A throne that held a vampire.
No, not a vampire. This was Dominick.
He was lean, long legged, and dressed in denim, a western-cut shirt, cowboy boots, and yes, a very expensive 100x Diameter Stetson.
His eyes were cuts of light, sunk deep and set too wide on his pale, flattened face.
But it was the child on her knees in front of him that stopped us cold.
Rhianna.
Dominick held a knife in one hand, casually rested across her slender throat, so that every time she swallowed a thin trickle of blood dripped down her neck.
He had been expecting us.
This was a set up. We’d been set up.
The child was breathing hard, her eyes showing too much white. She trembled with panic and fear that were too real.
We were screwed.
“I know you’re here, prey,” Dominick rumbled, his voice low, filling the room so it felt like I was breathing him in, swallowing the rot of him. He may not have been the monster who attacked us, but he was old, and terrifyingly familiar. “You will not leave this room alive.”
Lu bit her bottom lip, scowling. We didn’t have a backup plan. The plan we’d had—to sneak up on the vampire and stab him—was gone now.
Abbi was in the wind, searching for the ghoul’s token.
I had no idea how long it would take Variance and the ghoul to figure out Rhianna was not in any of the outbuildings.
I had no idea how many vampires were between them and us.
I did know there was exactly one vampire in front of us who was ready to kill the child, kill us.
Fuck.
Lula squeezed my hand and twisted. Before I could react, she let go, leaving the bracelet circled around my wrist.
She grabbed an acorn and threw it.
An explosion rocked the other side of the room.
A wall of roses, stems as thick as tree trunks, thorns as long as scythes, burst through the impact point in the floor, rushing upward to punch through the ceiling and send wood and glass raining down.
The entire building moaned.
Dominick shot to his feet, pivoting toward the explosion, the knife in his hand, leaving the child (thankfully, mercifully) unharmed at his feet.
But Lula was still moving. She threw another bomb and sent another wall of vines and thorns rocketing from floor to ceiling.
Dominick hadn’t moved, but he was tracking her. No matter how fast she was, he was faster.
He roared and lunged after her.
Rhianna curled into a ball, tucking her face into her drawn-up knees.
I hated what Lula was doing, hated this plan she had set into motion without giving me a choice.
But I was not going to fuck up our chance to save the girl.
