“You should wait here,” I blurt, turning to my father.
“What?”
“Stay here. Let us go. We’ll probably need…” I clear my throat, “help getting Declan out to the car. You should stay here and then you’ll be. You can. Just, wait for us.”
His expression softens and he passes his gun to me without a word. I tuck it into the back of my pants and turn to my brothers.
“You ready?”
“Is there a plan?” Henry asks, his voice wary.
“The plan is to kill everyone in that house who isn’t my mate.”
“Right.”
“Let’s go.” Diah steps over the disturbed leaves and shoots a glare up at the silver net in the trees, still swinging from its rapid ascent.
“Be safe, boys,” my dad says, but we’re already halfway to the house.
“They’re all in the basement except there’s two humans in the dining room,” Henry says.
“What are they doing?”
“Waiting.”
Thankfully, since no one owns this house, I don’t need an invitation. I step up onto the porch and kick the front door open. It shatters off the hinges and bangs against the wall. Chairs in the kitchen skitter over the floor and two men approach us. They’re high, and they’re compelled, and Diah puts a bullet in each of their heads without thinking about it.
“You’re an idiot.” I smack the back of his head and give him our father’s gun. “Save the silver for the others.”
“Basement.” Diah ignores me and walks into the house. He heads for a door beside the staircase that’s cracked open. His hand is on the knob when I remember another of Declan’s warnings. I fly toward him and tackle him, rolling us both to the side as a bucket falls off the top off the door, spilling another silver net before us.
“Silver traps,” Henry repeats my earlier warning.
Diah and I straighten up. I grab a piece of wood that splintered from the door and use it to twist the net up and out of the way, and then I decide to take it downstairs with me. The only thing better than staking Franklin Smith through the heart would be staking him through the heart with silver.
My cock hardens against my leg when I think about the terror I want to rain down on him. How I want to make him cry and beg the way Declan has been crying and begging. Henry starts down the stairs and I’m still in the doorway, thinking about fucking Franklin up the ass with this makeshift stake I’ve made.
“You’re fucked up.” Diah stares at the bulge between my legs. I prop the stake against the wall and adjust myself.
“He deserves it.”
“Are there more traps?” he asks.
“I don’t know.”
We follow Henry into the basement, taking out three of the six vampires with no issues at all. The basement is a big space, unfinished but sectioned off. The three who were in the main area were sitting ducks. Franklin had to know we’d dispose of them with ease.
“Three more and one human.” Henry tips his chin toward a door against the back wall.
“All in there?”
“I can hear you, you dumb fucks,” Franklin shouts from the other side of the door.
We stop and stare at the door. I can see the wheels in Diah’s brain turning and he lunges forward, shouldering into the door with all of his weight. Henry and I follow, and I’m thankful I have a vague idea of what the room looks like because of Declan, but it takes a moment for me to orient myself.
In that time, Diah has managed to fling himself onto Jones. Their bodies slam into the wall and Diah jams the muzzle of his gun into Jones’s mouth. Before he can fire, a vampire comes out of nowhere and wraps himself around Diah’s back. He yanks Diah’s head to the side and sinks his yellowed teeth into my brother's neck.
Diah grunts and elbows the vamp in the sternum, but he can’t shake him off. Blood spurts out of my brother’s arteries as he shoves the gun further down Jones’s mouth and pulls the trigger, blasting a hole through the back of his throat.
