Page 58 of Live To Tell

Josef steps forward, the man with his slicked back hair and sharp features as tall as my father. “We can’t always have what we want, Dorian Blackwood.”

“You’ve committed crimes and should be arrested and questioned,” continues Dorian.

Josef slants his head. “The problem is, I don’t answer to you. I will not follow the orders of an upstart who killed many, many people and overturned the Confederacy. Who killed my cousin—an original vampire and a respected leader. How long have you walked this earth, Dorian? Less than half a century. Some of us have lived for over two hundred years and were alive at the time of the Purge—we watched humans slaughter our kind and now you expect us to walk alongside them?”

“You work as an attorney for humans,” retorts Dorian, his cool demeanor heating.

“Does that mean I accept them?” he replies, voice like winter. “No.”

Dorian’s nose almost touches Josef’s. “You’re telling me that you oppose my government and the human accords?”

“That is hardly news for you, Dorian.”

“Then you definitely need to come with me tonight.”

He doesn’t flinch. “Or what? You kill me? I don’t think that’ll happen, do you?” Dorian doesn’t respond to Josef’s mocking. “Did you honestly believe you could keep this power you stole? Fifteen years is a drop in the ocean to us. A mere a pause—time to plan our retaliation.”

“Who’s we?” I demand, and Josef turns his eyes to me as if he’d forgotten I stood beside Dorian.

“Those who want natural order returned and the threats to our society removed.” He smiles, lips pulling back to reveal his canines. “To succeed where Oskar failed.”

“Not. Happening,” snarls Dorian.

Josef taps him on the chest, and Dorian snatches his wrist, squeezing. “You don’t have what it takes to rule, Blackwood. You’re a worthy distraction to humans, with your posturing and narcissism—exactly why you can’t see what’s happening around you.”

I can move fast, but Dorian’s reflexes are beyond mine and the space where he and Josef stood empties.

“Then I remove one of the threats.” Dorian’s snarled voice comes from behind me. Eloise jumps to her feet in horror as she rushes to where Dorian pins Josef high against the wall, his nails longer and sharper on the hand around the vamp’s throat.

“Dorian. Stop,” says Eloise. “Josef Petrescu is provoking you—and he’s right. We can’t do anything tonight. We’re in the middle of the human world and they cannot see this side to you.”

“I can haul his fucking arse out of here and deal with him where nobody can see,” growls Dorian, eyes fixed on Josef.

Josef doesn’t attempt to move and remains firmly in my father’s grip. “Provoke him? I have better ways to do that. I’ll remove you both and your daughter from this world.”

“Good luck,” scoffs Dorian.

“Put him down before somebody walks in,” urges Eloise.

“Do you think the witches and their Dominion friends would create a weapon but not the way to neutralize it?” sneers Josef, as Dorian drops his hold. “Your vampire parents thought they killed every witch who possessed the knowledge on how to eliminate their hybrid mistake. Actually, I hear you assisted in those deaths. Such a bad thing to teach a child to do.” He smiles. “The witches died, but Oskar had that knowledge too.”

“You don’t. Everything owned by the Confederacy was destroyed,” says Eloise stiffly.

“Oh, but we do. In time, you will pass power back to those who should rightfully rule, Dorian,” he says harshly.

“I should rip your fucking heart out now.”

Rowan. He’s watching all this, pale-faced. From his vantage point, Rowan will witness everything—including the transformation on Dorian’s face that heralds his descent into hybrid violence.

Chaos.

Josef wants chaos. More dissent. A reason to recruit others and strike against Dorian’s council.

Eloise stands poised to intervene and my heart sickens at her truth. We can’t harm this creature. Not yet. And not because the evidence will splatter the walls and floor of the human hotel, but because he would be a catalyst.

Does Dorian have enough self-control right now to process this and stop himself from tearing Josef apart?

“Eloise is right,” I say quietly. “Let Josef go. Now isn’t the time.”

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