A demon could do that. The same kind of thing that had possessed Steve.
What if it had been there the whole time — watching us, waiting for the perfect moment?
“Then what do we do?” Selena wiped her hands on her ruined dress—a nervous gesture that made my chest ache.
Rose glanced at Valentin. The kind of silent communication that came from years of trust.
“We have a plan,” she said finally. “It’s a dangerous one.”
I leaned forward, my hands braced on my knees. “What is it?”
Rose held my gaze. “We have to make sure it wasn’t a demon.”
I folded my arms. “How?”
“By summoning one—Balthazar.”
Chapter Sixteen
Selena
Balthazar?
The name made me break out in goosebumps. A chill crawled down my spine and settled in my bones.
He was evil. Pure evil. The kind of ancient darkness that made even the most powerful vampires tremble. Hadn’t he proven that time and time again? The stories I’d heard at Red Rose Academy—the massacres, the deals gone wrong, the souls he’d dragged screaming into the pit—they weren’t fairy tales. They were warnings.
And Rose wanted to summon him?
I looked at their grim faces, my blood thumping in my throat so hard I could barely breathe. “You’re not serious? He can’t be trusted.”
“No one said we were going to trust him,” Valentin said, his eyes hard. “But I believe he’ll protect Noelle.”
I wanted to laugh. Or scream. Or both. Trusting a demon to protect an innocent baby? It was madness.
Rose must have seen the panic in my eyes because she crossed the room and crouched in front of me. “I know it’s scary. He’s... terrifying. But he protected Angelo’s daughter before.” She reached out and squeezed my trembling hand. “I’m betting he’ll do it again.”
I pulled my hands away from her and sat on them to stop them from shaking. My mind raced, trying to find another way—any other way. “How do you know that?”
Valentin poured himself a glass of red wine. His hand was steady, but I noticed he filled it to the brim. “Dimitri told us.”
Not themost trustworthy personin the world.
But what choice did we have?
Angelo wanted us dead. The vampire mafia king who had spies everywhere, who had already sent his limo racing toward the houseboat to find us.
And murder us.
Costin wanted us dead. Dracula himself. The most powerful vampire in existence. The one who had vowed to protect his wife at any cost—and now believed I had helped steal the very thing keeping her safe.
And somewhere out there, some creature had the shard—the only thing that could protect Noelle from whatever darkness was hunting her.
My stomach churned. An innocent baby. Caught in the middle of all this.
And to keep them from killing us. Split it? Was that even possible? Could a shard that had already been broken from a larger stone be divided again and still hold its power?
It sounded insane. But so did summoning Balthazar, and here we were.
