Knox raised a brow at the she-demon. “Is that her?”

The she-demon studied Diane. “That’s her. When I try to get an image of her face in my mind, I can’t see it. But I know that’s her.”

Knox glared down at Diane. “Then you’ll be coming with us.” He cast Giles an uninterested glance before turning to Sam. “Do what you want with him. But she’s ours.”

Sam, holding the hand of a now conscious Jared, frowned thoughtfully at Knox. Her eyes then darted briefly to the she-demon, her expression torn.

It was Jared who replied to Knox. “Just make sure she suffers for what she did.”

“That I can do,” Knox drawled.

Sebastian was officially my fucking hero. If it wasn’t for him, my brother might have been a pile of ashes right now. Instead, Cristiano was here in my apartment with me – alive and well…and pacing in front of my sofa, purple-faced and agitated.

Sitting cross-legged, I stared at him curiously. “You were kidnapped, knocked unconscious, and would probably have died along with the nest if it hadn’t been for Sebastian…but this pisses you off?”

“You’re my baby sister,” he growled.

“And?”

“And he’s a few mental steps away from a fucking psychopath.”

“Don’t judge.”

It was a good thing that I’d asked Salem to give me some time alone with my brother. I’d wanted to tell Cristiano about the upcoming Binding ceremony in private – particularly since I’d worried that he might not be too pleased. I hadn’t wanted him and Salem arguing. In actual fact, I hadn’t even gotten to the subject of the Binding yet. The moment Cristiano realised that I’d moved in with Salem, he’d exploded.

“You seemed to have accepted the relationship when we last spoke on the phone.” After his little chat with Salem.

“Of course I hadn’t accepted it,” he scoffed. “I just knew that fighting you on it would have made you stay with him just to be fucking contrary.” Yeah, it probably would have. “I figured it would be better to let you see your mistake yourself. I should have known better. No, you should have known better. He’s wrong for you.”

I sighed tiredly. Any other time, I might have engaged in a shouting match with him over this, irritated by his interference. But my relief at Cristiano being alive kept my anger in check. Besides, I knew that his real problem wasn’t Salem, it was that Cristiano was too overprotective to ever be comfortable with any male so much as touching his sister. “You never liked any of the guys I dated.”

Cristiano stopped in front of me. “But at least they didn’t have psychosis.”

“I won’t deny Salem has issues –”

“That’s putting it lightly.”

“– but that’s not why you disapprove. No, you’re just latching onto that as an excuse to rant and rave, and justify being an interfering shit.” I leaned forward, my face imploring. “Don’t you want me to be happy?”

“You can’t say with total honesty that that miserable bastard makes you happy.”

“He does. He’s sweet and funny.”

Cristiano regarded me with astonishment and disbelief. “Sweet? Funny?”

“My point is he’s not the one-dimensional psycho you seem to think he is.”

“This really is serious for you, isn’t it?” Cristiano cursed, looking helpless. “You’re honestly thinking of staying with him.”

It wasn’t a question, but I confirmed, “Yes. I love him.”

Closing his eyes, Cristiano inhaled deeply, and I got the feeling he was counting to ten in his head. It was something he often did when I was around – how fun. “Ava…you’re sweet, and caring, and good.” At my raised brow, he admitted, “All right, you can also be a bit of a bitch. But you’re still too good for someone like him.”

Truly fed up now, I waved a dismissive hand. “Whatever.”

“I mean it, Ava.”

“Oh, I know you do…which is why your opinions will now be redirected to ‘1-800-I-fail-to-give-a-flying-fuck’.”

“Ava.” With a sigh of resignation, he flopped on the sofa, looking sulky and worried. And that was when something occurred to me, and I was amazed that I hadn’t seen it before. This wasn’t simply him being overprotective. He was feeling like his nose was being pushed out. Like his role of protector and the most significant person in my life was now threatened. He worried he was losing me.

I twisted to face him. “Cris, I love you. You’re important to me, and you always will be. Salem isn’t replacing you. He’s just sharing the burden that is me.”

“You’re not a burden.”

“Two people can be important to me at one time, right?”

His face softened, and a smile tugged at his mouth. Then it quickly vanished, replaced by a petulant frown. “No.”

I laughed, hugging him. “Let’s look at it another way. You’ll now have peace of mind that while we’re countries apart, there’s someone looking out for me.”

He grumbled something unintelligible under his breath, but I could hear the defeat in his tone.

Pulling back, I smiled. “Does this mean you’ll come to the Binding ceremony?” I almost laughed again when his eyes fairly bulged out of his head.

“You’re Binding with him?”

“Yep.” Ignoring the disapproval once more radiating from my brother, I confessed, “I’m still pretty shocked that he asked. I didn’t think it was something he’d ever want.”

“It was his idea?” Cristiano calmed a little at my nod. “He said he cares for you?”

I nodded again, and it surprised me that Cristiano didn’t snort. “You believe he meant it?”

“I learned some things about Salem when I was last here. One was that he doesn’t say anything he doesn’t mean.” He paused. “Another was that he can kill without remorse. Which is a psychopathic tendency and further supports my ‘he’s not right for you’ case, but we’ll ignore that.”

I chuckled. “Thanks.”

“Maybe being around you will make the miserable bastard more sociable.”

“Let’s not expect miracles, okay.”