At his words, horror flooded her. “You…you knew that all along? And you left Cass with him?” She stared at him in shock. “They cut off his hands! His hands!”
“And if Gregory was the one yanking Hycim’s strings…then he’s also the one responsible for cutting off your wings,” Luke fired back. “So let your Reaper lover take his vengeance. Let Cass do his worst.” He gave a grim shake of his head. “I’m supposed to govern the dark ones, but I don’t control them completely. They have their own thoughts. They get fucking out of control, and I do my best to clean up the messes they leave behind. When the vampires took Cass—back when he was a kid—I was dealing with fucking twenty other world-ending problems. The apocalypse is always a step away.”
“Amen,” Leo mumbled.
“By the time I realized what had happened…Cass was an adult. And he was a killer.” Luke huffed out a breath. “I didn’t know if I should put him down right away or give the bastard a fighting chance.”
The twisting in her stomach got worse. “You won’t put him down.”
Leo took her arm. “Forget him, okay? You’re what matters, not him, not—”
She turned her head and glared at her brother. “Cass matters to me.” Her voice was low and lethal.
Leo blinked.
Her head turned back toward Luke. “Send me to him.”
“Amber…”
“Send me to him! This fucked-up family reunion can wait! Send me to Cass right now. Right the hell now or I swear I will—”
Luke sighed and waved his hand. “You didn’t even ask why I wanted to see you so badly.”
He sounded…disappointed.
“I don’t care why! I want Cass, I want—”
The wind whipped up around her—and Luke and Leo vanished.
Chapter Fifteen
Cass faced Gregory, staring at the man who’d first been like a father to him…then a friend.
And now…
An enemy.
“It isn’t too late,” Gregory said, smiling at him.
Gregory smiled while he broke her neck.
“You and I…we can team up. It is always what I wanted for us. Together, we can take out Luke and Leo. We’ll be the new order. Everyone else will bow down to us.”
“I never wanted anyone to bow to me.”
Gregory held up his hands. Hands that were covered with Cass’s gloves. “But you want to touch people, don’t you? You wanted to touch her. Once we have all the power, I can make sure you find someone else to mate, maybe even someone who can bear your touch.”
I don’t want anyone else. “Amber isn’t dead. Luke and Leo brought her back.”
Surprise flashed on Gregory’s face.
“After I kill you,” Cass added, “I’ll be taking my gloves back.” He smiled. “And then I’ll touch her as often as I want.”
“If they did bring her back, then Luke and Leo want her very badly. They probably have already taken her away from here. You won’t see her again. You’ll never have her again. Not unless you team up with me.” His gloved hands slipped behind his body.
“Are you going for your knives?” Cass asked him, tilting his head. “Because I remember…you always kept two knives on you.”
Gregory lifted his hands. Each glove held a knife.
Cass stared at those blades.
“Do you remember…” Gregory murmured. “What it was like to lose your hands?”
“I won’t be losing my hands tonight. You’ll be losing your head.”
Gregory seemed to consider that. Then he said, “Your parents didn’t think they’d lose their hands, either. But they did. I took your father’s hands first. Then your mother’s. They were pretty much helpless then. So I drained them. Their blood was very, very powerful. And oddly sweet.”
Cass blinked, then he shook his head. No, no, that wasn’t—
Gregory struck. He raced forward with a burst of supernatural speed and his knives flashed out, slicing through skin and bone, slicing to take off Cass’s wrist.
But Cass twisted up the scythe, and it cut right across Gregory’s chest, sending blood flying.
Gregory screamed and stumbled back.
“You…killed my parents?” Cass asked. The world seemed red. Not just from Gregory’s blood…but from fury.
Gregory looked down at his chest, then back up at Cass. Anger twisted his face. “Your parents…your relatives…I killed every Reaper I could find. I took their power. I needed that power. I told you, I had to be strong enough to defeat Luke.”
A dull roar filled Cass’s ears. He didn’t realize he was the one making that animalistic sound, not at first. Pain had clawed up through him, ripping him wide open.
I lived with his clan. All those years…I was with the murderers…
“I wanted to kill you all,” Gregory spat. “But you wouldn’t die. My vamps chopped off your hands…we drained you…but you came back. You kept coming back. So I knew that if I couldn’t end you, then I could at least use you.”
And he had…for fucking years.
“Guess what…?” Gregory whispered. “My vampires? They’re here. They’re closing in.”
Four vampires raced from the dark—and they put themselves between Gregory and Cass.
They bared their fangs.
“Took you fucking long enough,” Gregory shouted at them. “He made me bleed.”