Her chin lifted. “I’m not damaged.”
All right. Enough. “Nobody has ever called me patient, lady, and I have to say, I’ve showed more patience with you than anybody else in my entire life.” He hadn’t even dealt with the fact that she’d drugged him and ransacked his office yet.
“So?” She met his gaze full on.
Heat flushed through him. “So? I’m done. Either you start talking, or I strip you naked, fuck you senseless, and then you start talking.” In fact, that was a damn good idea. He pushed off from the wall.
She choked and held up a hand. “Wait a minute.”
“Talk.”
Her hands fluttered in her lap, and she cut a discreet glance at the clock on the mantel. What in holy hell was she up to now? She cleared her throat. “Fine. Not many people know this, but I, ah, I am unable to perpetrate a demon mind attack.”
Perpetrate? Jesus. He’d rather have her screaming at him than using that monotone of a voice. “So?”
She blinked. “I’m damaged. Handicapped. Half a demon.”
That was fucking crazy. “Says who?”
She shook her head, surprise glittering in her eyes. “Everyone.”
“Can you teleport?”
Her shoulders slumped. “No.”
He could just rip the head off everyone who’d ever made her feel like less. And by the hurt in her eyes, they’d done a number on her. In fact, until Zane Kyllwood had killed his uncle and taken over the demon nation, the world hadn’t known Zane was half demon or that Felicity existed. “Your family hid you?” he asked.
She shrugged. “My parents were protective, but they died, and then Suri took over.”
Suri was her older brother, the former demon leader, and a real bastard. “Willa was your sister?”
“Yes.”
Willa was a demonness who was a torturing bitch. Both Suri and Willa were dead now.
“All right.” Daire’s brain sorted facts. “So Suri betrothed you to Bychkov in order to secure a treaty between his nation and Bychkov’s people.”
“Yes, but I’d met Dane Kyllwood, and we ran away together. Had the boys and lived a nice life in Africa until he died.” Sadness twisted her lip.
Daire leaned back, narrowing her gaze. “How exactly did you meet Kyllwood?”
She shrugged, her gaze sliding away. “You know. At a bar downtown.”
“Felicity.”
The pink turned to red, and not with embarrassment but shame. “Dane lived with a small coalition of vampires, and the demons had attacked them for land, so he infiltrated Suri’s headquarters to assassinate him. Instead, Dane found me, and I was injured, so he, ah, got me to safety.”
Everything inside Daire stilled. “How were you injured?”
She lifted a shoulder and sighed. “Suri and I didn’t get along well.”
“He beat you?” Daire growled.
Her gaze met his. “I hit him, too.”
Jesus. “So you got away, gave birth to three sons at a very young age, and then Dane died, leaving you alone in the world.”
“Yes.”
The only question remaining, he figured he could answer himself. Every move she’d made in the last week had been focused specifically on one target. Yet he wanted confirmation. “Bychkov killed your mate.”
Her eyes flashed and she stood. “Yes. It’s Bychkov’s time to suffer before I kill him.”
Chapter 11
Felicity settled her stance. The enforcer stood, legs braced, torso bare. Man, he was ripped. Dark hair curled at his nape, and he’d shaved in the shower, revealing the razor sharp cut of his jaw. A slight shadow already darkened his skin, all masculine.
Her vampire mate had been a kind man, much older than she, and he’d been incredibly over-protective from day one. She’d been injured and then pregnant so young, that she’d understood. But she’d never really had the chance to become the strong woman inside her until recently.
Daire treated her like a woman and not like a fragile flower. She liked that.