“Your word isn’t good around here anymore.”

Sarah put her hand on Murhder’s arm in case he decided to get aggressive again, and waited until he looked down at her. “It’s okay. I can tell Jane everything I’m thinking in terms of John’s care and she can take it from there. She’s a good doctor and she’ll be able to do it all.” Then she glared at the military guy. “And excuse me, but you might consider the fact that he saved a boy from a human torture factory, got me out of there safely, and is the only reason your son has even the hint of a clinical solution to his mortal wound. So back the fuck off, Sergeant Know-It-All.”

Annnnnnd now they were in Darius’s formal parlor waiting for Wrath.

As Sarah went over and inspected the floor-to-ceiling portrait of that French king, Murhder hung back and had to smile to himself.

There were not a lot of grown males who would get up into the face of Tohrment, son of Hharm. Especially when the Brother was armed and in a bad mood. Sarah, on the other hand, had been willing to risk great bodily harm to stand up for what she believed in.

Who she believed in.

Too bad the faith was so misplaced.

“This house is amazing.” She pivoted on one foot. “And who would have guessed? I mean, that vampires are in a neighborhood like this. You know, I expected the King to live in a big castle up on a mountain, with gargoyles on the roof and a moat. Instead, this is something out of Town and Country magazine.”

How am I going to let you go, he wondered.

Sarah walked over to him and took his hands. “Okay, sphinx. You need to talk to me before we go in and see the big guy. Let’s just lay it all out on the table. I can tell you’re uncomfortable here and around those males—”

“It’s not about them. I don’t care about them anymore.”

“Anymore?”

“They were my Brothers. All of them. But that was a long time ago. A forever ago.”

She frowned. “Family doesn’t stop. There is no past tense to family, Murhder.”

Murhder just shook his head. He didn’t have the energy to argue the point or explain himself. Instead, he was oh, so very aware that time was passing fast and this mission to see the king, which he had started out on with such purpose, was devolving into a rock-solid hell-no that he was going to be unable to counter.

“I need you to know something,” he whispered as he stared down into her golden eyes. “Even if you can only know it for now and a little bit longer.”

“What?” she breathed.

“I love you.” He brushed the smooth skin of her cheek. “I’ve fallen in love with you, and I just … some things need to be said, even if they’re wrong.”

“But it’s not wrong.” She turned her head and kissed his palm. “It’s not wrong between you and me. None of this is wrong …”

Her eyes, as she looked up at him, made him wish he still believed in a higher power. Life had taught him otherwise, however, and there was no un-learning the lesson that destiny was a douchebag and loss was more likely than gain.

He placed her hand over his heart. “I am yours. And that is forever, even if your memories of me are not.”

“I refuse to believe you can take all this from me.” She shook her head. “How can you reach so deep into my mind, into me? You are permanent in my life. In me. And I love you, too.”

They met halfway, her rising up onto her toes, him lowering himself down. And as their lips met and melded, the kiss was a kind of vow, a promise of ever after that would ultimately not be kept by her, and always kept by him.

Murhder wouldn’t have had it any other way.

He would rather bear the pain of all that could have been for the rest of his nights than have her suffer even a day of that burden of grief.

Besides, he told himself that even though their love would be one-sided, better that than never-have-been.

The paneled doors slid open. Tohrment looked grim, but then again, the Brother had never been a party.

“Wrath will see you now.”

Okay, wow, Sarah thought as she was led into a vast, empty room that had a chandelier the size of an SUV hanging from the ceiling and a rug like a park lawn in the center. Not that she spent a lot of time checking either of those two out. Nope, pretty much the only thing she saw was the massive male sitting beside a crackling fire. Now that was what she’d expect the king of the vampires to look like. The male had long, straight black hair falling from a widow’s peak, black wraparound sunglasses, black leathers and a muscle shirt, and a face that was cruel and handsome by turns. Tattoos ran down the insides of both his huge forearms and a large black stone glinted on one of his fingers.

The golden retriever who was curled up at his feet was a little surprising, and sure, that armchair he was parked in wasn’t exactly a George R. R. Martin–worthy throne, but the impression he made was so overwhelming, you could have put him in a Finding Dory kiddie pool and he’d still have looked like a badass.

Oh, and the males lined up around him were no slouches, either, and she recognized the handsome blond one from her arrival at the training center. Next to him was another male with a goatee and tattoos on his temple, a stocky one in clothes that were straight out of GQ, and a third with mismatched eyes, purple hair, and a lot of piercings.

No one was smiling. No, wait, the blond guy with the electric-blue eyes gave her a little wave.

“So this is your human,” the King said in a deep voice. “What’s your name, woman?”

Sarah cleared her throat. “Dr. Watkins. Sarah Watkins.”

“Nice to meet you. I understand you met our boy here when you were in the process of busting one of my civilians out of that lab. I’d like to thank you for your service to the species and for what you’re doing with John’s case.”

“You’re welcome.” What the hell else was she supposed to say? “Listen, if you could just—”

The King spoke right over her—which was better than getting beheaded, she decided. “You can’t stay in our world, however. I cannot allow you to do that—”

Murhder cut in. “There are humans all over your training center—”

“I know you did not just interrupt me,” the King bit out at Murhder. Then he refocused on Sarah. “Now, I realize you mean us no harm. I can scent you.” He touched the side of his noise. “You are without ulterior motive and you do not lie. But—”

“She’s in danger,” Murhder interrupted. “They already killed her fiancé for what he learned about the hidden lab. They’re going to do the same to her. She’s seeking asylum from that CEO—”

The male with the tattoos on his face turned his cell phone around. “That boy’s dead. Assuming you’re talking about Dr. Robert Kraiten, CEO of BioMed, he was found on the floor of his kitchen with a knife in his own hand and his lower intestines all over the place about two hours ago. So if that’s the threat you’re talking about, it’s been neutralized.”

“Goddamn it,” Murhder said under his breath.

Sarah blinked. “He killed himself?”

“Gutted, I believe is the term,” the vampire with the cell phone said. “And yup, did the handiwork all by his little lonesome.”

“Is there anyone else you can think of from that company who’d want to hurt you?” the King asked.

“Not that I know of.” Sarah shook her head. “But who can say for sure. I’ll tell you one thing, I’m not working there anymore.”

They weren’t going to want her anyway—

“No one’s going to be working there anymore.” The vampire with those tattoos shrugged and put his phone away. “The whole thing is closing down. That guy with the abdominal leak closed up everything yesterday. Shut the two campuses. Sent everyone home.”

Sarah could only blink as the ramifications of it all spun in her head.

“So I don’t need to worry about meeting with HR,” she muttered.

Shutting the whole corporation down? Made sense, and apparently, Kraiten wasn’t going to be doing anything in the future but pushing up daisies. Still, what if there were other labs around the country run by other people, doing the same thing?

As she fell silent, Murhder started to argue for her safety, and immediately, the tenor in the room got aggressive, male voices raising, male bodies leaning forward. It was all the same arguments, that other humans were allowed in the world, that she was helping John, that nobody wanted attention from Homo sapiens, but exceptions had been made; they’d been through all of it before.

“This is bullshit,” Murhder spat. “And it’s more to do with me than her, isn’t that right.”

The male with the tattoos spoke up over the debating. “Finally, you get it. You’re not sticking around here, big boy. So she’s not. It’s really just that simple.”

“I can take care of her—”

“You can’t take care of yourself—”

“Fuck you!”

“Stop it!” Sarah said in a loud bark. “Just stop.”

With her head pounding and her emotions on the brink, she took a couple of deep breaths in the silence that followed. All of the men—males—were focused on her. She stared at the King.

This was going absolutely nowhere. Even though they knew she had no ulterior motive, it was very clear that they would never trust Murhder, and it was for that reason she wasn’t going to be allowed to stay.

With a heavy heart, she thought about what he’d said in the car outside. That he didn’t want her to know what he was really like.

The problem was more that these males didn’t know who he was. But have fun trying to convince them otherwise.

“I don’t want any trouble,” she said to the King. “And it’s not for us to second-guess your decision. I’ll go back where I belong. I just—I promised Nate I would say goodbye before I left, and I want to hand over my idea about John’s treatment properly. Will you permit me to do both of those things before I leave?”