There’s a stabbing in my chest as I gape at him. He warned them.
Them. The vampires that want to chain me up and use me as their pet.
Raw betrayal guts me and I gasp out a breath. There’s a stampeding of feet as someone thunders up the stairs.
“Stay here. Think it over,” Ember pleads, skirting around me and heading for the door. “It’s going to be fine. Please, Silver.”
Then he’s gone. Slamming the door behind him.
The click of the lock has me freezing on the spot, but only for a moment. I’m terrible at getting out of locked rooms and I don’t even have a lock-picking set with me.
Dammit.
And there’s no way I want to go up against a wall of vamps to get out of here.
The last time I was in a situation like this, I had Rook to help me with Ember acting as my go-between.
But this time, I’m on my own.
I guess, jumping out the window, it is.
4
Dante
Some vampires really lean into their more animalistic tendencies. You see them sometimes, burying their face in people’s necks or rutting like beasts. It’s never been something that’s appealed to me. I’ve always been more interested in tamping down the less human parts of myself rather than leaning into them.
Now, though, I sniff the air like a damn bloodhound. I can taste the bitter snap of snow, and beyond that there’s the tang of decay.
It’s the scent of those creatures. Their stinking, rotted corpses.
But they’re not what I’m searching for. There’s something very specific I’m searching the air for.
It smells of blood and power. And beyond that, sweet spice—apple and vanilla—a fragrance that has titillated my senses and haunted my dreams for months.
Silver.
I need to find her. After tonight’s mess, I need to lay eyes on her. The beast inside me is desperate to see her in one piece.
Her mages are otherwise occupied. One is badly injured and, while the others coo around him, it’s my job to find the bravewitch that stood against veritable monsters and took them down without breaking a sweat.
It’s freezing outside. My hands are like icicles and the cold is dampening my senses—enhanced as they are. Until...
—There.
