I call the Cù Fèidh. It’s a risk. She belongs to Aurora. But right now? I’m counting on her to answer me.
When the shadow beast appears, she stalks toward Vesna, backing her into a corner.
My body tenses, ready for the inevitable fight with the guards, but no one comes.
Somewhere behind my ribs, my shadows coil. Still wary, but quiet. Even they know this moment belongs to me.
A smirk tugs at the corner of my mouth.
“It seems, my dear, you underestimate me. Sending all your guards away so you can play with the handsome monster. Not very smart, Vesna. My friend here is the Cù Fèidh. She protects my partner, the Daughter of the Morning Star. She’ll do anything to protect her mistress. Best not to piss us off.”
The shadows pulse at the wordpartner, wrapping tightly around my chest, pressing against my throat.
Christ. They’re worse than I am.
A vicious smile spreads across my face as the beast stalks closer. Blood and brutality hover on the horizon, and I live for this shit.
“Now, may I please have the location and the notes Renato promised me? Or do I have to destroy your safe little community here? It would put the vampire population at a severe disadvantage when our queen takes her throne. Choose your next words wisely, Vesna, for they could very well be your last.”
The Cù Fèidh sits at Vesna’s feet, her growl sounding otherworldly and out of place in the vampires’ McMansion.
“Ha! You would choose a half-human whore over me? The Daughter is a joke. She holds notruepower. But you, Ezra, have so much power. I can feel it from here. If you join me, we could become an unstoppable force.”
The temperature drops.
The shadows go deathly still.
No twitching. No theatrics. Only the kind of stillness that aches with the promise of pain.
I manage to keep my voice calm, despite the bone-deep urge to tear her spine out through her mouth and wear it like some fucked-up crown.
“You choose your words poorly, vampire. You dare call the Daughter—my queen, the flame I kneel for—a whore? And to my face?”
With a flick of my wrist, the shadow beast attacks the miserable bitch. And in the background, the revenants wave like blood-drunk jesters, gleeful little freaks dying to drop the guillotine.
The Cù Fèidh’s menacing growl echoes off the empty foyer as she sinks her teeth into Vesna’s shoulder. The shadow beast gives a savage yank of her head, ripping the vamp’s arm from her body. Thick, black blood pours from the missing chunk, cascading in a curved, hollow flow.
Vesna screams, clutching the wound, as iridescent ichor the color of midnight pours between her fingers.
She won’t die. But she’ll wish she could.
The vampire watches in horror as the Cù Fèidh lays down at my feet to devour her treat. The satisfying sound of cracking bones and ripping flesh punctuates the vamp’s anguished wails.
“YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS!” Vesna roars, cradling her already-stemmed wound.
“No, I don’t think I will,” I reply. “I’m here to keep my promise, to pay my debt to Renato. And if I told him about your little plan for me … how long do you think he’d let you live?” I tilt my head. “I noticed a lovely patch of dandelions on my way in. Would Renato force you to crawl around in the sunny littleflowers until your body convulses and the flesh begins to rot and slip from your bones?”
Her jaw drops right before the tattoo on her chest flares to life and she shifts into afucking sugar glider.
With a loud, angrymeep, Vesna launches into the airlike an injured, shrieking little death Muppet.
She’s not flying, exactly, just throwing herself in a direction with confidence.
Vesna flings herself toward the rafters, a screaming marsupial blur hellbent on defying gravity.
I turn my head. So does the Cù Fèidh. So do the shadows.
We all just …watch.
