"But I told you I love you."

He snorted, even though her words ripped at his insides. Oh yes, she had said that. And he'd believed her.

"Like I said, you could say anything, couldn't you?"

"Sebastian, I didn't just say that. I do love you."

He growled deep in his throat. He didn't want to hear this. He couldn't.

He pressed her wrists tighter to the wall. His body pinning hers. "If you love me, then let's have that little bite you offered earlier. Were you really going to do that for the cause too?"

He smiled, showing his full fangage.

She stared at his fangs, a strangled noise coming from her throat. "Sebastian, please, you are scaring me." Her voice crackled, and tears began to roll down her pale cheeks, her eyes huge with fear.

He made a strangled noise of his own and pushed roughly away from her. He turned unable to look at her. To look at her wounded eyes.

"Sebastian, please." He felt her hand on his back, and he whipped around. He didn't want to feel her touch again. Ever again.

"Leave now, Mina, or I swear to God I won't be held accountable for what I do."

She stared at him for a moment, then nodded. He watched as she fled through the club. And even though he'd told her to go, somehow her leaving solidified what he believed. She'd played him for a complete and utter fool.

Mina didn't remember leaving the club. She didn't remember how she reached her apartment building. She only recalled sinking down on the concrete steps, crying.

She'd told Daniel those things to protect Sebastian. To stop Daniel from going to the Society and convincing them that Sebastian was a bigger threat. Her only thoughts had been to protect Sebastian.

Sebastian hadn't even listened to her. He'd been convinced she'd been doing everything for the Society. How, how could he believe that after what they'd shared? Hadn't he known, felt, everything she'd felt for him was real? She wasn't doing any of this for the damned Society. She didn't care about the Society. She only cared about Sebastian.

Anger started to replace her heartbreak. Hadn't he made the "no biting" bargain to begin with? Hadn't she tried to deny her attraction to him? How could he believe those things to be her manipulations? She felt like since she'd met Sebastian he'd been controlling her. She hadn't minded that control, because she had learned to trust him-to love him. And he didn't trust her one tiny bit.

He certainly doesn't love you, she realized. He couldn't think the absolute worst and love her.

She pushed up from the steps and headed into her apartment. The place was empty as usual. Tonight she wished Lizzie was home. She needed a shoulder to cry on. And she no longer had Sebastian's.

She raised her chin. She needed to start this minute forgetting about him. If he couldn't trust her, then they'd had no future anyway. Which she'd known all along. The end had just come sooner and with much more anger than she'd imagined.

She wandered into the kitchen. Lizzie had left her a note on the table that said she was going to the lab, if Mina should happen to come home. She also had her cell phone with her should Mina need anything. Lizzie also hoped everything was okay.

"No, everything is not okay," Mina announced to the empty room.

She considered calling Lizzie's cell, but thought better of the idea. What would she say? She hadn't told Lizzie what was going on, purely because she hadn't physically seen Lizzie since things had gotten more involved between her and Sebastian, and it had all seemed a little too strange to explain over the phone. The story was even weirder now, and too much to tell in a phone conversation.

As if taking offense at that decision, the telephone mounted to the kitchen wall rang, the sound loud and jarring. Mina moved to answer it before another grating ring echoed through the apartment.

"Hello?" she said.

"Wilhelmina? It's Daniel."

She paused, her first thought to hang up the phone. But then more anger filled her. "What do you want, Daniel?"

"I've been asked to call you. To let you know that the Society has organized an emergency meeting. Tonight. To deal with the issue of Carfax Abbey and Sebastian Young. And you, too."

Mina frowned at the clock on the microwave. The time glowed in blue digital numbers: 2:42A.M.

"It's rather late for a meeting, isn't it?" she said.

"Well, once I spoke to Jackson, he realized this was of immediate interest to the group. All the board members will be there. And I recommend you be there too."

Mina shook her head at how fast that little snitch had gone back to the board. But she intended to be there. She was going to tell them the truth. That she was no longer involved with Sebastian Young, and that Carfax Abbey and its owner were in no way a threat to humans or anyone.

She brusquely asked Daniel where the Society was to meet, then hung up the phone.

She hurried to her bedroom to change. She was going to tell the Society exactly what she thought of their list of the most dangerous vampires. And she was going to tell them exactly what she thought of Daniel.

Chapter 27.

"So, I was standing there with one pair of Hypes and one pair of Enzo Angiolinis. And I just couldn't make up my mind."

"Yeah, that's tough," Sebastian said vaguely, having no idea what the woman was talking about. He shifted against the booth seat, the nap of the velvet seeming like nettles through the fine lawn of his shirt. He moved again, then took a swallow of his scotch, hoping the liquor would calm the anger and the agitation inside him. Not that the four before this one had done much good.

"In the end, I didn't get either pair, because they didn't have either of them in orange, which is my signature color this season." The blonde gestured to the orange-and-white retro dress she wore.

"Very nice," Sebastian said automatically, then took another longer gulp of his drink. He'd decided to talk to this woman when she'd mentioned she was a model. A model-he glanced at the woman. A tall, stunningly gorgeous model. The surefire thing to get Mina and her deception right out of his mind. Okay, he'd been played the fool, but losing himself in this gorgeous woman's body would help soothe his wounded heart.

Pride, he corrected. Wounded pride.

"... Isn't that the funniest thing you ever heard?" The blonde laughed, leaning toward him, giving him an eyeful of tanned cleavage.

"Yes," he said with conviction, though he was pretty sure that even if he had heard what she'd said, it

wouldn't have been the funniest thing he'd ever heard. But she didn't need to be funny to fulfill the needs he had tonight.

She giggled some more, the sound as nettling as the velvet against his back. He polished off the

remainder of his drink, then set the glass away from him with a sharp bang.

"What do you say we head up to my place?"

The blonde seemed a little startled by his sudden request, but she nodded with a blinding grin. "Sure."

He smiled back, rising from the booth. He gestured for her to go ahead of him, then he followed her

toward the back of the club. Just as they would have slipped through the backdoor, Rhys appeared.

"Where's Mina?"

Sebastian scowled at his brother. "Who?"

"Mina. Your girlfriend. The one you've been with for every moment for days, weeks."

Sebastian glared at him. Weeks. He made it sound like so much more than it was. Weeks. Right.

Sebastian glanced at the woman beside him, offering her an indulgent smile.

"Rhys, as you can see, I'm a little busy at the moment," Sebastian said tolerantly, politely.

"You were busy with Mina earlier. What happened?"

Sebastian shot the woman next to him another glance, then forced a polite smile and said to her, "Would

you excuse me for a moment? I need to chat with my brother."

The blonde nodded, clearly bewildered. Not that that was unusual for the poor woman.

Sebastian followed Rhys back toward the booth where Christian still sat. Thankfully, Jane and Jolee

were gone or he'd have really gotten an earful.

"What the hell are you doing?" Rhys demanded as soon as Sebastian sat down in the booth with them.

"What do you mean?" Sebastian said casually. "I'm doing what I always do."

"What about Mina?"

Sebastian's chest tightened at her name, but he managed to keep his voice cool. "What about her?"

Both Rhys and Christian gave him disbelieving looks.

"Umm," Christian said as if he clearly thought Sebastian had lost his mind. "You are in love with her."

The tightening in Sebastian's chest threatened to strangle him. But he managed a look that matched Christian's. "Where did you get that idea?" He forced a brief laugh. "Me love Mina. That's quite funny."

Christian gaped at him. Rhys just looked thoroughly unconvinced.

"You two know me," Sebastian said. "I'm not the type to settle down. I like my freedom." He turned and waved to the blonde, who actually looked confused by the gesture, but she did wave back.

"I like my women."

"Yeah, and you love Mina," Rhys stated. "So what is all this about?" He jerked his head toward the other woman.The other woman -that made it sound like he was cheating on Mina, which he wasn't.

How could he cheat on a relationship that hadn't been real to begin with?

Sebastian crossed his arms over his chest, wondering why he didn't just get up, tell his nosy brothers to mind their own damned business, and head up to his place with the redhead.

He glanced over his shoulder. The blonde. The blonde. Mina would have a field day if she knew that he was now not only forgetting their names, but their hair color, too. The tightening in his chest suddenly became hideously painful. Mina. She'd been playing him the whole time.

"Sebastian, what's going on?"

Sebastian stared at Rhys, the words right there. The truth of what Mina had done, but he couldn't bring himself to say them aloud. To reveal what a total sucker he'd been.

"You know you were the one who urged me not to let Jane go. And you were right," Rhys said. "Why are you blowing your chances with Mina? When you have a chance at the same happiness?"

Blowing his chances? Sebastian hadn't been the one to blow anything. He'd started to believe he could be with Mina forever-that maybe she was his Jane. His Jolee.

Yeah, the idea had scared him. How could he let a person have that much control over him? What if she hurt him? But he'd been right there, ready to take those chances.

Then all hiswhat if's happened. Mina had hurt him. God damn it.

"You really don't know shit about this," Sebastian gritted, irritated that his brothers assumed he was the one who'd ruined things. Had he? Had he been wrong to make her leave while she was begging for him to believe her? Trust her?

"Then tell us what happened." Christian said.

Sebastian hesitated, but then he couldn't seem to stop himself. He had to have his brothers see the truth, and come to the same conclusion. He needed them to verify he hadn't just mistakenly sent away the only woman he could ever love.

Mina frowned as she peered at the warehouse. She checked the address. It was the one Daniel had given her, but the place looked abandoned. Still the Society did meet at some strange places, and they often changed meeting venues because they didn't want to draw too much attention. Again making her wonder if the Society was the one who believed they were oppressed, not humans.

She glanced over her shoulder, debating if she should leave. Something didn't feel right here. But she took a deep breath and pushed open the large metal door. She couldn't risk Daniel's being the only one heard tonight. She didn't want to think of what they might decide to do to Sebastian and Carfax Abbey.

She remembered Lizzie's suggestion that Mina just burn the place to the ground. Mina knew others in the Society wouldn't have the same hesitations she'd had. And she couldn't let something awful happen. She stepped inside. The place was dark and definitely deserted. A noise of something scurrying away from her scratched on the concrete floors. But she saw a light in a distant room.

She walked slowly in that direction.

"Hello?" she called as she reached the doorway. The room was small and appeared empty, but there were chairs set up in neat rows. Maybe she was early. She stepped into the room, looking around. "Hello?" she yelled again. This time her call was answered by the loud slam of a door behind her. She spun to find Daniel leaning on the doorframe through which she'd just entered the small room. "Daniel," she breathed, her gaze moving warily to the closed door at his back. "Where is everyone?" "Hmm," he said as if he was considering the question. "They couldn't make it." Her fear immediately flared, although she tried hard to block it from him. "Are they going to meet another time?" He nodded. "I'm sure they will. The Society does love their meetings, don't they?" Daniel stepped away from the door, but rather than moving toward her, he walked a slow circle around the room. She glanced at the door, taking a small step toward it. Daniel stopped, spinning to look at her with his eerie dark eyes. "Don't bother. I'm much faster than you." She paused, trying to calm herself. Trying to pretend she didn't know what he meant. "What do you mean?" "I mean that you and I need to have a little chat." "W-why?" "Because you have made things difficult for me."

"H-how?" She forced herself to meet his eyes, even though something there terrified her. Something so familiar, even though she didn't know what it was.

"Surely what I'm doing with Sebastian Young should have no effect on you," she managed to say. "No, not really," he agreed. He began walking again, his hands clasped behind his back, his eyes focused on the floor just in front of his precise footsteps. "But you have ruined a good thing for me."