Page 43 of Bound
“Amoret,” I mumble. Her friendliness seems natural. Easy. I envy it.
Her smile softens. “Well, Amoret. I think you’ve met Tanner.” She jerks her thumb at the shifter male. He winks at me.
My flush deepens. He is handsome too, with his dark hair and those arresting silver eyes.
“The dark dynamic duo are Lilah and Ruin,” she adds. “Their barks are worse than their bites. Promise.”
The male vampire’s name spins through me, and I turn toward him as my heart races.
He’s the one on trial.
Even without the files the Council sent ahead of us, I know it is him.
I appraise Ruin again, noting the malice rimming him like cologne. How he keeps the female, Lilah, under his arm. His protective stance with her.
And how she does the same.
There is a fear to her eyes as she watches me. A weariness. I want to tell her that I understand her concern. To allay her fears.
But the male beside her screams killer.
It’s more than the midnight abyss of his gaze. Or the fact he is a vampire. He is deadly, and it shows.
Something must flash across my face before I can smooth my expression because Lilah’s blue eyes shimmer with unshed tears. My mouth opens to apologize for whatever slight I have made, but she turns on her heel and storms into the manor.
My shoulders droop. “I did not mean to …” I trail off and stare at the ground, sickness building in my stomach.
Great.
A warm hand pats my shoulder. “This whole thing is hard for Lilah,” Nisha murmurs to me. “She blames herself.”
I blink and peer sidelong at her. “Why?”
Nisha’s stares at me. “He killed the one responsible for killing her, and he only changed her because she’s his consort.” The world tilts from under me.
My head whips up.
Ruin, Tanner, and Gage speak in low voices near the doors. Ruin’s face is pinched. Tight. He gestures back at the door, and Gage grips his shoulder in one moonlit hand. The look on Gage’s face in steadfast. Ruin bows his head.
The resignation in him slices through me like a knife.
The vampire is a killer, all right.
He killed to save his consort. His one fated true love in this lifetime.
And now the Council wants him dead because of it.
