He narrows his eyes. “Don’t make me regret my decision to help you.”
“Oh, you’re going to regret it by the time this night is over, believe me,” I reply.
Viktor rocks gently, as if he’s been pushed slightly off balance, his eyes glowing in the dark.
“I am a vampire, Viktor. They took my mate. They are going to pay. If you don’t have the stomach for it, then you need to leave. Now.”
One by one, my guards exit my vehicle and the ones behind me.
“I am with you, but I will take no part in dealing with the humans,” Viktor says. “Only the rescue of your mate.”
“Then what use are you?” I snarl, gesturing to my guards who swirl away in mist. “I need action, and the Van Helsings will not go down without a fight.”
“Not everything is dealt with by fang and claw,” Viktor intones.
“Just because you’ve outlived all your enemies doesn’t make you the oracle on when violence is needed,” I growl. “The Van Helsings have had every chance to give up their ridiculous persecution of vampires. Even though the whole world embraces what and who we are, they still persist. I will not grant them any more grace.”
“Then so be it.” Viktor opens his huge wings and with a heavy downstroke, he is in the air. Almost unnoticed, the Hadúr take off and follow on behind.
“So much for their assistance,” Attila growls.
“As always, we’ll need to get the job done on our own.” I grin at him. “And personally, I fancy our odds. Because Van Helsing took what’s mine, and he doesn’t get to make the same mistake twice.”
Lucy
“Why are you doing this?”I glare at Damek. “All of it—the test, being here. I presume you haven’t bothered to tell Dominik where I am?”
Damek shrugs. “He’ll work it out sooner or later, and I’m afraid your relatives don’t know what’s coming for them. As for why, it’s because you took the amulet.”
I manage not to put my hand to my throat where the amulet is on a chain around my neck, resting against my skin where I prefer it.
And it’s where Dominik prefers to see it, time and time again. I’ve tried to research what it is and its origins, but it would appear it was found in a dowager countess’s collection around a hundred years ago, and no one knows anything about it before that time, even though it is considerably older.
“What amulet?”
“The one you wear and are unable to take off.” Damek’s face softens, or at least the part which isn’t a mask changes. “I know because it belonged to my mate, Josephine.”
“I…” I stumble over my response. I don’t want him to take it from me.
“Oh, it belongs to you now, Lucy. It could only ever belong to you. Your soul is strong. She would have wanted you to have it.”
“What happened to her?”
“She opened the vault,” he says, as if it was as easy as opening the pages of the book. “Josephine didn’t mean to do it. She was curious.” He sighs. “I loved that about her. But when she realized what she had done, she wasn’t going to let it continue.”
“You went in after her?”
“I stayed behind. I said I would finish what Dominik and the others had started, but I wanted to find her.”
“And did you?”
Damek shakes his head. The part of his jaw not covered by the mask clenches. “I searched. And when I thought I’d found her, hell threw me out.”
“So, all this time, you’ve been trying to open the vault to get back to her?” I say, my voice hoarse with realization.
“I admit, some of my methods have been less than subtle.” He gives me a slight, old-fashioned bow. “And when I first emerged, most likely entirely unhinged.”
“Yes. They were. You caused a whole load of chaos.”
