Page 10 of His Mate By Vengeance

For a second, he thought Angel might turn his head and claim his lips, but then his face shut down and he pushed past Vin to grab a blood bag from the cooler. Vin stared at him in surprise, cocking his head in question as Angel shoved it into his hands. That was the second time Angel had provided food for him. Did he even realise he was doing it?

“You need to heal so you can get out of my fur,” Angelexplained defensively, still scowling before he retreated as far as he could get, which wasn’t very far in the small cabin.

“He’s not talking,” Marco said from nearby, breaking the awkward tension as he glared at the silent vamp tied to the chair.

“Is that so?” Vin said, smiling at the captive as he sat down on the table in front of him, swinging his legs while he drank from the blood bag the other vampire was no doubt desperate for.

Once he was finished, he reached out to touch the vamp’s hand where it was bound tight, but stopped when Angel growled. Glancing over his shoulder, Vin saw the shifter glaring at his fingers where they hovered near their captive’s skin.

Interesting.

“Angel, stop letting your wolf hold the reins and let Vin do his thing. He’s not flirting with him,” Marco snapped.

“I don’t give a shit if he does,” Angel said.

“I mean, Icouldflirt with him. That’s usually how I get the information I need,” Vin teased.

Angel’s responding growl was drowned out by the vamp yelling at him to fuck off, disgust clear on his face. Supernaturals didn’t tend toward homophobia. You had to try really hard to live as long as they did and not understand lust was lust and love was love. So, Vin assumed the disgust was about the whole having his brain manipulated by Vin’s power into betraying his employer thing. He didn’t give a shit. He was much more interested in the jealousy pouring off his Angel.

“Stop toying with him,” Marco said, and Vin knew he meant Angel, not the attacker.

“Fine. I’ll do it the boring way,” Vin sighed.

Reaching for his power more consciously than he usually bothered to, he touched a single finger to the vampire’s pulsepoint and let his charisma flood over him. This attacker was neither young nor old. His mind was strong, but not such a challenge that Vin couldn’t make him want to comply, especially as injured and hungry as he was.

“You’re a mercenary, aren’t you, Sugar?” he asked, starting with a simple question. He called all his marks Sugar, whether he was targeting them for sex or murder.

The vamp looked dazed as his charm took hold, and he was nodding before he could catch himself.

“Well done. Doesn’t it feel good to tell me things?” Vin murmured, leaning closer as he lured the vamp’s mind into confused compliance.

“Can’t…” the vamp muttered.

“You can’t resist me. That’s right. Because you want to please me. Who hired you to attack me?” Vin asked, stroking his fingers over the vampire’s skin in a pattern designed to distract him from his resistance and hold the skin-to-skin connection he needed to overcome his defences.

“Don’t know. They were anonymous.”

Vin pouted. “Awww, Sugar. Don’t disappoint me like that. I bet a clever boy like you would’ve figured them out. They pay you a lot to attack on shifter territory?”

The vamp looked distressed. He was straining against the ropes tying him down, but not getting anywhere. “Didn’t know it was shifter land until we got here.”

That was interesting. They must be from out of town. Any vamp within fifty miles of the city would know this was Lunetti Pack territory. “What was the job they paid you for?”

The vamp opened his mouth to reply, and a flash of green light flared from a ring he was wearing on his right hand, barely visible in the sunshine, before his jaw snapped shut and resigned terror filled his eyes. A moment later, it became clear why as his body started to twitch and silver foam frothed out of his mouth.

It only took him seconds to die.

“Well, fuck,” Vin said, staring down at the vamp’s vacant expression.

“This wasn’t Kyan,” Marco growled as he drew close and tried to prise the vamp’s jaw open with no success.

“No,” Vin agreed. “Which means it’s someone trying to start a war.”

CHAPTER 4: ANGELO

Angelo stood consciously stillas he watched Marco and Vin inspect the now-dead body they’d been questioning. His muscles flexed as he fought the annoying urge to pull Vin away from his Alpha. Marco was too close to Vin, and the vampire was still recovering from that horrifying head injury. He should be resting. And why did Angelo even care? Was the vamp using his power on him? Swallowing another growl, he breathed deep through his anger, knowing Marco would lose patience with him if he didn’t pull it together.

Vin glanced up at him and his cock throbbed as the vamp bit his lip and batted dark lashes over flashing silver eyes. Seeing Vin wearing his clothes on his slim, muscled frame was an exercise in torture. Why the fuck had he let him wear the grey sweatpants? They left nothing to the imagination. They also left the vamp smelling of him, and everyone around him knew it. That shouldnotfeel so damn satisfying. Shaking his head, he forced himself to focus.

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