Maxwell sent a hesitant glance back in my direction, before something detached itself from the surrounding darkness. A bat melted into a tall form in front of Maxwell before it pounced, driving Maxwell into the grass with a grunt that stole the air from him.
“Maxwell!” I rushed to his aid as he struggled to fend off this vampire. A boy, although it was too dark to make out much else. The moonlight glinted off a pair of fangs, poised to strike.
“No!” I shouted, charging him and knocking him off of Maxwell, hurling us both down the steps leading to the crypt, where we landed mere feet away from the nearest coffin.
“Ambrose!” Violetta screamed.
I looked up to find her at the back of the family crypt, holding on to the door frame that led to the deeper tunnels beneath Gramercy House. Her fingers slipped as something yanked her from the other side. Ambrose grasped for one of her hands, and for a moment I thought he had her, but just as quickly, her body slid into the darkness beyond.
“No!” Ambrose made to follow, but something in the dark beyond sent him sprawling back into the family crypt, directly into Maxwell, both of them crashing into a coffin in a tangle of limbs.
Everything was happening so quickly. I pulled myself to my feet, stumbling back as the vampire boy lunged at me, knocking me into another coffin. We fell to the floor, the coffin splintering alongside us as we struggled. I grunted as he pinned me beneath him, teeth bared. I tried to buck him, but he was too powerful. He was a vampire and I was a human. He had all of the advantages and I had none.
“I thought this would be much harder,” the vampire said, amusement curling his lips. “Raven led me to believe you were a force of nature. But you’re just a weak man.”
“Raven?” I gasped as the vampire straddled me.
His mouth snapped over my neck, fangs sinking into my flesh. He gasped, spitting as I recalled how Raven had a similar reaction. Seizing the opportunity, I pushed up against him with all my strength, and while he was distracted by the acidic blood on his tongue, he tumbled off me. I crawled to the skeleton that had been tossed from its resting place, its bones snapping beneath my weight like twigs, and plunged my hand into the man’s jacket, where my fingers grazed ribs before wrapping around the object I sought.
I twisted around, but the vampire had moved on to a new target. Ambrose had been pushed against a wall, one of the vampire’s hands holding him up by his throat while the other covered his mouth. Ambrose struggled against the vampire’s grip to no avail, then bit into his hand, black blood splattering the vampire’s face. When Ambrose didn’t relent, the vampire withdrew, cradling his hand.
“Emmett?” Maxwell stepped forward. “Is that you?”
The vampire straightened, blinking at Maxwell. I could see it now. He was as handsome as his portrait, although older, with blood smeared across his face, giving him a wild look.
“Emmett?” Maxwell repeated.
Emmett swallowed hard and turned away. “Don’t look at me, Max.”
Maxwell approached and wrapped his brother in his arms. “You’re okay, Emmett. We’re here now. We’ll help you.”
“It’s not like I thought it would be. It’s … so much. Everything is too much.”
“Get away from him, Maxwell,” Ambrose ordered. “He’s no longer your brother.”
Maxwell stared at Ambrose. “But … it’s Emmett.”
“ItwasEmmett.” He took a step forward, then reached out to me. I thought for a moment that he was going to help me to my feet, but then he snatched the wooden stake from my hand, resignation in his eyes.
“He’s still in there,” I said softly as I climbed to my feet. “He’s just … confused. His emotions are dulled, but everything else is heightened.”
Ambrose met my gaze, rubbing at a spot of blood at the corner of his lips. Did he understand what I was saying? Was he listening to me?
“It’s still him,” I said. “You don’t want to do anything you’ll regret.”
Maxwell lifted his chin. “And you changed back, Lucian. There must be something we can do.” His look was pleading as Ambrose approached, stake clenched tightly in his fist. “He’s our brother.”
“It’s confusing. The thirst is more intense than I imagined. I thought I would feel the same,” Emmett confessed, glancing down at the wooden stake in Ambrose’s hand. “Raven said I would.”
My mouth went dry. Raven had done this to him. All along, it had been Raven. The girl Isabel had seen Emmett with, comforting him as she prepared him for what he would become.
Emmett glanced up at Maxwell. “You saw what was happening to Father. I couldn’t go through that. I didn’t want to die. Raven told me what it was like. She gave me another choice, the opportunity to never have to die.” He looked away.
I squinted at him. “And all you had to do was give her the names of all the vampire hunters, I suppose.” If she’d retrieved those names for Vrykolakas before me, he would no longer have need for me. He wouldn’t care whether I won Ambrose’s hand or not. I would be stuck as a human with no opportunity to prove my worth. When Helena had shared the particulars of my challenge by the vampire god with Raven, they had taken full advantage of the information, scheming together on how best to thwart me.
“Yes.”
“Emmett,” Maxwell said, stepping up behind me. “Come home. We’ll figure this out.”
