All of us were right here. Eryn’s head peered out of a cracked bathroom door; another towel wrapped around her body. Her worry mingled with mine as we watched my cousin unravel.
“Rani!” His voice was strained. “Kol has her. It’s all in the letter.”
I snatched the letter in question, tearing a corner. Thankfully, it didn’t damage the message. It was a ransom note. Whoever was watching us that night I killed Dalton—or however else Kol got his information—told him that Rani was important. She wasn’t just an ordinary human. He might not know that she was now aware of our world, but that bit of knowledge wouldn’t really matter in his plans. He only needed to know that using Rani as bait would lure out the prey he’d been trying so hard to snare.
I slowly turned to look at Eryn. Her face was pale, but fury burned in her eyes. The emerald I so loved to taunt into igniting was already shimmering with tears. She heard.
“We have to go get her, cuz,” Ez pleaded. “She doesn’t stand a chance against them.”
I nodded, already forming a plan. The letter demanded Eryn come alone to retrieve her roommate, but that wasn’t going to happen. She wasn’t even going to leave this apartment. I fully anticipated a fight on my hands when I told her she couldn’t join our hunting trip, but I’d be damned if I let her fall into Kol’s grubby hands after all we’d survived to keep her out of them.
“Dress up, Ez. We move out in ten.”
My cousin disappeared to strap on every weapon he could find, and to shove our bag of explosive potions into the truck. I pretended to ignore Eryn as she swiftly made her way to the closet and then back in the bathroom to change. Let her getdressed, she wasn’t stepping one fucking foot further than the living room.
The mirror began its rattle again, and I ripped the cloth off with a snarl, “What?”
My mother’s pristinely held-together image took shape, and I knew before she spoke that even more shit was about to be thrown our way. She only sat that still when anger filled every inch of her body until it locked up like a mannequin.
“Mother, I don’t really have the time right now—”
“Did you, or did you not kill the vampire heir?”
Fuuuuuck.Now really wasn’t the moment to get into all that. Out of the corner of my eye, I watched Eryn leave the bathroom, but she kept out of sight and silent. Smart girl. My mother would have no qualms of shifting her animosity to her once she finished with me.
“It was self-defense,” I tried to explain. “He attacked us first.”
Colorful curses filled the room from her side of the mirror, and my brows rose. I didn’t think I’d ever heard my mother lose her composure quite like that. She was always a picture of pure poise, even when she was flaying you alive with her scorn.
“I know I didn’t raise you to be that stupid,” she snapped. “You know better. And now Kol Von Bauer is claiming before the tribunal that he was there and witness to yourunprompted attack. He’s calling for a trial!”
Things just kept getting better. In fact, this was probably Kol’s plan all along. Maybe not Dalton’s death, per se, but incriminating me in front of the other factions; definitely. That Dalton was no longer alive to prove he’d been coerced into attacking was just another nail in my coffin. Without proof, I was as good as dead, and so was Eryn.
I had to get her to the compound. With our bond complete, my family would protect her. There was still a risk my deathwould tear her apart from the inside, but with how new it was, I hoped she’d survive.
“What if we can offer the tribunal proof that it was self-defense?” Eryn asked, stepping up beside me.
She met my mother’s glare straight on, and I sent a feeling of pride down our newly forged bond.Thiswas the partnership I dreamed of, and I couldn’t have asked for a better half.
“Short of bringing the vampire back from the dead, which isn’t possible, little girl, I’m not sure what kind of credible proof you could offer,” my mother sneered.
“Would a video work?” Eryn countered, and if I thought my mother wanted to strangle me before, she certainly considered it now.
“You allowed yourself to befilmed?”
I met Eryn’s gaze, sending a little telepathic message along with my jumbled mix of emotions.
What are you up to?
I wasn’t aware of any video from that night. Too focused on the betrayal and keeping her safe, I fucked up. Although, if that video could prove I was innocent, it was an acceptable mistake. This time. But I would have to be more careful in the future.
Eryn raised a brow but didn’t respond to my message. I understood what she wanted anyway. Opening the black cloth I still clutched in my fist, I readied to sever the connection with my mother.
“Don’t you dare,” she warned.
Too late.
“I’ll get you your proof,” I swore.
