LITMIR.BIZ

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      It felt like someone just punched her in the gut. She stared at him in disbelief for a heartbeat, then sprang out of the chair and to her feet. Far too much anger welled in her for any fear, and she stormed up to William and stood toe to toe with him.

      “Did you bring us here for an easier kill?” she demanded. “Because if you expect me to stand aside and let you kill her, you’re in for a real surprise.”

      She thought of the gun at her waist. Could she do it? Could she really kill a man, this man?

      “No,” he said, and honesty shone in his intelligent, now‐gray eyes.

      She hadn’t noticed his eyes had changed colors before. They were now a beautiful steel gray.

      “But we can’t ignore orders from the Coven,” he went on.

      His answer gave her some degree of relief. She didn’t want to find out if she could bring herself to kill him. But the relief was a fleeting thing. If they couldn’t ignore orders from the Coven, how could they possibly save Amber?

      “Are you saying they never change their minds?” she asked.

      She wasn’t about to just sit back and let some faceless group make the decision to kill her sister.

      Paoli and William exchanged a heavy look but said nothing.

      “What?” she demanded.

      She looked at William, then at Paoli, and back to William.

      “I saw that. What aren’t you telling me?” she pressed.

      William gave her a hooded look, his face carefully expressionless.

      “They reversed their decision once, but it came with a high price,” he said.

      He took a step back from her, putting distance between them.

      “I don’t care about the price. I’ll pay any price there is to save her,” Emily insisted.

      Her purple eyes flashed with challenge and determination. She meant every word.

      “You’re not in the human world anymore, young Emily,” Paoli interjected.

      He carefully guided her away from William. It was something that didn’t escape her notice.

      A glance back at William showed he seemed to relax subtly.

      “I don’t care about human world or world of whatever you are,” she said.

      She was beginning to yell, but she couldn’t stop herself. He wasn’t going to make it OK for Amber to die. Nothing could make that OK. Not after they gave her hope.

      “Settle down and listen to me,” Paoli said calmly in the face of her anger. “You have no idea what you’re saying. There are prices you can’t even begin to guess at.”

      “I don’t care,” she said stubbornly.

      She really didn’t. There was nothing she wouldn’t do if it could save Amber, and she didn’t want to hear about the worst‐case scenario.

      “Now, are you going to help her or not?” she asked, staring Paoli right in the eye.

      “I’ll try,” he said. “But the point we’re making is her overall fate cannot be decided by either of us.”

      “But if you can help her, she’ll have a chance, right?” she asked.

      She needed to hear there was a chance. She couldn’t accept anything else.

      Paoli held her hopeful gaze with a look of sympathy that worried her more than anything else.

      “I won’t give you false hope. It’s going to take a miracle, but there is a very slim chance,” he said.

      And just like that, Emily could breathe again. She squared her shoulders and looked at him levelly.

      “It’s better than none,” she said.

      For a moment, he just looked at her. His eyes showed something akin to respect. Then he gave her a nod of agreement.

      “I’ll see what I can do,” he said heavily.

      He shot a look at William and left the room.

      Silence stretched out, broken only by Amber’s constant moaning.

      “He’s not like I would have pictured a vampire,” Emily said finally.

      William gave a small smile.

      “No,” he agreed. “But he gets that a lot.”

      “So, you’re a werewolf?” she asked, trying to sound casual.

      “Not exactly,” he said, a little hesitation in his words.

      She noticed the hesitation. A thoughtful little crinkle appeared between her brows.

      “But you turned into a wolf,” she pointed out.

      He gave her just a hint of a nod.

      “I’m complicated,” he said.

      Another silence stretched out.

      What did that mean? He either was a werewolf or he wasn’t. What was the point of being obtuse about it?

      “Do you kill people?” she asked bluntly, her voice almost a whisper. “Humans, I mean?”

      A tight smile crept across his face and didn’t reach his eyes.

      “You’re safe with us,” was all he said.

      She nodded almost absently.

      “So yes,” she mumbled.

      There was a heavy feeling of disappointment in her gut, but she refused to examine it. She needed to keep her distance from him. She could never be involved with someone who killed people, no matter how attracted to him she was.

      He was a killer, and she needed to remember that.

      “Not if I can help it,” he said heavily.

      “Prop her up,” Paoli instructed when he reentered the room, a small vial in his hand.

      Emily did so without question. She watched with bated breath as he poured some vile‐smelling concoction down Amber’s throat.

      Amber coughed and sputtered, covering Paoli in frothy spittle, but the transformation continued, unchanged.

      “Well, that was disappointing,” he announced dryly.

      He wiped his face with a grimace, then hustled back out of the room.

      “What if he can’t fix this?” Emily asked William in a small voice. “Then what happens?”

      William held her gaze.

      “You already know the answer,” he said darkly.

      “I told you, that’s not going to happen. I won’t let you kill her,” she said.

      She met his eyes boldly, as if daring him to challenge her.

      He said nothing, but continued to watch her. Like she was a bug.

      “Stop looking at me like that,” she said, squirming uncomfortably.

      “Like what?” He cocked his head to the side, a look of puzzlement on his face.

      “Like you’re a cat watching a mouse,” she said.

      She jabbed an accusatory finger in his direction.

      William grinned at her. It was a guilty look.

      “What’s funny?” she demanded.

      “You walked into a werewolf den under a full moon without a thought, but someone watching you makes you uncomfortable,” he chuckled.

      Emily glanced at Amber.

      “I didn’t

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