Page 13 of Trapped By the Blood Ruby
“There’s always that,” Marco pointed out. “The witches would pay a great price for you, pet. They’d harvest your screams, rip them from your lips, keep you alive just enough to get rich off your blood. You’d linger for decades in that liminal place between life and death—“
“Or,” Laurent continued. “I just kill you and be done with it. Dead, I need not worry about my enemies using you against me.”
Her heart quickened again, music to his ears.
He studied her. She wasn’t beautiful in the conventional sense, but the longer he stared, the more compelling she became. There was something about the defiant tilt of her chin, the way her blue eyes held his without flinching. In his younger days, the sight of her would have stirred his blood. Knowing she was his to possess. Now…nothing.
“Something tells me I have no choice in the matter?” Her words were quieter this time.
“None at all. Let’s make a deal, you and I. Cooperate, and I’ll see that you are cared for, pampered, even. Luxury accommodations, pretty clothes, fine food. That’s the sort of lifestyle you’re used to, yes?”
“Like a lamb for slaughter—“
“Marco,” he growled, glaring at his second.
“You’ve just got me all figured out, haven’t you?” Her eyes glittered with hate. He shifted in response, scalp prickling. “Except that I don’t care about being pampered. I want to go home.”
“I am not in the business of giving you what you want.”
“And if I don’t cooperate?”
“Then I’ll kill you. Which will it be, Miss Shaw?” He waited for her answer. When she remained silent, he said, “I can see this is too much for your mortal mind. I’ll give you the night to think on it. I expect an answer come the morning. Now, it’s late. I’ll show you to your rooms.”
Her cheeks splotched with red, but she stood.
“Marco, you know what to do.” His second nodded and disappeared.
He escorted Lily through the manor, finding it difficult to keep his eyes from darting toward her face. In the span of an evening, he’d seen a range of emotions cover her features. At the moment, she simply looked coiled tight—ready to spring.
“What happened to the other amplifiers?” she blurted.
He stopped, spinning to face her. “I killed them. All twenty-nine.”
Her expression didn’t waver, but the slight hitch in her breath, the faint scent of fear, gave her away.
“You were entirely correct in your accusations of me. I am every bit the monster you claim, perhaps worse. Think about that when you contemplate your next move.”
“So, what? I get to be number thirty?”
He flinched. The motion was too minute for her to notice. “Perhaps it doesn’t have to be that way.”
Her brows pulled together. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
He hesitated.
It was too late to retract his statement. Placing the idea in the open made the truth impossible to ignore. Because there was another way, a much more dangerous way.
“If my enemies cannot have you, they cannot use you against me. If they cannot use you against me, you are no longer a liability.”
He ought to stop talking.
“And if I’m no longer a liability…?”
“Then you may yet live.”
Her snort was soft. “I hope you don’t expect me to fall to my knees and thank you.”
An unexpected scene flashed through his mind, her falling to her knees before him, unbuttoning his jeans, taking his cock into her mouth. He cursed silently and pushed the image away. “If I wanted you on your knees, Miss Shaw, I’d have you on your knees. Surely a girl like you is familiar with the position.”
