Hess was saying something to Beatrice with a snarky look on his face, while Corry looked miserable and terrified beside him. Her plain green T-shirt was wet at the neck from tears, and—God, was her arm broken? Behind Corry, I could just make out the outline of a door, which had been painted to match the pink stucco of the exterior walls. No wonder I had never noticed it; I was generally scared and distracted whenever I met with Dashiell. There was a very small window in the door, at eye level, which I’d always thought was just a regular window into the house.
I turned back toward Jesse, telling him who was who, with the exception of the men I didn’t know. “You see the door?”
“Yeah. Come on.” We took the three steps back to the doorway, where Albert waited with the gun.
“Why is Ariadne here? And who is with her?” I hissed.
Albert’s face was grim. “She came to make her move against Dashiell. Carlos is the master who’s sponsoring her. The guy with them is a werewolf, muscle for hire.”
Talk about your bad timing, I thought. I bet Ariadne was wishing she had waited just a bit longer for her hostile takeover.
“Why haven’t you burst in there yourself?” Jesse asked Albert. “You could probably get a shot at Hess before he sees you. Isn’t that the kind of thing Dashiell pays you for?”
Albert just stared at us nervously.
“He’s afraid,” I said, understanding. “There’s a null out there, and he’s scared of getting hurt or killed while she’s so close. God, Albert, that really is cowardly.”
“Shut up,” he growled. “Listen, if you two are so brave, you’re welcome to storm out there. I’ll take you around to the servant door.”
“Give me my gun and we will,” Jesse retorted.
“So you can shoot me and then Dashiell? Yeah, right.” Albert shook his head. “I may get in trouble for not rushing out there, but I’ll definitely get dead if I let Scarlett Bernard waltz past me and take a shot at him. No, you go without a gun.” I opened my mouth to protest, but he just glared at me. “Or I could always just shoot you here, see if the sound distracts that guy long enough for Dashiell to jump him. That seems like a good plan, too.”
I closed my mouth and looked at Jesse. We didn’t have time for this. He nodded at me.
“We’ll go,” I said to Albert.
“Fine.”
As quickly as possible, Albert guided us in a wide circle around the patio, whispering directions in the dark as he held the gun at our backs. We ended up in a large, lavishly equipped kitchen that I had never seen before.
“Why do vampires need a kitchen?” Jesse whispered, but I just shrugged and rolled my eyes.
“Here,” Albert said, pointing at the interior side of the servants’ door.
I peeked through the little square. The vampire opposite Dashiell, the one closest to Corry, was saying something I couldn’t hear.
“Do you have a plan?” Jesse asked me.
“I’ll get the girl. You go for Hess.”
“And the vampires?” he said, glancing at Albert, who was waiting fifteen feet back, still holding the gun and looking much more comfortable as a vampire.
“Hopefully won’t try to kill us the second we get through the door.”
“Okay.” He took a step toward the door and then looked back. “Hey, I guess you’re off the hook for murder.”
I made a face at him.
“Ready?” he asked.
“Wait! Jesse?”
“What?” His eyes searched my face.
“Um, I’m just sorry. That you got sucked into this.”
He grinned. “Weirdly? I’m not.”
And we burst through the door.
Chapter 33
Jesse went straight for Jared Hess as though he had blinders on. Hess heard the door open and swung the gun around, but by the time he had it pointed the right way, Jesse had crossed the five feet between them and tackled Hess around the waist, driving his shoulder into Hess’s wide torso. In his peripheral vision, he saw Scarlett grab the teenage girl and crouch down in the nearest corner, getting her as far from the action as possible.
Hess went down with an oomph, and the gun went flying out of his hand—and clattered straight down the long oval table, stopping in front of the lean cowboy-looking guy with the shoulder wound. The cowboy looked at the giant vampire across from him for a split second and then dove for the gun, just as the big vamp pulled his own out of a shoulder holster.
As the cowboy managed to shoot the vampire in the face, Ariadne screamed a terrible, inhuman scream and launched herself over the big table, straight toward Beatrice. She was still in the nulls’ proximity, so her scramble across was more functional than graceful, but she dropped into Beatrice’s lap within a second, trying to dig black fingernails into the other vampire’s eyes. Dashiell cried out and tried to pry Ariadne off his mate, which caused the vampire sitting across from him—Carlos—to jump onto the table himself, trying to protect Ariadne.
Of course, Jesse only barely registered all of this, as he was in the middle of an old-school playground fight with Jared Hess. The two of them made a fairly even match: Jesse had trained in combat at the police academy, but Hess was fifty pounds heavier and fast as anything. Hess recovered from the tackle to pound terrible blows on Jesse’s head and shoulders. Jesse jerked his head upward, slamming it into Hess’s jaw, which snapped shut with an audible click. Hess released him but clubbed Jesse away with a punch on the ear, forcing him to roll away. For a moment, the world seemed to have lost gravity, and Jesse struggled to get his feet under him.
Hess stood up first and aimed a kick at Jesse’s face, which he dodged fairly easily. Hess ducked Jesse’s two return punches, driving a fist into his stomach, which forced Jesse to bend in half and take a breath. Hess took advantage of the pause and looked around frantically for the gun, but it was long since out of his reach. When he turned back to Jesse, though, the cop was ready for him, clasping his fists together and driving them up into Jared Hess’s nose. Hess screamed with rage as blood flooded down his shirt, then swung blindly in Jesse’s direction. Off balance, Jesse stumbled back and couldn’t avoid Hess’s vicious kick to his left knee. Jesse screamed with pain and shifted his weight as the knee threatened to crumple under him.
Dropping into a roll, Jesse crawled over to Scarlett, Hess right behind him, and she looked up and nodded in a moment of perfect understanding. She thrust the Taser into his hand, and Jesse turned and managed to flick it on just as Hess’s hand closed around his throat. Jesse felt the secondary volt run through Hess’s fingers and into his own neck, but by the time he registered it, Hess had gone limp, crumbling into a puddle six inches from Scarlett’s sneakers.
The girl—Corry—cried out in fear and anger, and clutched at Scarlett with her good hand.
“It’s okay, it’s okay,” Scarlett soothed, and Jesse looked around the patio.
Hugo the vampire was dead, and the cowboy guy was clicking an empty gun at his chest over and over, presumably trying to destroy his heart. The two women had moved to the foot of the long oval table and were wrestling on the ground, paying no attention to either modesty or fairness. They didn’t fight like girls in movies—both women had kicked off their shoes and were doing their damnedest to land punches, though there was also more than a little ripping out of long hair. Beatrice had a long line of blood bisecting her face. Next to the patio doors, Dashiell and Carlos were circling each other with wary, fearful eyes. Both of their clothes were torn, and blood dripped from a gash on Carlos’s torso. The air was filled with Ariadne’s taunts and everyone’s heavy, labored breathing. As though they weren’t used to it, Jesse thought.
“Why are they still human?” Jesse whispered to Scarlett, nodding down toward the women. “Aren’t they out of your range?”
“It’s her,” she said, looking at Corry. “She’s too upset; it’s making her perimeter expand.”
“Let’s get out of here while they’re all distracted,” Jesse said, moving
toward Corry.
She whimpered, clutching Scarlett harder, and he felt like an unspeakable tool. Yeah, move quickly toward the scared girl with the broken arm, he scolded himself.
But Scarlett was shaking her head. “I can’t go,” she said quietly. “You have to take her out of here.”
“What? Why?”
“Beatrice,” Scarlett said, nodding down toward the other end of the table. “She can’t fight Ariadne unless they’re both human; Ariadne’s way too powerful. I can’t let her die.”
Jesse cursed in Spanish.
“She’s a vampire!” “She’s also kind of my friend. And I can save her.” She met his eyes. “Get Corry out of here; get her to safety. Check on her family. Please, Jesse.”
He searched her face for a long moment, then sighed and nodded.
Scarlett saw his acquiescence and bent her head to whisper in Corry’s ear. Jesse heard her say, “He’s a good man, honey, and he’s going to get you out of here. He won’t hurt you, I swear to God.”
Corry sobbed, nodding, and Jesse handed Scarlett the Taser and gently gathered Corry into his arms.
“Go,” Scarlett said, and he gave her one more look and limped toward the door.
In the kitchen, Jesse staggered toward the interior door and tried to get his bearings. “Albert!” he hollered impatiently, and he was surprised to see Albert actually come running. “How do I get out of here?” he demanded.
“Go down this hallway, take the last left, and the first right after that puts you in the foyer.” Albert pointed.
“Give me my gun.”
The vampire hesitated.
“Take the ammo, Albert, just give me the damned gun!”
“Okay, okay.” Albert fumbled the clip out of Jesse’s police-issue Glock and handed it over, grip first.
“Thanks. Go help your master. You might get there in time to look like you’re actually trying.”
“Fuck you,” Albert said, but he took off running back into the kitchen. Jesse watched him go, said a prayer for Scarlett, and fled the house with Corry.
Chapter 34
As soon as Jesse was through the door, I bolted across the patio, running parallel to the table on the opposite side from where Dashiell and the vampire I didn’t know were still fighting. I pushed hard, putting all my years of running into the sprint. In a snatch of conversation, I heard Dashiell call the other vampire a dishonorable pawn—who talks like that?—but I didn’t slow down as I passed the two men. As I hurried toward Beatrice, I saw both of the women jerk suddenly, their faces beginning to glow with power as Corry moved out of range, and I sprinted the last few steps as fast as I’ve ever run. Just as Ariadne recovered and turned on Beatrice again, I got close enough to get both of them back within my radius. Behind me, I heard the two male vampires cry out as I got far enough away again. They would be finishing their fights as vampires, God help us. I hoped Dashiell was up for it.
As I ran up, Beatrice recovered from becoming human again, a beat faster than Ariadne, and scrambled to her feet. She flashed me a grateful look and jumped back as Ariadne bellowed with fury. The goth girl rose and lowered her head like a bull’s, charging straight for Beatrice. Positioned behind her, I saw what Bea couldn’t—a long, wicked-looking sliver of glass clutched in Ariadne’s hand. The charge was just a distraction. “No!” I yelled, but I was too late. Ariadne tackled Beatrice and drove the long piece of glass into her stomach, angling up to get the heart.
Ariadne’s hand was bleeding hard from the edges, but she must have found her mark—Beatrice dropped like a stone in water, a tangled Ariadne falling with her. I realized that I was just standing there, and ran forward, grabbing Ariadne’s wrist and dragging her off Beatrice. Ariadne crouched on all fours, panting, as I turned back.
“Bea? Bea!” I yelled, but Beatrice’s eyes didn’t so much as flutter in response. “Fuck,” I groaned, and beside me, Ariadne began to cackle. I heard Dashiell screaming behind me, and the other vampire yelling in response, and then both of their cries were cut off suddenly as my temper flared and I felt the barriers of my power begin to swell. And swell.
The vampires behind me were human again, too, and I heard the sharp pop of a gunshot behind me. I turned and saw Dashiell standing over Hugo’s body, holding the dead vamp’s gun. It was pointed at the vampire he’d been fighting, who was crumpled on the ground. I could see the blood from this far away.
I didn’t register any of that, though, because something was happening inside me. The edges of my aura had grown and grown and still wanted more ground. I felt it all, in that moment—my rage, my guilt, my sorrow for my parents, all of it rose and rose within me, and I poured it into my power, into the circle that had ceased to be a circle at all. Then I looked to Ariadne, who gazed up at me in sudden fear, and I turned that power toward her.
And then something broke inside me, and I felt a warm rush of blood from my nose as the world went dark.
Chapter 35
When I woke up, I could hear rain pattering against the window. Weird, I thought sleepily. Then I opened my eyes, squinting them into focus, and realized that I was lying down, that I wasn’t wearing my clothes, and that I was in an unfamiliar bed, in that order. As my mind began to clear, I noticed the details—the disinfectant smell, the squeaking of tennis shoes on linoleum, the generic decor—and put together that I was in a hospital room. If it sounds as if I came to this realization very slowly...Well, I did.
“‘Lo?” I croaked, my voice hoarse with disuse.
“Scar?” I turned my head left and recognized Eli, his face worried and pleased at the same time. “Are you really awake?”
“God, I hope not.”
He laughed, much more than was warranted, and reached over to take my hand. “Oh, man, you had us worried.”
“Why?”
“It’s Wednesday afternoon, Scarlett. You’ve been asleep for three days.”
“I have?” I tried to sit up in bed, then immediately regretted it. “What happened? Where’s Corry? Is Beatrice okay?”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hang on, there. They said you had some kind of seizure or something at Dashiell’s and passed out while a bunch of vampires were fighting. Dashiell dragged you away from Beatrice, and she turned vampire again and healed from her wounds.
“Is Dashiell still gonna kill me?”
He frowned. “I don’t think so, or he wouldn’t have gotten you to the hospital.”
“Dashiell brought me to the hospital?”
“Yeah.”
“Corry?”
“The girl? I talked to your friend the cop—he’ll be here after his shift, by the way; we’ve been trading off—and he said she was fine. She had to get a cast on her arm, but her family was okay. When that guy went to the hotel for them, Corry ran out to meet him so he wouldn’t mess with her mom and brother. Pretty ballsy move for a fifteen-year-old, if you ask me.” He smiled. “She’s a really nice kid, Scar. I can see why you wanted to protect her. Oh”—his brow furrowed a little—“if I talked to you first, Cruz wanted me to tell you that he took care of Corry’s tape. He said you would know what that meant.”
It took me a second, but I figured it out: Jesse had destroyed the tape that Jared Hess had used to blackmail Corry. Thank God.
“S’wrong with me?”
His eyes flickered with worry. “I’m not sure. The doctors aren’t, either, it sounds like. I’ll call them in a second, but there’s something else you should know first.” He took a deep breath, and his face looked...almost nervous.
“What is it?” I asked.
“Uh...What do you feel?”
“What do you—Oh. Oh, wow,” I said as I finally noticed that I couldn’t feel him in my radius. I closed my eyes and concentrated. My eyelids flew open. “I can’t feel anything. You’re still a were. Did I...Am I broken?”
He shrugged. “Dashiell says no. He told Will it’ll kind of...grow back. I think he’s telling the truth—you still don’t smell.” He smiled, a little
shyly. “But without it, you’re vulnerable, which is why Cruz and I have been taking turns being here. He fixed his schedule to work days this week, so he’s in at night and I’m here now.” Eli’s face darkened a little. “Dashiell stopped to check on you a couple of times, but Jesse didn’t leave him alone with you.” He grinned then, remembering something. “He pulled some cop language on the nurses, got them to let him stick around after visiting hours. They were kind of fawning over him.”
“Okay, okay,” I said, trying to take all that in. What the hell had happened to me?
“Here”—Eli reached over the arm guard and pushed the little red button to call the nurse—“we better tell them that you’re awake.”
The nurse came in to check on me, and a few minutes later, a balding, fiftyish man in a white coat strode into the room, too. An embroidered patch on his coat read, Dr. Lipowitz. I glanced at Eli to make sure we were comfortable with this guy, and he gave me a little nod and slid back in his chair to give the doctor room. Vetted.
“How are we feeling?” Lipowitz asked me, pulling out a little flashlight. He shone it into my eyes while I squinted.
I hate it when doctors use the word we. “Hate to speak for you, but I’m doing better.”
Eli made a tiny sound like a snort, but Lipowitz frowned. Not a joker. “Any headaches?”
“Just a little one. What happened to me?”
He sat back in the chair, tucking the flashlight back in his coat pocket. “To be honest, Ms. Bernard, we’re not really sure. You appear to have had a concussion, but there’s no trauma to your head.”
“A coma?” I asked, still working on arranging words properly.
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