I jumped in front of him. “She’s mine, vampire.”
Without breaking his connection to Rianne, he shoved me behind him. “Fuck no.”
I pushed him to the side. “Sam Mason, move. She won’t hurt me. I promise.” Part of me was confident my grandmother didn’t want me dead. Not yet anyway.
“You have two minutes,” Sam bit out before eyeing Webb, who had his gun trained on Rianne.
I remained as steady as I could, ambling toward my sister with my hands in the air, though I was nauseous and my adrenaline was spiking higher than a druggy snorting too much coke.
Rianne’s shoulders were tight. Her brown eyes were narrowed and her lips tightly mashed together.
I fought hard to understand how two people who grew up together, loved each other, and protected one another could turn on a dime. She hadn’t even attempted to reason with me or talk to me about my feelings for Sam.
I kept my hands in the air. “I’m sorry for the way things are turning out.” I was more than sorry. I was heartbroken. Fighting and arguing with her wasn’t accomplishing anything, and neither was reasoning. But I was a glutton for punishment. When Rianne made up her mind, she never changed it. Yet I had to believe my sister was in there somewhere—that I could get through to her.
But hatred was a hard nut to crack, and Rianne’s revulsion for Sam Mason had begun that night at the vampire club when Sam bested her. Rianne lived for revenge. Poor Kim Lauder, Rianne’s nemesis in high school. The pretty blonde cheerleader had slept with Rianne’s boyfriend. Because of that one incident, my sister spent her last two years of high school bullying Kim any chance she had. The circumstances were now vastly different, and yet they weren’t.
I studied my sister, searching for some emotion or a sign she cared. But her brown eyes were hollow and empty. “Stop this charade,” I pleaded. “You’re mad that I like Sam. He saved you from that bomb. If it weren’t for him, you would be dead.”
My grandmother said something I couldn’t comprehend. I hoped I cracked through a chink in her armor, and she appreciated that a bloodsucker cared to save her granddaughter. Granny needed to know precisely who Sam, Webb, and Steven were as people—living, breathing members of society who wanted to live in peace among humans and not as creatures of the night.
Rianne shrugged as she held her arm steady, pointing her weapon at me. “He compelled me into a vegetable-like state, and have you forgotten he’s a monster? It’s wrong to live with him. He probably used compulsion on you to fall in love with him.”
My forehead creased. While that was possible, it wasn’t true. “You’re upset that he bested you. Let’s not forget you threatened his sister that night.”
Rage popped the air around her as daggers shot from her hardened gaze. “Let’s not forget you slept with him.”
That revenge Rianne took out on Kim Lauder in high school had come down to betrayal and jealousy. But Rianne’s animosity with Sam wasn’t about either one of those things. Or was it? As teenagers, Jordyn, Rianne, and I had wondered what it would be like to date a vampire, but that was as far as our fantasies went. Every time we returned from a hunt, that fantasy became a nightmare. As handsome as some of them were, they’d been evil, pure and simple. Sam, on the other hand, had a nefarious side when going up against his foes, but he had a heart.
“Why do you care so much? Jealousy? You had fantasies of dating a vampire. But you hate yourself for that. Don’t you?”
She blinked. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
It wasn’t the time to psychoanalyze my sister, but part of me was right. “Where’s the woman who wanted to enlist in the air force to fly jets?”
“I guess I took a play out of your book. You wanted to join the police academy. Instead, you’re living with bloodsuckers. So, I’m on a mission to end them, especially that asshole.” She briefly glanced past me.
I couldn’t see Sam, but I didn’t have to. I could almost feel his need to kill wrapping around me like a heavy coat of armor.
“You’re angry because you think he took me away from you. He didn’t, Rianne. I’m still your sister. I love you.” Sure, she wanted revenge on him for defeating her, but if I peeled back her layers, I was certain her malicious intent was steeped in jealousy. “But none of this means you need to point a gun at me.”
“If I hurt you, I hurt him,” she said as Sam’s growl echoed in the cavernous space.
Getting through to her was pointless. I was wasting my time—again.
“Rianne, you’ll have your opportunity,” my grandmother said. “Lower the gun.”
A maniacal laugh zipped around in my head. If they hadn’t succeeded in keeping Sam barricaded in a lab, they sure as shit wouldn’t be able to stop him from tearing off heads.
I finally lowered my arms. “Listen to Granny. Look, sis, you realize that Carly, Granny, Emery, and whoever else is part of this experiment are murderers. I’m not okay with killing innocent humans for someone’s sick plan to build super soldiers. Are you?” Given that she aligned herself with Intech and Granny, the answer was clear, but I needed to hear her say it.
Revulsion and disgust flared in her gaze that once again drifted past me. “Granny was right. We need help as well as a new plan to rid the earth of the monsters that these fuckers are, and Sam is the biggest one of them all.”
A low, venomous growl rumbled from Sam. “Careful, Rianne.”
Rianne lifted her chin with a diabolical smirk. “Or what, bloodsucker? You won’t touch me. But I promise you the next time we meet, I will be able to best you.”
Sam’s chuckle sounded like a Hemi engine firing to life. “How? By becoming one of Carly’s test subjects?”
