Destructive Embrace by Robyn M. Pierce

smiling.
    I tuned her out as she spoke more on
her family. It wasn’t that I wasn’t interested in her family
history, of course. I just had all the information I needed right
at that moment: she didn’t know that she was a descendant of great
vampire hunters, and even if she’d heard of it, she never would
have believed it.
    But I had the information finally. She
was a descendant of the greatest vampire hunting family there was.
That wasn’t necessarily a good thing. On the other hand, since she
never believed in vampires until she was an adult, there was a
chance that even if she knew, she wouldn’t care and wouldn’t be
interested in learning how to do what her family did in the
past.
    The good news was that she was
untrained, and rather scared of everyone in the castle.
    Almost on cue, Roxann regained my
attention when a name slipped from her mouth.
    “… Elyssa.”
    Snapping my eyes to hers, I stumbled
for a response. I needed to know what she said in order for me to
reply. But then I would have to admit that I wasn’t listening in
the first place.
    “I’m sorry,” I said quietly. “I got
lost in my own thoughts for a moment. What did you say about
darling Elyssa?”
    Roxann opened her mouth to speak in the
middle of my sentence, but as soon as the adjective ‘darling’
slipped from my lips, she scowled and looked away, becoming silent
once more.
    I smirked. “What is with this reaction,
dear? Are we jealous, perhaps?” My tone was purposefully teasing,
but I was genuinely curious. Was Roxann jealous of a simple word
that was, for just a moment, aimed toward Elyssa?
    “O-of course I’m not jealous,” Roxann
stammered. The jump in her heartrate told me she was
lying.
    I moved to sit beside her, slipping one
arm around her shoulders smoothly. “Sure you’re not, dear,” I
placated, whispering into her ear. “Now, what were you saying about
Elyssa?” I asked again, neglecting to include the word that seemed
to have ticked Roxann off the first time around.
    Roxann eyed me for a moment before
repeating herself slowly. “I was just saying that she is a rather
odd girl. Kind of broken, and yet intimidating,” she
murmured.
    I frowned. “Has she been treating you
badly?” I asked, the barest hint of a growl creeping into my words
from my throat.
    Roxann flinched away from me at the low
snarl, and shrugged her shoulders. “Mostly she just sends me glares
and then walks away. Ever since that time,” she flinched again,
probably from recalling the dungeon encounter we had, “and I ran
away from her and - and your brother, she just doesn’t seem to like
me very much.”
    I frowned again. This was a situation
I’d hoped would never happen. Both of them were inhabitants of my
castle, and I wished for them to get along.
    But if Elyssa couldn’t be nicer to my
own personal guest, I would have to take action.
    “I’ll talk to her,” I murmured to
Roxann, leaning my head down so it was lying on her shoulder. I
sighed. “This is your home now, too. You should be comfortable
here, and the likes of Elyssa should never make you feel
unsafe.”
    As unresolved as my feelings for Elyssa
were, Roxann was truly my priority, as she was directly under my
care.
    That and, as scary as it might seem, I
knew I was starting to develop very strong feelings for the woman
before me.
    …Elyssa was just a complication in all
of our lives. We might even be better off without her around
entirely, I told myself.
    Somehow even a semi-positive outlook
from giving Elyssa the boot didn’t stamp down the twinge of guilt
that I felt at the thought of sending Reid’s Mate
packing.
    Or the little flicker of pain that came
at the thought of banishing the newest member of the
family.
    “I’ll handle her,” I said quietly. “She
can’t mistreat you. She of all people…”
    Roxann paled. “Don’t, you don’t have
to, I mean. She isn’t outright mean to me. We avoid each other
mainly. I would hate for anything you say to