"Gabriel?" Aiden repeated. "He knew, too?"

"Yeah," I whispered morosely. "He found me naked in Nero's cabin this morning."

"Oh, shit." He breathed. "Is that why he went aggro on your bathroom door?"

I nodded.

Gabriel made it a point to let me know that he hadn't hurt Nero after he found me. Could it have been a lie? Was he really capable of mutilating someone over me?

"He is more than capable." Duke growled, answering my thoughts. "Audrey, he set me on fire for performing oral sex on you. Mutilating Nero for deflowering you wouldn't be that much of a stretch."

Aiden scratched at his messy, blond hair, face uncertain. "I don't know. Cutting off his brother's hand seems a bit extreme, even for Gabriel."

I did a double take. "Wait, Nero and Dean Lachlan are brothers?"

Holy shit.

"Half brothers." Duke amended. "And does it really seem far-fetched, Aiden? You remember what he did to Gildoroy. If he had no qualms about doing that to his own father--"

"The son-of-a-bitch had it coming." Aiden cut him off, shrugging. "Gildoroy was a psychopath. Gabriel had to kill him."

"Dean Lachlan killed his father?" I felt cold all the way to my bones.

How could he? Why would he?

"He didn't just kill him," Duke sneered, lips curling in disgust. "He eviscerated him like an animal with his bare hands."

Another wave of nausea washed over me at the image Duke's words conjured, but I couldn't vomit; there was nothing left in me to expel. "Jesus."

I felt woozy, on the verge of passing out. Seeing Nero's severed hand was bad enough, but hearing about Dean Lachlan committing patricide? That was too much.

Duke must have read my thoughts, because he instantly looked remorseful. "Apologies, Audrey. That was far too morbid."

"And totally unlike you." Aiden added, his turquoise eyes narrowed.

Duke's own eyes widened, exposing his caramel irises for a split second. "I was just speaking the truth. Is that so out of character for me?"

The tension I had felt between them earlier was mounting again, but this time it was different. Before it was mild animosity, two friends having a little spat. Now it was suspicious, the air charged with the bitterness of betrayal.

"No," Aiden conceded, glancing from me to the open door behind him. "But it's odd that you would speak of Gildoroy's demise with such disdain."

Aiden approached Duke with his hands behind his back. As he passed me, he pointed at the exit, finger urgent. "Last time we spoke of that incident, you were gleeful." Aiden went on, standing between me and Duke.

Suddenly my heart was pounding, realization nearly knocking me over.

Careful not to think, I inched away from the vampires on my hands and knees.

"In fact," Aiden spoke to Duke behind me. "I distinctly remember you waxing poetic about all the ways you would torment Gildoroy before killing him if you had been given the chance."

I was on the threshold of my dorm room, and started down the hall, when Duke exhaled.

"Okay, you got me. I am the one who attacked Nero." Duke said without preamble. "I'm the turncoat."

I froze in place.

"Really?" Aiden spoke after a moment. His voice mirrored the surprise and confusion I felt as he asked, "you're just going to fess up, just like that?"

I knew I had to keep moving, to get out of there. But my stupid sense of curiosity wouldn't let me.

"Well, given the direction our conversation is heading--and the fact that Audrey is trying to sneak out," he paused and peaked around Aiden to give me a wink. "I figured keeping up the ruse was futile. Plus I have new orders."

I was sitting halfway in the hall, unsure of when I'd done so, watching Aiden and Duke regard each other.

Aiden's stance was rigid, his fists at his sides. "Orders from wh--"

In a blur, Duke stopped him mid-sentence by snapping his neck. My harsh shriek followed the crack of Aiden's broken neck before he crumpled to the floor.

"Come with me, Audrey." Duke stepped over Aiden's body to loom over me. "And please don't fight me. I have no desire to do so, but I have been ordered to use violence if necessary."

I backed away. "Ordered? You mean Influenced?" I remembered the conversation Dean Lachlan and I had the day after I found the cave... the day after Duke fed from me for the first time.

"I don't understand... What exactly is Influence?"

"What you'd expect it to be, only amplified," he said simply, noting my confused expression. "It is a power exclusive to older vampiric bloodlines. One that we can use to...compel others."

Duke hauled me up by my elbow, bringing me back to the here and now, and glared down at me. "What makes you so certain that I was Influenced? You have stated yourself that we hardly know each other."

I shook my head, unwilling to accept what he was saying. "No. You're not a traitor."

"How can you be so sure?" He shot back. "I could have been deceiving you and everyone else this entire time."

Everything that happened between us came to mind.

The time he held me in the cave after tearing into my throat so viciously.

Me seeing the horrible scars covering his back in the laundry room.

The picnic we had when he told me about his final days as a human.

Him going down on me.

Our threesome with Aiden.

The tenderness he showed me after Dean Lachlan sexually assaulted me.

I shook my head again, knowing in my heart of hearts that he had been genuine in those moments.

He wasn't a true traitor; he had been Influenced. And I was going to snap him out of it.

I looked down at his grip on me, noting that it was firm, but not painful. And I tried to wrench away.

"What are you doing?" His fingers flexed, tightening to the verge of hurting.

"Testing you." I bit out, yanking hard. I needed to see how far I could push him before he resorted to hurting me.

He clenched my arm harder, causing me to whimper. "If what you're saying is true, if you really have been deceiving me all along, then you obviously don't care about me. Right?"

I pulled with all my might against his hold, but he didn't retaliate. "Which means you'll have no qualms about using violence against me."

Since trying to pull out of his grasp wasn't getting me the response I'd hoped it would, I turned to pry his fingers off.

"Audrey, stop!"

"But if you have been Influenced, that means you're doing all of this against your will." I grunted, using every ounce of my strength to try to loosen his hold.

His fingers never budged.

So I shoved him.

Which earned me a lightening-fast smack across my cheek.

It took a second for the pain to register, and when it finally did, it was reflected on Duke's face. "Audrey, I...why are you resisting? I told you not to fight me. I warned you."

It felt like his slap set the whole left side of my face on fire. Tears stung my eyes, blood trickled from my lower lip, but my voice never quaked as I spoke. "Yes, you warned me. And now I'm warning you: let me go or I'll scream."

He looked at me dubiously. "You cannot be serious. Do you have any idea the damage I can--?"

I interrupted him with an audible intake of air, then released an earsplitting wail.

Quicker than I could see, Duke snatched me by the throat, muting my scream.

"Du-ke," his name left me in two syllables. It was difficult to speak, to swallow and breathe. Everything started going dark. "Duke... please..."

This isn't you, Duke. I thought at him, unable to talk. You're not a traitor. You care about me... you love me... and I lov...

That's when I finally lost consciousness, and along with it, hope.