“Alexander is dead blood. He’s crossed a line. I’m taking him down,” I stormed, slamming my fist clear through a table. The cabinet and chairs were already broken, laying about in pieces, thanks to the rage that I couldn’t hold in check. Leon stood in front of the giant TV on the wall, self-assigned protector of it, lest I smash that too and deny him of his stupid racing games.

“Why would he try to kill her like that?” Leon asked.

“Because if he took her then I’d find out. He was trying to cover his tracks by making it a random event off the island. Or maybe just to fuck with me, I don’t know.”

“But why would he want to kill her in the first place?”

Selena’s face flashed under my eyelids. Why indeed. Because he wants to take everything from me.

“Because of her damned crazy aura,” I replied. “He’s threatened by her, by not knowing what she is. He thinks she’s involved in the attacks on us. Whoever that is, they set fire to his bar, too.”

“You don’t agree she’s involved? You must admit, it seems a bit of a coincidence that she’s arrived now,” Ruben said from across the room.

“She doesn’t even know what she is. She’s not part of it. A simple scan of her thoughts on me can make that clear,” I said.

“Not if she’s got the ability to control the thoughts she puts out. What if she’s stopping you seeing? What if you’re too wrapped up in the spell cast by her sweet pussy that you can’t see it?” Ruben sneered.

I lunged for him. He sidestepped and spun round, ready for the next attempt. Leon got between us, an impatient look on his face.

“Or,” Ruben added over Leon’s shoulder. “What if you end up being the one that kills her? Alex tried to do you a favour. We all know that if you continue on this path then you’re going to lose it and take her out. Then what?”

“You doubt my strength?” I asked Leon, slowly turning to meet the eyes of the other members of my Cell in the room.

They’re weak, all of them. They all doubt you. Don’t tolerate their insubordination.

“Of course not,” Leon said. “I mean. I don’t know. This has never happened before. You’ve never been challenged this way. You’re different.”

They all sat around, eyes lowered. The sitting room was vast, yet it felt claustrophobic at that moment. It was hard enough battling the duelling forces inside my own head; I didn’t need fights breaking out with my men over it, too.

“She’s different, but you’re going to have to trust me. I admit, I don’t know who she is, but I know that I need her. And right now she’s not safe. I want one man shadowing her at all times when I’m not with her. Leon, sort that out for me.” I held my position and resisted the urge to pace up and down. Or to break something else. Maybe Ruben’s face…

Leon nodded in reply, just as a shrill giggle contaminated my ears from the adjoining room. A handful of drunken ladies were shrieking in excitement at being in our mansion, waiting for the boys to come and play. Their mindless chatter threatened to make me explode. I rubbed my temples, concentrating, clearing the external noise.

“Why are there girls here? You’re partying under our current threat, like nothing is wrong, then you have the nerve to come in here and challenge me?!” I yelled.

Punish them.

Ruben huffed in the corner, itching to let it out. I wished he would go someplace else. Disappear with his ponytail and ridiculous clothes and attitude, away from my Cell. I could banish him, but that would really upset his sister, Eva. And that was a whole other argument for another time.

I stared, waiting for him to acknowledge me. “Come on, Ruben. Don’t go shy on me now. For someone who doesn’t give a damn about me, or our way of life, you’ve sure been showing a lot of attention to Jess.”

“I care about Eva. What affects her, affects me.”

“She can take care of herself.”

“You’re mistaken.”

“Because of the one time she needed you? I was a different person then. She’s moved on from it, why can’t you?”

“If anything happens to her while she’s under your leadership, I’ll hold you personally responsible.”

“You and me both,” I replied through gritted teeth.

“OK, boys, there’s only so much of this bullshit I can sit and listen to,” Eva rose up and walked over to stand beside me, confirming her allegiance. “We’ve been here before. If it wasn’t Jess, or the recent attacks, it would be something else, Ruben. You’ll always find stuff to fight about. Just leave it. Please.”

The attacks. The dead vampires. As if Jess’s arrival alone didn’t give me enough to deal with. I had someone targeting us and the Bael threatening to come deal with it. Now my brother was trying to kill said girl, who had wandered onto my island, all sweetness and sass, with an aura that made her appear like an angel, and a scent that made me want to set the devil loose to devour her.

My guys were right to be worried. I had no useful information on what was going on, who was killing us. There was a weird, fuzzy energy around the dead vampires, blurring any scents or clues. They thought I was going to screw up and allow more of us to get killed, because my mind was elsewhere and not where it should be.

Or that Jess would undo my restraint and I’d go on a savage island rampage, uprooting our little life we have here. Or that worse still, Alexander would find a way to use all this emotion in me to his advantage and force me to activate the Legacy, which would probably tear me away from the Cell forever.

“I heard Romeo got killed. They’re picking off Alex’s Cell, too,” Leon commented.

“No, that was Alexander’s own work. Romeo messed up letting that missing girl escape. He paid the price, Alexander made an example of him.”

Ruben stormed past. That’s right. Leave before you become one of my examples.

“Time to get dirty, ladies,” he said in the room next door.

“Anyone else want to challenge me? Or you want to go let off steam, too?” I asked.

Everyone vacated the room in a split second, and I begrudgingly followed them through to the party. A couple of girls glued themselves to me with speed almost as impressive as my own. One of them smelled pretty good. Nothing close to Jess, but enough to make me uneasy with need. She started rubbing my dick which didn’t help.

I let them touch me for a while, without reciprocating. What was the point? I didn’t want to touch them. I wanted to touch the one girl that I couldn’t. After a while they gave up and trotted over to Leon, who was busy making out with another two already.

Leaving them to it, I marched down the hallway. Eva emerged from the basement, wiping blood from her lips. She put a petite hand on my shoulder and pulled me close.

“She doesn’t look like Selena, doesn’t smell like her, or act like her, and yet Selena is all I can think about when I look at her,” I sighed. “What I did to Selena… I can’t let that happen again. Not to Jess.”

“You’re not that man anymore,” she replied, rubbing my shoulder.

“If I don’t destroy her, then Alexander will. He’s still the same man. He’ll take her from me. History will repeat. I can’t keep her safe, there are too many dangers in this world. And I can’t take the pain of losing another love, it would push me back into darkness. They’re right, this is a mistake. I need to drive her off the island before it’s too late.”

“Sshhhh,” she whispered, running a blood stained finger along my lip until I shuddered. “Don’t stress it, baby. I trust you. You’re stronger than you give yourself credit for. You’ll handle it… all of it. But you can’t go near her without getting a fix first. You’re too hungry. Go fill your boots.”

She slapped my ass playfully and I continued past her, down the basement steps.