“Is it true you want to reenter the vault to continue to search for Josephine?”
“It’s the only reason. I can hold back anything which might wish to escape in the moment it takes me to re-enter.”
“And what makes you think you won’t end up being spat out again?”
“Because this time I’ll not have the amulet.”
“What?” I break my rule and look up.
Damek is not there. I immediately turn my attention back to Van Helsing. The tip of his blade is pressing into Lucy’s skin, and a bead of red appears.
I probably should attempt, again, to contain myself, but the sight of her blood, spilled by another, is too much. I have reached the edge, and this tips me over.
I hear the shots, I feel the rush of the netting, I feel his throat in my grip as he’s wrenched away from Lucy, the knife falling from his broken hand.
“You got me, vampire,” Van Helsing snarls in my face. “Now do what you do best. Kill me.” His watery blue eyes, a poor relation of my mate’s, glare up at me.
“Killing is too good for you,” I respond. “And anyway, killing isn’t something I do or have ever done.”
He sneers. “Yourkindhave always killed for food. You’re vermin who need to be controlled.”
“I feel sorry for you.” I stare down at the man in my grip, who has his hands wrapped around my wrist in a vain attempt to get me to let him go. “Because you had a family and you chose to destroy it.”
“What do you know or care,vampire?” he spits at me.
“I care because Lucy is my mate. She is my everything. I would throw myself into hell for her. What would you do, other than take everything she has and turn her into your slave?”
“She is nothing. A vampire lover, atraitor,” he snaps.
“Then you don’t deserve to know her.” I grip a little tighter. “Right now, my guards are ripping apart your empire. The gargoyles are making sure no one leaves, and your network across Europe and beyond is being dismantled.”
“You…you can’t do that?”
“I can, and I will. Your Monster Force”—I snort a laugh—“a ridiculous name for a ridiculous concept, is not going to survive this, although you will, I insist.”
“I will end you, vampire,” he says, but the strength he had in his voice is going.
“You won’t. The world has changed. We are not a threat. We never were. I know people, humans and monsters, everywhere, and you are obsolete, a remnant of a past which operated on prejudice and fear.” I release my grip and lower him to the ground. “You took my father before his time, but you won’t take anything else of mine. You will leave Lucy. You will never contact her, you will never come near her or her child again.”
He sniffs. “You can’t stop me.”
“You’re right, I can’t. But I can make sure your life is nothing, or you can have some dignity in retirement. Take your pick.”
I look over at Lucy. She has her hand at her neck where the knife caught her, a couple of dark drops of blood on the collar of her dress.
“Or rather, I leave that choice to my mate. What do you say we do with your uncle?”
“I don’t care,” she replies. “I just want to go home, Dominik.”
“You do care,” Van Helsing says, fear in his voice. “You won’t leave me alone with all the vampires, all the monsters, will you?”
Lucy walks over to me as I hold the human at arm’s length. She places her hand on my cheek and presses a kiss to my lips.
“Let’s go home,” she says, her eyes briefly trailing over her uncle. “He’s done.”
“Lucy…” Van Helsing pleads.
“You heard my mate. You’re done.” I pull her gorgeous body against me. “And it’s time to make you my queen.”
