Eternal Sin

Fucking utter horror.

And it had been exactly what he’d wanted. All he’d wanted. The place where, he’d been convinced, vengeance would finally be his.

He moved into the room and grabbed one of the blades from the wall. Three feet of deadly polished steel. He slashed it through the air, cursing, hating himself more than usual.

Cruen had killed his first love. Now Synjon was allowing the mad vampire to destroy his last.

Sighing with frustration, with confusion, with misery for the life and future he’d just lost, he dropped onto the hard metal bench. He hated to admit it, but his need for revenge had started to wane the day he’d been abducted by the pussy brothers, placed in a cabin by the river, and given the opportunity of a lifetime: to feed his veana and his balas.

He stared at the blade.

Out there, in his living room, under a sweet-smelling pine, were baby books, a tub shaped like a duck, two stuffed toy rabbits, and a shirt with the words “Little Fangs” printed on it.

Syn’s throat went scratchy and tight. Bullocks. He had been about to bring filth and hatred and sickness into this house, into that sweet and innocent perfection. And the very worst, he’d lied to the veana he loved. The veana who had done nothing but save him. Over and over.

His gaze shifted from one implement of torture to the next. Cruen had no place here anymore. Maybe he never did.

Unfortunately, convincing Petra that he understood now, that he’d changed, that he saw what was real and right, and acknowledging that “desperately sorry” would never make up for what he’d put her through, was going to be a nearly impossible task.

But impossible hadn’t seemed to contain him lately. Not his emotions, and definitely not his capacity for love.

* * *

“I made ice cream,” Dani said in a playful singsong voice that she reserved for very special occasions. Like breakups, and Battlestar Galactica marathons. She circled her bowl in front of Petra’s nose. “You know you want some.”

Sitting in a chair on the tree house porch, overlooking the Rain Forest under a dome of twilight sky, Petra gave the female hawk shifter a tight smile. It was blatantly forced, but Dani knew that was how things were right now.

Broken heart and all.

Dani dropped into the chair beside her and started going at it, her spoon deep in the center of the chocolate scoop. “You sure? It’s the best I ever made.”

The soft, warm breeze blew Petra’s hair off her face. She’d missed it here. She’d been a fool to leave. She’d just been a fool, period. “Sorry, bestie. Blood’s my thing now.”

Dani made a retching sound. “Well, I ain’t offering up that.”

“Good,” Petra said with a soft laugh. “’Cause I hear yours is a little sour.”

Her mouth dropped open in mock surprise. “Who’d you hear that from?”

“Oh, one of the many males you hang out with.”

Dani pointed her spoon at Petra. “Now I know you’re lying because I don’t let anyone bite me.” She pretended to shiver. “That’s so weird and gross. How do you do it?”

A shock of memory barreled through Petra. Her fangs in Syn’s vein, his fangs inside her. The most perfect meal in the world, and she could never have it again.

“I don’t do it,” she said softly. “Not anymore.”

Dani sighed. “You’ll get over it, Pets.”

“I don’t know.” And she really didn’t. She’d allowed herself to believe in him, and in them as a family. How did you just get over something like that? Everything you ever wanted, desired, dreamed of, there for the taking. Then ripped from you without even a warning, or some heavy-duty pain-killers.

“You will,” Dani assured her, her ice cream momentarily forgotten. “And, girlie, it wasn’t meant to be. You know that.” She tilted her head to the side, her eyes filled with empathy, anger, love. “His whole deal, his world, his purpose was wrapped up in destroying your father. Now, granted, your father sounds like a big old douche, but seriously, that romance was doomed from the start.”

Maybe, Petra thought morosely. Probably. But even knowing that, admitting that, she wouldn’t wish it away. The beautiful times with him had been the very best times of her life. They may have been wrapped up in something ugly, but they’d been absolutely beautiful.

“Brodan?”

Dani’s one-word shock bomb had Petra turning to glare at her. “What?”

Dani laughed at her expression. “Just asking.”

“Seriously, Dani? Now? Right now?”

Shrugging, Dani slid a massive spoonful of ice cream into her mouth. “I’m just saying. Don’t waste too much time. Brodan’s been in love with you forever. All you’d have to do is say the word.”

The only words Petra wanted to utter with the bear shifter were friendly, brotherly ones. “Brodan deserves way better than me.”

“There is nothing better than you, bestie.” Dani granted her a wide grin, complete with chocolate-stained teeth.

Petra laughed in spite of herself. “You’re so pretty.”

Dani started laughing too. They almost didn’t hear a rustle down below, at the base of the tree house. Only when they quieted for a moment, listening, did they hear the sound.

“We have company,” Dani said. They both jumped to their feet and raced to the porch railing. Leaning over it, they saw Sasha crawling up the rope ladder.

“Oh, jeez,” Petra muttered, releasing a sigh of relief. “It’s just my brother.”

Dani eyed her. “Who’d you think it was? Or better yet, who’d you hope it was?”

“Your ice cream’s melting,” Petra said.

“Nice. Very smooth.”

“I try to make my evasions quick and sweet-tasting.”

Dani glanced down at Sasha, who was nearly at the balcony. “I wondered when they’d hear about this, you returning home and all, and come running. Or climbing.” She snorted at her joke, and the moment Sasha swung his large body over the balcony, she attacked. “What do you want, Whiskers? For fuck’s sake, can’t a girl and her best friend have some—”

“Stand down, Dani. Christ,” Sasha interrupted, his tone and his expression heavy with concern. “They’re here.”

“Who?” Dani asked, drawing back, instantly serious.

Petra stilled, wondering if her brother was talking about Syn, and maybe . . . Sara or her mate. But that impossible hope was quickly crushed with Sasha’s next words.

“The Order,” he said, his eyes shuttered. “They’re all at the gathering stones.”

Petra felt a shock like electricity move through her. Forget her and forget Synjon—the Order was looking for her father now. They believed him to have been abducted by the shifters. Held against his will. Something that Petra knew wasn’t possible. Once again Cruen was up to something. What a mess this whole thing was. Synjon had wanted to be the one to abduct Cruen, and yet her father had run off with some underground water shifters and was now becoming a dangerous, threatening problem to Petra’s family and friends.

Gods, why did she continue to care about that paven’s well-being?

Why did something inside her still hope and wonder if he might love her? Or at the very least, care about her.

“So what?” Dani said, already stripping out of her clothes. “Are they looking for a fight over that geriatric vampire who went looking for trouble in our Rain Forest?”

Sasha nodded, but his eyes remained on Petra. “Something like that.”

“Well, then, let’s give ’em one.”

Shifting into her hawk, wings spread and flapping in the breeze, Dani screeched at the two of them to climb