Page 16

HERETIC DAUGHTERS’ PET

I sat, thanking Christian. He pushed my chair in like the perfect gentleman he wasn’t and took the seat to my right.

Dom sat on the opposite side from us, Helen taking the seat to his right.

Who was she? What was she?

Dom pointed a finger at Christian. “The same goes for you.”

I rolled my eyes. Caleb was back to normal, and I saw him copying me out of the corner of my eye. “I swore a blood oath about that, Dom,” I began. “This is all—”

“See now, Jillian,” Dom interrupted me, tone black and full of scorn, “that’s the problem with being an unrepentant oath-breaker. It makes it so none of your oaths have any meaning at all. Especially your oaths to me.”

Ouch. But, okay, I could see his point there. I inclined my head, my expression perfectly blank.

“What gave me away?” Caleb asked Dom unexpectedly.

“How’d you know I wasn’t Jillian?” he clarified when Dom didn’t immediately answer, instead just stared at him like he was contemplating how best to slowly dismember him. .

Finally Dom sighed and said, “You were looking at her more than at me. She rarely looks away from me. And if she does, it’s up or down, but not at other people. At least, not for long. Not when I’m around.”

I glared. Arrogant asshole. I tried to keep from cringing. I did not like the way that sounded, but I could hardly dispute it.

“Let’s move on, please. Who is Helen?” I asked rudely, as though she wasn’t even there. The guys’ shenanigans had quickly absorbed my good mood.

Dom raised a brow at me. “Helen is an old friend and a business associate of mine. She’s worked closely with the druids for many years now, over in London. But that’s not really the pertinent question for this task force. You should be asking, what is Helen. Or can you guess?”

I studied her. I still didn’t like what I saw. An old friend, huh? Barf. Suddenly, Helen sent him a warm glance. Her eyes ran over his body in a familiar, possessive way. And from that knowing look I just suddenly knew for a fact that they’d slept together. She’d tapped that. It was all over her smug, not quite as good-looking as me face. Gods, was it an old fling or something ongoing?

I felt bile rise. I knew about his legion of indiscretions after I’d left him, but seeing it firsthand affected me all over again. I wanted to kill her. I wanted to kill him. It was ridiculous, but that didn’t make the rage or the hurt go away.

I had left him, I had courted this, and I had no right to take exception to the things he had done after I was gone, but it didn’t make it any easier to live with. Not then and not now.

She cast a look at Christian, and it was disdainful in a way that had my hackles rising. As though I didn’t already have a list of reasons to hate her.

She’d taken a particular sort of dislike for him, giving him a look that you would give a traitor to your cause.

A switch clicked on in my brain. The realization of what she was came to me then.

I looked at her slender, elegant wrists. How had I missed that there was a geas on one of them? I’d been distracted by the force of nature that was Dom, obviously.

My horrified eyes shot to Dom’s. His dazzling blue and gold eyes were studying me intently. “Don’t you think you should have warned me first?” I asked him, feeling fury creep up over my body. Fury and a sense of betrayal. My voice was barely more than a whisper.

“What is it? What is she?” Christian and Caleb asked at the same time.

I glared at Dom. He looked down suddenly, but quickly up again. He was uncomfortable, but not nearly enough so.

“She’s a slayer,” I said, each word forced out of a suddenly tight throat.

“What kind of slayer?” Caleb asked.

I shot him a look, one brow raised. He annoyingly copied it just out of habit. Usually he was quicker on the uptake. “What kind do you think?” I had the rare pleasure of watching an actual expression come over his sociopathic face. Surprise. Being as it was my face and my mood had swiftly turned to shit, it was not as enjoyable as it should have been.

I went back to staring Dom down while Christian had the loudest reaction. “Bloody hell, I’ve heard of you, come to think of it!”

“Well, I have certainly heard of you,” Helen responded dryly. “The Heretic Daughters’ Pet is what the other slayers call you now.”

My furious gaze shot to her for that. “You don’t even know what that means. I’ve seen what you call a pet firsthand. Christian is not enthralled. He’s one of my dearest, oldest friends. I would never do anything to mess up his mind. He’s not my pet.”