War of Hearts(46)

“You thought you were saving my life when you did it.”

“Exactly. So you still believed you owed me.” He cut her a dark look. “You broke my neck to get away from me … but you didnae kill me. And we both know you should have.”

Thea’s irritation mounted as she grew increasingly vulnerable. “Point?”

He ignored her snippiness. “You were trying not to kill those vampires in Prague and it nearly got you killed.”

“Not true … I was trying not to at first and then I killed one before you got there.”

“They would have all been dead if you’d made the decision to kill them from the get-go. Instead, they almost killed you.”

“But you saved me.”

“Did I?” Conall eyed her suspiciously. “Were you really in danger, Thea?”

She swallowed hard and looked away. “I thought there was a point to this?”

“Aye. You went back for that wee lass … why? Because she reminded you of you? When your parents died?”

Thea whipped her head around so fast, she felt a burn score up her neck. How did he know that? She glared at him. “Stop it.”

He shook his head, and she hated the pity in his eyes. “You risked us to save that family and then you pushed me out of the way of those bullets. Now I tried to convince myself that it was all a manipulation, to get me on your side—”

“It was,” she hurried to cut him off. “It was, Conall. I pretended I needed you as a bodyguard. We both know I don’t.”

He smirked wryly. “Too right. I’ve never felt so emasculated in my life as when you pushed me in that barn.”

She rolled her eyes. “You decapitated a vampire with your bare hand. Hand.”

“That is true.” He mused. “That makes me feel slightly better.”

Despite herself, she laughed.

His expression intensified. “Why do you not want me to be on your side?”

She shrugged. “Two reasons: What happened to me is so fantastical, no one would believe me, not even you. I’d have shared all the horrible crap for nothing. And second …” She looked deep in his eyes, seeing only his determination for his sister. “It won’t change the fact you need to turn me over to save your sister.”

Conall shook his head slowly. “I cannae tell you the future, or what will need to be done to save Callie. And I realize you dinnae owe me anything, but I’m also beginning to think Ashforth is the real enemy here. That was the point I was trying to make. I’ve had doubts about the man from the moment we met but all I cared about was saving Callie. Meeting you … I have good instincts, Thea, and I’ve been fighting them.” He rested his arms on his knees and dropped his chin in weariness. “I have to know what this man is capable of and I need to know who I’ll really be turning over to him to save my sister.”

Tears filled Thea’s eyes, and she looked quickly away so he wouldn’t see. “Why? What will it change?”

“It depends on what you tell me,” he said, his words soft. “But I’ll tell you this. I dinnae have it in me to hand over an innocent woman to her abuser to save my family. Callie wouldnae be able to live with that either.”

Hope was a dangerous thing. Thea had discovered that the hard way. She’d given up on feeling it for so long that the prickle of it in her chest frightened the shit out of her. Turning to him, she watched his expression soften at the sight of the tears shimmering in her eyes.

“If I tell you …” She pushed off the bed and glared down at him. “If I tell you and you betray me to Ashforth anyway, I’ll kill you, Conall. No hesitation this time.”

He nodded slowly. “Aye. I believe you, lass.”





NEW YORK, SIX YEARS AGO


Posters covered the white walls, images that reflected who Thea had been before this madness had descended. There were rock bands she knew Amanda detested but allowed her to listen to. Photos ripped out of magazines of Caleb Followill and Ryan Gosling. There was a poster of the movie UP, an animation that made her sob her heart out in the first ten minutes.

Photographs of her classmates from the ages of twelve to fifteen.

Thea often wondered what Ashforth had told the school and her friends about her. What he’d told her therapist. She’d finally gotten the courage to ask Devon, and he’d said his dad had told everyone she’d gone back to England to live with her mom’s family. And no one questioned it. No one ever questioned Ashforth.

That had made her laugh for about two seconds before the laughter turned into hysterical sobs.

No one who might care knew where she was.

No one was coming for her.

Although there was a wall of books and DVDs and an old-fashioned TV and DVD player in the corner, Thea rarely left the big luxurious bed. The entire room was lined with this stuff that burned the crap out of her when she touched it, and proximity to the amount in the room left her feeling weak, almost flu-like. Or at least what she assumed flu felt like.

Hearing the click of a lock, Thea turned her head on the pillow and watched as the heavy, armored door opened and Devon walked in. A werewolf guard followed Ashforth’s son and stood at attention by the now-closed door.

Whenever one of the Ashforths visited, a werewolf or vampire always attended for their protection.