Page 16 of Blood of a Huntsman

Conclave

Bash wanted them all to go, but Chloe, Mikar, and Luke hovered around him, pretending to be "waiting for updates."

He knew that if not for him, they'd be down the hill with the rest of the vampires called to investigate the incident at their borders. They’d be trying to work out what had attacked the three students, doing something useful.

He was just fine. He'd messed up, but no one had been hurt—because of him, anyway. People had warned him it might happen.

Bash refused to let himself crumble. He'd get better. It would get easier. If Luke had gone through this, there was no reason why he wouldn't.

He told himself that over and over. Eventually, it would stick, and start to sound true when he repeated it out loud.

His head snapped up moments before Catherine walked through the doors of Levi's mansion and then headed right to the study, where the small gathering took turns pacing about the room.

"How is she?" Chloe was the first to ask.

“She'll make it.”

Thank God.

Bash knew he wasn’t responsible for what had happened tonight, but if the girl had died from her wounds, her last memory would have been bleeding out on the ground with him towering over her, smirking like a goddamned monster. He couldn’t bear the thought.

She was fine. She’d live, and he could apologize.

Shit. How fucking self-centered was that? Bash had become such a pathetic creature.

“Greer and Alexius were incredible,” Catherine added. “She would have been doomed if not for them.”

To Bash's surprise, the vamp princess lowered her gaze to his. "And for you, too," she added.

Bash frowned. "Me?"

She almost smiled. Almost. Suddenly, Bash was glad Catherine scowled, because her expression lightening up just a little bit was enough to make his heart miss one beat.

Shit, it was unfair how fucking gorgeous that woman was.

"You startled the demon. Whatever it was, it wasn't in the mood to face a vamp, so it left before ripping her up like it did to her friends. I thought you'd like to know."

He certainly hadn't expected that, nor did he know what to make of it. So, what, his wanting to eat the girl was a good thing, now?

"Thanks," he said nonetheless, because as nonsensical as the notion seemed, he was glad to hear that he'd helped, though it had been entirely involuntary.

"Not just for telling me about her. Thanks for stopping me. If I'd killed her…" Words failed him.

Bash doubted he would have been able to recover from that, no matter what his well-meaning friends said.

"If you'd killed her, it would have been an understandable accident." Luke was firm. "And incidents like that might happen again. You have to come to terms with it."

"Why would he?" Cat questioned.

All eyes turned to her. She shrugged, unapologetic.

"Why would he come to terms with the fact that he failed? Why should he be fine with murdering innocents when it's preventable?"

Catherine wasn't one to speak unless she was obliged to. He didn't think he'd heard her say more than a couple of sentences at any time, in the six months since he'd first seen her. She was all about dismissive glances before getting on with what she was doing. But now that she was talking, her opinion seemed very much in character.

A spoiled, egocentric princess who would accept nothing short of excellence and held everyone else to her standard.

Bash laughed. Chloe and Luke watched him like he'd sprouted a second head, and he realized he probably hadn't laughed in a long time.

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