was so scared. There were people following me, and they started running after me. I tried running away but they were so fast. And they kept coming for me, and I was so scared, and I tried to hide but they still found me and then they kidnapped me and I remember you telling me not to leave home or someone would kidnap me and eat me and I didn’t listen and I didn’t mean to not listen. I’m so SORRRY,” she wails before she begins bawling.

Tears are my least favorite thing to deal with. They’re so… wet… and annoying. Like what’s she crying about? She should face what she did and learn from it so she won’t ever do it again. If my words of warning weren’t enough, maybe this will be because I can’t lose her.

I really can’t lose her.

I squeeze her tight to me, well aware I’d tear this world apart for her.

CHAPTER TWO

ENDER

“I’m here!” Finn shouts as he rushes through the door and immediately trips over a body. “Fuck! Shit… dammit… I’m so sorry. I was just running so hard and—Well, this doesn’t look good. I do want everyone well aware I’m a better detective than this and I don’t generally trip over the bodies. Hell, this is awkward.”

“Which part doesn’t look good?” Marcus asks. “The part where you sent Ender into a place full of vampires who are now all dead?”

I glower at the man who is still over here trying to pin this on me.

“As much as I absolutely despise Ender and wish the very worst for him, I don’t think he did it. Ender seems more prone to… tearing off heads than whatever this is,” Alexei comments as he eyes a body.

“The vampires were already dead before he trotted on in here,” the British man says, as if I’d trot anywhere.

“And you are?” Finn asks the smiley man. It’s rather creepy how much he likes to smile.

“You must be the renowned Finnigan Hayes,” the man says as he holds both hands out. Finn doesn’t seem to know what to do with both hands, so he tentatively putsonehand out as the vampire grabs it and cups it with both of his while he shakes it with much vigor. I’m quite glad he didn’t try to do that to me, or I might have accidentally crushed his hand. “I’m Mads Nielson. I was sent here from the UK council and it’s an absolute pleasure to work with you.”

The moment I hear that he’s a council member, irritation boils up inside of me as well as regret that I didn’t off him before I had so many witnesses. “So that’s why you were here surrounded by the dead when I showed up. Another council member out to play victim,” I state.

Mads starts laughing before hesitating and seeming to realize I wasn’t telling a joke. “Oh! You really think I killed them? Oh…nooooo. Ha. Not my skillset. After the… uh… lack of employees at the US council, I was sent over to assess what was happening.”

“I don’t care what you were sent over for,” I say. “But if you try to take Rylee from me, I will remove every single limb from your body and then your head.”

With Rylee in my arms and my threat lingering between us, I head toward the door when I hear Mads go, “I bet he’s a blast at parties.”

“Invite me to your next council party and find out,” I retort.

He laughs about that, like anything I said might have been a joke—or maybe he’s a serial killer who finds the idea of death hilarious.

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