Guiles jumped up from the floor and grabbed her from behind. Pivoting, she elbowed him in the gut. He doubled over and yanked a knife from his boot.
Silver flashed.
Zane pummeled Guiles to the floor and plunged a blade into his neck. Cartilage crunched. Blood sprayed. The atmosphere morphed.
“Zane—” Janie cried out.
He was beyond listening. Zane straddled the prophet, dug in, and twisted both ways. Guiles’s head rolled away from his body.
“Oh, shit.” Garrett leaped off the downed guard, blood covering his chest and hands.
Janie backed away from the dead man, gazing wildly around.
A blue light lifted from the prophet, sliding around almost gracefully. Dage ducked as it wove around him.
Garrett backed toward the door. The light slid through the air toward him. “No,” he whispered.
The light zagged to the left and then right, finally circling around on itself and wisping out.
Janie let out a sigh of relief. Thank God.
Electricity cracked. She cried out, ducking as sparks flew. The light returned, swelling to such a true blue it hurt to see. She covered her eyes with her forearms.
Heat seared into her.
Then a cooling balm. She slowly opened her eyes and straightened. “What happened?”
Zane glanced at her and leaned forward to tug her shirt away from her neck. He was pale and sweating, probably from the numerous jumps. “No prophesy marking.” He turned toward the group. “Anybody?”
A quick chorus of “no” echoed as the collected group double-checked their necks for the mark.
Janie reached out with shaking hands to view Zane’s neck. Nothing. She bit her lip. “Who was marked?”
Zane shook his head. “No clue.”
Dage wiped his blade clean on his cargo pants. “Fascinating. Well, I imagine we’ll hear soon enough.”
Janie clenched her hands together. “When a prophet is killed, I thought somebody in the immediate vicinity gets marked?”
“Not always.” Dage kicked one of the downed guards, who didn’t move. “Sometimes it’s just a person close to the prophet. We’ll find our third prophet soon enough.”
Janie tried to mellow her racing heart by concentrating on Zane. Her eyes swelled. He was alive. But dark circles marred his gorgeous eyes, and fatigue cut into the sides of his mouth. Pain curled his lip.
“Are you all right?” she asked.
Dage eyed Zane. “You’ve transported too many times this last week. It’s a miracle your insides haven’t exploded.”
Zane nodded. “Yeah. I’m done for a while.” His eyebrows drew down in the middle, and his lips tightened. “Although I’m strong enough to have a little talk with my mate.”
Janie stilled. Oh no, he had not used that big bad bossy vampire voice with her. “We can talk later.”
“Now.” Zane took her arm and helped her over the unconscious guards.
Garrett moved to intercept them, but Dage stopped him with one broad hand.
Zane nodded to Dage, some manly look passing between them.
Now her uncle was on her shit list, too. Janie went along with Zane, biting her tongue, more than willing to give him hell in private.
