Page 58 of Blood Bound (Blood Mafia 3)

I turn back to face her and lift my chin. “I’m not scared. I’m trying to decide how I’ll kill you.”

Her eyes darken, black bleeding into the blue, and she flashes her fangs at me. “I’d like to see you try. Or maybe I’ll let Mateo kill you like he did your father.”

The bond pulses with panic, though the feeling doesn’t belong to me. It’s all Mateo. He lashes out with his foot. Nix twists the knife and shoves it deeper into his stomach, drawing a strangled grunt from his lips.

Her words sink through my bones.

I’ll let Mateo kill you like he did your father.

He’s the reason my world fell apart. Mateo’s betrayal compounds in my brain, slamming around and making my head ache.

This vampire I’ve bonded with is responsible for killing my real father.

I may have been too young to remember much, but I do remember I loved my dad. My heart shattered when I learned he died.

The pain I recall from that day all those years ago is similar to the pain I feel now: a gut-wrenching grief accompanied by white-hot anger.

Mateo shoves desperate emotions through the bond. I ignore his attempts to smooth things over. How long had he known who I was?

When did he connect the dots?

Why thehellis he still doing this?

Then it dawns on me. It’s all been a game for him. Trapping the daughter of the man he killed in an unbreakable bond is a perfectly twisted way to prove the power he holds.

I glance at Evelyn, checking her reaction. Her face is screwed up in a tight knot of confusion.

She didn’t know.

My heart trembles inside my chest when I look at Colt and Grayson. Both of them are watching me, shadows flashing in their eyes, but the severe frowns they’re wearing tell me they may not have known either. Colt shifts and I scowl at him.

“Did you help?”

His arms drop to his sides and he shakes his head.

“No,” Grayson says, shooting his gaze to where Nix still holds Mateo. “We knew he went to help bring her back from the brink of insanity, but we didn’t know he killed your father.”

Colt nods in agreement, green eyes carefully studying my face. He sees too much. He knows me too well.

“Later,” he says, giving a pointed look to the stage.

I grit my teeth and shove all of the questions down. I hang on to the anger, though. It’ll come in handy when I dislocate Nix’s neck.

Facing off with the vampire again, I narrow my eyes. “What do you want?”

She considers me, then releases her hold on Mateo. His knees crash into the floor with an audible thud. Yanking out the knife, he slumps over and hisses in pain.

He’s not in enough pain if you ask me.

“Such a question, Demi. There are many things I want.” She practically prances across the stage.

I watch her circle around my family and friends. She hovers her hand over their heads, singing duck, duck, goose under her breath.

My hand rests on the hilt of a knife. Nix’s eyes flash to my fingers curling around the handle as she says “goose,” and she gives me a nasty grin full of fang.

Burying her palm into Zander’s hair, she wrenches his neck aside.

Red bleeds into my vision, changing everything to slow-motion. I run, crossing the dance floor in two seconds, and jump on stage in the next.

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