The words hit like a physical blow.
“How long?” I ask, though I already know the answer won’t be good.
“Hours, maybe less. I can smell them.” Rogue’s hands have shifted, claws extending involuntarily. “They’re coming, Crave. Coming for you. Coming for all of us. And when they arrive—”
He doesn’t need to finish.
When the Coven of Crows descends, when five Original vampires who embody the fundamental forces of darkness manifest in my territory, we’ll have exactlyone chanceto survive.
And I have no idea if we’re ready for it.
But ready or not, the storm is here.
And it’s time to face it.
Chapter Sixteen
SLOANE
The words explode out of me before I can stop them. “I’m fighting with you.”
The clubhouse goes silent. Every eye turns to me, standing next to Crave, my bare feet cold against the concrete floor. My newly awakened senses pick up everything—Rogue’s elevated heartbeat, Scorch’s rising body temperature, the way Dread’s fear projection unconsciously leaks into the air, making it thick and oppressive.
Crave’s answer blasts through our connection, violent and immediate, protective instinct fused with raw terror, hitting me like a punch to the ribs. “No.” His voice carries the weight of a thousand years of authority. “Absolutely not! You need more training, and now, there’s no time.”
“Excuse me?”Heat rises in my chest, my Bloodfire stirring to life like a sleeping dragon opening one eye. I twist to face him, take a few steps back, and straighten my shoulders. With a confidence I didn’t possess twenty-four hours ago, I lock eyes with Crave. “Youdonotget to decide this.”
“I’m your president.” He crosses his arms, trying for calm, but the fear pushing through our connection gives him away. Not fear of the fight, but fear of losing me. “And more than that, I’m the one who made you what you are. You’ve been a Blood Witch for hours, Sloane. Not even a day. You can barely control your Bloodfire. Walking into combat now would be—”
“Would be what?” I interrupt, my voice rising. The layered quality it now carries makes the windows rattle slightly. “A moment ago, you said I could be the force that tips the scales in our favor.Nothinghas changed.”My hands clench into fists,and crimson-gold light pulses beneath my skin in rhythm with my accelerating heartbeat. “You gave me this power, Crave. You forced it on me to save my life, and now you’re telling me I’m too weak to use it?”
“That’s not what I—” He starts moving toward me, but I hold up a hand.
“Don’t!”The word comes out sharp, cutting. “Don’t youdaresay you’re protecting me. This isn’t about protection. This is about control. You want to lock me away in some safe room while you and your brothers go die fightingmyfight.”
“It’s notyourfight!” His voice rises to match mine, and shadows in the room start reaching toward him, responding to his agitation. “Viktor is afterme.The Coven is coming forme.You’re collateral damage in a war that started centuries before you were even born.”
“Thenwhydid you save me?” The question tears out of me, raw and demanding. “Why did you give me your blood if you were just going to treat me like somefragilething that needs protecting? Why make me into this…” I gesture to myself, to the marks crawling across my ribs, to the power humming beneath my skin, “… if you never intended to let meactuallybe what I am?”
His jaw locks, his teeth grinding audibly. Then the wave hits—love, fear, possessiveness, and a brutal, unyielding refusal to put me in danger. “Because I can’t watch you die!” The words tear out of him raw and unforgiving. There’s no attempt to soften them, no apology waiting behind the truth. He lets it stand between us, brutal and exposed, daring me to do something about it. “Because in millennia of existence, you’re the first thing that’s made me feelanythingother than hunger, boredom, and endless-fucking-darkness. And I’ll bedamnedif I let you throw yourself into danger before you’re ready.”
“Ready?”I laugh, and it comes out bitter, sharp. “When will I be ready, Crave? A week? A month?A year?How long do you expect me to sit on the sidelines while people die because of me?” My Bloodfire surges higher, responding to my fury. I feel it crackling under my skin, begging for release. “Eden’s screaming about death. Oracle’s prophesying doom. Your entire club is mobilizing for war. And you want me to, what? Stay in your room and wait to see if you come back?”
“Yes!”He closes the distance between us in a blur of vampire speed, gripping my shoulders. “Yes… I want you safe! I want you alive! Is that so fucking unreasonable?”
“It is when I could be the difference between your survival and your death!” I shove against his chest, and to both our surprise, he actually staggers back a step. My new strength. My new power surprises us both. “I burned through Reyna’s Divine Armor, Crave. I stopped a heart and started it again. I can feeleverysupernatural being in this building, each one a candle in the dark.I’m not fucking helpless!”
“You’re untrained!” His eyes flash that dangerous silver-black, the predator bleeding through. “One wrong move, one loss of control, and you could kill everyone in this room, including yourself. Including me.Do you understand that?Your power isn’t just dangerous to our enemies, it’s dangerous to everyone around you until you learn to control it.”
The words hit like a slap. His terror rushes through me in a surge, heavy, unfiltered, directed at the threat looming over me, not from me.
Fear of what I could do.
Fear of what I could become.
Fear that the same darkness that consumed Lilith is already reaching for me.
But underneath his fear, I also feel something else.Doubt.The tiniest sliver of uncertainty that maybe, just maybe, he’s being overprotective.
