Page 97 of The Rogue's Curse

He leaned forward. “Get a handle on your attitude, Danielle. There are ways to get what you want, and there are ways to ensure you get booted out of my office.”

He had clearly been far too indulgent with her over the last few months. His vague threat only made her look more determined.

“Why wouldn’t you turn me? I have as much reason as any of you to want to bring down Lilah and Kieran. More, if we’re being honest,” she said, gesturing broadly to herself.

There was a certain zero-fucks-given essence about Danielle that he adored. Her scoop-necked top revealed the twisted constellations of bite scars across her neck and collarbones, and he knew there were more on her arms and legs. She’d been a self-regenerating main course for Lilah and Kieran for weeks, and her body bore the evidence.

“They made me call my sister and bring her into that disgusting place. She and Nikko aren’t the only people who have a bone to pick with them. And I don’t have a vampire soulmate who would die to protect me. I’m all alone in this, so give me something. Let me protect myself. Let me help you, and—”

“I would protect you, as would anyone in this court,” he interrupted, halting her mid-diatribe. Her brow furrowed. “You aren’t alone, Dani.”

Her gaze softened. “That’s sweet, but my point stands. Do you have a good reason not to turn me?”

“I don’t want you to be hurt,” he said. “I know you want to help, but you have no idea how vicious Shea is. You don’t want any part of that.”

“And if your attempt to kill Carrigan Shea fails, and it comes to the last line of defense, you think I’ll be safer by remaining human?” she asked.

“By your logic, I should turn the entire city,” Paris said.

She shook her head and swiped at her eyes. “You know, Alexei was going to turn me. We talked about it when we were working at Circle 8 together. And then he got killed when Shea’s people attacked at the theater,” she said. “Nikko told me once that if no one else turned me first, he’d do it after he turned Olivia so things wouldn’t get too weird. But now’s the time. And I would rather it was you than Nikko, because that feels kind of like a weird vampire sister-wives situation.”

“I’ll think about it,” Paris said.

“Paris—”

“I said I would think about it,” he said sharply.

She still didn’t let up. “And how long will you think about it? How many more bodies have to—”

“Enough,” he snapped, rising from his desk. She rose to meet him, eyes full of fire. “If you think I am not aware of how everything has gone to shit, you haven’t been paying attention. You can speak freely and ask for what you want, but don’t ever try to emotionally manipulate me, Danielle.”

She took a small step back, but she didn’t break her gaze. “You’re right. I’ll put it this way. It takes a few days, right?” He remained silent. “I could help you. But the longer we wait, the more likely it is that something bad happens before I turn.”

“You understand what you lose, don’t you?” he asked. “You lose the daylight, and your entire life will revolve around that blasted ball of gas in the sky. Every human you know and love will die while you don’t change. You will forever be at a certain distance, unable to touch the world as you once did. You must be forgettable and disconnected lest you arouse too much suspicion with your strange habits. Everything changes.”

Her smile remained, but her eyes were sad. “Olivia’s all I’ve got. Everyone else in my family sucks. I don’t know what she’s told you, but our mom is a real piece of work. I was chained up in an abandoned school, and my mother left me a voicemail asking for cash. I was missing for weeks, nearly died, and she still has no clue. Still hasn’t called me back, if that tells you how much I’m going to lose by disconnecting from my relatives,” she said.“This is the best family I’ve ever had, even if it’s dysfunctional as hell.”

Her eyes glistened, but not a single tear dared to spill down her cheeks. For a moment, he was staring through a looking glass to the past, listening to himself tell Julian he didn’t have any goodbyes to say.

Finally he said, “Talk to me tomorrow. I’ve got a lot on my mind today. Okay?”

Her jaw ticked, like she was fighting to hold back a protest. She said, “Okay. You want a drink? I mix a mean Bloody Mary, light on the Mary.”

He couldn’t help laughing. “Not tonight. I’ll take you up on it tomorrow.”

She nodded, then slid out of his office. It was an hour after sunset, and he could hear the noise of conversation as their hive came to life.

Shaking his head, he checked his messages and found a text from Dominic, asking him to stop by. His heart thumped, and he prayed that he wasn’t about to get the tongue-lashing of a lifetime. With nervous anticipation boiling in his gut, he headed out of the administrative building and toward the infirmary, dreading what he would find.

When he entered, he paused at Rhys’s desk, finding him already hard at work checking through files. “How’s Dom today?”

“Eager to get out of here,” Rhys said with a laugh. “After you visit, come back and see me.”

Paris raised an eyebrow. “Well, now I’m curious. Can you tell me now?”

Rhys nodded. “The young man you brought out of Infinity, Avery?” he asked. “I had him escorted home to his parents’ house, but we just got back some lab results from Saint Anthony’s.”

“And? Is he clean?”

---