Georgie gasped. Her face drained of all color and she let out a wild sob. Snot bubbled from the end of her nose.
Sarah’s grin widened. “Yes, he drinks her blood.” She sniffed the air. “And, even though you wear a disgusting perfume to hinder your scent, you smell so delicious. I’m not sure how he stops himself from taking a little too much.” Her eyes fell my throat and they had a disturbingly hungry edge to them.
“I’m so sorry, Georgie,” I said, trying to take Sarah’s attention away from the smell of my blood. “I should have told you. It was wrong to keep it hidden.”
Georgie opened her mouth to speak. “Oh . . . oh.” the words jammed in her throat.
“You see, Georgie.” Sarah flashed her eyes back to Georgie. “Amy thinks honesty is important for friendship, but she wasn’t honest with you, so we can hardly call her a friend now, can we?” She stalked to the left. “Now what about that little thing called loyalty . . . how important is that Georgie?” She glided towards her.
Georgie quivered, clutching the thin strand of rope wrapped around her neck.
“I asked you a question,” she snapped.
“Im-im-p-portant,” Georgie stammered, fresh fat tears rolled out of her eyes.
“That’s enough, Sarah. Let her go, wipe her mind. You have me. Let Georgie go.”
“Oh dear, you still think she’s a friend, don’t you?” She spun back. “She’s no friend, Amy, don’t let her fool you. I was in love with Ethan, and he loved me. Everything was perfect. I thought he’d be the man I’d spend eternity with.” She pointed a venomous finger at Georgie. “And she slept with him.”
Karson’s voice hit my head,‘He hurt a friend of mine, it didn’t end well.’ It ran cold through my veins.
Georgie looked like her legs were about to buckle at any moment. Sarah noticed. She wanted to continue to play. It would serve no purpose if Georgie bowed out before Sarah was ready. She moved a few steps back and turned to face me.
“I saw you arguing with Ethan, at first I thought you were his latest conquest, I actually felt sorry for you. But then when you walked into the bar that day and Karson saw you. He switched off his emotions. I had to ask myself, ‘why would he do that?’” She tapped her finger on her chin and looked skywards, as if considering the thought. I thought back to the blank look on his face—the look that broke my heart.
“We shut off our emotions for one reason. To shut out pain. He shut them off, because he’s in love with you.” She held her hands out like she was calling on the gods. “It was perfect, I couldn’t have planned it any better myself.”
She was wrong. He’d looked me in the eye and said,‘I cannot give you the answer you want to hear.’Worse than that, he almost seemed angry with me that I expected him to. Who was I to expect the king of vampires to love a mortal girl? Worse, a witch? Even now I felt my heart clench at the pain. But I knew it would be pointless arguing. She’d already made up her mind. I knew, intuitively, any attempt to dissuade her would only serve to infuriate her more.
She paced back and forth like someone tugged sharply at strings above her, with a weird, manic look on her face. Her movements were a harrowing reflection of her unravelling mind.
We are running out of time.
“I had tried other means to take his life. I organized Cole and Jefferson to lease the land. Search for the grimoire, spell the waters, and lead Karson into battle. You know who your most dangerous enemy is, Amy?” I swallowed. “It’s the one who pretends to be a friend. I would have fought beside Karson, and when he turned to slay a witch, I would have struck from behind. He’d never have seen it coming.” She studied my face for a response, I willed myself to keep it blank.
“But they failed.” She pursed her lips, unpleasantly. “Jefferson wanted to pull out, he didn’t have the balls to do what needed to be done.”
“It was you?” I said, my voice sounding hoarse to my own ears. “You killed him?”
“There’s no room for the weak in battle,” she stated, without a trace of emotion. “So I rethought my plans. I was going to take you away on the girl’s trip to get you away from them, but you didn’t come, so I had to make up new plans, again. To be honest,that day at the house when I found out your best friend had betrayed you too, I almost changed my mind. I felt sorry for you. But Karson needs to be taught a lesson. So, I hired the men. They were meant to bring you to me, but of course Karson interrupted that, too.”
I realized then she had no clue I had powers. I had one advantage now, albeit with the drugs still floating through my system, a small one.
“So, I had a backup plan. A plan I knew would remove Karson from the equation. You see, he can’t help himself but to seek revenge. He thrives on it. I even suggested Monique be the one to look after you while they went. I planned to visit. Monique wouldn’t have suspected anything until it was too late.”
She killed her. She’s dead. Monique’s dead.
My heart dropped. It was no secret, Monique and I didn’t see eye to eye, but I never wanted to see her hurt. Michael would be devastated.
“What did you do to her?”
“Nothing, I won’t have to. I will make it look like she killed you both. Karson will kill her, and then Michael and Ethan will hate him. And he will know what it’s like to have noone.”
I shook my head slowly, trying to clear it, trying to process it all.
“Karson did teach me much of what I know. To always have a plan A, B, and C if necessary. We were friends once. Did he tell you?”
“I can see he cares about you, Sarah,” I said, hoping, somehow, I could appeal to her emotions deeply buried beneath the surface and change her mind.
