Page 81 of Our Sins in Blood (Coven of Sin 1)

Feral used his weight to flip them both onto the bed. They nearly slammed into me as the mattress bounced dangerously under all the muscle mass.

Still brandishing the knife, Feral flipped on top of Eros and straddled him, the knife clenched in both fists as he brought it down to stab his brother. Eros caught the other vampire’s forearms, a tendon ticking in his brow as he used all his strength to hold off the descending blade. Eros’ arms began to quake as they began to collapse under the weight of the larger vampire.

“I’m going to kill you!” Feral seethed in a flash of gnashing fangs and the glint of the blade as it shook in his grasp, his biceps flexing and his black veins bulging like some kind of monster straight out of Hell.

“Stop it! Vincent,don’t!” With much of my strength returned, I threw myself at them and grabbed for the weapon. Me trying to wrestle the dagger out of the vampire’s grip was about as futile as someone trying to wrestle the sexy damsel out of King Kong’s fist. “He didn’t do anything wrong! Sex was my idea, and Ididbite him first!”

Feral’s fury swiveled in my direction so fast, I felt its whip-like lash. His arm snapped out in my direction and he grabbed my jaw, his fingertips digging painfully into my flesh. I let out a wince, the rush of air on his hand making his nostrils flare.

“Let me get this straight,” he gritted, his voice dropping two octaves in a tone that was as deep and dangerous as Hell. “Not only did you risk your safety by letting him do all that shit to you, but you put your mating mark on him?”

“I…” My voice trailed off. What was I supposed to say? That I’d only bitten Eros in an instinctual move to protect myself when he had fucked me too hard? No, that wasn’t going to do anything to ease his wrath.

“It was an accident. I couldn’t control myself. It doesn’t mean he’s going to be king. I still haven’t made my decision.”

“He broke the pact! We agreed that the one you picked as king would be the only one to mark you. Now you stink like him!”

He was yelling now, anger making his tone violent. But his face had contorted with hurt, like I had somehow betrayed him. Which was fucking stupid, because I wasn’t his.

“You are infuriating.” My own voice was trembling now with the intensity of the rage-fueled fire burning in my chest. “One minute you pretend like all you care about is your precious throne, and then you come in here acting like you actually care about me? Do you not want Deathwish touching me because you’re scared I’ll pick him as king instead of you? Or is it deeper than that? Maybe you’re jealous that he carries my mark because deep down in your twisted, broken heart you want me to be more than just your tool to gain the throne. You can give all the speeches you want about this being beyond us, about all that matters is that I pick a good king and that it shouldn’t matter if we hate each other. But I don’t think you want that. You want me to choose you as king, yet you want more than that. You want to be the one to carry my mark. I fucking figured you out, Feral. You want to bemine.And you’re so angry because you don’t know how to be the kind of person that I could ever love.”

Both vampires appeared completely taken aback by the spew of words that had flown from my mouth. I didn’t blame them, even I was surprised.

Before I could get a response, Eros plucked the dagger from his distracted brother’s hand and thrust it into his bicep.

Vincent’s fingers unlatched from my chin and he howled in pain as black blood splattered onto my bare torso.

Eros hauled his opponent off the bed and slammed him up against the brick, yanked the blade out of his arm, and pushed it to his throat. The sharp steel of the bowie knife cut Feral’s throat as he swallowed, a bead of black dribbling down his raven tattoos decorating his throat.

“Better be nicer to me, you Feral fuck. You may be looking at your new king.”

“I would sooner swallow my own dick than bow to you, Deathwish.”

A wild smirk stretched Eros’ lips as he pulled the knife away and allowed it to slide down the cotton fabric stretched over Feral’s chest, pressing the point of the weapon to the fly of his dark denim jeans. “I can arrange that.”

“Okay, this needs to stop.” I grabbed a pillow from the bed to cover myself, even though both of them had gotten the full show at this point. My legs swayed dangerously as I stood up and both of them made a move for me as if to catch me.

“Pft, don’t act like either of you care about me more than your hate boners for one another. Why can’t you two just settle things with the match coming up?”

Eros backed up from Vincent, tossing the knife back on the dresser, ignoring the splatter of black it left on the wood. “That’s actually a good idea. In fact, we should make a bet on it.”

“I’m listening,” Feral muttered, examining his healing wound on his bicep with a scowl. I bristled as I realized he was ignoring my gaze, probably because of what I’d said to him. I wondered if I had guessed right, that maybe deep down he wanted us to have something real that went beyond our hate.

It would be easier to read him if he wasn’t in such a deep love affair with being a dickbag.

Eros paced in front of Feral, stroking his beard in thought. “If I win the fight, you drop out of the running for the throne. Meaning you leavemy matealone.”

Vincent’s face twisted with raw hatred, hearing the way he’d called me his mate. Several painfully long seconds passed as he considered the bet. I was surprised he didn’t immediately decline. Becoming king was the singular most important thing to Vincent Feral. What prize could he win that would be worth the gamble?

“I’ll take that bet,” he eventually answered. “But if I win, you have to leave the coven. And you never put your hands on her again.”

My jaw fell open and my heart dropped to my knees. “What? No!You guys can’t be serious. This isn’t how this shit should be settled.”

Vincent finally looked me in the eyes, that discernible emotion brewing in his crimson glare making my heart pulse just as it had when he’d first entered the room.

Eros also veered his attention on me, staring at the mark on my shoulder.

“I agree to those terms, Feral.”

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