Page 75 of Colin

This plan fucking sucked.

He looked to Jamie and Luc, ready to call out and open a discussion. Instead, he watched as Jamie collapsed onto the sidewalk.

“Fuck!”

He and Dane ran over. “What’s wrong with him?” Fox asked, as Luc knelt on the sidewalk, hoisting Jamie’s limp form into his lap.

It couldn’t be too terrible, whatever it was—Luc didn’t look murderous enough for it to be life-threatening.

Luc confirmed it with his next words. “He’s having a vision,” he told them, brushing Jamie’s hair off his forehead with a tenderness that was almost painful to look at.

Instead of that reassuring Fox, his sense of foreboding only increased. His devil, already restless with the thought of impending violence, was now threatening to come out of his very skin.Wrong. All wrong.

Jamie’s eyes started twitching, the whites showing as they rolled back in his head. He opened his mouth, but somehow, Fox already knew.

All Jamie had to do was gasp, “Colin,” and Fox and Dane were already running.

They’d been played.

It was daylight, and they were moving too fast to be human, conspicuous as hell, but for once, Fox couldn’t be bothered to care. They needed to get back to the house.

If Serena really was trying to fuck with their human, she was about to find out what happened when someone messed with what was theirs.

She wouldn’t live to see another day.

twenty-one

Colin

Colin opened his mouth, but before he could—what, exactly? Scream? Cuss her out?—Serena was in front of him, black eyes boring into his. “You will not scream. You will not fight. You will not run away.”

Colin shut his mouth. Or, more like, his mouth shutforhim, like it was acting on its own volition. Was this compulsion? He’d thought maybe it put you into some kind of hazy, dreamlike state. But his mind felt sharp enough; it was just his body that was hindered. Then again, she hadn’t told him anything to affect him mentally—hadn’t told him not to be afraid or anything. Just not to scream, fight, or run. Maybe that changed things.

Jesus, dude. Now is not the time to be analyzing vampire abilities.

But fuck, he’d never been compelled before. Jay didn’t like it, not even for demonstration, and Colin had never gotten around to asking the twins to try it on him.

Fuck. The twins.

Panic laced through Colin’s veins as Serena grabbed his arm and tugged him, not inside after all, but onto the porch swing. Had she done something to Fox and Dane? If she’d hurt them, Colin was going to rip her goddamn eyeballs out.

How he’d do that while under compulsion, he had no idea, but he’d find a fucking way.

She was scanning the street now, as if looking for someone. Colin felt the briefest flicker of hope. Maybe the twins were on her tail after all. Although why the fuck she’d be settling in for a sit-down if they were was beyond him.

She glanced at him and must have caught whatever stupid expression was on his face, because she sneered. “Your saviors aren’t coming, sweetie.” She laughed at the clear panic her words caused. “They’re notdead. More’s the pity. Just…occupied.” She searched the street again. “Now whereishe,” she muttered.

Revulsion washed through Colin as realization dawned on him. “You’re looking for your husband.” His stomach churned when she didn’t deny it. “You were in on it the whole time. The kids. How could youdothat?”

“I told you,” she said, pausing her search to look at Colin. The calm in her face was disturbing. “I wanted a family. I wasn’t lying about how I was turned—I didn’t ask for any of this.” Her eyes flashed. “I’mowed.”

“You’re never owed somebody else’slife.”

She turned back to the street, like Colin’s words were completely inconsequential. “Tell me where he is.”

Colin stared at her blankly. “Who? Your partner? How the fuck would I know?”

She tightened her grip on his arm, hard enough he would have cried out in pain if he could.You will not scream.“Thechild. Riley. Where is he?”

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