“No one can stop me now.” He laughed and in a blink, he was at Rose’s side again. He grabbed her hands and jerked them over her head. Then he pinned her wrists there, holding her easily with just one hand. His strength was incredible. Terrifying.
And he’d gotten it from an angel’s wings?
How many feathers had he cut from the angel?
Simon leaned toward her. “Humans don’t have to stay weak. We can take your power.”
The wings…the feathers…that was how he’d been able to use a compulsion, one that hadn’t broken without her blood to dilute his power. And now he was super strong, amped up on the magic of those wings like an athlete on steroids.
“I’ll take that heart of yours,” he said. “Right now.” Only he wasn’t using his knife. He drove his right hand straight into her chest.
Rose screamed in agony as she felt his fingers against her heart.
The door crashed in. A panther roared.
“What the hell?” Simon yelled as he let her go and whirled to face the new threat. “Why didn’t my guards kill your ass? I know that was what I told them to do. Why is it so hard to find good help?” Her blood was on his fingers.
The panther roared again and leapt at him.
But when the beast hit him, Simon didn’t go down. He caught the panther, holding him tightly, and laughed once more. “Surprise!” Simon tossed the panther across the room, and the great cat’s body slammed into the wall, leaving a deep impression. “Guess who isn’t going to lose this battle?”
The panther jumped back to his feet just as a big, white wolf burst into the room.
“Two of you?” Simon taunted. “How is that fair?”
The panther and wolf both launched at him. They all went down, crashing onto the floor as fangs and claws flew out.
Rose heaved against the bands. She broke two of them and slid her body out of the others, hauling herself up to freedom. She jumped off the table just as Simon heaved the wolf off him.
But he didn’t escape from Julian. The panther locked his powerful jaws around Simon’s neck. He bent down and she knew—
Simon’s body jerked and went still.
She knew Julian had just severed the top of Simon’s spinal cord, the way he’d told her that his kind attacked. But after that terrible bite, the panther didn’t let Simon go. His head turned and his powerful teeth raked open Simon’s throat, sending a spray of blood into the air.
“Please, please say the panther is with you.” The witch called out. “I need you to say that right now, vamp.”
She took a step forward and pain burned through her chest. “He’s…with me. So is the wolf.”
And the wolf was rising right then. Stalking toward Simon and the panther but…
The panther swung his head toward Rose. She tried to smile at him, but it was hard considering she’d just nearly had her heart ripped out and Julian was covered in a dead man’s blood.
The muse yelled, “We need to hurry here! Get us out, now! We don’t have long before he’s back!”
Back? No, not again. No way. The guy’s head was barely attached to his body.
The panther’s bones began to pop and snap. The wolf was already shifting, too.
“Get us out!” The muse jerked against her bars. “Hurry!”
Julian rose to his feet, once more in the form of a man. Rose ran to him, ignoring the blood on her, on him, and she threw herself against him. She held him tight, her body shuddering.
“I never, ever liked your plan,” he rasped.
She hugged him harder. “We found them.” She wouldn’t explain just how close she’d come to losing her heart, not right then.
“How the hell do I get the cells open?” Rayce’s voice blasted.
“You need his index finger…get the index finger from Simon’s right hand,” the witch yelled back. “And the code is 1031. Halloween…because the dick thought that was some kind of awesome joke. But hurry, before he rises.”
Julian stiffened. “Rises?”
Rose and Julian both whirled to look at Simon. He hadn’t moved. His body was still splayed on the blood covered floor and his head was—yes, um, barely there. He didn’t look like he was rising.
“He doesn’t have a heart,” Rose whispered. “He cut it out. I don’t…how did he even live without a heart?”
But Julian swore. “Fuck. Sounds like he made a deal with someone…”
A deal?
And then understanding dawned. Of course, of course. A human must have made a deal to keep living that way. Humans couldn’t work that kind of magic, not on their own.
But Luke Thorne would never make a deal with humans.
So that meant… “Where’s Leo?” Rose asked, her voice sharp.
The ceiling fell in on them. Just gave way as something—someone—came crashing through it. Julian grabbed Rose, yanking her out of the way of the falling debris and shielding her with his body. And Rayce—he covered the angel who was still on the floor.
Dust and wood, metal and stone—they kept tumbling down.
“Where’s the angel?” Leo’s bellow. Because it had been Leo who’d come crashing through that ceiling.
And if anyone had made a deal with Simon Lorne, Rose knew it must have been Leo.
Chapter Seventeen
Julian straightened. He and Rose turned to face the so-called Lord of the Light.