My mistake was going to cost us our lives. I’d thought nothing could survive that fire but of course, a master did.
Wolfe was going to kill me and take Sebastian. Take him away and do terrible things to him. I knew he would, I could smell the same obsessive fascination on him that I had. Because of that, I knew I had to kill him even if I died in the process. The alternative was unimaginable for Sebastian.
My body was heavy, my thoughts slow and hazy. There was no time to recover from Sebastian’s excessive feeding but I pushed my body, trying to jolt it into action. My vision darkened around the edges as I stumbled to my bag. There was a grenade filled with silver nitrate in there. If I could grab it before Wolfe attacked me, I could set it off while he fed. My death was inevitable in any outcome no matter what. I just needed to take Wolfe with me.
My quick movement made my vision swim as I sluggishly moved towards my bag, nearly falling over. Wolfe was on me right away. He threw me across the room. My body hit the stone wall and I fell to the ground, aching. Sebastian stood in shock, his eyes wide with fear. Wolfe had really messed with his head and it made me hate him all the more.
Wolfe’s hand wrapped around my throat and lifted me up. I could hear his skin cracking and splitting as he tightened his fist. The fire had hurt him dearly. His face transformed, like clay remodeling into something hideous and vile, completely inhuman. He looked like a vampire bat, his wide, upturned nose flat on the bottom with massive nostrils. His mouth opened wide and his entire mouth was filled with fangs.
This is what Sebastian was going to have to live with if I failed. I growled, reaching up and pressing my thumbs in his eyes as hard as I could, hoping to feel his brain. He slapped my forearms so hard that they screamed in pain so I lifted my legs and kicked. He grunted and pushed forward, his burnt body subduing mine against the wall. His eyes flared with hate and I jerked my gaze away.
“Like I’d hypnotize you,” he sneered. “I want you to struggle and be in pain.” His teeth ripped into my shoulder and the pain made me gasp.
“No,” I whispered. I couldn’t let him live. He’d always be a threat to Sebastian. Wolfe groaned in relief as he pulled a full mouthful of blood from me.
All the rage and determination in the world couldn’t help me. I was going to fail.
Sebastian finally shook off the fear, his face transforming to anger as he lunged forward. He jabbed Wolfe in the kidneys, making his mouth detach from me. Sebastian looped the chain attached to his collar around Wolfe’s neck and tugged him back. Wolfe dropped me and I sank to the floor, my legs giving out. I grimaced and began crawling to the weapons, trying not to pass out. I just needed to last long enough to kill Wolfe.
Sebastian did his damnedest in perfect hand-to-hand combat but the odds were stacked against him. He pushed with his newfound speed and strength, moving faster, hitting harder but all it did was make Wolfe look mildly irritated as if he were dealing with an annoying child.
The grenade sat cold and hard in my bag. I pulled it out, gripping it tightly in my fist. My vision swam with black static. In my temporary blindness, I heard Sebastian hiss in pain.
Wolfe had Sebastian held by the throat with one hand, pulling him off the ground high enough that his feet kicked out. Wolfe’s blackened skin cracked around his mouth as he smiled.
“It will be so fun breaking you,” Wolfe said. Then he flung Sebastian backwards and came back for me. He grabbed the wrist holding the grenade and stared at the offending object without humor.
“You killed them all. Some little pissant, hunter.” He tore the grenade from my hand and dropped it on my bag before pulling me to the otherside of the room. Sebastian raced forward and the chain snapped, causing him to fall backwards, yelling in rage. Wolfe laughed cruelly, the sound grating to my ears.
“I’m not going to kill him right away, Sebastian,” Wolfe said. I tried to fight him off but it was laughable. He was weakened from being toasted but I was barely functioning at all. Sebastian looked like he was going to throw up as he watched my pathetic struggle.
“I’m going to starve you, Sebastian, thenyou’regoing to kill him,” Wolfe said, a brittle laugh coming from his burnt throat. His thumb brushed the vein in the side of my neck.
“But I will drink as much as you can offer before death,” he rasped to me. He pressed his mouth to the fresh bite Sebastian had left on my neck, drinking greedily. I realized he probably couldn’t hold back. The fire had hurt him badly and he wouldn’t be able to stop himself from killing me. That was good. I didn’t want my death on Sebastian’s hands like Wolfe had threatened.
Sebastian strained against his collar then turned around and grabbed the chain, pulling. Veins bulged in his neck as he grunted and tugged. The nails holding the chain to the wall shivered, dragging out slowly. Sebastian ground his teeth and managed to pull it from the stone. A moment later he was on Wolfe.
This time he didn’t try to fight him like a hunter. Instead, he attacked as a vampire. He descended on Wolfe with his teeth, ripping into Wolfe with wild, angry eyes. Then he drank. His position gave him the leverage he needed to overpower Wolfe as he drained what power he had.
Sebastian tore Wolfe off me and the master fell to the ground, gasping for air as Sebastian went down with him, never lifting his mouth from Wolfe. Sebastian’s gray eyes stayed on me as he drank Wolfe dry, his throat bobbing in thick gulps.
Wolfe’s gasps turned into a rattling inhale. His body was stiff and his eyes were unblinking. His skin turned leathery and dry as he died. Sebastian pulled himself off, stumbling back in a daze. Black blood was spilled all over his neck and chest.
I stumbled forward but went down to my knees. My vision went black. I felt Sebastian catch me before my head hit the floor.
13
Iwoke up not knowing where I was. Immediately, I rolled off the bed and popped up on my feet. A wave of mild dizziness had me grabbing onto the bed’s edge.
The bedroom door burst open. Before I could even turn around to face the person, Sebastian was next to me, faster than humanly possible. His hands ran down my back and across my hips as he guided me back into bed.
“Where are we?” I asked.
“An empty house off campus.”
“It doesn’t look empty,” I said, eyeing the picture frames.
“The people are gone. Haven’t been here in a few days.”
