Angela grimaced and turned away. Victor’s nose twitched, but otherwise he didn’t reveal any discomfort.
“Hey buddy, this place work for you?” Victor asked.
The thing that used to be Jackson Miller stared vacantly into the distance.
Victor waited expectantly, the genial look fading from his face as the draugr continued to stare.
“I have no idea why you wanted to do this here. You’ve had no problem with any of the other locations.”
Graves. We were at his grave. The draugr was trying to keep our bargain.
Not that it helped me at that moment. I’d envisioned having my hands free and not being chained to a headstone when I proposed this location.
“Let’s just kill her and move on to the next part of the plan,” Angela whined.
“No, it has to be by the draugr’s hands.”
“Why? You said the alpha already knows you’re behind this. It doesn’t matter who does the killing any more as long as she ends up dead.”
He snarled, his eyes flashing to wolf. Angela stepped back from the rage on his face, fear tightening the skin on her face.
“Stupid girl. Do I need to explain everything to you? If I kill her, both the wolves and the vampires will be gunning for us. If the draugr kills her, the vampires will blame Brax for abandoning her in battle.”
“And they’ll fight amongst themselves,” Angela finished.
“Even if the wolves win, they’ll be weakened, and it’ll be easy for us to take control.”
“I don’t think it’ll be as easy as you think,” I said as I tested my restraints. Free, I had a chance. If I remained tied down like this, I was as good as dead.
“What would you know?” Angela asked with a sneer.
“Quite a lot actually. The vampires already know who the mastermind behind all this is. They know you have the draugr’s treasures and are using them to control him. There’s not going to be a war. Just the execution of two idiots on a power trip.”
“That’s impossible. The vampires wouldn’t trust a word the wolves said,” Victor said.
“Maybe not, but they’ll trust my word.”
They both laughed at that.
“And how will you tell them once you’re dead,” Angela said. “Vampires don’t leave ghosts or shades. This time, you die forever and your secrets go with you.”
I shrugged. “That’s okay. They already know.”
Victor tensed. “What’s she talking about?”
“Nothing. She’s lying.”
“Am I?” My gaze shifted to Victor. “You should be able to tell, right? At least Brax could. You’re not weaker than Brax, are you?”
He closed his eyes and sniffed, drawing scents deep into his lungs. He opened his eyes as they shifted to amber.
“She’s not lying,” he growled. He whirled and sent a fist into one of the headstones. It broke in half.
“How?” Angela asked, her eyes wide in horror. “When did she have the time?”
I allowed a small smirk.
Their plans were crumbling around them much like that headstone had under Victor’s fist. It felt good to be the one responsible for that. Even if I died here, they wouldn’t achieve their goals.
