Liam pulled a piece of paper from his back pocket. He passed it to the vampire on his left and the vampire walked around the wooden table and passed the paper to Waleron. The vampire backed away, his eyes on Kilter, who watched him.
Waleron unfolded the document then bent his head and scanned it. No one said anything, not even Liam.
After a minute, he lifted his head and, without looking at Delara, he passed the document to her. Waleron’s eyes were no longer a beautiful blue. They were ice blue, cold and frozen as he stared at Liam. His lips tight, jaw clenched. A haunting devastation lingered in the air as my ability took in his emotion.
God, it was like he’d just read a death sentence.
Waleron’s gaze shifted from Liam to me and stopped. My breath caught in my throat at the intensity of his stare, and I wanted to look away, and yet I couldn’t.
What the hell was going on? What did a document have to do with anything?
The piece of paper fluttered from Delara’s trembling hand and swirled to the floor. Her eyes pooled with tears as she looked up and met my eyes. “I… oh, my God. No. No. It’s impossible.” Her head shook back and forth, tears streaming down her cheeks. She took a step toward me, but her legs gave out. Waleron’s arm shot out and snaked around her waist, holding her upright. As soon as she was steady, he released her.
Kilter looked from one to the other then bent and grabbed the paper from the floor. After he read it, his eyes darted to Delara. “True?”
Liam laughed, his eyes sparkling with delight. “Of course it is.” His hand slid up my spine to curl around the back of my neck. “Meet your blood parents, Rayne. Waleron and Delara.”
A VAMPIRE BEHIND ME grabbed my arm and supported most of my weight as my knees gave out.
This wasn’t right.
It couldn’t be. This was a trick in order to make certain Waleron negotiated with him. The document had to be a fake.
But I didn’t need a document. None of us did. Delara’s expression said it all.
“What the fuck?” Kilter said. “How could you not know?” He ran his head over his hair back and forth.
“I miscarried,” Delara said, her voice a graveled whisper, eyes swimming with tears. “I was told my baby died. They told me my baby was born dead. I saw her. Oh, God, I saw…”
My eyes shifted to Waleron as his cold and abrupt voice echoed. “You were pregnant? With my fuckin’ child?”
“Waleron, please, I—” The tears streamed down her cheeks, her eyes wide with devastation and her sultry, olive skin now gray.
“My child? My fuckin’ child?” His voice was filled with so much rage it was unrecognizable. “You kept that from me?”
“I couldn’t—”
“You couldn’t?” Waleron shouted. “You fuckin’ couldn’t?” He turned, walked to the door, hesitated, and then slammed his fist into the metal frame. It groaned and complained under the pressure—then silence.
No one spoke.
Waleron remained facing the door. His energy radiated rage and confusion, but with the slight head bow, he also looked—broken. I glanced at Delara, who had her eyes closed, tears streaming down her cheeks.
I heard material tear and my gaze went to her fingers curled into her cargo pants. I did that. Oh, my God, I did that whenever I was upset or worried.
My parents? A Scar Taldeburu and a Scar Tracker’s child.
That was why Liam was so confident about tonight. He knew this was huge. That he could use me against Waleron—a Taldeburu’s daughter. That was what Roarke had tried to warn me about. He’d said Jasmine would use me against them. He knew.
Waleron turned and walked back, his face a mask of hard, stern lines. He ignored Delara, even stood further away from her.
Liam smiled. “Now I believe we can negotiate. I’ll give you Rayne, unharmed as you can see, but—” he hesitated, licking his lower lip as if anticipating the reaction, “—Abigail will come with me and you, Waleron, will willingly return to Jasmine.”
Delara gasped.
Waleron remained stoic as if he’d expected what Liam demanded.
This was what Jasmine planned, using me in order to get Waleron back, and she merged with Liam in order to make it happen.
Waleron said, “I say again, we don’t negotiate.”
Liam’s brows rose with surprise; then he hissed and a scowl appeared. He no longer looked like the handsome, charming vampire. “Then I will give your daughter to Jasmine. You know how that will turn out.”
I stiffened.
“No, fuck no,” Kilter shouted then let out a loud roar and attacked before Waleron could stop him. He leapt at Liam, fury pulsating in his eyes, fire burning as the pupils turned red. Liam yanked me in front of him and his arm hooked my neck.
Three vampires appeared from the beams above and tackled Kilter to the floor. He struggled against them, but they had his arms behind his back and jerked him to his feet. He kicked out and sent one staggering back, but the other punched him in the face and blood splattered from his nose.
“No,” I screamed. “Stop.” I flailed against Liam’s hold, but he tightened his arm until I could no longer breathe.
I clawed at his arm, eyes wide as I frantically tried to suck in air.
“Enough,” Waleron shouted. “Let her go, Liam.”
“When her lover stops, I stop.”
Kilter instantly stilled, breath ragged as he fought to draw in air. The vampires pushed him back to Waleron and Delara.