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“No.”
“What? My hearing must be bad. I thought you said no.”
Seated in a comfortable chair, full-blood vampire Deoctra Diniti watched the female pacing the length of her living room. The other fem was a tall, slender blonde with dark eyes. Deoctra frowned. She had never liked or even completely trusted the other fem she had once been foolish enough to call an ally.
“Your hearing is excellent, Lina. I did say no.”
The blonde stopped pacing to storm across the room to stare down at her. “I have no intentions of allowing you to say no to me!”
Deoctra looked up at her unwelcome guest. “You’re in my house and too deep into my personal space.”
“I’m staying in both until I get what I want, Diniti.”
“Oh?”
She glared down at Deoctra’s round belly. “In your present condition, you’re obviously in no position to object.”
Out of the corner of her eye, Deoctra saw a quick flash. Seconds later, a tall, heavily built male with green eyes and long, wavy hair held Lina nearly a foot above the floor with his fingers wrapped securely around her neck.
“If you have a death wish, bitch, I’ll be happy to grant it. Right here and right now.”
The voice of Tucker Falcone, the handsome shifter Deoctra had developed a surprising affection for following the death of her former lover Leon, held a hint of steel Deoctra loved.
But it would be a cold day in hell when being pregnant left her incapable of handling a crazy ass nocturene like Lina. Rising, she walked across the room. She placed a hand on Tucker’s extended arm, silently acknowledging a thrill of delight at the muscles she felt under her fingers. Tucker was powerful, fiercely protective of her, and totally in love with her. In a word, he was hers. All hers—as her former bloodlust Mikhel Dumont would never have been.
“Release her, Tucker,” she said quietly. While she appreciated his quick defense, she wanted the other fem to understand she was still fully capable of defending herself.
After a moment of resistance, he released Lina so abruptly that she had to scramble to stay on her feet. After giving her a long, threatening glare, he stepped back.
Deoctra stepped in front of her. “Don’t ever threaten me, nocturene,” she said, baring her incisors.
After casting a quick look at Deoctra and Tucker, Lina seemed to realize a different approach was necessary—if she wanted to escape the house with her life. “My mistake,” she said, casting her gaze downward.
“Yes, it was. It’s one you’d be wise not to repeat—unless you’ve done all the living you want to do,” Deoctra said.
“I need your help just as you once needed mine.”
Deoctra’s gaze narrowed as she recalled one of the biggest mistakes of her life—spearheading a plan to have her former bloodlust, Mikhel, kidnapped. Many things had gone wrong because of Lina’s backstabbing insistence on straying from Deoctra’s carefully crafted plan. Both she and Mikhel were lucky to be alive.
“Yes. I once needed help and was foolish enough to think I could trust even a small part of my plan to you. If memory serves, it was your straying from that plan that nearly got me killed.”
Lina bared her incisors. “I made a mistake, but—”
“You make all too many of them for someone who expects to live much longer.” Deoctra turned away.
“It was a mistake, but I did my part. I pretended to be the woman he loved and lured Dumont where you wanted him. I’m asking that you return the favor and help me get even with Andrei Forester.”
Forester was the half-brother of Mikhel Dumont and the son of the century’s old and powerful fem Palea Dumont. She had once been Deoctra’s mentor. That fact had not stopped Palea Dumont from nearly killing her and her unborn child the last time the two fems met. She was only alive because Mikhel had begged his mother to spare her life.
With Palea Dumont’s unuttered but clearly understood promise to kill her the next time they met weighing on her, Deoctra shook her head. With the life of her baby, two remaining sisters, and Falcone hanging in the balance, there was no way she’d do a single damned thing to incur the other fem’s wrath again.
“If you want vengeance on Drei Forester, by all means, take it, but don’t expect any help from me.”
“And that’s it? I helped you, but you refuse to help me?”
“Your help nearly got me killed because you strayed from my plan. My concern is for my child and for those I care about.” She paused and turned to look at Tucker. Their gazes locked, and she saw a warm affection in his eyes that sent a thrill of joy coursing through her.
While unwilling to characterize her feelings for him as bloodlust, she could no longer deny that he was nearly as dear to her as Leon had been. While she had lost all the men she held dear, she would not lose Tucker. He was hers. Damned if she would do anything to turn the power of the Walker-Dumont line against them.
Tearing her gaze from his, she turned to face Lina. “The only help you can expect from me is my promise not to tell the Dumonts of your plans.”
“I need far more help than that.”
“And I need to be alive for my baby and the others dear to me! If you think for one minute that you can proceed with your asinine plan of a duel assault on Palea Dumont and hope to live much longer, you clearly have a death wish that I promise you she’ll grant you. And none of her children will beg her to spare your miserable life.”
Lina’s eyes flashed with Deoctra recognized as a dark and vile hatred. “So be it, Diniti. Others are brave enough to help—even if you aren’t.”
By others, Deoctra knew Lina meant the Defense League of the Brotherhood—the full-blood organization to which they had once both belonged. “Then I suggest you seek help from those so–called brave fools and be thankful that I’ve pledged to keep your plans to myself.”
Lina turned and flashed from the room. Seconds later, the entrance door opened and slammed with a powerful force that only a full-blood could generate.
Tucker placed his hands on her shoulders. “You’ve made a dangerous enemy in her.”
She nodded. “I know, but better her than Palea Dumont.”
His hands tightened on her shoulders. “When I think of her daring to threaten you, I could hunt her down and kill her like the old bitch she is.”
Hearing the venom in his voice, she turned to look up at him. As powerful as he was, she knew he was no match for Palea Dumont or her older sons. She suppressed a shudder at the thought of what Aleksei, Vladimir, or Andrei would do to him if he dared threaten their mother—who was all too capable of taking care of herself.
She was exceedingly grateful that Aleksei, a particularly powerful full-blood, had not sought out Falcone and killed him as retribution for the assault on his son, Acier Gautier. None of Palea’s children would overlook an attempt on their mother’s life.
“We have a truce, Falcone, and I want to have my baby without the fear or worry of knowing I’ve done anything to incur her wrath again.”
“What are you going to do about Lina or should I say Veelee? Isn’t that what she’s calling herself now?”
“Do?” She shrugged. “I’m not going to do anything.”
“Shouldn’t you warn the Dumonts about her plans as a gesture of goodwill?”
She tossed her head, sending her long dark hair flying around her face. “The last time I tried to warn them, I nearly got killed. I won’t be a party to Lina’s crazy plans, but I see no reason not to wish her a measure of success and to do what little I’m willing to do to help—by minding my own business.”