I hate her even more.
“Though I don’t think it’s fair for you to judge. It seems you have quite the fetish of your own.” She inhales, eyes fluttering closed. “Mhhh,” she breathes, as if she just smelled freshly baked cookies. “It smells like sex in here. Two—no, three different men? A girl after my own heart. Too bad I have to rip yours right out of your chest.”
“You can try,” I retort.
She makes a face. “Actually, I’d rather not. I just got my nails done.” She looks at her long, pointed nails. They’re painted black and have clusters of jewels on each one. “Oh, boys! She’s up here!”
“You’re making them do your dirty work?”
She shrugs. “That’s why they’re here, darling.”
“So you’re like the female Charles Manson of the vampire world.”
Her full lips curve into a smile. “I like that. Maybe I’ll use it as a catch phrase.”
“Catch phrases won’t work when you’re dead.”
“Too bad for you, then.” She yawns, acting bored, and moves to the mirror to check her hair.
“I saw you. During the day.”
She lets out a high-pitched and girly laugh. “Don’t trust everything you read on the internet.” She shakes her head. “You really are dumb, aren’t you?”
“But sunlight…” I blink. It doesn’t matter. All that matters is killing this bitch.
With a sigh, she turns back to me. “I might as well tell you. You’re going to be dead soon and dying with this knowledge in your little brain will be like salt on the wound.” Her lips curve into a smile. “We learn to tolerate sunlight in small doses. Not direct light, but cloudy days like today are as good as twilight for us older vamps. Remember that as I drain the life out of you. Everyone you hold dear…everyone you care about…they’re not safe at night or on days like today. Which seems to be most days around here.”
I swallow hard. “So the nurse at the free clinic is a vampire,” I think out loud. This is bad. Really fucking bad.
She laughs again. “That idiot? No. Well, not yet. He doesn’t fuck well enough for me to want him around forever.” She turns back to the mirror. “I suppose he has time to learn. And I am a good teacher.”
I look her up and down, weighing my options. Jacques told me the older a vampire is, the more powerful they are. And not just physically. Some have abilities and can kill you without even touching you. This woman has sired an army and has her back turned. She knows I’m not a threat, not in the state I’m in.
Keeping the stakes out in front of me, I circle around the room, going to the window. It’s my only way out. I can’t fight five vampires, but I might be able to get out and get away long enough to figure out how to recharge my magical batteries.
And we’re closing in on sunset.
Never in my life have I admitted to needing someone. I’ve appreciated help. I’ve allowed them to ease the burden of something I’m more than capable of doing alone. But right now, I know in my heart I need them.
And they need me.
I reach behind me, feeling for the lock. I flip it and slide the window open. I’m halfway out when the bedroom door opens. My eyes widen in terror and I bring my arm back, chucking one of the stakes at the first vampire to enter the room. It hits him in the arm, tearing open his flesh. He yells and clamps his hand over the wound.
“What are you waiting for!” Vampire Barbie shouts to the others. “Kill her!”
I back up and topple out the window. My head throbs, and more blood drips down my neck. Clambering away, I look through the fog and see the outline of Jacques’s wings.
He’s still frozen in stone.
I get up onto my feet and hold the stake out in front of me. I’m fighting with myself not to get dizzy from blood loss. A vampire comes through the window, his tall frame rising in the fog. I recognize him as the one I burned back at the bar. His wounds haven’t healed.
“I’ve been waiting a long time for this,” he says with a sneer.
“A long time? It’s been days, buddy. You’re immortal. You need a better sense of time.”
He throws his head back, laughing. I keep walking backwards, away from him. Come on, guys. Wake up. Another vampire comes out onto the roof. And another. And another, until they’re all standing there, watching me. My heart is beating so fast it hurts. I’m cornered. I squeeze my eyes shut, screaming at Jacques to wake up. I feel something pass through me, and suddenly I can’t breathe. Everything has been taken from me, and it’s all I can do to stay on my feet.
“I’m disappointed, Ace,” Vampire Barbie says. The others part way for her, looking at her as if she’s a goddess. “As soon as we got your scent, we knew it was you who killed my babies. And the magic you pulled at the club…bravo. And this is how it ends? It’s so anticlimactic.”
Little pebbles crumble from the roof onto the sidewalk below. My eyes flutter as I fight to stay conscious. I shuffle back. “Just wait,” I mumble, and my vision fades and I fall back, disappearing into the fog below.
26
“Ace.”
Jacques’s strong arms wrap around me. I feebly lift my head and force my eyes open. His large wings are outstretched and we’re soaring into the air. I black out, not waking until he lands somewhere away from the house.
“Ace,” he repeats. “Can you hear me?”
“Yeah.” I try to lift my arms and fail. “The vampires…”
“It’ll take them a minute to catch up,” he says, and repositions me in his arms, ready to take flight again if need be. “They bit you.”
“No shit, Sherlock,” I mumble, opening my eyes and looking up at Jacques’s handsome face. Is that a slight smile I see on his full lips? “I used magic again. That’s why I’m…so…tired.” My eyes fall shut.
“You woke me up before sunset.”
His words are enough of a jolt to open my eyes again. So that’s what that feeling was. It took everything inside of me to break through the stone. “Maybe I can break the curse then.”
“I’m not worried about that now. I need to get you somewhere safe, Ace.”
“No. I have to stop her.”
“Her?”
“The sire is a woman. There are six vampires at the house.”
“I saw, somehow. It’s like you showed me and I just knew.” Then he tenses and we both are thinking the same thing. The guys are going to wake up and have no idea. They’ll be ambushed.
“We have to get back,” I say.
Jacques nods. “You stay here. I’ll go.”
I shake my head. There’s no way I’m letting him go alone. “I started this fight. I need to finish it. Besides,” I start, “if they come back, I won’t be able to fight them off on my own.”
He brushes my hair back and looks at the wound on my neck. Able to see in the dark, he can tell just how bad it is. “Right. Take a minute, Ace. Catch your breath.”
I didn’t even realize I was panting. I close my eyes for a second and inhale deeply, feeling an ache in my side when I do. I’m going to be so fucking sore in the morning. Jacques puts both of his large hands on my shoulders and looks into my eyes, trying to get a read on me.
Gently, he swipes blood off my face and picks me back up, cradling me in his arms. I hook my arms around his neck. No matter how hard I try, I can’t ignore how right it feels to be in his arms.
I rest my head on his shoulder for a brief minute as he takes flight and moves across the yard. We land soundlessly on the pitch of the roof. He doesn’t let me go. Carefully, he moves along the pitched roofline, looking down into the yard. The vampires are nowhere to be seen, but we both know they are still around here somewhere.
The sun should be setting any minute now. He turns, wings whooshing behind him, and looks down at the front of the house. I almost don’t hear it, the crackling of stone. It’s quiet at first, and I hold tight to Jacques as I peer down at the porch below. Thomas and Gilbert break free first, which makes sense to me now, with the way the sun sets. Hasan is the last to be cast into the night.