Miriam’s expression was furious as she took in the greenhouse, her plants in disarray, the roots ragged, her pots cracked and on their sides. I didn’t blame her. The place really was a wreck.
She didn’t answer my question, shooting black lightning at me faster than I could dodge. Pain crackled along my nerve endings, my aborted scream cut off as my lungs seized. Black raced along the edges of my vision, consuming everything.
*
“I’m going to kill that witch,” I groaned, bringing my hand to my head. It pounded with the fury of a thousand drums.
I shouldn’t have dropped my guard. There was no one to blame for my predicament but myself. Stupid mistake, Aileen.
“Consider it done,” a voice rumbled from next to me.
I stilled. It hadn’t occurred to me that I wasn’t alone. It should have.
I squinted over at Liam. His eyes snapped with blue fire. To someone who didn’t know him he looked haughty and remote, but his eyes blazed at me, hinting of anger and worry, and a depth of feeling I would have said was impossible if I hadn’t seen it for myself.
He didn’t move a muscle, just sat there staring at me. Abruptly, I became aware of my hand cradled in his, his thumb stroking slowly over my skin.
“You didn’t actually kill her, did you?” I asked suspiciously.
His face lightened, just slightly, enough for a hint of a smile to come out. “Not yet. Though I cannot say her condition is entirely as it was. The other witch wasn’t so lucky.”
I snorted at the small display of humor. I tried to sit up, groaning, and abandoning the endeavor halfway.
“For once, I’m not going to get angry about your tendency of solving all problems with extreme violence,” I said, wincing.
My entire body ached. Even my teeth hurt. It felt like someone had poured an entire city block worth of electricity into my body. It was not a comfortable feeling.
“Your forbearance is appreciated,” Liam murmured. He watched me closely, his body tight.
“This feels worse than anything the sorcerer ever did to me,” I said.
“It should. She was trying to kill you,” Liam said, his voice grim and his expression turning frightening as his inner monster peaked out.
Everyone had one. A monster they kept buried deep inside, forgetting it even existed until some situation or stimuli triggered its return. Most humans liked to pretend they didn’t have one, and for the most part that worked. We lived in an era where people could lie to themselves and pretend they were civilized—that violence didn’t live in them.
Vampires didn’t have that luxury. Our monsters were close to the surface—just waiting for the slightest spark to set off a killing spree, complete with requisite bloodbath.
His words gave me pause. Miriam wasn’t my biggest fan, but it was hard to wrap my brain around her wanting me dead. Especially considering I’d just helped save her ass.
It would also help to know why Dahlia’s pendant hadn’t worked. I patted my chest for the item in question.
Liam watched me. “Looking for this?”
He held out the small pendant.
“Where did you find it?”
“On the floorboard of my car.”
I examined it, noticing the clasp was broken. That would explain why it had done nothing to repel Miriam’s attack.
Liam’s face was carefully guarded as he watched me. “That is a dangerous toy. I’m surprised the djinn injected so much of her essence into it.”
I gave him a quizzical glance before looking back at the pendant.
“You must be closer to her than I realized,” he said.
He had an odd look on his face as if he didn’t know whether to be happy about that fact or not.
