“Then tell him you are sorry and kiss and make up,” Cade says, disentangling himself from her grasp.
“It won’t work this time. I betrayed him,” she says, quieter now.
Cade goes pale. Oh, God, please let this have nothing to do with him. “Did you tell him about us?” he asks.
Jess looks up at him, momentarily confused herself. “What? This has nothing to do that,” she says to his relief. The last thing he needs is Devon gunning for him for sleeping with his charge. It was a huge mistake and one he doesn’t want coming back to bite him on the ass.
“Then what?” he asks, losing his patience. He wants to go upstairs and drink this blood and see if he can keep it down.
“He knows I was also involved in Liv’s kidnap and coma. Remiel told him and now he wants nothing to do with me. You know what will happen to me if I am forbidden to be near him,” she says.
Cade’s eyebrows skyrocket. He knew she was up to something. He just couldn’t figure out what her game was before he was forced to be bedridden. He had no idea she was also working with Remiel to get to Liv.
“You understand, don’t you?” she begs. “You know why I need to be near him.”
He huffs out his breath and shakes his head. “Jess, I have no sway over what he does. I can’t help you,” he says. He feels bad, but he is the last person Devon will listen to.
“Talk to Liv, please,” she says. “Get her to speak to Devon. If she tells him to forgive me, he will.”
“Jess, I can’t,” Cade says. “If Liv knows you were involved with this, she won’t help you no matter what.”
“She helped you!” she screams at him, grabbing his arms again. “You were way more involved than I was.”
“I’m her charge,” he says simply, and for the first time it really and truly hits him about the complexity of this race he is now a part of. He tried to kill her, and she forgave him because he is hers. He doesn’t know if that makes her stupid or merciful. Although, he finally does see how Devon can be so callous towards Jess. He has no bond with her like Liv does to him, and she has to her sire. It clearly has a massive impact on forgiveness, what with all the secrets and betrayal that have been going on lately.
“Then claim me,” Jess says to him, and he can see the crazy in her eyes. She has gone off the deep end.
“What?” he asks, trying to gauge the catastrophic implications of that suggestion.
“Claim me,” she says more calmly. “Make me yours. If we are together then Devon can’t get rid of me. I can still live here near him.”
“Uh, no,” Cade says, backing away from her, holding his hands up. “That’s not going to happen.”
She drops to her knees in front of him and he swallows loudly, feeling really uncomfortable. He wants to get out of here now. He edges around her, and he sees her shoulders droop as she sobs into her hands and he runs away. He feels like the worst person alive for abandoning her, but he has bigger fish to fry. Like the one he has just run into on his escape from the kitchen.
Devon.
“Watch it,” his sibling growls at him.
“Sorry,” Cade pants. He has to tell him what just happened. If he doesn’t and Devon finds out later, he will hate him even more than he does already. “Err…”
Devon crosses his arms and glares at him. “What?” he snaps.
Cade grows a pair and stands up straighter to fix this man that he is so weirdly connected to with a steady stare. “Look, I don’t know what has gone on with you and Jess, but you should know…”
“It’s none of your business,” Devon interrupts him.
“Yeah, I get that. I don’t want any part of this, but you should know…”
“Stay out of it,” Devon interrupts him again and now it is getting on Cade’s nerves.
“Shut the fuck up and let me speak,” he snaps.
Devon raises his eyebrow at him and holds his hands out. “Go ahead. Say what you must then,” he says with false generosity.
Cade crosses his arms now, the blood bottle still firmly attached to his hand. Devon’s eyes take it, and then him, in with interest and then a smirk of the worst kind passes over his face. Cade opens his mouth to speak before Devon can get his wicked forming thought out. “Your charge is in the kitchen. She just propositioned me into claiming her because she fears you are going to abandon her. I’d go and sort that out if I were you before she turns her attentions to someone not quite as easygoing as I am.” He hadn’t meant to sound so judgmental, but he knows that Devon knows something about why he is clutching a bottle of human blood in his hands.
“I beg your pardon?” Devon asks. “She did what??