Page 6 of His Mate By Vengeance

Vin raised an eyebrow. Whatever. He didn’t need a shifter to babysit. He worked alone. If seduction wasn’t going to get him to a sleeping Angel he could sneak away from, then it was time to piss him off enough that he lost his focus or, even better, stormed out and left him for good this time.

“Sure, Darlin’. Whatever you say.”

“Don’t fucking call me that,” Angel growled.

“Darling? Why not?”

“Because I’m not anything to you.”

Vin couldn’t help but let out a long, carefree laugh again. Angel was cute when he was angry. “Why do you hate me somuch? Usually, a shifter would have bent me over the table to show me who’s boss by now.”

A moment of surprise was followed by a level of white-hot rage beyond anything he’d seen on Angel’s face before.

Interesting.

“You’re lying. Shifters don’t fuck vamps. We’re enemies,” Angel spat, which had Vin laughing even harder.

Shit. This was the most fun he’d had in years. He had literal tears streaming down his face. “Oh my god. Tell your boss that, please. I called him Sugar, and he didn’t mind one bit. Just said he had something for me that was sweeter than blood. He was wrong. Blood’s always sweet?—”

A firm hand wrapping tight around his neck and slamming him against the nearest wall cut his words off. He’d been too distracted to see the attack coming, which was really fucking weird for him. He didn’t want to look at that too closely. But honestly, he hadn’t thought the quip about Angel’s Alpha’s antics would be what tipped the shifter over. He’d just been warming up to the kind of species insults that were tiresome but always seemed to evoke a reaction in an angry shifter.

A wide smile spread across his face, even as he knew it was turning red from lack of oxygen. Strangulation was uncomfortable, but it wouldn’t kill him. Only catastrophic damage to his heart or brain with a silver weapon would do that. In the meantime, the delightful shifter wasjealous. There was no other explanation for the blind emotion in his reaction. Angel might hate him, but Vin could tell he took his job seriously. He wouldn’t have been trying to hurt him if he was in his right mind, and shifters were notoriously possessive when they wanted something.

Vin reached up and stroked a gentle finger down the scruff on Angel’s cheek, tracing his jawline before pressing a thumb to his lips, his eyes daring Angel to suck on it. Hedidn’t. But the shifter didn’t bite it off either, despite the fact Angel had clearly lost control of his wolf again—his eyes burning golden, his canines lengthening. He must be a born shifter, not turned, to give off alpha vibes like that and be able to hold a partial shift, especially when he was so angry.

“I hate you because someone just like you took my family from me,” Angel growled in answer to his original question and then immediately stumbled back away from Vin, looking shocked by his own admission.

Vin tipped his head to the side and watched Angel’s confusion. His poor shifter didn’t know why he’d revealed such personal information to him. It was probably best not to tell him that one of the vampiric powers age had gifted Vin was a persuasive, charismatic aura that worked much more strongly when someone was touching him. He hadn’t purposefully used it on Angel, but he would’ve had to focus to block it, and he hadn’t. The shifter was dominant enough that it shouldn’t have worked so well, but whatever emotions he was feeling were making him vulnerable. He suspected Angel might try to actually murder him if he realised what had happened.

“A vampire?” Vin asked, using just a touch of his charm to keep Angel from running off, not enough that he’d notice.

“A vampire assassin,” Angel clarified.

“Who did they take from you?”

“Everyone. My parents. My twelve-year-old sister.” Angel’s eyes had narrowed with suspicion as he spoke. The shifter knew he wouldn’t usually give this information away. “What are you doing to me?”

“I’m making conversation, Angel. Do you know who it was?” Vin asked.

“Why? Do you think he’s a friend of yours? I’m going to find that fucker and when I do, I’m going to make himscream until he begs for death. And then I’m going to give it to him.”

Vin straightened from the wall and frowned, disappointed despite himself that Angel still thought he had no morals. He ran through a list of assassins who could’ve been responsible while he watched Angel’s nostrils flare as he panted only two steps away with his fists clenched and an endless growl sounding from deep in his muscled chest. He was struggling to stay human.

“I don’t associate with child killers. Was it Bane?” Vin asked.

He'd always hated Bane, the slippery bastard. The guy’s birth name was Charles, but few remembered that now. The asshole had changed it to seem scarier, and he took the jobs no one else would for the same reason. Bane was old, but nowhere near as old as Vin or Dar. Vin should’ve taken him out years ago, but there was a code among assassins and taking out a colleague without even being paid was a quick way to get to the top of everyone’s hit list.

Angel’s eyes narrowed, and he jerked his head in assent. “Do you know where he is?”

Vin considered the question. He could certainly find the vampire and if he sent Angel off after him, he’d be free to figure out his current predicament without interruption. But as strong as Angel was, he wasn’t nearly ruthless enough to take on someone like Bane. Oh, doubtless Angel had killed plenty of times before. Probably even made it painful, too. He was a predator, after all. But Angel didn’t think like someone who’d lived in the worst shadows their entire long life. He’d never get close enough to Bane, and he’d likely die trying. Why did that bother him?

Vin should’ve just said no and left it at that. But he couldn’t. He really,reallydespised child killers. He was a vampire born, but he’d been powerless as a child—takenwhen his parents were murdered, much like Angel’s had been. Only they hadn’t tried to kill Vin, too. Instead, he’d been kept and used by people who treated children like disposable toys. Vampires don’t break the same way human children do. Vampires could take far more abuse. It was why they’d risked taking him. And they’d tested every limit of what his body could take for the years he’d spent in that hellhole.

If he’d gotten word of this hit on Angel’s family at the time, he would’ve taken things into his own hands already and dealt with Bane. Adults were fair game, but children were precious. No one had ever looked out for Vin. He’d had to save himself. Had to take his own revenge for him and all those children lost. And he’d kept taking it long past when all those involved in his captivity were dead. It was probably the only thing that had kept Kyan on the 18+ side of the trafficking business all this time. The vampire mob boss knew what Vin would do if he strayed, but he’d been chafing at the constraint, his ‘stock’ looking younger and younger. This set-up with the bomb was all the excuse Kyan had needed to finally take Vin out. It was entirely possible Kyan knew he’d been framed and just didn’t care.

“I’ll look into it,” Vin said, forcing his voice to nonchalance and his hands not to tremble with the memories he usually kept locked away.

Angel looked surprised, and his breathing finally calmed. “Really?”

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