Page 34 of The Vampire's Hunter

She nodded, temporarily appeased. “And your plan?”

Corbin huffed, leaning back against the pillows. “Hell if I know, luv.”

“Good,” Dani said, instantly drawing his gaze again. “Good, because I do.”

Corbin sat up, moving across the bed to prop himself on his elbow as he kissed along the skin of her arm, her shoulder. “And what pray tell, do you propose?” he whispered.

“I’ve had my revenge, but now it’s time for me to help you get yours.” Dani stood from the bed, pulling away from him suddenly in a way that caused him to hiss in protest. “I think we may need to call my brother.”

9

“The fate of our entire organization depends on this meeting. Donotfuck this up.”

“I believe we heard you the first several times you said it, Kharis. Must it bear repeating once more?” Corbin rolled his eyes again.

“He’s concerned for you, that’s all,” Dani said, glancing down at her nails as if to examine their polish. They were sitting in Corbin’s living room, waiting on Quinn’s arrival.

Kharis scoffed. “You credit me with far too much emotion, human.”

“Do I?” Dani blinked, turning innocent-doe eyes toward Kharis. “Or are you simply not brave enough to admit to it?”

Kharis growled, looking toward Corbin. “Are you certain you want to keep her?” he hissed. “She seems to have a sharp mouth.”

“I rather like her mouth,” Corbin said, waving a hand in dismissal as he beckoned Dani onto his lap. “And if you weren’t too busy sulking over the fact that she sees right through you, I think you would too.”

“Fools.” Kharis scowled. “The both of you. This isn’t going to work.”

Dani batted her eyes at him. “Not with that attitude it won’t.”

A knock sounded at the door then, drawing all their attention.

A moment later, Quinn strode in, his already frowning face pulling into a scowl the moment he spotted Dani in Corbin’s lap. “I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised,” he said, his Stetson barely hiding his derisive sneer. It was the closest he’d ever come to looking as if he were disgusted with her, but Dani couldn’t bring herself to care anymore.

She was done being the plaything of powerful men.

Corbin included.

And when this business was through, she’d claim her own destiny.

Even if she had to walk away and never come back.

She’d decided upon it the moment Corbin had said he wouldn’t turn her.

That he wouldn’t offer her the kind of power that had been gifted to him.

Dani wasn’t perfect. She had little illusion of that. She was often mild and meek and too willing to let others take control, to make decisions for her, because she’d spent the whole of her life like that, trapped between the wills of powerful men. First her brother, countless boyfriends, and then Cillian—and now, Corbin—he may have wanted her, but he too refused to share his power with her, to make her immortal, to finally give her the means to protect herself, though she’d been robbed of the instinct from the start of her early years.

And howexactlywas that her fault?

Her life, her choices were a result of a trauma response, plain and simple.

And now, she had the chance to truly stand up for herself for the first time in years.

To start anew. To be reborn.

She wouldn’t letanyonetake it away from her.

Not even Corbin. Even if it meant she had to double cross him, as he had her.

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