Page 60 of Blood that Burns

“Maggie, please. Just... can you trust me?” I don’t answer him, choosing to play the game he’s started. He groans. “You,” he blurts. “You were our mutual interest.”

My head juts back. “Me? She didn’t let on she even knew me.”

“She does. Very well, in fact.” He trails both palms roughly down his face. “She was the one who told me someone was coming for you. She saw it in one of her visions.”

“You mean the Council?”

He shakes his head. “I told you it was the Council, and it was, but more importantly, it was my father, Maggie. I led him right to you.”

I recall the dream I just had. It was a memory from that day.

“There was a younger blond vampire. He was your age, maybe. The other two were only slightly older.”

“His lackeys. The only people he trusted to do his dirty work. Edwin, Colbert, and Rockford. He was surely close by, hiding in the shadows. But make no mistake, he sent them for you.”

My stomach sours. “I could’ve just gone with them and ended up with you?”

Law gets down on his haunches so that we’re eye to eye. “No. Your jump saved you in so many ways, Maggie. He did not plan to unite us, but to use you like a blood bank.”

“Just like the other girls from the auction?”

“Worse.” His hand runs down my arm and his eyes trail after it. “He planned to siphon your energy to feed it into me. Julian and I would’ve become his weapons, and you and Marina nothing more than blood slaves. There was no scenario in which you two would’ve been able to live normal lives. You would’ve been tortured but kept alive to fit his needs. There would’ve been no end to your torment.”

“Why didn’t he take Marina? I... I left her there because I thought it was the Council, and they’d leave if I jumped. Your father could’ve still hurt her.”

All the possible scenarios play out and anxiety creeps in, causing my chest to feel heavy and my breathing labored.

Law’s hand comes under my chin, steadying my gaze to meet his. “Maggie, listen to me. I took care of it. I made sure he didn’t get to her.”

The earnest, confident way in which he says this doesn’t help my anxiety. A pit grows in my abdomen, festering and burning like an open sore.

“What did you do, Law?” I stand, wanting to not feel so small under the weight of whatever’s to come.

His head works back and forth and his face pales. “Please, Maggie. Don’t.”

“Tell me,” I say through gritted teeth.

His head falls and his shoulders go slack. “It’s not what I did. It’s what I had done.”

My brows crease, but I don’t say a word for fear he’ll retreat back into his habit of shutting me out.

“I asked Lucresse to kill my father.”