Page 97 of Venomous Lies
Demir bristled at the vampire’s cutting remarks but was smart enough to not push him further.
No matter what was going on, it was clear that Julian was the leader of the operation. Even Ambrose and Falke were deferring to him. Isla, however, wasn’t that impressed given how she just stared at the man opposite to her with an arched eyebrow, waiting for Julian to make the first move.
Fuck, the two of them having a stand-off was going to make me fucking rock hard.
I needed a smoke.
Or ten.
“Keep it together, Bricriu,” Ambrose whispered softly, holding out a cigarette in offering. “This situation is already a fucking ticking time bomb.”
“You can start, Hellsing,” Isla directed, making even Ambrose pause. He froze with his cigarette poised at hislips. “Why should I be answering any ofyourquestions out of everyone?”
I pulled out my lighter, turned it on with a quick flick, and inhaled.
“Besides the fact that we’re bonded?”
Coughing hit me as the same thing happened to Ambrose.
“Excuse me?!” we asked at the same time.
Falke was shocked enough that his mouth went slack, and Demir looked ready to punch something or someone.
Somehow, Isla was calm, simply watching Julian with an unreadable expression. Her mismatched eyes searched the vampire's face before turning to look at me.
The eye contact almost felt like an apology, but I wasn’t even sure how I felt. My brain was still trying to process that reveal.
“I’m not here to be bossed around like the others,” she shot back. She pursed her lips and pushed her hair back over her shoulder with her uninjured hand. “Try your intimidation tactics on them.”
“I haven’t even begun to try, Isla. When I do, trust me, you’ll know.”
“But I don’t trust you,” she said wearily. “Not any of you. I was going to be fucking kidnapped, and the only way I escaped… Well, I did what I had to do.”
“Kidnapped? By who?” Demir asked sharply.
“This is the last warning you’ll get.” Julian spoke softly though with enough menace that the hair on the back of my neck stood up on end. “You are, and never will be, in charge of what is going on here. While you are here,Iam the one you answer to and whose lead you follow. So focus on keeping your fucking mouth shut.”
“Is that an order?” Demir snarked, pushing his luck.
But it seemed that luck snapped.
No one intervened when Julian suddenly reappeared halfway across the room, holding Demir up in the air as if he were a fucking rag doll. He threw the younger man onto a table, which splintered at the impact.
He loomed over the dazed man on the ground and hissed in warning.
“You are lucky that I have the self-control you seem to lack. Find. Yours,” he snarled roughly. “Is that understood?”
“Yes,” Demir answered begrudgingly.
“Yes,what?”
“Yes,sir.”
“If the dick measuring contest is over with,” Isla interjected, and it took every bit of my willpower not to laugh. “Iwas supposed to be the center of attention.”
Ambrose didn’t have the same sense of self-preservation, chuckling darkly as his sharp gaze drank Isla in.
The door behind us to the library opened and Isla’s face drained of color as she saw whoever was standing there.
