That’s what I’m hoping.
As I neared the Queen’s chambers, her voice rang out. “You will not defeat me!” followed by a strangled scream.
We go straight in, I told my wolf. No waiting. There was an open window around the corner of the turret, but we were going to take the closest route.
I hit the casing above a closed window, latching on to the stone siding above me. In the next breath I let go, plunging down, grabbing on to the upper windowsill, my legs bursting feetfirst through the leaded glass.
One second before I crashed through the panes, I heard four words.
“Now you must die.”
The glass exploded spectacularly and I landed in a low crouch, fists up, my wolf on high alert.
“You’re too late, mongrel.” Valdov’s precise voice hit my eardrum the instant before I sprang.
My brain took in the scene around me as I lunged, the Queen in her bed, blood everywhere, Naomi crumpled on the floor. My hands came around his neck as I snarled, “We’ll see about that, asshole.” My vocal cords were taut, my words strained. I knocked him to the floor in one motion, my knees pinning him across the chest.
Valdov chuckled beneath me, barely trying to fight back. “She’s already dead! You’re too late. I can feel the beautiful power transferring to me already.” He took a big, satisfied breath and grinned in a way that made him look like the Joker. “Ahh, it’s taken much too long to gain what was rightfully mine. Once I have the power, I will be the greatest Vampire King the world has ever seen, and I will kill you where you stand. You will be no match for me.”
This couldn’t be happening. The Queen couldn’t be dead.
My eyes found Eudoxia. She was chained to her bed, covered in silver links, her body smoking, Naomi’s cross stuck halfway out of her chest.
Her head hung at an odd angle.
She can’t regenerate with that thing inside her. We have to pull it out before it’s too late for her to recover. My wolf snapped her jaws, throwing up a picture of us ripping Valdov’s head cleanly off his body. We will, but we don’t have time to do both. By the time the power transfers completely from her to him, it will be too late. Valdov would put up too much of a fight right now.
Choosing to save the Queen, I jumped up and ran. But before I could reach her, I flew through the air. My back crashed into a wall, expensive drapes exploding all around me.
Valdov grinned like a fiend. “I am not weak, you filthy little beast! I can catch you. And you will not win, because you cannot save her.” He spread his arms and tilted his creepy ivory face toward the ceiling, inhaling, his perfectly sculpted nostrils flaring. “Can you feel it? It’s magnificent and so very intoxicating. And it’s all mine.”
I did feel the power, and unfortunately Valdov was right; it was swirling around the room searching for its next host. When the head of a Sect died, the power itself chose the new ruler, which was usually the strongest and most capable. In our world, the Alpha’s power transferred to the next wolf, but that wolf would be immediately challenged for it. An Alpha werewolf still had to prove himself physically.
No vampire would be challenging Valdov.
I had to stop this.
Squatting, I readied myself to lunge toward the Queen, but before I could move, Valdov locked his eyes on me. He was fully vamped out, cheeks waxy, eyes full black, fangs pierced down like swords over his bottom lip. His irises flashed silver, pinning me with their intensity. He knew my next move, but I had to try anyway. I sprang forward in a burst of speed, but I wasn’t fast enough. Valdov intercepted me and we tumbled to the ground again.
He hissed in my ear. “Little mongrel, oh, how I would love to drain you right now.” His fangs brushed the side of my neck, drawing a line of blood as they scratched along the surface of my skin.
I arched back, out of his grasp, bringing my fist up and slamming it into his trachea. He sputtered, trying to recover, but I held him by the shoulders, my claws digging in.
We rolled twice on the floor.
He was strong.
But I was stronger.
We hit the far wall right as Tyler jumped through the window I’d broken. I’d never been so happy to see anyone in my life. “Get to the Queen!” I yelled. “Yank the cross out of her chest.”
Tyler didn’t hesitate. He ran to the Queen’s bedside as Danny tumbled into the room behind him.
Valdov hissed, “I doesn’t matter. It’s too late. I will be King.” Power swirled in a heavy cloud around Valdov, his body vibrating as it absorbed the magic.
“Tyler, hurry!”
Valdov reared up beneath me, snapping at my neck, his face awful this close. His eye sockets were sunken and the bones in his face were stretched outward. His white, chalky, paper-thin skin didn’t look like they could contain them any longer.
“I did it,” Tyler said. “I pulled the damn cross out, but nothing’s happening. She’s not healing! Her neck is completely severed.”