One step and his hands were around the old vampire’s head—a sharp twist, and his neck snapped every bit as easily as Brandon’s. I sank to the floor, hands to my aching head as Bastian gathered me up. Selena. I thought…
“Are you all right?” he asked, his voice beyond gentle, but a hint of anger still vibrated beneath his calm words. Anger that wasn’t directed at me, but at what had happened. Almost happened.
I could have lied. I usually did lie. “No,” I said. “I’m not.” Admitting it broke something inside me, and I sobbed, clutching Bastian’s shirt.
Bastian slid his arms around me, holding me tight. For a long time, we sat there together, my eyes tightly closed, my face buried in Bastian’s chest as I tried to block everything out.
“I never wanted to believe he was this evil,” I finally said, knowing he knew exactly who I was talking about. “If the Elder hadn’t killed him”—I swallowed, the words like bile in my mouth—“I think I might have. I know I wanted to.”
“If I could take this all away,” Bastian murmured into my hair, “if I could do that for you, I would. I hate seeing you like this, and knowing there’s nothing I can do to change it.”
I sank deeper into his arms. “You already have.”
The door crashed open, startling the half-dead vampire, who curled into a ball.
“Oi,” Cade shouted. “There’s guards to be killed, and I’m the only one doing the work while you’re sitting in here on your arse.”
“How…are you alive?” My voice faltered as I remembered Bastian ordering me to find Cade. “Are you helping us?”
“If doing all the work is helping, then yes.”
“But I thought you were dead?”
Cade snorted. “It’ll take more than this lightweight to kill me.”
“He threw the fight, of course,” Forge said with a wink, as Cade glowered at the both of us. “You don’t actually think I could beat him in a fair fight?”
Cade shrugged, his shoulders bunching. “We had our share of go-arounds when we were pups, but Forge’s right—he fights too clean for me. No eye-gouging for the high and mighty Forge.” Cade pursed his lips as he looked at us. “Of course, now that the Elder’s dead, it leaves this fine establishment up for grabs.”
Bastian shook his head, holding me tighter. “I don’t want any part of this. How about you?”
“I could get used to this. Been living rough for too long now.” Cade surveyed our surroundings with a sour look on his face. “Redecorating will be in order.”
“I’d say so,” Bastian said, a touch of his humor returning. “But don’t look at me. You’re on your own.” He paused. “My only request—”
“Ah, now we’re making requests.”
“—would be to have my privileges restored.” He gave me a hard squeeze. “I’d like to have my distillery back, and my land.”
“It’s all yours,” Cade said with a wave of his hand. “So long as you help me whip these bastards into shape and back me for Elder.”
32
We left Cade in charge of the clusterfuck at the castle, as Selena had started calling it, and headed for my plane. We’d be in Philadelphia by sunrise. As keen as I was to set down roots in Scotland again, I didn’t think she’d be half as eager, not after tonight.
“We’re going home,” I said firmly, surveying her frozen face, the lingering shock and fear. “Then you can decide what comes next.”
“I have no idea,” she whispered, her voice hoarse. “I don’t even know…where to start with all of this.”
She’d been quiet the entire ride, but she hadn’t let go of me either, her hands wrapped around my arm like vises, her face pale. Her brother… If I agreed with Selena about anything, it was his death. Not that death would erase everything he’d done to her. Taken from her.
“In time,” I said carefully, unsure how she’d take this, when the pain was so fresh, “you will come to terms with what he did. Not forgive him, but learn to deal with it, so it does not hurt so badly.”
“I don’t know…maybe,” she whispered. “I was so surprised to see him, leaning against the Rover, looking exactly like the last time I saw him. I thought… For a split second, I thought he was a ghost. Then I knew.”
Brandon Langston had been the one I was tracking the morning I’d left her alone, but I didn’t think mentioning that right now would soothe any of her wounds.
“For years I tried to make him into a victim, I suppose. To cut him slack for his shortcomings, excuse his behavior. But the things he said about Dad…about me…there was something wrong with him, Bastian, something terribly wrong. And he didn’t even know it.”
We stopped in front of the plane, and I reached over and smoothed her hair back, then tipped her face up so she was looking in my eyes. “You can’t fix other people, Selena. You couldn’t have stopped him even if you’d tried.”
“I know. But…now I know how Dad felt, all those times he tried. Hopeless.”
I ushered her into the plane, Selena moving as if she was in a trance, never letting go of me. Not even when we were safely inside. She was a mess, we both were, but I was more concerned about what was going on in her head than her appearance at the moment.
Selena. Look at me.
There was an empty bleakness in her eyes, a hopelessness that was so at odds with her usual fire that I smoothed her hair back again. Just so I could keep touching her.
Oh, Bastian. She leaned further into me, and I folded her against my chest, my arms crossed over her back. Her fear was a sour tang in the air, but her trembling had stopped. Mostly.
I can’t stop thinking about it. All the blood, my brother…the vampire. She pulled away from me. Did you get him out? I told him we’d…
Cade is taking care of it right now. He’ll
