Eternal Sin by Laura Wright Page B

beside Sara.
    “I do.”
    “Humans?” Wen asked.
    “No,” Dillon said. “Our kind. Vampires.”
    Wen looked momentarily relieved. “Didn’t they already know? With Cruen as their leader . . .”
    “He held this secret pretty damn close to the vest,” Dillon explained. “He didn’t share anything about you with the vampire community, and he told you nothing about us.”
    “So is that the only reason you’re here?” Petra asked. “To let us know about this development?”
    “We wish,” Sara said tightly, her eyes locking with her half sister’s. “They know Pureblood vampires are here. They think they’re being held against their will.”
    “That’s right.” Dillon ran her hand over the smooth surface of the rock. “And by this new species they’ve just heard about. The head of the Order, Feeyan, is running on paranoia and nerves, if you get my meaning.”
    “I’m not here against my will,” Petra informed her, crossing her arms over her chest. “I’ll be happy to tell them that. Anytime they want to come here to the gathering rocks—”
    “You’ll have to go to them, Petra.”
    “No.” She shook her head. “I’m not leaving the Rain Forest. Not until the balas is born.”
    Dillon sighed. “You don’t want them to come here. You don’t want us—the Order—involved in your world. Trust me.”
    As the forest winds blew around them, Petra seemed to consider this. “If I go to them, tell them the truth, that I’m a free and independent being and I wish to remain here, can you guarantee that they’ll not only accept what I say but allow me to return?”
    The wind died, and everything, everyone, within the gathering rocks grew still, eerily quiet as Dillon pondered this. The mutore female looked like she’d rather be anywhere else, and dealing with something far less problematic.
    “I can’t guarantee anything,” she said finally, her tone unabashedly melancholy. “Not when it comes to the Order.”
    Petra put her hands up in a defensive posture. “Then I’m not going.”
    As the female hawk shifter broke from the shadows and came up alongside Petra in a blatant show of support, Phane dropped down from one rock to the next until he stood just inside the flat, grassy oval where the pair was.
    “Here’s the problem.” It was Kate who spoke this time. Nicholas’s mate had been pretty quiet lately, keeping to herself since her nephew, Ladd, had gone to the Underworld to live with his father, Erion, and his father’s mate, Hellen. Everyone knew how hard the move had been on the veana , and it was good to hear her sharp, steady voice again. “If the Order comes here to see you, they’re going to want to see and question the other vampire who’s here.”
    Petra’s lips formed a thin line and her face paled.
    “What other vampire?” said the female hawk shifter with a sneer.
    “We can’t skirt around this anymore,” Kate continued. “Is Synjon here, Petra?”
    Petra was silent, but Phane noticed her hands had gone to her belly. The hawk female’s eyes narrowed on Kate. Damn, she was fierce. He wanted her eyes on him like that.
    “Is he here against his will?” Kate asked, her gaze unmoving as she sought Petra’s attention.
    “You don’t have to answer them, Pets,” said the hawk shifter. “You don’t have to answer to anyone—”
    But Petra couldn’t be quelled. “The baby needs him.”
    “Pets!”
    She shook her head. “No. It’s okay, Dani.” With a slow exhale, she walked forward, toward Dillon and the small crowd seated on the rocks behind her.
    Dani. So that was the female shifter’s name. Hot damn, Phane mused, wanting to try it out on his tongue but knowing he had to use only his mind for now.
    Dani.
    He liked it. He liked it a lot. And so did his hawk.
    “I sympathize with what you’re saying, Petra,” Dillon said. “I know what Synjon’s put you through, what a complete and total shithead he’s been over the past week. I was the one who told