I scanned the room. There was a large wooden bar with gold trim to the left. People were seated on matching bar stools,drinking. Deep-burgundy velvet curved seats were fixed against the wall with mahogany coffee tables in front of them. There was a wooden dance floor in the middle, and a few bodies moved together in a sexy rhythm.
I realized I couldn’t hear the thump of the nightclub. This room was soundproof too.
Good for disguising screams.
I looked for Karson, but I couldn’t find him. I wasn’t sure whether it was a good thing or a bad thing. A couple were seated in the corner, kissing passionately. His hands slid over her scantily dressed body, pulling her hard against him.
Another girl with long brunette hair sat on a couch, her face weirdly expressionless as a vampire sucked from her neck. Another fed from her wrist. Was she high on drugs?
Dahlia let go of my arm, but I stayed close by her side. We stepped toward the bar and a cool breeze hit me, swirling my hair in front of my face. I looked up to see a large industrial-size fan hanging above the bar, and it swiveled slowly back and forth across the room.
“Shit,” Dahlia muttered.
Her face set into tense lines as she moved her feet shoulder width apart and shifted up on her toes, ready to move. Her hand flexed by her side above a knife on her belt. I didn’t know where the knife came from or how she even got in with weapons. I had no time to think about it, though. A group of five—four men and a woman—appeared like ghosts in front of us.
Not ghosts,vampires.
They stood in a semicircle several feet away, nothing extraordinary about them, other than their beauty and the speed with which they’d arrived. They appraised us like lambs in a slaughter yard.
“Fresh meat,” said a guy with shoulder-length brown hair in a voice so soft I wondered if I’d heard it correctly. The girl, tall and blond with striking blue eyes, smirked.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
“Hello, ladies,” crooned a fair-haired male with exceptionally large muscles.
“Don’t even think about it,” Dahlia drawled. Her hand resting on the handle of the knife. If he moved, she’d fight, but she couldn’t take down all of them—there was no way.
To say I was scared was a fucking understatement. I was terrified. I tried to compose myself, breathing hot air through my nose and out of my dry mouth. I scanned the room, seeking Karson, looking for help, looking for escape. Half the room watched on. The other half seemed oblivious.
There was no help, and there was no escape.
The fan hit us again and time moved in slow motion. My hair shifted forward and cloaked my face, the scent of Coco floating up my nose. They say before you die your life flashes through your mind. But I didn’t think of my mom or dad; I didn’t think of Nerida or Tom. I didn’t think of Ethan.
I thought of no one but Karson. Karson holding me in his arms, running through the forest. His gaze focused ahead and worried.Worried.The soft kiss on my forehead. He had speed, yes, but there was no way he was a vampire. No way at all.
I ignored the mental voice that cried out,What the fuck is he doing here, then?
There was no sound except my heart thudding in my ears.
Tick. Tick. Tick.
The vampires’ faces changed. They became something hard and horribly unnatural, their eyes shining with a clawing, desperate, feral hunger.
The air strangled my throat. Sweat trickled down my back. The world faded as Karson collapsed from my mind. All I couldsee were their faces, twisted into demonic proportions. Fangs like knives slashed from their mouths as they tore toward us.
A scream rose from the bottom of my stomach, caught in my throat, and never left my mouth.
PART TWO
Chapter 37
A Silent Prayer
Like a silent prayer answered, my eyes locked with Karson’s. He was seated in the corner with a redhead perched on his lap, his hand on her bare, milky-white thigh. A flicker of surprise crossed his face.
Everything hit me at once. Every thought, every movement, happened in a fraction of a second. Karson was too far away to help, even if he wanted to. Two vampires were coming at impossible speeds. Bullets of blue and black, the color of their shirts, raining down like mortar shells.
My breath caught in my throat. I clenched my sweaty palms into fists.
