He throws his head back, laughing. I keep walking backwards, away from him.Come on, guys. Wake up.Another vampire comes out onto the roof. And another. And another, until they’re all standing there, watching me. My heart is beating so fast it hurts. I’m cornered. I squeeze my eyes shut, screaming at Jacques to wake up. I feel something pass through me, and suddenly I can’t breathe. Everything has been taken from me, and it’s all I can do to stay on my feet.
“I’m disappointed, Ace,” Vampire Barbie says. The others part way for her, looking at her as if she’s a goddess. “As soon as we got your scent, we knew it was you who killed my babies. And the magic you pulled at the club…bravo. And this is how it ends? It’s so anticlimactic.”
Little pebbles crumble from the roof onto the sidewalk below. My eyes flutter as I fight to stay conscious. I shuffle back. “Just wait,” I mumble, and my vision fades and I fall back, disappearing into the fog below.
26
“Ace.”
Jacques’s strong arms wrap around me. I feebly lift my head and force my eyes open. His large wings are outstretched and we’re soaring into the air. I black out, not waking until he lands somewhere away from the house.
“Ace,” he repeats. “Can you hear me?”
“Yeah.” I try to lift my arms and fail. “The vampires…”
“It’ll take them a minute to catch up,” he says, and repositions me in his arms, ready to take flight again if need be. “They bit you.”
“No shit, Sherlock,” I mumble, opening my eyes and looking up at Jacques’s handsome face. Is that a slight smile I see on his full lips? “I used magic again. That’s why I’m…so…tired.” My eyes fall shut.
“You woke me up before sunset.”
His words are enough of a jolt to open my eyes again. So that’s what that feeling was. It took everything inside of me to break through the stone. “Maybe I can break the curse then.”
“I’m not worried about that now. I need to get you somewhere safe, Ace.”
“No. I have to stop her.”
“Her?”
“The sire is a woman. There are six vampires at the house.”
“I saw, somehow. It’s like you showed me and I just knew.” Then he tenses and we both are thinking the same thing. The guys are going to wake up and have no idea. They’ll be ambushed.
“We have to get back,” I say.
Jacques nods. “You stay here. I’ll go.”
I shake my head. There’s no way I’m letting him go alone. “I started this fight. I need to finish it. Besides,” I start, “if they come back, I won’t be able to fight them off on my own.”
He brushes my hair back and looks at the wound on my neck. Able to see in the dark, he can tell just how bad it is. “Right. Take a minute, Ace. Catch your breath.”
I didn’t even realize I was panting. I close my eyes for a second and inhale deeply, feeling an ache in my side when I do. I’m going to be so fucking sore in the morning. Jacques puts both of his large hands on my shoulders and looks into my eyes, trying to get a read on me.
Gently, he swipes blood off my face and picks me back up, cradling me in his arms. I hook my arms around his neck. No matter how hard I try, I can’t ignore how right it feels to be in his arms.
I rest my head on his shoulder for a brief minute as he takes flight and moves across the yard. We land soundlessly on the pitch of the roof. He doesn’t let me go. Carefully, he moves along the pitched roofline, looking down into the yard. The vampires are nowhere to be seen, but we both know they are still around here somewhere.
The sun should be setting any minute now. He turns, wings whooshing behind him, and looks down at the front of the house. I almost don’t hear it, the crackling of stone. It’s quiet at first, and I hold tight to Jacques as I peer down at the porch below. Thomas and Gilbert break free first, which makes sense to me now, with the way the sun sets. Hasan is the last to be cast into the night.
Jacques snaps his fingers, and the twins turn at the sound. Along with night vision, the guys have impressive hearing. They leap onto the roof.
“What the fuck, Ace?” Thomas says when he sees me.
“Vampires,” I croak out, and Jacques shakes his head, signaling for them to shut the hell up. He points to Hasan. Gilbert nods and takes off, running and jumping off the roof. He returns a few seconds later with Hasan. His face mirrors the same horror as the others at the sight of me, making me wonder just how awful I look.
Jacques tightens his hold on me and takes flight. More aware of what’s going on around me, I risk getting hit with my fear of heights and look around. It’s incredible to be soaring through the air.
He lands in the yard again, behind the shed and in a tangle of weeds near a cluster of trees. We’re not far enough from the house to be safe from vampires, but if we go any farther, we risk being seen.
