Helen and Arturas glided out of the shadows behind Dominick. Helen bounced on her toes like a boxer about to step into the ring. Arturas was more neutral, lumbering behind her with a blank face.
“We both know that no matter how strong a vampire is they will react to the death of their progeny. Isn’t that why Ahrun has spiraled the way he has? Because of Lilith’s death at Vitus’s hands?”
Arturas and Helen stopped in front of Dominick.
“Thomas will fall. You will fall. Ahrun will fall,” Dominick promised. “Before dawn comes. Ahrun’s reign will end.”
Helen had a mad grin on her face. There was something really wrong with her. “Is it time?”
Dominick inclined his chin. “Go.”
For the first time since meeting Arturas, something other than nothingness showed on his face. Savage anticipation as he opened his mouth to roar.
Before either could move, several objects fell from the sky. They hit the ground with a thump and rolled until their vacant eyes stared at me.
I gaped at the heads for a second before looking up to find Daniel standing next to the hole where the ceiling had caved in.
“We’re not late, are we?” Daniel rumbled.
The enforcer was covered in blood. It coated his face and hands, all the way up his arms to his elbows. He lifted a hand and licked some of that blood off his skin like a cat.
“This is why your fastidiousness surprised me,” I told him.
He grinned as three more heads joined the first couple and Eric appeared on the other side of the hole.
“I apologize for our tardiness,” Eric told Liam. “Daniel refused to walk through any rooms that had rust in them. It forced us to find an alternative path.”
“It’s fine,” Liam drawled. “If you’d arrived earlier, Dominick wouldn’t have had the chance to finish telling us his master plan. We wouldn’t want to be rude.”
“No, we wouldn’t,” Eric agreed.
“Aileen was right,” Liam said, looking back at Dominick. “You should have killed us immediately. Now you’ll never get the chance.”
Dominick snarled at his subordinates. “Deal with them.”
Helen’s cackle followed her as she dashed forward. Eric dove off the floor above, tackling her. They crashed into a wall, punching through it into the next room.
Arturas crouched to lift a chunk of debris as big as his body before hurling it at the ceiling beneath where Daniel stood. A boom shook the room, collapsing the ceiling under Daniel.
He fell, chunks of cement, metal and plaster raining down on him to bury him beneath.
“Uh oh,” I whispered as magic signatures lit up my other sight.
“What’s wrong?”
I felt nauseous as I met Liam’s gaze. “There’s a lot more than the six vampires I sensed earlier out there.”
He’d brought a whole army.
twenty
Istoppedcountingsomewherearound twenty power signatures.
“What do we do?” I asked.
“We fight—and we survive.”
A vampire plunged out of the shadows. Liam caught him by his throat and ripped his head off his body.
