Katie's Hope

"I need to ask you something, and if you lie to me, we're done." "Whatever you like, brother," Sasha said with too much ease.

"Were you responsible for killing Andre?"

"You forget, Kris, he was my brother, too, and I considered him a friend. He was the only neutral party among our father's sons. What he considered me, I won't even try to guess, but no, I didn't. It was rumored in Hell that Darkyn was trying to get your precious Katie. Andre was collateral damage."

Sometimes Kris hated being his father's son and resented Andre's insistence that he choose duty over all else. He'd lost his lover, Jade, that way, a sacrifice that still stung. He seemed to be the only one on the Council who truly cared about upholding the balance between good and evil, no matter what the cost. That Rhyn of all his brothers would be granted such an honor as an Ancient's mate made a mockery of everything. He saw firsthand how Rhyn's destructive nature took its toll on those closest to him, and the half-breed had no sense of loyalty or duty to the Council.

Even so, Rhyn's flaws stemmed from his nature of being a half-demon. Sasha had chosen to serve the Dark One and betray the Council and their father. Sasha may not have pulled the trigger on Andre, but someone he knew where to find their oldest brother, who had been protecting Katie when he was rendered dead-dead.

Sasha also knew the Code Kris was bound by: those who came in good faith would be given the chance to prove it. Then there were the rules their father had created about none of the brothers being permitted to kill the others, with the exception of Andre, whose sole purpose in life was to keep the Council on track and protect them. Unless Sasha posed a direct threat to the Council, Kris was forbidden from buying an assassination, despite suspecting his brother wasn't as innocent as he proclaimed.

Sasha disgusted him, but he couldn't just kill him like he wanted to. "She looks like Lilith," Sasha said.

"I hadn't noticed," Kris said and took another sip, aware his brother was always on the prowl for some weakness to exploit. In truth, he had noticed that Hannah looked like the first Ancient's mate ever found, Lilith. Lilith had been intended for Kris and was pregnant with his son when Rhyn killed her and the baby both.

He took another sip. After all his sacrifices, after losing Lilith and Katie to Rhyn, he wasn't sure what he'd do if Hannah chose someone other than him as her mate.