“No, you’re not.” Ava’s tone was no longer cheerful and breezy. It was hard and glacial. And it had our three companions blinking in surprise. It also had some of the surrounding vampires on their feet, creeping toward the table.

“E-excuse me?” stammered Will.

“You’re jealous,” accused Ava.

“Jealous?” Will scoffed. But I realised that she was right; his frustration came from the fact that he was jealous.

“You practically reek of envy. And why shouldn’t you be jealous? Here’s this guy who you Turned, took into your nest, taught control, and trained how to fight. Did he stick around? No. He took all that and he did something huge with this immortal life you gifted him with – and he did it without you. If he deserves this success, surely then the person who trained him deserves to have it too, right?” She leaned forward. “Wrong. It takes a lot more than good control and the ability to fight well to be accepted into the legion.”

Blythe cleared her throat. “Why don’t we all calm –”

Ava raised a hand. “Blythe, we’re not gonna be friends so you might as well switch off the sweetie pie act.” She looked at Gina with utter distaste. “And you…don’t you have a hole to crawl into?” Ava pushed out her chair, and I followed her lead. Before she could move to leave, however, Gina was around the table with her hand clamped around Ava’s arm, fingernails digging into the skin.

Ava effortlessly shrugged off Gina’s hand with a fancy move, and wagged her finger. “Nu-uh.”

Gina looked shocked for a moment but quickly recovered. “You think you have him, child?” A devious, spiteful grin crept onto her face. “Has he told you how far back him and I go? I was there when he was Turned. I was the first person he fed from. His first sexual experience as a vampire happened with me.”

Ah, shit. “Shut the fuck up.” I planted myself between the two females, as if I could protect Ava from Gina’s words.

“Good in bed, isn’t he?” Gina’s devious grin widened. “There’s nothing better than when Salem lets go in bed. But I suppose you wouldn’t know that. He probably has to watch his strength with you.”

That would have been true if Ava’s gift didn’t give her a strength that matched mine, but obviously I had no intention of discussing our sex life with anyone else.

“Does it hurt you that you’ll never have all of him, child? Does it hurt to know he’ll always hold back with you – physically and emotionally?”

I turned to Ava, intending to lead her away. Her lips began to tremble, and her little face scrunched up in agony. “It hurts so badly.” She threw her arms open wide at Gina. “Hug me.” I’d honestly never seen anyone back away as quickly as Gina did then. Ava exchanged a heart-felt laugh with the vampires that had gathered around. She was still laughing when she strolled outside, shaking her head.

I looked at Will and Blythe. “We’re done.” And I meant for good, and I could see by their expressions that they knew it. “I’ve got nothing more to say to either of you.”

Anger fairly radiated from Will. “I’m your Sire.”

I snorted at him. “It doesn’t mean anything to you that I’m one of your vampires, so why should it mean anything to me that you’re my Sire?” I glared at Gina. “Stay the fuck away from Ava.”

“And if I don’t?”

“You must want to die.”

CHAPTER NINE

(Ava)

“Did she really pop your vampiric cherry?” The shy question was enough to make Salem pause in his pacing. Finally. Seething, he hadn’t said a word since we left the restaurant. He’d just grabbed my wrist, led me to the apartment, plonked me on the sofa, and then took to pacing in front of me. I’d said a number of things in the hope of snapping him out of his ‘I’m gonna kill Will’ zone, but nothing had worked. Until now.

“It doesn’t mean anything,” he eventually responded.

I snorted. “What a guy thing to say. I take it she was also telling the truth when she said she was the first person you drank from too?”

“Technically, Will’s the first person I fed from.”

“He gave you his blood to Turn you. That’s not the same as your first feed. Was it Gina?”

“Yes,” he bit out.

My stomach dropped. I didn’t want those images in my head, didn’t want to think about Salem drinking from her, or touching her the way he did me. But knowing the facts was better than not knowing. Maybe I should have given my jealous harpy full control and choked Gina with her own intestines. “What about the ‘you becoming a vampire to get revenge’ comment? Is that true?”

Salem looked at me helplessly, and I thought he wasn’t going to answer. Then he cursed and quietly muttered what sounded like ‘Jared was right.’ Shoving aside one of my cushions, he slumped onto the sofa next to where I was sat, cross-legged. He didn’t look at me as he said, “When I failed to pay off a gambling debt, the bookies locked up and barricaded every possible exit of my parents’ house. Then they burned it to the ground. My mother and my stepfather were trapped inside.” He’d spoken in his deceptively apathetic tone, but I could sense his pain and anguish.

Twisting in my seat, I took one of his balled-up hands in mine and propped my chin on his shoulder. “I’d say I’m sorry, but it’s too inadequate.” Was there really a right thing to say, something that could actually help, when someone was grieving?

“So, yeah, it’s true that I wanted revenge and that I blame myself for their deaths. In theory, it wasn’t my debt. But the blame still lies with me.”

“What do you mean by ‘in theory’?”

“It was my half-brother’s debt. He was only seven-fucking-teen. He got into gambling because he was following in my footsteps. He ran up a big debt with the wrong person. When he couldn’t pay it off, he bolted. So I was expected to pay it for him. I didn’t have that kind of money, and the bookies weren’t interested in it being paid in instalments. They put a gun to my head, told me I had forty-eight hours to get it. But there was no way I could do it.”

In my opinion, then, the blame didn’t belong to Salem. His half-brother had chosen to run up that debt. And the bookies had chosen to react by targeting his parents. I was about to say as much when he spoke again.