Chapter Thirty-Eight

Luvera hugged the Lalique crystalswan bowl against her breasts and looked around her apartment, trying to decide where to put it. On the standing bookshelf next to the Swarovski crystal swan figurine Alex had given her yesterday? Or on the coffee table beside the ceramic vase with a hand-painted swan on it which he'd given her the day before? She sighed a soft breath. In the ten days since the Tribunal had ended, Alex had been coming by every day to give her a present and ask her out. So far his gifts had all been swan themed.

Swans mated for life, he'd told her with one of his charmingly goofy Alex smiles.

No hidden subtext there, right?

Luvera bit her lips together. He was so danged chipper about her rejections, too, that was one of the worst parts. No long face. No attempt at a guilt trip.

"Okay," he'd say, still smiling. "I'll be back tomorrow to ask you again."

Why she didn't tell him not to bother, she didn't know, except for the obvious part that she loved seeing him. Which was unfair of her. She could never be with Alex, no matter how much she yearned to say yes to him. She'd made her bed by blood-claiming another man with that Blood Ride. It didn't matter that she'd bound herself through a cultural stricture rather than a physical one, she still had to lie in her consequences. Forever. Alone.

Tears climbed up the back of her throat. Stars, not again. She wept so easily these days. But then, she'd been on one heck of an emotional rollercoaster ride for quite some time, struggling through the long recovery from the aftereffects of that Blood Ride with Shon, discovering the Nichita family's dirty secrets, being smack in the middle of the life-altering event of moving into her own place—her mother had kicked her out of the house the day after the Tribunal, though kindly—and all of that topped off with Alex's heartbreaking pursuit.

Thank goodness for Jennilith. Her new roommate had been an incredible support during—

Someone knocked on the door.

Crud. She wasn't in the mood for visitors. Setting the crystal bowl on the coffee table, she wiped her eyes with the heels of her palms as she crossed her living room. She opened the door, and a surprised breath escaped her. "Shon."

His black eyes were turbulent, and his body looked spring-loaded inside his black T-shirt and jeans, all rigid muscle poised to strike.

Oh, boy. She tightened her hand around the doorknob. Dealing with Shon in a bad mood definitely wasn't on her wish list of things to do right now. "What do you want, Shon? This isn't a good time."

"Apparently no time is good for you, Luvera." He shoved passed her into her apartment, jerked the door out of her hand, and slammed it shut. "I've had my dick on ice for over two weeks now, waiting for you to come by and finish what we started."

A knot of shame curdled in her stomach. "Shon, no. We can't…mess around anymore."

"That's awfully damned selfish of you, don't you think?" His shoulders hunched up beneath his tight T-shirt, somehow making him look more threatening than usual, which was quite a feat by Shon standards. "You got your fun. I want mine."

"No, you don't, I'm telling you. Blood Rides are awful."

His upper lip tugged upward. "It didn't seem so awful when you were wriggling against my face."

"For heaven's sake!" She felt herself blushing to the roots of her hair. "Could you please not talk about it like that, and I meant afterwards. Ingesting the blood of someone who's not your mate is like poisoning yourself. You'll feel miserable for weeks, I swear."

"Your concern is touching. But I think I'll worry about taking the hit later and get my jollies now." Grabbing her by the arm, he hauled her, stumbling, to the couch and shoved her down onto it. He planted himself right in front of her, his crotch at eye level.

Her belly clenched and hot prickles ran the length of her spine. "Shon, stop this." She tried to get to her feet.

He pushed her back down, retaining a hold on one of her wrists. A knife appeared in his hand, and with a quick slash, he cut across her inner forearm.

She gasped as blood welled in a thin line across her skin, bright red drops dribbling down her fair flesh. The rich, molasses-thick scent of it filled the air, and a tremor raced through her upper jaw. She yanked at her wrist. "I said, stop. I don't want to do this."

Shon stared down on her with merciless eyes. "Did you or did you not come when I ate out your pussy?"

Mortification flushed her cheeks. "Would you quit being so disgusting!"

"Is it or is it not fair that I receive the same consideration?"

"I—" The rest of the sentence died on her tongue. She didn't have the strength to feint and parry around Shon's manipulations anymore. Emotionally, she'd already been run over by a truck. Maybe two. She had no idea what the rules of an illegal Blood Ride were. On some twisted level, it probably was fair to give him a turn, she…just couldn't do it, not after learning she was the product of an act her mother hadn't wanted. Not after realizing how badly she'd messed up her life by being a doormat. If she'd had an ounce more bravery, maybe she wouldn't have hidden her true feelings for Alex behind a guise of friendship and instead, encouraged him to ask her out before she'd irrevocably wrecked everything with that Blood Ride.

"Perhaps it is fair, Shon," she granted him. "But I'm sorry, I just can't. It messes me up too much being with someone who"—I don't love—"who's not my mate. You, too, I think." Truth was, she'd never seen him like this. This was more than just his usual heartless manipulation. This was outright belligerence.

"Nice speech." He sneered. "Now suck my dick." With his free hand, he wrested his pants open.

She didn't wait to see what he'd exposed. She shot off the couch and slammed her hands into his chest, shoving him backward. "That's enough!"

He staggered back two paces, caught his footing, then leapt at her.

She kicked out at him, aiming high for his testicles. A mistake.

Shon hooked her heel with his palm and jerked upward.

She flipped off her feet and crashed onto her back.

Shon jumped on top of her.

Her fangs shot angrily into her mouth. "No!" She lashed out with a clawed hand. Her nails caught his cheek, raking scratches across his flesh.

He growled. "I'm this close to punching you in the face, Luvera." His upper lip peeled back from fully extruded fangs, long, white razors gleaming murderously in the lamplight. "You've already blood-claimed me. Why are you fighting finishing it?"

She grabbed fistfuls of his shirt and straight-armed him off her body. "And be obliged to you for feedings for the rest of my life?" she grated. "I'd rather die, you demonic piece of trash!"

"Brings a man tear to my eye, really it does." Locking her body between his hard thighs, he seized the arm he'd sliced, his fingers like metal pincers around her wrist, and latched his mouth onto the cut, sucking greedily at her blood.

She screamed when a fang indented her skin. The idiot was going to bite her! She head-butted him in the nose, hearing the solid thump of bone on bone. Her eyes crossed and mini meteors streaked across her vision.

She heard Shon grunt and felt him wobble.

She thrust her arm out to the side and her fingers found the leg of the standing bookshelf with the Swarovski swan on it. She wrenched hard, bringing it crashing down on top of them.

It knocked Shon sideways.

She kicked the rest of the way free and scrambled to her feet, running for the door. Panic locked off her throat when she heard Shon right behind her. He'd catch her before she made it outside! Her gaze zeroed in on the alarm button on the wall to the left of the doorjamb. Leaping through the air, she slapped her palm against the button just as Shon caught her by the arm and jolted her backward.

His fingers gripping her shoulders to the bone, Shon glared at the flashing yellow light: the community's 911 system. At this very moment an emergency signal was being sent to the computer command center in the mansion. From there, the warriors on duty would be notified of trouble in her apartment.

"Dammit!" Shon threw her to the floor and fumbled to fasten his pants.

She thrust to her feet again, tore open the door, and dove into the hallway, flinging herself so hard from her apartment that she crashed into the opposite wall. With a cry, she collapsed.

"Luvera!"

It was Dev! Her brother was heading down the corridor, his steely eyes leveled on her. "What's going on? Are you all right?"

"He's trying to force me!" she yelled. "P-please help."

Jacken was coming down from the other end of the hallway, his brows low, one hand gripped around the hilt of a knife in his crisscrossed holster set.

"Who?" Dev demanded, rage firing in his eyes. "Nilan? Viorel?"

Shon materialized in her apartment doorway, his chin down, his eyes black laminate.

"Shon!" Dev called out. "Thank God." He sidled forward another step. "Who's in there with her, man?"

Jacken understood first. He froze in place, his chin jerking as an expression of pain crossed his face.

Dev hesitated a step as his gaze narrowed in on the scratch marks on Shon's face. "Why, you little fuck!" He hurtled down the hallway and snatched up Shon by the front of the shirt, hauling him forward into a brutal punch. With a bloodcurdling roar, Dev drove Shon to the floor and hit him, again and again and again.

Sobbing, Luvera scuttled away as Shon's blood sprayed across her pants.

"Nichita!" Jacken hauled Dev off Shon. "Enough!"

Dev struggled to get back at the beating, the gleam in his silver eyes serrated to pure wrath.

Shon sprawled motionless on the carpet, half-conscious and bleeding. He'd never raised a single hand to defend himself.