Page 84 of Villains and Vengeance
In the middle of the room, she stops and waits.
Dante gets out of his chair and jumps down from the platform. He prowls toward her slowly. He circles her, watching her, taking her in.
‘I didn’t think you’d do it,’ he chuckles to Maddox. ‘But you brought the female.’
He stands in front of Jules. ‘Tell me, Victoria, how did you get here?’
‘Snuck into a food shipment,’ she answers.
Dante laughs lightly.
Then he backhands her hard enough to knock her to the ground.
My body twitches as I force it to stay still. I have to look away; I want to throw myself in front of her and I can’t do that.
He leans over her.
‘Ready to tell me the truth?’ he asks.
Blood drips from her split lip and she smiles up at him, red all over her teeth. She spits into his face.
She likes doing that.
‘Think you're the first asshole supe to smack me around? Fuck you, Dante.’
CHAPTER18
JULES
He hauls me up like I weigh less than nothing to him and he pulls me close. He licks the bloody spittle from his lip and grins. I try my best not to flinch, but it’s hard when he’s so close. I can feel his hot breath on my cheek as I turn my face away.
Maddox, Iron, and Daemon are still here, I realize. They’re watching what Dante does to me. This was all part of their revenge for Krase, so they want a front row seat, I guess.
My stomach pitches as Dante throws me over his shoulder and carries me to his throne. He sits down on it and places me on his lap, stroking my hair like I’m a pet.
‘As you wished, Maddox, you and your clan are the highest of my generals now. The power and the privilege that comes with those positions are yours. I hope that’s suitable.’
Dante’s tone suggests he doesn’t give a flying fuck if it’s not.
Maddox bows and the others follow suit. He eyes me and I look away from them, shying away from Dante’s hands as he draws them over me almost reverently. When I look up, Maddox and his clan are gone.
‘Silas!’ Dante bellows suddenly, making me cringe.
He picks me up as he stands. ‘Where the fuck is that useless vamp,’ he mutters almost to himself. He starts walking into his room. ‘You won’t get the taste I promised you if you don’t come now!’ he calls.
A taste ofme, I realize. He’s going to feed me to his vampire. At least he was going to. But I think I heard Iron and Daemon say to Maddox they’d killed him. I can only hope so, or I’m in immediate peril with absolutely no plan of escape because Silas definitely has a personal grudge from the garlic spray.
Dante places my feet on the floor and smiles, keeping my arms held by my side as he looks me over.
‘Don’t worry,’ he says, ‘only a little taste of your blood. It’s been a long time since he had anything decent. I won’t let him rape you. He doesn’t deserve a reward like that right now.’
‘Stay here,’ he says, turning away. ‘Watch her. No touching.’
There are two shifter guards by the wall. I recognize one of them from when I got shot. They’re staring hungrily and I hope they’re more afraid of Dante than they are lustful for me.
Dante leaves the room and I move as far from the shifters as I can get, drawing the blue bottle from my pocket and trying to unstopper it before any of them see what I’m doing, but Dante swans back into the room headed right for me. The bottle slips from my shaking fingers and I hurriedly catch it on my shoe. It rolls onto the floor, luckily unbroken. Dante’s almost here. I nudge it under his bed as he gets to me, scooping me up.
‘Time for me to hold court. Do as you’re told, and you’ll get a treat,’ he tells me as he takes me through the curtain. He sits in his chair and barks an order to one of his men to take over the useless vampire’s duties.
