“So if I don’t follow orders and be a good little hybrid, you’ll hurt my aunt?” I asked boldly, crossing my arms in front of me like I was putting on a breastplate of armor.
He had the audacity to chuckle. “Of course not,” he said, surprising me. “I’ll simply have one of my employees tip off the council about a possible vampiress living near the city who’s gone mad with bloodlust.”
Horror made me jump to my feet. “No. You can’t.”
President Belvini looked at me coolly. “I assure you, Miss Coven, I can. And I will,” he promised. “Tell me, what do you think they’ll do to her once they see how far gone she is in the disease? Do you think she’ll be executed by the council immediately? Or do you think they’ll imprison her?”
The thought of either of those scenarios happening to my aunt made bile rush up my throat. “P-Please,” I stammered. “Please don’t do that. I’ll do what you want,” I blurted, the promise both giving me hope for my aunt’s life while damning my own.
President Belvini’s eyes flashed with victory before he got to his feet and came around the desk. When he got closer, I noticed a silver chain hanging from his neck, with an amber amulet hanging from it. It glowed slightly as he came nearer, and my spider shied away from it. This male had a serious obsession with strange gems. Bringing my eyes back to his face, I was forced to lift my chin since he was at least a foot taller than me.
“Let’s see how reformed you are, shall we?” he asked rhetorically. “Use your lure on me.”
I blinked at him, thinking I’d heard him wrong. “What?”
“I don’t like to repeat myself, Miss Coven,” he said, his expression leaving no room for patience.
Swallowing, I prodded my spider, though she didn’t want to come out. I’d never seen her so apprehensive before, but it was clear that President Belvini frightened her. That knowledge in itself was disconcerting. My spider was never afraid of anything. Which meant that this male was far more dangerous than he looked.
After a bit of coaxing, I was finally able to get my spider to emerge, and I squeezed my eyes shut in concentration. Lure was the very last thing I wanted to put out. Every instinct was screaming at me to get him away from me, not lure him in closer. But he’d found the perfect carrot to dangle over my head, and I had no doubt that he would do exactly what he threatened to Aunt Marie.
Which is the only reason I was able to push through and force lure to seep from my skin and push toward the demon in front of me.
As soon as it was out, President Belvini breathed in deeply, letting out a long sigh. “Ah,” he said, his voice dropping lower and his dark eyes flickering with newfound hunger. “So it does work on me,” he mused. “How utterly perfect you are.” He smiled down at me like a wolf baring its teeth to a sheep. “I have a job for you, Miss Coven.”
My spider recoiled back into the center of our shared soul. I wanted to recoil right along with her.
Chapter 14
For the first time since being kidnapped and taken to Spector’s headquarters, I was finally getting out of here—temporarily.
After my meeting with President Belvini, the high-strung Victor came to collect me, and then I was escorted to a new suite where there was a team of female supes waiting for my arrival. Two drop dead gorgeous blonde vamps, a dark-skinned water elemental, and a shifter with hair down to her knees were all talking animatedly as I was led through the sleek black doors.
The space was modern, decorated in reds and whites, with a wall of mirrors, clothing racks, and an entire wall dedicated to what looked like cosmetics and hair products.
As soon as I stepped inside with Victor, all four of the supes stopped talking and looked over at me assessingly. Their sharp eyes ran over my Spector issued clothes and messy topknot, and one of the vamps shook her head like the sight was truly pitiful.
“Ladies, this is Miss Coven. You’ve already received your orders,” Victor said, looking over at me and then visibly shuddering. “I don’t envy your jobs. Just...do your best,” he said, as if he had zero faith in the matter.
“Don’t worry, Vick, we’ll make her look at least passable,” the elemental said.
“Good luck.” He turned and fled the room, leaving me with the foursome of model lookalikes.
Immediately, the four of them swarmed around me like flies to shit. They started brushing their fingers along different parts of me, tugging lightly on my hair or tilting up my chin to get a better look as they all circled around me and offered notes.
“Her brows need more arch.”
“She’s got tangles for days.”
“Exfoliation is a must.”
“She’ll need to be practically scrubbed raw.”
“Her lips look like a rabid dog has been gnawing on them.”
“She’s a bit pasty.”
Round and round they went until I felt a bit like Dorothy stuck in the middle of a tornado, except instead of gale-force winds, I was surrounded by feminine appraisers.
“Umm…”
“Alright.” The vamp clapped. Actually, now that I was getting a better look at them, I realized that the gorgeous blondes were actually identical twins. “Let’s get her into the bath. We can’t work our magic until the layers of grime are washed off her anyway.”
The other twin nodded in agreement. “Mm-hmm.” She looked over at the elemental. “Jules?”
“Yeah, yeah,” the woman said, flicking her wrist in the direction of the open door that I guessed led to the bathroom. “Already way ahead of you. The bath is ready.” She said that last part to me. “Do you need assistance?” she asked.
“Uh, no. I can bathe myself.”
“Excellent,” she smiled. “We’ll be pulling some
