“She’s mine. You can play, but she’s mine to drink and to kill. Get her out of the car. She’s my trump card in the next hand of the game.” In a blur, she sped around to the passenger’s side and tried to open the door, which was still locked. Frustrated, she ripped it off its hinges as well and tossed it to the side. My blood ran cold as I realized that—one way or another—this wasn’t going to be a win-win situation. I was on the losing end and the loss I was facing wasn’t exactly one I could rebound from.
“Stop! Aegis is on the way and if you kill me, he’ll just attack you. If you let me live, he might thank you and go with you.” I had no clue how to approach this situation, but it seemed like playing to her ego might help me.
Rachel leaned into the car and grabbed my arm, pulling me away from Cane, who held on a moment too long. I heard a bone snap in my wrist, and then the pain hit. As I let out a shriek, they both laughed.
“My bad, I broke your toy,” he said.
Rachel snorted. “Oh, no problem. You can play with the parts that aren’t broken in a few minutes, but I need to use her first. Aegis is going to understand just what it means to have his heart broken. And then he’ll realize that I’m the only woman in the world for him.”
I focused on my wrist, sending a Muting spell down my arm to numb the pain. It wouldn’t heal broken bones, but it would allow me to function without the pain interfering. At least for a while. But I was over any attempt to play nice.
“Bitch, you’re fucking insane. You think that killing me is going to make him come back to you? What have you been smoking?” What was it they said? Don’t look away? Don’t show fear?
That’s for mountain lions, you idiot. Again, that annoying inner voice, which I highly suspected was my inner, smarter, self.
Rachel ran her fingers down my cheek, using one of her incredibly sharp nails to raise a weal. I wasn’t sure if it was bleeding but by the gleam in her eye, I suspected maybe it was, just a little. She leaned in and slowly drew her tongue across the wound, letting out a trill.
“Yummy,” she said, her voice low and sultry. “At least Aegis gave us dessert instead of an appetizer.”
Cane was holding me by my elbows, but Rachel was close enough for me to give her one hell of a good head butt. She wasn’t expecting it, and so the blow sent her back a couple of steps. Cane growled, adjusting his grip on my arms and I had the feeling that once my spell wore off, I was going to regret doing that because I was pretty sure he had just managed to break another bone in my wrist. But for now, the fact that I had startled Ms. Bloodsucker made me smile.
“Feisty, isn’t she?” Cane piped up as the other vampires gathered ’round. They all looked hungry and I had the feeling that I was one second away from being the honored guest in a five-way vampire fang-bang.
“Too feisty.” Rachel’s cloying tone was gone. She stared at me. “So, when Aegis gets here, we’ll see just how much he wants you safe and sound.”
One of her toadies leaned in to sniff my neck and Rachel went from being five feet away to knocking him across the car. All within one quick blur.
“Nobody feeds till I say so!” She suddenly turned as the lights of a car hit the parking lot.
I recognized Aegis’s Corvette. I stiffened, not sure exactly how this was going to play out, but then I saw Delia’s squad car pull in right after. Worried about her—she might be a werewolf, but vamps were freaking strong and there were five of them—I regretted having texted her.
Aegis leaped out of the car and came running over, a blur himself. He stopped out of reach, hands on his hips. In his leather jacket and dark shades, he looked so fucking bad-ass that for a second, I forgot how much danger I was in.
“Let her go, Rachel. It’s over.” His voice carried through the night.
“What makes you think it’s done? It’s not over till I say it’s over, babe.” Rachel sauntered toward him. “You want her alive? You want little Miss Twitch to come out of this in one piece?”
Aegis stared at her. “Rachel, you have to move on. I don’t want you. I’ll never take you back. And no matter how many people you threaten, you can’t command me.” His voice was so rich, so compelling, that I found myself mesmerized. I could float in that voice, I could bathe in it, live on it. A sudden parting of the clouds brought out the moon and it shone down, bathing us in the crystal white starkness of the snow.
He held up his hand, turning so that the moonbeam caught his ring. “You know what this is. I told you long ago.”
Rachel suddenly froze. “You wouldn’t. You wouldn’t dare.”
“Try me. Let her go and we’ll have ourselves a fair fight. Touch one fang to her throat, and I unleash your death.”
I was starting to get a very bad feeling about that ring. It was glowing faintly with a golden light. The ring was the symbol of the time when he had belonged to Apollo. It marked him as the Sun God’s chosen. And then, it began to dawn on me.
“If you do that, you unleash your own death.” Rachel cocked her head ever so slightly as though she were testing him, but she motioned to Cane, who let go of me with a clueless “Huh?”
“I’ve lived a long life. If I have to, I’m willing to sacrifice myself.” He let out a mirthless laugh. “Do you think that I chose this state willingly? I embrace being one of the Fallen because I have no choice. But there are other paths and other lives.”
“A fair fight, you say? We win, we get the witch. And you come back to me.”
“You win, I won’t have any say. Because you’re going to have to kill me to end it. If I win…well…then I win.”
She laughed. “Well, if you consider five against one fair, far be it from me to dissuade you. But no help from the werewolf. Or the witch.” She reached over and shoved me hard toward Aegis. “Get your ass over there. Try to leave and you’re dead, regardless of his rules.”
I hurried past Aegis, giving him a desperate look, but he kept his eyes on Rachel. “Touch her before we’re done and I won’t hesitate to bring on the sun. But trust me, it will be a fair game. I brought my own backups.”
At that, I saw three figures exit Delia’s car. Vampires all. And Essie emerged with them. She passed by me, stopping to say, “I’ve loaned Aegis three of my men. I’ll stay out of the fight, but I couldn’t help but take a piece of the action, given you’ve been after my throne, you little upstart.” Essie sat on the hood of Delia’s car, glancing over at me. “Get in the car, girl.”
I scrambled, diving into the front seat beside Delia. “Fucking hell.”
“What does Aegis mean, he’ll unleash the sun?” Delia slammed the door locks and kept the engine idling. “Don’t worry, we aren’t leaving. I promised Essie we’d stay in return for bringing her and her men over. Aegis set this up while he was on the way here.”
“Aegis has a ring—it’s from when he was a servant of Apollo. I didn’t think much about it, though he wears it constantly. But now I think it contains the power of the sun. If he unleashes it, we’ll get a blast of sunlight.”
“And that will kill every vampire in the area who happens to be within range of the light.”
“Right. Talk about deterrents. I had no clue what he was carrying around.” I watched as Essie’s men moved up to back Aegis. They poised, waiting, and then with the barest flutter of movement, the nine vampires engaged. Aegis went straight for Rachel, and the others gave the pair a wide berth.
I leaned forward, straining to get a better look. “I wish I could be out there, helping.” My heart in my throat, all I could think about was Aegis and whether he could survive.
“All you’d do is get yourself drained. Putting yourself in the thick of that fight is suicide.” She pressed her lips together. “I didn’t like having to pick up Essie and her crew, but Aegis insisted and I trust him enough to pay attention.”
Quickly running through the spells I had on tap, I suddenly realized I could do something. I had fire at my disposal. And even though I seldom tapped its power, I knew that if I was going to, now would be the time. I looked down at my broken wrist. Still numb, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t functioning.
“I need something for a splint to hold my hand straight.” I lifted my arm so she could see the swelling.