The sprinting figures heading out of the front door sent my eyebrows sky-high. And now the streets are going to be filled with escaped convicts. I’m sure a bunch of them are there so the Archarcans can keep control over the city, like Silver was. But I bet most were actual criminals guilty of actual crimes.
Not that I’m one to talk, but it makes me leery of hanging around here any longer than we have to.
Silver’s buzzing with energy that’s slightly manic. Her eyes are kind of glassy and she looks exhausted. Her lips are dry and cracked, but she’s practically bouncing on the balls of her feet.
She’s a damn mess, essentially.
I recognize the energy that’s coming off her in waves. It’s wild, untamable. A storm brewing inside of her.
“Have you eaten since you’ve been in there? Or slept?” I bark out the questions before trying to soothe away the harsh bite in my tone by carefully tucking her hair behind one ear.
“What?” She looks at me with a distracted gaze. “Oh, no. Too bright in there to sleep. Too busy too. They fed me that first night, but it was drugged, so I didn’t eat anything after that.”
“We need to get some food in you.”
She shakes her head. “Not hungry.”
I grumble under my breath. “Silver. Little Witch, you need to keep up your strength.”
She barely glances my way, instead looking at something I can’t see a little further along the street.
“We don’t have time. Not for food or sleep or distractions. Simpson’s going to try something soon, I don’t know exactly what, but he was planning on picking me up later. He’s already got the ear of the Archarcans and once he realizes I’m not where he wants me to be, things will get messy.”
“All right then.”
“Yeah?” She turns to me and meets my eyes properly for the first time and I recognize the itch beneath her skin, the need to dosomethingor risk getting eaten up by the thing that’s currently going wild inside her.
I won’t stand in her way. No. I’ll stand by her side, just like I swore to her I would.
“He came to my cell. Taunted me. Told me his stupid, nefarious scheme for taking over the city.”
“He did what?” The words are barely more than a growl as I struggle to stay in control of myself. A gust of wind blasts us from the side, like my magic is cuffing me around the back of the head and telling me to get a grip.
The memory of holding Silver in my arms like she was a rag-doll after Simpson made her bleed is something that still haunts my nightmares. I want to tear his face off. I might not get far, especially if he’s suped-up from that pile of bodies we found, but I’d like to try.
“I want to tear his spine out through his throat,” I grumble under my breath.
Silver doesn’t seem to hear me, but Dante squeezes my shoulder. Risky move, considering I’m in a destructive mood right now.
Maybe I should shoot a lightning bolt up Simpson’s ass and see how he likes that.
“Don’t worry,” Dante says in a low voice that’s just for my ears. “We’ll tear his throat out later.” His smile is nothing more than a baring of his teeth, showing off his creepy fucking sharp canines, and I shake my head against a wave of revulsion.
Maybe he’s not so calm after all. He always seems so cool and collected, detached, almost. But maybe he’s a crazy fucker underneath that, just like the rest of us.
“First, we need to top up the Pretty Princess jewelry,” Silver says. “Then I... well, I’m not too sure what we should do, after that.”
“I have an idea,” Ro says. “While you were in there, I heard from the techno mage that works for your mom, Silver. She’s agreed to help us and she keeps messaging me to say she’s come up with a way of showing everyone what the vamps are really capable of.”
Silver cocks her head to one side and then nods. “I guess the more people on our side, the better.”
He steps closer and wraps his arm around her shoulders, hugging her tight. “I’ll send her a message then. Tell her to do her thing.”
We head back to The Spire and Silver sets to work topping up our jewelry against whichever vamp has the coercive magic that left us all standing helpless as she got arrested and dragged away.
Ro stares down at his phone as he receives a response from the techno mage. “I really hope this works out the way Anna isexpecting it to. She didn’t exactly tell me what she was planning, but she promised it’ll be a spectacle.”
I don’t think any of us are expecting what happens next. There’s silence for a few beats and then all at once, all the nearest screens light up. The TV, my cell phone, Fabian’s laptop, they all glow with bright white light.
