Fang Me Read Free Page A

smile flitted across Alejandro's face. "So you did exactly as he wished?"
    I squirmed and glanced away. "Hey, the guy on the floor tried to bite me." Which, come to think of it, was pretty stupid on his part. Didn't he get the memo that drinking demon blood could make him crazy?
    Unfortunately, I could tell from everyone's expressions that my reasoning sounded totally lame.
    Fang hooted in my mind. DAMN SKIPPY.
    I glared at him. You 're supposed to be on my side.
    I AM ON YOUR SIDE, BUT WHEN HE'S RIGHT, HE'S RIGHT. APOLOGIZE TO THE NICE MAN.
    I sighed and decided to man up. Or was that woman up? Demon up? Whatever. "I'm sorry. It was kind of an instinctive reaction." After all, I'd been killing the nonaffiliated bloodsuckers—the ones not in the New Blood Movement—for years. I'd only started deliberately letting Lola loose as a weapon for about a month, so that skill didn't come as naturally. Muscle memory took over and had me pulling stake, which had been my go-to weapon as long as I could remember.
    Alejandro gave me a slight bow, accepting my apology far more graciously than I'd given it. "And who tried to control you?"
    "I don't know . . . only that his name was Jasper." It wasn't exactly a common name. Maybe there'd be only one.
    Everyone turned to stare at the guy who'd led the rush and landed in the tree. He didn't look so threatening now, with cuts on his face, bits of broken glass on his bad-ass leather clothing, and tinsel draping his shoulders. Not to mention that he was standing stock still, gazing at me as if I were Angelina Jolie and he desperately wanted to be Brad Pitt.
    I glanced at Alejandro for direction, wondering what he wanted me to do about it.
    "Please, ask him to answer my questions truthfully."
    I nodded. With Lola's hooks into him, Jasper had to do anything I told him to. I ordered the guy to answer his leader's questions honestly.
    The vamp leader strolled over to his enthralled minion. "Why did you goad the Slayer, a guest in our home, deliberately?"
    "Because she kills our kind. She killed Lily and you let her live." He appeared confused, his true beliefs warring with how Lola now forced him to feel about me.
    Rosa stepped forward, frowning and looking as though she was about to open a can of whup ass on his butt. Apparently she didn't like anyone dissing her boss.
    Alejandro stopped her with a raised hand. "Let him continue." Turning back to Jasper, he asked,"What did you hope to gain?"
    "The Slayer's death."
    "Did you arrive at this plan on your own or did someone put you up to it?"
    Jasper thought for a moment. "The three of us discussed it, but I wasn't the one who came up with the idea. That was Neil."
    Rosa kicked the guy lying on the floor, who still adored me even with an icicle stuck in his shoulder.
    Fang snickered. THREE GUESSES WHO NEIL IS.
    "I'll get to him in a moment," Alejandro said. "Jasper, do you harbor evil thoughts in your heart? Do you seek to injure me or thwart the aims of the New Blood Movement?"
    "No. I support you fully."
    Alejandro nodded. Turning to me, he said,"He is merely misguided. I suspect the real culprit lies elsewhere." He glared down at Neil. "Get up."
    Neil didn't move, so I ordered him through our link, "Do as he says."
    The enthralled vamp got to his feet, and Alejandro yanked the icicle out of his shoulder, tossing it aside. Neil gasped and swayed but Alejandro ignored his pain and nodded at me.
    I loosened Lola's hold on Neil a little so he wouldn't seem so robotic. Let him dig his own grave. "Tell us everything you plotted and why," I told him.
    Freed of inhibitions, Neil sneered at Alejandro. "You and your pansy ass Movement. We are superior to mere humans. United, we could take over the entire world. Yet you, you hold undreamed-of power and what do you do with it? You try to make friends w ith our food."
    Whoa, harsh.
    "Lily was the only one with guts enough to say the truth," Neil continued with a sneer,"but you let the Slayer kill her. She must