Page 139 of Our Sins in Blood (Coven of Sin 1)

A Promise

Iwokeuptothe mattress shifting. My eyes drifted open to see Corry sitting on the edge of the bed, fully dressed, with a small box in one hand and a glass filled with orangey-red liquid in the other.

“Wakey, wakey.” He kissed my forehead, looking too damn awake for this early in the night. Groaning, I shoved my face into his pillow. “Five more minutes.”

“C’mon. You’ve already slept in. You don’t want to miss watching Eros and Vin clobber one another.”

Like that, I was awake.

Clearly, neither Vincent nor Eros had let the youngest prince in on the bet. It made sense. Wailing on each other to get out some aggression was one thing, but staking one’s place in the coven and the fate of the throne all on one fight was entirely another. I doubted Corry would rat them out to Sterling, but he might interfere. For a second, I considered telling Cor myself but quickly dismissed the idea. I could handle this on my own.

Stretching with a yawn, I sat up and took the glass he offered me. “What is this? It smells great.” I eagerly gulped it down, the delicious nectar tasting as sweet as candy and as filling as a thanksgiving feast.

“I wasn’t sure if you preferred human food or blood in the morning, so I mixed OJ with some O negative. Shouldn’t have second-guessed myself, though. You strike me as an all-or-nothing kind of girl.”

Watching me practically inhale the liquid, his brows wrinkled in concern. “Whoa. Take it easy there, Red. Drink it too fast, and it’ll come up quicker than you got it down.”

Downing the last drop, I slammed the empty glass on Corry’s bedside table. “I’m in a hurry. I need to talk to Vincent and Eros before the fight.”

Corry’s mouth thinned with a frown. “Like I said, you kind of slept in, babe. They’re already at The Warehouse. The fight starts in a few hours, so we have to get going, seeing as it’s in Boston.”

“We?So you’ve decided to sneak out with me?”

The vampire smirked. “Turns out sneaking won’t be necessary at all tonight.”

I blinked several times. “What? Why?”

He handed me the little box that I’d almost forgotten about. “Here. This is for you.”

Confused and a little excited—because it looked like a jewelry box and I’d never been gifted a piece of jewelry in my life—I took the box and opened it. Nestled on a little velvet cushion was a silver tiara. It was dainty, with a pick on the end that could be tucked into a ponytail. The little crown was so discreet considering what it was, but fuck me, it was beautiful. Instead of a typical tiara, the silver had been shaped to look like vampire fangs, and tear-drop-shaped rubies dangled from the fang’s tips to resemble blood droplets.

“Corry, this is incredible.” On further inspection, I spotted the T&CO maker's mark stamped into the silver. “Wait. This is from Tiffany’s? This had to be expensive.”

He gave me a one-shouldered shrug. “The coven’s rolling in it, Red. We don’t need to eat, and we don’t have a mortgage. We own the whole cape, so we get a shit ton from tenant rent, not to mention all the businesses Sterling has invested the coven’s money in over the centuries. You can have a million more of these, and we’d still give mortal tycoons a run for their money.”

“It’s great. I love it. But what does this have to do with me going to tonight’s fight?”

“I spoke with Sterling. He agreed to let us go on two conditions. The first is that I have to take a triple dose of blood sating pills and feed before I go. The second is that you have to wear the tiara. We had a tracking device put into it. Eros might be able to track you down now that you carry his mark, but the rest of us don’t have that luxury.” Corry’s mouth pursed into an impish grin. “At least not yet. If we get separated, and you get into any trouble, we’ll be able to find you.”

“I didn’t know Tiffany and Co made tiaras with trackers.”

Corry let out an awkward laugh while running his hand through his gelled hair. “With the business the coven has given them over the years, they’d make us a diamond-encrusted nuclear bomb if we asked. It’s also pure silver. You can use it as a weapon on vamps and werewolves in a pinch.”

“Werewolves?” I gulped. “There are werewolves around here?”

“Yeah, especially in Boston. That pack isn’t much of a concern for us because of the treaty. But these days, you can never be too careful.”

I gaped down at the tiara with a rapidly growing lump in my throat. A horrible foreboding sensation was taking root in my belly, and I just knew that tonight something bad was going to happen.

I doubted the little silver crown was going to help me much. But still, bad feelings aside, I had to go. If I didn’t stop this fight, I’d be losing one of the princes tonight.

Logically, I knew I couldn’t have both of them. At the end of the four months, I would have to pick one prince. I hated how much the thought of just having to choose hurt me. It wasn’t fair.

I wanted all of them.

But if I was forced to pick at the end of this, I wanted it to be my decision. I refused to lose one of them due to some stupid dick-measuring move on their part.

Even if my chances at stopping this ridiculous bet were slim to none, I couldn’t just sit by and do nothing.

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