She inhaled deeply several times. Somehow they had burnt the vampire, a thought that both thrilled and enraged her. She wanted him dead, but not at their hands. Not a death from a lowly witch and fairy.
But something… more. Smells she couldn’t identify. One that smelled faintly of human, and another… She breathed in again, squeezing her eyes shut, trying to place the smell. Almost like a dog. But not quite.
She hesitated, fear licking at her. She’d seen him from afar since following Gwala to Costa Rica, but this was the closest she’d actually been since waking to find him with her in her mother’s bed. She’d felt him following her while still in California but had never seen him. This was it. This was the moment. Come what may, she was going to face him. If he’d been killed by the fire, she’d gladly join him just to make certain he was truly gone.
What if she was reading the situation wrong? What if she stepped into that cave only to have him fall upon her again?
She’d fight. Like she had as a human, but now with vampire strength. She was not that weak, pathetic creature anymore. She may not be as strong as a vampire that was her elder, but she’d fight.
Closing the distance, Sonia continued to strain both her sense of smell and of hearing. No new information through scent, and still supernaturally muted.
Pausing at the cave’s opening, she took one last steadying introspection. She was ready. She was going to kill the fucker.
Before she could lift her foot to take the step that would bring her face-to-face, the dark night was scorched with a brilliant flash of flames. She managed to silence her cry as she threw herself from the entrance.
Too late she realized fire hadn’t actually shot out of the cave, only the illumination from the surge inside. Still, she hesitated once more, waiting for another round.
“I told you not to burn his fucking head. We need him to be able to speak.”
“Dammit, Caitlin. I’m aware. Forgive me for not having practiced only burning partial bodies before.”
The realization that she could now hear was overshadowed as the voice filled her mind. She knew it as well as she knew her own and recognized it as easily as she had the scream of her sire.
Brett.
Emotions threatened her core. Images flashed like sucker punches to her gut.
The bungalow in Hillcrest. Opening the door to welcome Brett home only to find the vampire on her doorstep. Seeing Brett in the room of the drained child right after she’d been turned.
It was too much. Memories of her humanity, of her weakness. The confusion of it all. Why was he here? No sense in it. No logic.
Stupidly, she looked down at her dress, then around at the jungle and the sky overhead. All real. Not a dream.
More than anything her eyes communicated, the surge of rage that coursed through her confirmed the truth of her reality. She was her. The monster. The strong one. Not the one to be used ever again.
Within five strides, she’d crossed the distance and stepped through the entrance.
For a fraction of a second no one noticed her, and she took in the scene. An electric lantern on the ground dimly lit the cave. A huge, naked, and bloody man curled into a ball several feet away. A charred mass of bones lay impaled on a stone. The fairy and witch stood on either side of the carcass, their backs to her. Standing at the head of the cadaver, a blond mountain of a man glared in anger at the witch.
His blue eyes flicked toward her, then peeled wide in shock and terror.
Those brief moments, when their gazes met before the others turned to face her, lasted lifetimes. Long enough for each second of the past many months to replay through her memory. The night of her assault and transformation. Her parents, the man she’d dated. Each and every face of every victim she’d drained. Every man she’d slaughtered.
She was Sonia. The flirtatious waitress at Rascals. From the Chinese family who’d found their wealth in jewelry. Her little white dog, Sapphire. Daughter. Sister. Best friend. Lover. Human.
She flew across the room and flung the witch and fairy aside, not hearing them as they slammed against the opposite walls, nor aware of the crunching of the skeleton when her foot smashed over the ribs. Her hands rose, fingers clawlike, and clamped around Brett’s neck. Her momentum took them several feet back, until at last they slammed into the wall that curved to form a path deeper into the cave.
His blue eyes bulged further as she squeezed his neck, every ounce of fury she’d saved for the vampire now unleashed on the man she never thought she’d see again.
Blood traveled in thick streams over his chest from the punctures of her nails at his throat.
Sonia’s nostrils flared at the scent. She glanced down at the blood spilling over his torso, already soaking into his tank top. She looked back up at his eyes, returned her gaze to his blood, then up a final time.
Abruptly, she let go and stepped away.
Brett crashed to the ground, taking deep, ragged breaths.
Sonia took another step back, fear she couldn’t understand forcing her away. The scent of his blood screamed at her to run.
