“I think you should shut up while you have a tongue,” Amaury warned her. Delilah shot him a surprised look.

“Oh, yeah, bitch. That’s what he does, the high-and-mighty Amaury. He fucks Samson’s castoffs.”

“As if you hadn’t asked for it,” he retorted.

Ilona let out a bitter laugh. “I wonder whether your friend knows about it. Maybe somebody should tell him.”

Delilah’s look bounced between the two. Clearly they knew each other more intimately than anybody would have guessed. Had Amaury somehow been involved in Ilona’s and Samson’s breakup? Had he betrayed his best friend?

“It’s not working, Ilona. You can’t finagle your way out of this one. So, where is Milo?”

“Milo?” Delilah echoed.

Amaury gave her a sideways glance. “We’ve just found out that Milo is Ilona’s brother and is behind the entire scheme to rob millions from Samson’s company. He deceived Thomas and got access to his password.”

Delilah stared at him in shock. “Milo masterminded this?”

Ilona blew out an annoyed huff. “That idiot couldn’t plan anything. He couldn’t even execute what I told him to; otherwise, you little bitch, you’d be pushing up daisies by now. But no, he had to give the job to some idiot human who screwed it up every time. I should have done it myself in the first place,” she ranted.

“Shoulda, coulda, woulda,” Delilah replied sarcastically.

Ilona snarled at her. “You think you can have him and all his money? Think again. He’s just playing with you: Samson never loved anybody but himself. He’s a selfish man and an even more selfish lover. He’ll grow tired of you, and then he’ll dump you.”

“Just because you couldn’t give him what he needs doesn’t mean I can’t. And as for being selfish, why don’t you look in the mirror sometime—you’ll see who’s selfish. Oh, sorry, I forgot: you can’t look in the mirror, can you? Then I guess you don’t really know how ugly you actually are, so I’ll just give you the skinny—you’re a fucking hag.”

Ilona hissed and struggled to free herself from her two guards, murder in her eyes. “Let me just get my fangs into you, bitch—I’ll show you how ugly I can really be!”

“Enough! Where’s Milo?” Amaury gave the two vampires a nod to increase their hold, twisting Ilona’s arms back to an unnatural and painful position. She winced.

“I don’t know where the idiot is.”

“Fine, then we have no more need for you.”

Delilah looked at Amaury. “You’re not letting her go, are you?”

“Letting her go? No. We’re killing her.”

Amaury pulled a wooden stake out of his jacket pocket. Delilah stared at the stake then back at Ilona, whose eyes had grown wide. She knew what was coming. Yes, she would die, but Delilah wanted to be the one to deliver the final blow. It was her man Ilona had nearly killed, so it would be only right for her to punish the woman.

Delilah made a grab for the stake in Amaury’s hand, but he stopped her.

“No, it’ll be my pleasure. Samson is the best thing that ever happened in my life. Anybody who wants to hurt him had better defeat me first.”

Delilah had to concede. Amaury’s determination was palpable.

“Thanks for the great sex, but as I said before, it’s all meaningless. See you in hell.”

Ilona’s eyes widened as if she couldn’t believe he’d actually do it. Her lips opened, but no words came out. Amaury raised his arm and slammed the stake into her heart. For a split-second disbelief spread over Ilona’s face. A second later she was dust. The air picked up the tiny kernels of dust and carried them away.

When Amaury turned back to Delilah, he gave her a long look. “Without emotions, it’s all meaningless.”

Amaury organized Samson’s transport back to the house while more vampires were dispatched to hunt down Milo.

Carl expected them when they returned and had already prepared Samson’s bedroom, placing clean sheets on the bed. Carl and Amaury helped cut the torn clothes off Samson’s body and clean his wounds before they placed him onto the bed and put a single white sheet over his body.

“He’ll need fresh blood every couple of hours,” Amaury advised. “You can change your mind, you know. He wouldn’t expect you to do this. In fact, he’d want me to dissuade you from continuing this.”

Delilah shook her head. “He’s hurt because of me. I’ll give him what he needs.”