Crimson Highlander (Onyx Assassins 2)

Benedict looked down at his forearms, which were inked with words I couldn’t make out from here, and nodded. "She's telling the truth."

Lyric's shoulders dipped in relief. "Good. Then can we please get her out of here? She has to be freezing."

I was, but I wasn't about to admit it. I was physically weak enough compared to them already.

"Lyric was the one who wanted you here," Alek stated, wrapping his arm around my friend's waist. "As my queen, she has every right to grant you asylum and safety. No harm will come to you while you are under this roof as long as you do not seek to harm anyone first."

So formal.

"Thank you."

"We won't even bite you if you help us out with some Moorehouse intel," Benedict added, flashing his fangs as he grinned.

Lachlan elbowed the guy hard enough to send him flying against the bars of the cell across from mine. "No one is biting her."

Lyric pressed her lips together to keep from laughing, and Alek shook his head.

"Asshole," Benedict grunted and rubbed the shoulder where he'd taken the hardest impact. "Fine, no biting. But we need the intel, and you know it."

Lachlan ran his hand over his beard, and I wondered what it would feel like on the insides of my thighs.

Stop it!

They wanted information on my family...at least what had been my family. Information they would use to kill them all, I had no doubt. Holy shit, was I going to be a prisoner here?

"No," Alek answered.

Fuck, I'd forgotten that he could read minds. My cheeks burned. What else had he heard?

"Enough," he answered, his lips quirking into the first smile I'd seen from him today...tonight...whatever time it was.

"Get out of my head."

He grinned, and I heard the lock on my cell click and open. "Come upstairs and have dinner with Lyric. We'll figure out what to do with you afterward." He pinned Lachlan with a smirk. "And since that's your brand she's wearing, consider her your responsibility."

* * *

"I'm not his anything," I said to Lyric as we sat in the same dining room where I'd been months before, offering my help to Alek to get Lyric out of one of the Moorehouse facilities.

"That's not what the back of your neck says," she gestured toward me with her fork before digging into her steak.

I'd already finished mine and half the potatoes. I couldn’t even remember the last time I'd eaten something that hadn't come out of a vending machine or paper bag. "So you eat real food?"

"Yep." She took a sip of her water. "Everything in balance. Too much blood, or too little, and we go mad. Those are the vampires in all the horror stories. And don't change the subject. When did the mating mark appear?"

I glanced toward the closed French doors where Lachlan stood guard just outside.

"It's okay. Alek put a noise glamour on the room. Lachlan can only hear if I break the glamour with a safe word."

"Kinky," I teased.

"He's a little...overprotective," she admitted with a shrug. "But it pretty much comes with the territory when you're mated to a vampire. You'll see."

"No, I won't."

The doors burst open, and a flawlessly beautiful brunette with delicate features walked in with a bright smile and another, more reserved brunette on her heels.

My stomach clenched. There were now three vampires in this room and one human...me.

"I heard there was another girl in the house!" The petite, graceful one took the seat across from me, while her leanly muscled counterpart leaned against the wall behind her and studied me carefully. They were both dressed in ballgowns. What the fuck.

"Avianna, meet my best friend, Valor," Lyric said with a smile. "Valor, meet my sister-in-law, Avianna, and her bodyguard, Olivia." She nodded toward the glaring one.

Wait. Sister-in-law. Alek's sister. Vampire royalty.

"Please tell me you guys have something, anything, more interesting to talk about than what's going on over there." She waved toward the giant mansion across the courtyard. "Because If I have to listen to one more whiny aristocrat drone on about the summer solstice unveiling ceremony, I'm going to vomit."

"Not your thing?" Lyric asked.

I kept quiet and chewed my food. Sure, Alek had promised me safety, but did everyone else know that? I was cool with having dinner, but I definitely didn't want to be dinner.

"God, no." Aviana shook her head and tugged her elbow-length gloves up her arm. "Being paraded about like some naive debutante while every eligible aristocratic male shakes my bare hand, hoping his mating mark will show up so he can claim me isn't happening. I'll be keeping my gloves on for as long as possible."

"Funny." Lyric tossed a sly look my way as Aviana took a drink of water I hadn't even seen her bring in. "Valor and I were just talking about mating marks, since she's wearing Lachlan's on the back of her neck."