“Holy shit.” Sienna clutches her neck with one hand.
I drop the candlestick, my arms trembling from exertion and adrenaline as I reach for her. “Are you—Let me see.”
Julien grabs my wrist, yanking me backward. “Don’t touch her.”
I stagger. “I’m trying to help! That thing bit?—”
He shoots me a glare before releasing me, his face tight as he tilts her chin, checking her neck. The leather is torn and dented with marks, but luckily unbroken.
His shoulders relax a fraction. “You’re clean.”
“The leather held.” She laughs, but it’s thin, shaky at the edges. “Lucky the old guy didn’t have many teeth left. Just gums. Otherwise, I might be bleeding out right now.”
“Lucky.” He pats her shoulder, then turns to me. “We need to go. There are more coming.”
“Amelia,” I say. “Is she?—”
“She’s with Cameron and my grandmother,” he says. “We need to?—”
The entrance door bangs open, and a dozen of those things stagger inside.
“Sienna, get Dakota.” He already positions himself between us and them. “I’ll have your backs.”
“What about you?” Sienna demands.
“I’ll be right behind you. Go!”
Cameron appears from a side alcove, face splashed with blood that hopefully isn’t his. “Sienna!” Relief washes over his face when he sees her. He rushes over and grabs her hand, tugging her toward the hallway. “This way!”
Sienna reaches back for me. “Come on!”
I try to follow, but my damned wedding dress decides now to tangle around my legs. I stumble, nearly falling face-first onto the bloody floor.
“Fuck.” Julien crouches beside me, those dark eyes meeting mine for a charged second. Then his hands are on the skirt of my dress, ripping the delicate fabric with brutal efficiency.
“What are you?—”
“It didn’t fit you anyway.” He tears away layers of tulle and satin until the dress ends just above my knees.
Heat floods my cheeks. “It was?—”
“Doesn’t matter.” He grabs my elbow, hauling me to my feet. “Can you run?”
I kick off my heels, feeling the cool marble against my bare feet. “Better than you.”
The corner of his mouth twitches. “Then run.”
We sprint into the hallway, toward the back room where Cameron holds the door open. Behind us, the creatures pick up speed. Sienna dives through first.
I follow, Julien right behind me, his body heat at my back. The sensation of him so close feels wrong and right at the same time.
The man who hates me just saved my life, but I don’t have time to process that particular mindfuck.
Cameron slams the door shut the instant we’re through, throwing his weight against it. “Help me!”
Julien grabs a wooden chair and wedges it under the doorknob. Together, they heave a bookcase in front of the door as something crashes into it from the other side, making the walls shake.
“What the fuck is happening?” Sienna asks, voicing what we’re all thinking.
