Or it would have, if she’d known William had the ability to defy gravity!
His power pushed against the air as he flipped upright and braced his legs, his nails digging into Echo as she tried to pull away.
They slowed, slowed until William did a gentle hop onto the sidewalk that would have been comical if Echo weren’t so furious. She stumbled to a halt and tried to pull out of his tight grip.
People gasped around them, darting out of their way, confused by what they’d seen.
Echo knew they’d explain it away to themselves.
She reached into her back pocket for the wooden stake and whipped it out, but William caught her wrist, squeezing so hard, agony seared through her and her fingers could do nothing but release the weapon.
Then he grabbed her by the hair, dragging her down the narrow lane between two apartment buildings.
Echo thrashed, pain ricocheting across her scalp as she clawed at his arm, trying to break free.
“You couldn’t stop me even if I didn’t have magic running through my veins.” William slammed her into the side of Margaret’s building once they were far enough from the street. It was a move that would have killed a human.
As it was, it knocked Echo to her knees, the blinding agony in her skull disorienting.
“I wanted you to be with me forever. As a family. But here you are fighting me because of some petty need for revenge. This is bigger than you or me!”
She blinked rapidly, her blurred vision clearing as she slowly rose from her knees to face William.
Spittle flew from his lips, his eyes filled with the madness Echo had lied to herself and called passion over the years.
“I’m trying to save the world from thosebeingsyou call friends! And you think me the villain? They would end this world!”
“No.” Echo felt the back of her head, her fingers touching the knotted bloody lump that was already healing. “You don’t care about humanity. You care about power. You care that if those damn gates open, you go right to the bottom of the fucking food chain.”
“You should care about that too.”
“I care aboutthem.” She threw her arm out toward the street. “I care about protecting them from monsters like you.”
William shook his head sadly. “As if humans don’t harbor their own monsters. Monsters worse than you or I. At least we have control over our baser instincts. Those faeries have ruined you. But I won’t let them ruin Odette. And wherever she is, whoever has her, I am going to tear them apart bit by bit to get my daughter back.”
Desperate wrath filled her. He was going to make this easy for her.
She blasted toward him, shoving into him with all her might. William flew into the opposite wall with such force, the surrounding brick crumbled. He juddered, falling to one knee to catch his balance, discombobulated for merely a second. His incisors slid down as he bared his teeth at her, and then he stood and backhanded her with a casualness that pissed Echo off, considering it spun her onto her back.
She ignored the injuries, the crushing sensation on her chest, and immediately flipped up onto two legs. It was just in time to block a punch.
William had trained her in hand-to-hand combat even as a human. His training had only grown more brutal when he turned her into a vampire. Before, when he wasn’t hopped up on witchy power, Echo had never beaten him, but she’d lasted against him longer than most.
A flicker of sensation told her Elijah and the others were near. They’d be here soon to help her take this bastard down. She just needed to buy them time.
So she and the man who had raised her fought like two warriors. Block, punch, block, punch, until she found herself forced farther down the alley toward the busy London street. Echo was aware of a feminine gasp and running footsteps heading out of the lane. A witness to their otherworldly battle.
When William’s first punch got through, snapping her neck so hard she swore it cracked, Echo was done.
Her gift against William wasn’t combat.
It was speed.
Echo had always been faster than even the fastest vampire.
She used that gift now, ducking his next blow. She was a blur between space as she found the fallen stake in the street and darted back into the alley. Echo flew at William, trying to daze and disorient him as she nicked at him here and there with the wooden weapon. A dance of attack and retreat as he snarled in outrage, unable to catch her.
Echo hadn’t known he was toying with her.
