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The vampire hit Claude and they fell into a dance too fast for me to follow. Claude fired again, slowing his opponent a hair. Then the gun flew, through the doorway and into the kitchen beyond. I almost went after it before reality hit. I wouldn’t just have to get through the vampire fighting Claude—not to mention I’d be hopeless at navigating around their fast, brutal fight—but I’d have to get past Luc, too.
Movement drew my gaze back to the door, where another vampire followed in the first’s wake. Him, I got a good look at. Because he didn’t bother to run in at vampire speed. He sauntered in after the other vamp broke the door off its hinges. And he was carrying a freaking sword.
Nicolas Chevalier.
I vaguely wondered if the neighbors would be calling the police.
If there were any neighbors. Were we in a city? Out in the middle of nowhere? No way to tell from inside the house.
Luc watched as Claude wrestled with one vampire, fighting for the knife, and Nic closed in behind them. My heart jumped into my throat at the sight of that knife. Vampires were tough to kill, but not impossible. Take out the heart or the head. And it was a big freaking knife.
My brother backed up a step, looking unsure. I felt uselessly for my sidearm. What the fuck kind of help could I be without a gun? The vampires seemed to think the same, because their focus was entirely on Claude.
My answer stared at me in the face. The coffee table.
No chance of hitting the vampire Claude fought with; they moved at speeds that hurt my eyes. No chance to get past all of them to Claude’s nearly useless gun. But Nicolas. Arrogant, prodigal son, he was watching his lackey fight Claude—weakening him for the kill.
A kill that Nicolas’s gleeful expression left little doubt that he’d participate in. I had faith that Claude could take out the vampire he wrestled with. And Luc and my brother might stay out of the fight—until things looked bad for them, anyway.
Hell. My brother. No wonder he’d been watching the door so nervously. He’d known they were coming. He’d betrayed me—us—to Nicolas. The man who’d almost killed him. What had Nicolas said or done to bring him around. Offered him money?
My chest hurt at the thought. Shit. Sure, he hadn’t always made the right choices in his life. But to betray me to someone he had to know intended to kill me? I couldn’t accept that.
I pushed up from the ground and grabbed the coffee table. Cheap and light, parts of the wood covering had rubbed or ripped away to reveal the particleboard beneath. It practically screamed Ikea. But it was a simple model. Helpful if you didn’t have super strength.
I used my whole body when I threw it at Nicolas. I knew it wouldn’t hurt him, but for Claude to survive, I needed to keep his attention. Claude was my only hope.
And I was his.
Nicolas reacted immediately to my attack. The vampire flew at me, and I didn’t even see him move until he was on top of me. The idea of a vampire other than Claude biting me sickened me. Between us, it was personal. It was about trust. It was intimate. A show of love.
But Nicolas didn’t bite me. He threw me.
I hit the wall and for a moment I felt like I was in a vision. Sound disappeared. I couldn’t move. Shock halted my thoughts.
Then it all came rushing back. I sucked in a breath of air and sharp pain spiked from the back of my ribs where I’d hit the wall. I slid down the surface of the wood paneling to the floor.
Across the room, Claude stood facing me, facing Nicolas. The Magister’s son seemed to have decided I was no longer a threat, because he turned his back to me and faced off with Claude.
The vampire Claude had been wrestling with was crumpled into an unmoving pile at Claude’s feet. Claude held the vampire’s bloody knife. There was so much blood. On the vampire. On the floor. On Claude’s hands.
But others were there now. Two more vampires had come in at some point and, based on their proximity to Nicolas, I didn’t think they were there to help us.
Like a light snuffed, the bit of hope I’d nursed that we’d make it out of this died at the sight of them. There were too many.
Luc was shouting something but, like in my visions, I couldn’t seem to grasp what he said. His expression had turned dark, his eyes narrowed in worry, and he gestured at Nic and Claude.
I struggled to my feet, fighting against the pain spiking from my back. Something was wrong with my left shoulder, and my arm didn’t want to move. But my right arm worked just fine, and I would be damned if I didn’t at least go out fighting.
The two vampires who’d entered while I was on the floor circled Claude, and he kept them at bay with the knife and a fearsomely calm expression. Nicolas stood watching, his back to me. I’d been right. The man didn’t like to risk himself when he wasn’t certain of the result. That was okay. I really wanted to hit him, anyway.
The lamp fell off the end table when I grabbed the leg. I swung it like a club, hitting Nicolas. It didn’t break under the strength of only one of my arms swinging it so haphazardly, but bounced off his back, instead.
But it got his attention.
“Asshole!” I yelled when he turned.
“You’ll pay for that,” he growled.
“Probably. But you’re still an ass. ”
Then I was hitting the wall again, but this time the vampire was attached to my throat. In the distance, I could see Claude cry out to me and, seeing an opening, the vampires circling him attacked.
Pain arched through my body from my throat, and I batted at Nicolas with my working arm. He pressed so hard against my neck that I couldn’t breathe right. Then everything slowed down, and an almost pleasant fuzzy haze covered the scene before me.
Nicolas lifted his head and grinned, my blood covering his mouth and chin.
“Messy eater,” I muttered, or tried to. The words came out garbled.
Nicolas turned to shout over his shoulder. “You should have minded your own business, Claude. This is your fault. You got her killed!”
Claude screamed back something nonsensical and one of the vampires on top of him flew out the bay window.
Nicolas turned back to me. “Let’s get this over with, shall we? I do like to play with my food, but you’re a little bland. ”
He started toward my neck again, then fell back a couple of steps. I fell to the ground, right on my butt. My legs didn’t seem to work. And for a moment, I thought I’d passed out and gone to dreamland.
My brother stood between Nicolas and me.
“She can’t do anything to you. Leave her be,” he said.
It wasn’t a resounding defense, but the fact he stood between us was enough. More than I would have expected. Maybe not enough to forgive everything, but it got him closer.
Nicolas looked like he might acquiesce for a moment, his gaze flashing between me and Eddie. Then he grinned, and struck.
My brother hit the wall next to me, and slid into a puddle beside me. Knocked out or dead? I couldn’t tell.
My neck was wet and I was starting to get cold. And at any moment, Nicolas would be on me, finishing his goal of bleeding me dry.
But Nicolas never hit me. Instead, I watched him turn to his father.
“What did you say to me?” Nicolas asked.
“I said leave the woman alone. ” Luc’s graying pallor and the almost crazy look in his eyes made me hope that Nicolas had finally pushed his father too far. “This has gone far enough, my son. ”
I couldn’t see Nicolas’s expression, but I could hear the smile in his voice. “You’re right, father. This has gone far enough, and for long enough. The pieces are all in place. And here you are, all alone. ”
Nicolas was blocking my view of Claude. Was he hurt? Dead? God, I had to see. Limbs screaming and head spinning, I tried to force myself up into a standing position. When a wave of blackness stole seconds from me I decided, instead, to crawl but I shuffled on m
y knees because I only had one good arm.
Nicolas jumped at his father, and I could see the other vampire Claude had been fighting jump Luc as well. But I didn’t care about them. I had to see if Claude was okay. I had to see if my brother was okay.
He wasn’t.
I shuffled a couple of feet to look at Eddie. His face was bleeding, his nose broken. Maybe his jaw. But it took more than that to kill a vampire. Even with blood seeping out of the back of his head, right? I knew that young ones were easier to kill, but surely not head-injury easy. I hoped.
I touched the side of his face, as if touching him would make him being here real, and my hand slid down to his shirt. That’s when I saw it.
His shirt had opened just enough—courtesy of a broken button—for the brand on his chest to be visible.
Shit.
Nic and Luc continued to fight, and a piece of the couch hit the drywall above my head. I ducked and closed my eyes, but it landed a foot behind me. I turned back to my brother.
Did Nic have a hold on him, too? Is that why he’d told the vampire we’d be here with Luc? What the fuck did the brand do? Not torture people, that was for sure. If that had been the case, then the giant wouldn’t have given that up.
But controlling someone from a distance would fit. If I were the giant, I would’ve tried to keep the lie as close to the truth as possible. That way he could feign ignorance if Claude caught on.
What could Nic possibly gain from branding someone like my brother and a selkie leader? They had nothing in common.
Unless…unless Nic used the brand to control them somehow. That would fit. A selkie prince would be useful—not on his own, but if Nic was making a big move to take over. Hell, was it possible he controlled people using the brand as a link?
I didn’t know, and I wasn’t entirely sure it mattered. Right now, we had to survive.
I only made it a couple of feet, just far enough to see Claude on the floor, unmoving. Pain the likes of which I never thought I could feel clawed at my insides, and I finally gave up on my fight to move. I curled up on the floor. I couldn’t cry. I couldn’t scream. I couldn’t allow the darkness I so craved to pull me under.
Because I was stronger than that. And Claude would expect more of me. I reached out and grabbed a chunk of wood that was next to me on the floor. From the coffee table, maybe. And I held it in my hands, waiting for Nicolas to attack.