The see-through copy of her halted her dance, as if she’d heard something no one else could, and then dashed along the ballroom, looking for someone.
“What is it?”The ghost of her girlfriend asked the instant she returned, the scene somehow unfolding on top of their real selves.
“It’s Natasha…”
With the mention of her name, my being froze. No.
“What happened to Natasha?”Star urged, anxiety surging inside us.
“Down!” she ordered the crowd, and everyone dropped to the floor without question, covering their ears like they knew what would come next. Everyone except Countess Dariah.
When Vanessa’s mouth opened again, a high-pitched screech left her, sending visible waves of powerful energy through what seemed like the entire island.
Her screech pulled André and Dante to her side just when the waves returned to her—they’d been with Natasha’s father a second ago.
“They have her in the boat house!”
Horror carved the guys’ faces, and Dante’s ghost disappeared into the shadows while André’s ghost’s wings appeared before he shot through the window. It shattered into a million pieces when he flew out of the castle.
“Chérie, are you okay?”Antoine asked, standing before Countess Dariah, and holding arms at the same instant that the ghosts dispersed into nothing. Reality resumed around her.
“Future’s Ghost,” she quickly whispered, dreadful.
Antoine and Zoe’s faces became pale, knowing exactly what that meant.
When the Countess’s eyes found Vanessa again, we saw her halt her dancing, and the scene we had just seen began to play in real-time.
“La naiba! We are too late,”Mother cursed.“They took Natasha. They have her in the boathouse.”
Vanessa’s screech boomed through my being the next instant, sending my heart into a frenzy. Or the Countess’s heart, I wasn’t sure. The explosion of glass followed when André shot through the window, and the Beast jumped from a different story above us onto the gardens, running after him.
The sight outside the window was something no one expected. A horde of Vampiri and Wolf Shifters jumped from boats onto the beach, rushing toward a wooden house. The next moment, a man was thrown out of it through the roof, and a blue fire burst from it.
“My fire…”
“Natasha!”
Wings burst from the Countess’s back, and she lifted herself, facing the crowd while they stood again. “Princess Natasha is being kidnapped!” she bellowed. “If you value the lives and freedom you’ve gained under my kingdom, you will prove your loyalty. Fight for me tonight or die at my hand tomorrow!”
A chorus of war cries erupted through the ballroom, and people transformed before our eyes, an army of Vampiri following her out of the castle.
“Damn, Bitch…”
“I know.”
Mother’s transformation filled me with both exhilaration and awe. When she landed outside, she was the glorious, menacing Vampiress I’d hoped to see. Deathly-looking feathers protruded from the leathery skin of her wings, not that I knew why they were deathly.
A wolf shifter rushed her, but she didn’t even blink as she whirled around and fly-kicked him to the ground, her black claws slicing his neck effortlessly. Blood spurted out of him while his head bobbed to the side.
Shifters could self-heal, but her sharp claws had nearly cut off his head; there was no coming back from that.
“You, okay?”Antoine asked, landing next to her.
“Yah. Zoe?”She shot forward, throat-punching another shifter who came at her before jumping and kicking him in the chest—piercing his heart with her heel.
The man gripped his chest as an instant black fire rushed over his body, eyes bulging out before he burst into ashes…
“Venom-laced dagger heels?!”
