War of Hearts (True Immortality 1)

“Living, breathing, blood transfusion.”

“Exactly.” He hauled her more roughly down the aisle. “For that, you’re lucky. Few people would get away with breaking my fucking neck.”

Panic rose in Thea as she swiped up her dropped backpack and let the wolf hurry her out of the theater and into the main part of the old palace. She tried to get a hold on that anxiety, to think fast.

If Conall could track her, there was nowhere she could go to escape him. But if he didn’t mean to hurt her, only to use her blood, then perhaps there was a way for her to get out of this. She knew he had some kind of contract with Ashforth, and one he wasn’t willing to break for Thea because he believed Ashforth’s lies.

The obvious option was to trust the werewolf with the truth.

Thea shuddered at the thought.

No. It was out of the question.

She never allowed herself to go back to that place, and she didn’t trust the wolf to take him there with her.

The only thing to do was to bide her time.

An insidious voice whispered in her ear that it wasn’t the only option available to her. If she killed Conall, she would be free again. Surely he knew that?

He’s important. His future affects your future. He’s important, Thea.

Thea attempted to throw away the young woman’s prophetic words.

For now, the goal was to make Conall believe she needed him somehow. Men always thought women needed them. Maybe she could eventually convince him to work alongside her and they’d both get what they wanted.

If not … well … if it came down to her or the person he was trying to save, Thea was choosing herself.

Ultimately, if she had to, Thea would kill Conall, if it meant her survival.Conall flicked a look at Thea as he took her to the four-star hotel he’d checked into upon his arrival. They’d taken the time, and therefore the risk, to clean the blood off her face and his hands in a public restroom in Lucerna Palace, and she’d changed her shirt. Luckily, no other vampires had sought them out.

Conall wasn’t afraid of Thea running because he saw the moment in her eyes when she realized she could never run from him.

And he also knew the moment she’d realized her only option was to kill him.

That meant Conall was on high alert.

She was silent as she walked calmly at his side into the elevator. He watched her in his peripheral vision. Thea observed everything about their surroundings. At first, he thought it was because she was plotting but when they walked into the hotel room, he began to think otherwise.

Her steps slowed as she took in the room and her fingertips whispered across one of the luxurious twin beds. There was something vulnerable in her expression as she turned to him.

“This is nice.” Her eyes darted away and she sat slowly down on the bed she’d touched. She looked uncomfortable.

She’d known poverty for a long time.

Remembering the shitty apartment in Budapest and the hostel where he’d found her in Wroclaw, Conall felt a pang of some unknown feeling in his chest. Then, as he watched her smooth her hand over the bedding, her movements unconsciously graceful, he felt something else stir inside him.

Pity for the hellion was the last thing he needed.

She’d broken his goddamn neck, for Christ’s sake.

She was a murderer.

And as she’d so eloquently put it, she was his sister’s blood donor. Nothing else.

“You’re acting as if you’ve never seen a nice room before and we both know that’s not true. You must have been living in the lap of luxury as Ashforth’s ward.”

Her head whipped toward him and he saw outrage flicker in her dark eyes before she banked it. Whatever she’d momentarily wanted to say, she stifled the urge and stared at him.

It was unnerving.

Even more so since he felt a prickle of guilt he did not understand.

Eventually, she turned to the window, gazing at the dark world outside, her delicate profile at odds with the strength contained within her. “Since it looks like you’re going to be sticking around, you should know those vampires were hired to capture me. I’m guessing by the same person who hired the humans who attacked us.”

This unknown hunter was a concern. Conall nodded and sat down on the other twin, hungry and weary. He didn’t want to be in Prague. He wanted to wake up to the sounds of a loch lapping at the shore, to the sight of the sky reflected in the tranquil waters.

Instead of to a bustling city and an enigmatic Thea Quinn.

On that thought, Conall realized he wouldn’t be sleeping tonight.

She might murder him in his sleep.

“Ashforth is looking into it,” he said, rubbing a hand over his tired eyes. “Whoever it is, he must have alerted local contacts to your possible arrival. Your energy, your scent, make you an easily identifiable target to supernaturals.”