Page 27 of Vamp CEO Bit You Where?

"I saw his mouth covered in blood, Sebastian. I saw his eyes. I saw him move." My stomach twists, but I pin my stare to his. "I didn't know his name then. I do now."

He looks toward Tomas' silhouette ahead. "Tomas."

"Yes, sir."

"Call Gideon. Now."

Tomas already has his phone out. Sebastian turns back to me, and whatever he felt a second ago has been locked behind glass, but not well enough. I can still see it clawing at the other side.

"Why didn't you tell me in there?"

"Because I was out in the open with a room full of vampires, and the one who drank from a woman's neck was smiling at me like we shared a joke." My voice stays level by force alone. "I thought screaming his name might be poor strategy."

A muscle moves near his cheek. "You were right."

"Wonderful. I'll embroider it on a pillow." Not even the corner of his mouth moves.

"They would use you to get to me," he says. "Cyrus especially. Each of them, without exception. The guards aren't a leash, Jasmine. They're a wall."

"I know." And I do. That is where the bruise starts. "But walls get closer when no one questions the builder. First it's a man at the car door. Then it's which room I stand in. Then it's whether I get ten seconds to go to the restroom."

"So your preference is letting them study my throat?"

"I'd rather you ask me before you decide what I can survive."

He falls silent. Not cold. Thinking, the way he does when the answer matters. Then he lifts my hand and presses his mouthto my knuckles, slow, like an apology still learning its own language.

"I want you safe," he says.

"I know that too." I let him keep my hand. I want him to keep it. That's not the question.

The question is whether, in his world, being wanted and being kept are not twin doors after all.

Outside, the second car follows us through every turn, patient, exact, and waiting for no permission from me.

18

SEBASTIAN

By the following week, caution has become routine. A camera sits in Jasmine's palm when I come through her door, a black square as small as a cufflink.

"It was in the smoke detector," she says. "It wouldn't sit right when I changed the battery. How long has it been watching me?"

"I can't be sure yet."

"You mean it wasn't you?"

"No."

"Then dig until it bleeds" She holds it out, steady. "It pointed at my bed, Sebastian?"

The lens is still warm when I touch it. "You called me before anyone else?"

"Yes, because you'll tell me the truth." Her eyes don't avoid mine.

Gid comes through behind me, Elias a step after, already drawing a scanner from his coat. "Window frames," Elias says quietly. "Then the vents."

"I want everything you find. Every wire. Every dirty little tooth." I say.