Chapter 14

CHAPTER 14

“ Y ou look like a William to me,” Jill said with a solemn nod as she did her best to bite back a smile when the little boy opened his mouth to correct her only to grumble when his older brother shook his head.

“Definitely a William,” Jill murmured, watching the little boy’s eyes narrow on her before she shifted her attention to the little girl hugging her brother’s arm against her chest. “And you definitely look like a Laura,” Jill said, watching as the little girl moved to shake her head only to think better of it when her brother shifted that glare to her.

When she shifted her attention to the older boy, he bit out, “Don’t.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Jill said, blinking only to add, “Definitely a Brian,” with a nod that had his jaw clenching tightly as she ran her eyes over them. “You’re going to need clothes,” Jill murmured as she added clothes to the growing list before she glanced up to find three pairs of blue eyes watching her every move.

“What else?” Jill asked, only to have the little ones stare at her while the teenage boy glared.

Biting back a sigh, Jill said, “Why don’t we move on to food? What do you like?”

When her question was met with blank stares, and a glare, Jill slowly nodded. “Okay, then, why don’t we start with what you don’t like?”

“Oatmeal,” the little boy said with a firm nod that ended abruptly when his brother shifted that glare in his direction.

With a grumble, the little boy folded his arms over his small chest and did his best to mimic his brother’s glare, forcing her to bite back a smile. “Anything else?”

When that question was met with more glaring, Jill nodded with a murmured, “I’ll just take a guess,” and focused back on the list, writing down everything that she was going to need to make all the recipes that her grandmother taught her over the years. Once she was done, Jill focused on making a list of everything that three children were going to need to stay busy while she tried to figure a way out of this mess.

She debated placing the list on the counter for Logan’s men only to bite back a sigh, already knowing what was expected of her. After she’d refused to say anything else last night, she’d expected Logan to continue with his interrogation. Instead, he sat there, watching her struggle to stay awake only to find herself back in her closet and tucked into her bed sometime later with his credit card still hidden behind her cuff.

She sent the children huddled in the corner one last glance before she reluctantly got up and went to look for Logan as she debated how she was going to do this. Calling the Sentinels wasn’t an option, not yet, and not when she knew that they would have no choice but to place the children on a Sentinel island, which meant that she needed to figure out if there were any other options first. She needed to find out who the children were, where their parents were, and what Pack they were taken from, which meant that she was going to have to continue playing this game if they were going to have any hope of getting out of this alive.

A few minutes later, Jill found Logan sitting in the dining room with an incredibly handsome man with jet-black hair and the bluest eyes that she’d ever seen go completely still as soon as she stepped into the room. She watched as he slowly looked up at her with a look of disbelief that she easily ignored while she focused on the man watching her through silver eyes. Never taking her eyes off Logan, Jill placed her list on the table in front of him before she turned around and-

“You know my price,” Logan drawled, making her wonder why she thought this would be easy.

“And I paid it last night,” Jill pointed out as she turned around to find him looking over the list.

“You paid for the right to be an unpaid babysitter, not for the rest of this stuff,” Logan said before his gaze flickered to her. “One month.”

“One month for what exactly?” Jill asked after a slight hesitation.

“Spend the night with me for the next month,” Logan said, leaning back in his chair as he considered her, drawing her attention to the dark red skin marring the back of his hands.

“Because last night’s conversation was so scintillating that you can’t wait to do it again?” Jill asked dryly, making his lips twitch.

“Because you didn’t answer my questions,” Logan said as the man sitting next to him rubbed his hands roughly down his face with a muttered, “This isn’t going to end well.”

“And you think that will change if you force me to spend more time with you?” Jill asked as they ignored the man dropping his hands away so that he could shake his head in disbelief as he glanced between them.

“I think you want answers,” Logan said, making everything inside her go still.

“And you’ll give them to me if I agree?” Jill asked, watching him closely for any signs that he was lying to her.

“There’s only one way to find out,” Logan said, looking completely relaxed as he waited for an answer.

Slowly nodding, Jill said, “Remove our cuffs.”

Lips twitching, Logan said, “Two months.”

“One.”

“Two,” he said firmly before adding, “This isn’t up for negotiation.”

“And yet, we’re negotiating,” Jill countered. “They come off or there’s no deal.”

“Two months, and I’ll remove your cuff instead,” he said, watching her closely.

“You’ll remove all of our cuffs.”

“Just yours.”

“Theirs,” she said without hesitation. As much as she would love this damn thing off her leg, she wanted theirs off more. The sight of those cuffs on their legs turned her stomach. “And I want you to keep Gray away from them.”

“That’s not an option,” Logan drawled.

“Why not?”

“Two months and I’ll remove their cuffs, give you everything on this list, and answer your questions. Do we have a deal?” he said instead.

“Deal,” Jill said, knowing that this was the best deal that she was going to get.

“Anything else?” Logan asked as he watched her, wondering if she had any idea how much power she held over him.

He’d already planned on removing the children’s cuffs as soon as Gray returned with their remotes, but he’d decided to have a look at them this morning after he carried Jill back to her closet and tucked her into bed. None of the children said a word when he walked into their room. The older one simply glared while the two little ones did their best to hide behind their brother while Logan took a knee in front of him and ran his eyes over the metal cuff wrapped around his ankle. When he found the seam, Logan met the boy’s terrified gaze before he reached for it, sliding his fingers between the cuff and the boy’s skin, making sure that his fingers covered the sensors, and pulled only to end up grinding his teeth together when a surge of electricity tore through his fingers and up his arms, nearly knocking him on his ass.

He ignored the excruciating pain tearing through his arms as his skin blistered and held on, ensuring that not one single fucking jolt of electricity touched the boy. When it was over, Logan removed his blistered fingers from the device without a word and stumbled to the door. By the time he made it to the kitchen, his skin began to tear apart as melted skin turned into ash, making him realize just how fucking sick Magnus really was and ensuring that Logan was going to rip his fucking heart out of his chest before this war was over.

“Not at the moment,” Jill said as movement behind her drew his attention to find the little girl peeking out from behind the doorway, watching him. When he allowed his eyes to flash silver, she swallowed hard before she took off running back the way she came.

“Then, I’ll see you tonight,” Logan said, shifting his attention back to Jill in time to watch her turn around, forcing him to bite back a groan while he ran his eyes over her, taking in everything from the delicate set of her shoulders down to the smooth slope of her back before taking in her heart-shaped-

“What the hell did you do?” Tomas demanded hoarsely.

“Bargained with an angel,” Logan said, watching as the demon quickly made his way to the door.

“That’s not what I’m talking about,” Tomas said, swallowing hard as he made sure that no one was in the hallway before he closed the doors behind him. “Do you have any idea what you did?”

“Meaning?” Logan asked as he reached for his phone and turned the camera above the dining room door off.

“Tell me what happened the first time that you bit her,” Tomas said, looking lost in thought as he began pacing the small room.

She blew his fucking mind away.

“Her blood was sweeter than anything I’ve ever tasted before,” Logan said, thinking about the moment that her blood hit his tongue and nearly fucking groaned.

“And it’s been taking you longer to heal since then,” Tomas murmured absently with a pointed look at the back of Logan’s hands.

“You want to tell me how you knew that?” Logan asked, absently flexing his hand as he found himself wondering if anyone else had noticed yet. For the past two years, he’d been forced to consume extra blood just to function, something that had concerned him but not enough to stop him from going after Pierce.

“Have you tasted her blood since her transition?” Tomas asked, watching him curiously for a moment before he continued pacing the room.

“No,” Logan said, and as much as he wanted to, and Christ, did he want to, he knew better.

While he could safely consume human blood, one drop of vampire blood would slowly kill him. He’d be in agony as her blood made its way through his body, turning every drop of blood in his body into poison before it destroyed him from the inside out, covering his body in bruises as the poison was released into his muscles, liquefying them along with his organs before he finally bled to death.

He’d heard of vampires losing control during sex and giving into the urge to bite only to end up immediately regretting it as soon as the first drop touched their tongues. He’d never had that problem, never came close to losing control during sex, and he never would. Sex was a release and a distraction, nothing more.

“How much did she change during her transition?” Tomas asked, taking him by surprise.

“Her appearance changed to match mine,” Logan said, watching as Tomas absently nodded at that, looking lost in thought.

“And her scent?” Tomas asked after a slight hesitation.

Swallowing hard, Logan admitted, “It’s driving me out of my fucking mind.”

Nodding, Tomas asked, “And when you’re away from her?”

It felt like part of his soul was missing.

“I worry about her,” he said instead.

Tomas paused to consider him. “You worry about her? Is that all?”

“It’s enough,” Logan said, hating this fucking hold she had over him even as he craved it.

“Has she drank from you?” Tomas asked as his gaze flickered to the closed doors.

“Only when I turned her,” Logan said, watching the demon closely.

“How long did her transformation take?” Tomas asked as he dropped back down on the chair across from him.

“A month,” Logan said, watching as the demon slowly nodded and-

“You claimed her.”