She trudged toward me. “No, you won’t. You can’t win a fight with a Monroe witch.”
Iwantedto say, “My wife will gut you,” but until Layla had her witchcraft, she couldn’t best Patricia, no matter how good Layla was with daggers—or any weapons, for that matter.
The closer Patricia got, the less clearly I could think. My brain suddenly felt fuzzy.
She chanted some gibberish lines followed by “You’re not a powerful vampire anymore, Sam Mason.” She unhooked Orion from me.
I couldn’t move my arms or legs or do a damn thing. I stood there like a fucking lump on a log while she hauled my son into her arms.
“Come here, little one,” she cooed.
I growled, baring my fangs at her, itching to tear out her carotid artery. But even my head wouldn’t move.
With the snap of her fingers, I heard the bones in my neck crack before darkness consumed me.
2
LAYLA
For the last few minutes, I’d been nervously standing between two SUVs with Luna snuggled against me in her carrier as I stared at the blond vampire I hated. I didn’t expect to see Roman Brown on a farm in North Dakota.
His sinister grin was both maddening and frightening as he lingered in front of me, next to the vehicle he’d climbed out of.
My heart was in my throat, my mind a ball of knots, and I was weaponless. Not a fucking thing to defend myself with. Not even any magical powers, which I was hoping would shoot out of me. After all, only seconds after I grabbed Luna out of the crib, Agnes, my maternal grandmother, had given me a few drops of her blood—the key to unlocking my Monroe witch powers.
Then again, with Roman’s two vampire goons behind me and Roman ogling me, I couldn’t escape even if I still had my daggers. His men had swiftly taken my weapons when they poured out of their vehicle like flying saucers from the mothership.
Roman sauntered up to me, wearing an award-winning smirk that I wanted to smack off his face.
“Sam!” I shouted. “Are you still there?”
Part of me prayed he’d heeded my advice and had fled with Orion. The other part of me needed his elemental powers.
Luna was quiet as I held her tightly to me, stroking her not only to calm her but to soothe my frayed nerves.
I listened intently, and after two long beats, no response. My pulse pounded in my ears, sounding like a drum solo at a rock concert, muting the gunfire around us.
The blue-eyed vampire sized me up as though he’d won a gazillion-dollar prize. “Sam can’t help you, darling.”
I stuck out my middle finger at Roman. “Don’t call me that, and where’s your pinstriped suit?”
The last time we’d met, many months ago on the battlefield at the naval base in Massachusetts, he’d worn a suit to a fight and wielded a sword as his weapon of choice. Tonight, he was garbed in all black with a gun holstered to his hip.
He knitted his eyebrows. “What?”
“Never mind,” I said. “So, how is this going down? Did Maeve give you orders to kill me?”
A chill skated down my spine as my insides twisted and turned. I was fucked. She wanted me dead so she could break the connection I had with my four children. In doing so, she could use them in her blood ritual to rise as the Mystic of witches.
Where are those witch powers I should have? Agnes said it would take time. Time I don’t have.
Roman snapped his fingers. “Did you hear me, Layla?”
I flinched, blinking rapidly and found him standing so close to me that a putrid scent wafted off him as if he’d been buried in decayed earth. I wrinkled my nose and darted to the side.
He was quicker than I was and blocked my path to freedom. “You’re not going anywhere.” He glanced past me. “Take her to the basement in the main house and throw her in a cage.”
I spat in his face. “Touch me, and I’ll rip off your arms.”
