Page 50 of Mortal Blood
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“I’ve been waiting.”
“Good,” Cole said coldly.
Thaden sent him a dark look before his gaze flicked back to me. I shrugged unrepentantly.
“We were busy.”
Thaden’s nose twitched deliberately and he curled his lip. “So it would seem.”
“Fucking supernaturals,” I muttered.
“Careful, sweetness, you’re one of us now.”
“Careful, Thaden,” I returned. “You almost spoke to me like an equal.”
His eyes roamed over my face. “We have never been equals.”
A shiver ran the length of my spine at his dark tone, and it did something to me that I didn’t care to examine too closely. Thaden smirked, and then shot a look over my shoulder at Cole.
“Seems like your little mate still craves something.”
“The only thing Icrave,” I said quickly, before Cole could do anything to completely destroy whatever was left of the friendship they’d once shared—like stake Thaden with a chair leg, “is for you to finally fulfill your end of the bargain we made.”
Thaden stiffened, the tension doing something to the shape of his shoulders that I was definitely not noticing, because speciesist assholes were not my type.
“I keep my word, sweetness.”
“Yeah, it looks like it. You think a dozen books is all it takes to make those people’s lives bearable?”
“I believe the terms of our deal were to ‘make things better for Darkveil’s humans.’ Your words, sweetness. They have something they didn’t have before. That’s better.”
“Don’t fuck around, Thaden,” Cole snarled, and Thaden simply smirked.
“What’s your problem?” I snapped. “Because you sure as shit didn’t have an issue with this whole deal last year.”
“You didn’t have a problem with Cali then, either,” Cole said.
“A lot has changed since last year,” Thaden said tightly.
Cole snorted and shook his head. “‘I didn’t have you down as the sort of asshole who’d have a problem with what kind of supernatural someone is.”
“If you think that, then you know even less about me than you assumed.”
“Than Iassumed? Dammit, Thaden, we went through a hell of a lot together, and this,” Cole gestured him up and down sharply, “is not you.”
“You think being briefly engaged to my sister gives you some kind of inside track to my brain, is that it?” Thaden demanded, squaring up to Cole. “Because there is a fuck ton you don’t know about me.”
“Apparently so,” Cole ground out, tension rippling across his shoulders as he glared at the vampire.
“Enough!” I stepped between the two of them, planting my hands on their chests and sending them both back a step. I looked from one to the other. “What the hell is wrong with you? Youusedto be friends, and don’t bother trying to say it was a means to an end, because we all know that’s bull. You used to beclose,and I’ll be damned if whoever myfatheris will be the reason that changes.”
“This isn’t about—” Thaden broke off with a growl of frustration. “Just give me your list already.”
“No.”
“Excuse the fuck out of me?”
