Eternal Sin

was right when he called us the pussy brothers.”

“Hey,” Val said.

Sasha tossed him a look.

Val shrugged. “Yeah, all right.”

Petra heard the door to the cabin burst open, and seconds later Dani entered the dark bedroom. “I was doing a moonlight flyby and saw that bastard by the river with you and Brodan.”

“You’re too late,” Petra said.

“No, she’s not.” Valentin eyed Sasha as he pushed to his feet, then offered his hand to his brother. “We’re going to fix this. We’re going back to his apartment, taking him again.”

“Hell, yes,” Sasha agreed, slapping Valentin’s palm and jumping up. “And this time, we’re keeping him in the clinic, sedated. You can feed from him like that. Coma Vamp.”

“Yeah, drugs in Pet’s blood would be real great for the cub, idiots,” Dani said with a snort.

“Oh, right,” Sasha said, walking out of the closet. “Then we’ll knock him out the old-fashioned way.”

“One, two, three!” Val added. “Four, five, six!”

The brothers chuckled as they started for the door.

“He’s not at his apartment,” Dani called after them.

“What do you mean?” Petra began, turning her attention to the hawk female. “How would you— Oh, gods, Dani, you didn’t fly into Manhattan. It’s broad daylight there. You could’ve been shot at.”

Dani put her hands up. “Ease up, bestie. Didn’t go to New York, though I’m really starting to dig that place. It’s all dressed up for the holiday they celebrate. The one with fir trees and snow and reindeer.”

“Dani,” Petra said tightly. “Synjon?”

Her gaze locked on Petra and softened a hair. “I didn’t leave the Rain Forest, and neither has the vampire.”

The words sank in, but their meaning didn’t. Petra didn’t understand. Syn was still here? Had he lost his ability to flash? No, that wasn’t possible. She’d seen him flash from the river.

“You know where he is, Dani?” Sasha asked her.

The hawk shifter turned to the brother and shrugged. “Where he was headed.”

“And you didn’t dive-bomb the bastard, scoop him up in your talons?”

Dani’s gaze returned to Petra. There was no typical bluster or hard-ass hawk attitude glistening in her eyes now. Only the solid intimacy of a best friend. “Tell me what you want. Personally I’d like to forget he exists, but I’ll do whatever you want me to do.”

What she wanted. Shit, that was a big and constantly changing question. Maybe it would be better if she could just forget he existed too. But that wasn’t practical, was it? The effects of his blood were pure magic. She and the balas still needed him, so for now there was only one answer.

“We’re going,” Val said before she could open her mouth.

“No.” Petra pointed at them and said in her most resolute, most authoritative voice. “You’re not. This is my business, my blood to go after. I’ll handle it.”

His face tensing with unease, Sasha was first to object. “Pets—”

“There’s a reason he hasn’t left.” She moved past them all and out the bedroom door. “I need to find out what it is.”

8

“Unbelievable,” Nicholas Roman growled, stalking forward.

Alexander was right beside him. “What the hell is he doing here?”

Though feeling weaker and more emotionally lost than ever after such a jarring flash, Cruen stood his ground outside the gathering stones as the Roman brothers and two of the mutore came to stand before him. Nostrils flared, hands balled into fists, the four glanced back and forth between him and Dillon, who stood beside him.

“Mommy made me bring him,” Dillon grumbled, then amended her statement with a shrug. “He told Feeyan about his connection to Petra.”

Nicholas glared at Cruen, his lips forming a sneer. “So now you want to claim her? After all these years?”

All I wish to claim is that British bastard who glued his emotions to my insides. All I want is my power back. Perhaps even my chair on the Order. But to the Roman brother he said smoothly, “I have a right to know where my Pureblood daughter is. If she’s being held here against her will.”

Alexander chuckled bitterly. “The old paven’s getting sentimental. How sweet.”

“So sweet I might lose a fang, right into his carotid,” Helo added blackly.

“Where is Petra?” Cruen asked, ignoring the males. “Where is my daughter?”

“My daughter.” The female lion shifter who’d raised Petra from near infancy left the gathering stones and headed his way. “She’s my daughter, Cruen. She wants to remain here, in her home, her homeland, around her family.”

As the shifter closed in on him, Cruen recalled the day he’d brought his and Celestine’s infant here. In his time spent gathering blood samples in the Rain Forest, he’d witnessed all manner of selflessness. Each faction helped the others, looked out for the others. It had actually started to irritate him. Such goodness was tiresome. But when Petra was born, when he’d taken her from Cellie, he’d known the perfect place to keep her safe while keeping his connection to more blood samples open.

Wen’s eyes were fierce as she stared him down. “You don’t belong here, vampire.”

“Perhaps Petra doesn’t either,” he said. “Perhaps it’s time for her to learn about her own kind.”

“She’ll make that decision, not you.”

Cruen nodded. Yes, he’d chosen well with this female. Protective, but in a quiet way. He’d heard of her desire for a daughter, and her failure to produce one. She’d been so grateful.

“Don’t you have some Frankenstein monster to create back in your lab?” Helo asked him.

Cruen’s gaze shifted, ran over the water beast, who had once called him father. “I think I made enough monsters for one century.”

Helo’s expression darkened.

“Now I come directly from the table of the Order,” Cruen said in the calmest of voices. “Unless you want Feeyan here in my stead, I suggest we get on with this.”

Both Roman brothers turned to Dillon with an incredulous look.

“Gahhhh, I can’t believe I’m saying this,” Dillon rattled with a sigh, “but he’s right.”

The guard behind Cruen leaned in and spoke directly into his ear. “Shall I go with you or wait outside the stones, sir?”

“Wait outside.”

“Very good. Sir.”

Was he imagining things, or did he detect a thread of disrespect in the guard’s tone? Cruen mused as he walked past the Romans, the mutore, and Wen, and into the circle of stones. The male had been with him for only a few months, and had always acted completely servile. Perhaps, with the circumstances being what they were, with his power nearly gone, he himself was projecting that feeling of insolence.

“Let’s get started,” Dillon said, following him.

“Shouldn’t we wait for Petra?” Cruen suggested, sitting down opposite the rest of the group. “And the paven she holds hostage?”

“No one’s being held hostage,” Alexander said through gritted teeth.

“So you all keep saying.”

“You know exactly why Syn’s here, Cruen,” Lucian snarled, his body ready to spring. “I’m surprised you can’t feel it, seeing as how you sucked down all his emotions a few days ago.”