Page 17 of Sleepless Beauties
“Croft Six—”
My breath shakes as I cut him off. “That’s it? He’s mean, that’s all you have for me?”
One of his eyelids creeps open as he makes little effort to look at me. “That’s it. He’s an idiot, and he isn’t important.”
I shift on my feet and try to swallow down the apprehension that’s crawling through me from everything my sister told me about the cruelest man on the vampiric High Council.
Tell me they’ve looked into Aston’s whereabouts during my sister’s death.
“Croft Six—”
“How many deaths have there been in the council this month!?” My jaw clenches, despite how hard I inhale and exhale through the grinding of my teeth.
“Why are you so impossible to train? Why can’t I just give you the information and you accept it? Council issues are none of your business.”
He stands then, and his lean height towers over me. Slitted eyes like a snake’s glare down on me.
“I’m putting my life on the line, and for what? Closure? What are we stalling for?”
“To further CC investigations.” Vuitton fully turns away from his perch at the window now, giving me his full attention. “CC has jurisdiction over all supernatural crimes. Vampires have their own council, wolves have their own pack, and pixies have their own pods, but the CC are neutral outsiders. Rival thinks someone within the vampire’s council is responsible for a few human murders and the last two killings that have occurred within the council. He wants to delay Creature Control from stepping into the Council’s domain. He doesn’t want the lower vampires to start doubting their superiors. He wants the council to handle it internally and quietly. I’ve agreed to help buy him a little time. He’s using you to delay the inevitable.”
My anger lowers. How does he manage to do that? How does this mangy shifter ease every tense thought in my mind with just the soothing rumble of his voice?
“Two?” I ask innocently.
Prey doesn’t give a shit about my need to know, but Vuitton does.
Vuitton is the sweet one.
“Croft Four, Elizabeth Morton died first about a month ago. And your sister, Kyra Vega died two nights ago.” Prey folds his arms hard across his chest. He’s so wired with strength and protection that it literally seeps out of him.
And into me.
I knew there was another vampire who died before my sister.
Kyra said he was getting reckless. That he was becoming too controlling and daring.
I just didn’t do enough to help her before it was too late.
And now my life is on the line too.
Seven
Vuitton
Humans sleep so restlessly. I’ll never understand what these creatures have to fear when all the monsters are lurking in a different zip code.
Kira turns over once more on the tiny queen mattress. The bed would barely sleep myself, but I suppose it’s comfortable enough for her petite size.
Shit she’s small. Breakable… bendable even.
The thin sheet shifts around her and the black lace of her panties are revealed along with the smooth curve of her ass. My brow lifts as I watch her from the doorway, toeing the line between protecting and creeping on her all at the same time.
“Wasn’t Edward totally creepy for watching Bella Swan?” Louis pipes up in barely a whisper from where he leans, just near the window.
I look away so fast, I regret not memorizing the little moaning sound she makes just before I close the door with a soundlessclick.
“Edward was a creep. And a vampire,” I correct.
