Enemy Within (Vampire Born Trilogy, #2) (32 page)

I lie her down on the floor beneath me.

She runs her hands over my naked shoulders and does that thing with her nails along the back of my head again.

I tremble under her arm, over her body. “I love you, Slatki.”

She smiles and rubs her thumb down the back of my ear. “I love you too.”

I kiss her hard, pulling away only to say, “God, I want you so damn bad,” before capturing her mouth again.

“I want you too,” she says between heavy kisses.

I pull away again, pushing her tank top and sports bra up to kiss her skin.

She pants, going as crazy as I am. We’ve done a lot of the in-between stuff during the times she’d sneak into my room at night, and I’ve always thought that I wanted her first time to include it all, but I simply can’t wait any longer.

I need her now.

I curl my fingers around the elastic of her shorts.

She lifts her hips for me to free them from her body.

My hands shake as I ready the material to be tugged down, but then I hear something and freeze.

“How dare you?”

I pull Brooke’s shirt down and scramble off her.

I turn around and meet the face that matches the angry tone.

It’s Zladislov.

CHAPTER TWEN
TY-SEVEN

Brooke

A scream lodges in my throat as I fumble with my shirt. What the heck is my dad doing here? He’s supposed to be at meetings.

Heat rushes to my cheeks.

I’m mortified.

That is until the scowl on my dad’s face terrifies me. His glare is trained on Mirko. “I see you didn’t heed my advice,” he growls.

Mirko pulls on his T-shirt with a swift, fluid tug, sneering at my dad. “It wasn’t advice. You threatened me.”

“What?” I gasp. He threatened Mirko? Why? When did he—? I spot the condom on the floor next to where Mirko and I had been. I reach over and snatch it up, hoping my dad was too focused staring down Mirko to see it.

I stand up, tucking the square package into the back of my shorts. “You threatened him?” My tone takes on a how-dare-you emphasis.

My dad shifts his focus to me, still angry. “I saw that,” he ignores my question, gesturing to my shorts.

Shit. He pretty much caught us almost having sex, but for some reason, having him see the condom makes it so much worse. I won’t let it distract me or cause me to back down, though. He threatened Mirko.

“You have thirty seconds to compose yourselves before I expect to see you in the library.” It’s not a request. He turns around sharp as his tongue and climbs the stairs as quietly as he came down.

I turn to Mirko and it’s like peering into a mirror. His eyes are wide and horrified. His mouth is slack, like he can’t catch his breath.

I can’t catch mine, either. It feels like concrete is setting in my lungs. “What did he threaten you with?” I ask because not knowing is more painful than suffocating.

Mirko shakes his head and puts on his shoes. “Dammit, this is not good, Brooke.”

Brooke? As if I couldn’t be any more scared, he’s calling me by my name now?

I cross my arms tight around my chest. “What the hell did he threaten you with?”

“Come on,” Mirko says and puts his hand on the small of my back, leading me up the stairs.

I stop at the top and face him. “Tell me.”

“This morning,” he says, and I recall my dad whispering something to him and then his face going blank.

Nausea stirs in my stomach.

“He told me if I ‘fornicated’ with you, he’d get rid of me.”

My heart clenches on the verge of ceasing. “No! He can
not
send you away.”

Mirko works his throat. “He meant he’d kill me.”

I drop back against the wall. It’s the only thing holding me up because my knees are too weak.

I’m overwhelmed with emotion. Fear, anger at my dad, anger at Mirko for not telling me. “Why would you keep something that important from me?” I smack his solid chest and step into the game room.

He comes up behind me and turns me around by my shoulder. “I didn’t want to give you one more thing to worry about.”

“Because of grief?” I laugh. “Is this the real reason you’ve been so hesitant? Because I recall at Lijepa’s, you were the one doing the begging.”

“No, Slatki.” He cups my face. “As soon as I found out who your father was, I knew what the consequences of loving you could be. I decided right then that I wasn’t going to allow anyone to scare me out of loving you. If it risked your life, that was different, but this is my life and I can’t imagine it now without loving you.”

My heart melts for him all over again. I’m torn between kissing him and smacking him. “I could have killed you!” God, if I knew tempting him was this dangerous, I wouldn’t have done it.

He kisses me. “Nobody knows how long they’ll live, Slatki. If bedding you is the last thing I do before I die, I’ll die a happy man.” He grins at me with his cocky smile, the same curve of his lips I fell in love with. “Plus, I figured he’d be gone at meetings all day.”

So did I. “So what’s he going to do?” I ask because I’m still shaking in fear.

“I don’t know. But I am
not
giving you up.” He grabs my hand, and his eyes are as fierce as I’ve ever seen them.

“I’m not giving you up, either.” He might make light about his dying, but I can’t live without him now. I’m certain of it.

“I’m serious,” he says, thick as an oath.

“Me too.”

“Promise me. No matter what he says or does, you won’t give up on us.”

“I promise.” How could he even doubt
me?

When he’d tried to break it off with me, Mirko never mentioned that my father would kill him. I knew his life was always in danger because of me, but the least I could do was try to keep him safe instead of seducing him to death.

I throw the double doors open and march inside. I stop in front of my dad, toe to toe, and glare up at him. “How dare you threaten him?”

The look he gives me makes me want to pee my pants, but I don’t back down.

There’s a man standing behind and to the side of my dad. I’ve never seen him before, but I don’t care if I’m making a scene in front of a guest. Maybe my dad shouldn’t have told us to meet him in the library then.

“Brooke,” Mirko says and tugs the back of my tank top to pull me back, “that’s not helping.”

My dad faces Mirko and lays into him in Croatian.

“In English!”

The stranger walks over to Mirko and starts directing him toward the exit of the library.

Mirko’s muscles tighten, as if preparing to fight.

This won’t end well.

I get back in my dad’s face. “You do not get to walk into my life and then start threatening the people I love.”

He bends so he’s closer to my face, and for a second, I regret standing up to him. “Yes, I do. It matters not to me how long I have been aware of you. You are my daughter. You are a Pijawika, and he is a Zao Duh. I will not tolerate any daughter of mine defiling herself with a Zao Duh.”

I step back because I can’t talk back to him with him so close to me. “I’m also a human. Because you slept with one. How is this any different? Save for the part that you got her pregnant and left her.”

I see the guy is still trying to push Mirko toward the door. “Stop!” I yell and use Sanjam on him. He’s strong, so it only causes him to hesitate for a moment.

“Stand down for a minute, Vasek,” my dad says to the guy.

Vasek stops pushing Mirko, but he doesn’t release his grip around his arm.

Mirko’s muscles are taut, ready to spring into action at any moment.

Once my attention is back on my dad, he speaks to me. “You know that’s not what happened.”

“Really?” I challenge. “Because you’re the freaking mob boss of all vampires, and yet you couldn’t find one human when her trail hadn’t even gone cold? Jelena found us. And if it had been Mirko and me, you bet he’d come searching for me. He’d hunt me down until he found me and demand an explanation. So either you’re a coward, or Mirko loves me more than you did my mom.”

“A relationship with him will ruin everything we’re working toward,” my dad says, not addressing the stuff I’ve thrown at him.

“And you’re the best judge of character? I’d be dead right now if it weren’t for Mirko! Emerik, your stra
žar, would have killed me.”

“I am grateful to him for how he’s protected you, but that does not give him free rein with my daughter. If you two can’t stay away from each other, then he has to go.”

“Then I’m going with him.” I won’t go to that stupid meeting. I won’t be his daughter.

The thought hurts, but not as much as losing Mirko would.

My dad’s eyes narrow. “Then I cannot allow him to live,” he lowers his voice, letting me know how serious he is.

I gasp, and the chill as my heart cracks spreads through my limbs.

All my fight evaporates.

“All right! I swear nothing more will happen between us. Just please, don’t hurt him.” Tears well up in my eyes. I can’t do this. “Please let him stay.”

“I can’t allow for him to stay here any longer. I’ll assign one of my men to guard you. You’ll be perfectly safe under his care.” He says it like my main concern is for my safety if Mirko leaves.

It’s not.

It’s my heart.

My dad strides over to Mirko. “Will you leave on your own accord, or shall he escort you?”

Mirko clenches his jaw and his nostrils flare. “I won’t leave her.”

“You shall. You know the alternative,” my dad says, looking back at me.

I stare at Mirko.

My heart crumbles into tiny shards.

I’ll never recover from this.

I force the words out of my mouth against everything inside of me trying to hold them back. “Go, Mirko.”

He gawks at me and shakes his head. “Brooke, don’t do this. Don’t try to save me,” he growls.

“Just please—”

He shakes his head. “Dammit, Brooke! Don’t. You promised me! If you say it, I won’t forgive you. Ever.”

“Go.” My word breaks on a sob.

Mirko glares at me.

I know everything he’s feeling because I feel it too.

He keeps it all inside, but it’s almost as if I can hear his heart break.

Vasek pulls Mirko, and at first Mirko resists, then he goes.

I watch him as he walks to the edge of the library, locking angry eyes with me the whole way.

They reach the door and he turns away from me.

The loss of our eye contact leaves me empty.

No, I’m filled with pain.

Unbearable pain.

I step in front of my dad and wipe my face. “I. Hate. You.” Venom seeps from my soul and fills my words.

He frowns but says nothing.

I turn on my heel and run to the hall to watch Mirko leave. I’m not ready to let him go. Seeing him leave will only break me further, but I can’t stop myself.

Vasek opens the front door to a group of men dressed in black on the other side.