‘I’malmost there, please wait,’he said, strained.He was weak; it was stupid of him to use all of his energy.
DidI blame him? I would have done the same to keep him safe. Pushing Kai out of mymind, I threw the front door open.
Mybreath hitched when I saw Layla, standing in the kitchen with a gun to mymother’s head. My fragile, beautiful, human mother.
Slowly,swiveling my head to the left, I saw Prudence who gave me a bitchy wave. Blackmist crept from her skin as white mist began to pour from mine. The groundbegan to shake, rattling the pictures on the walls. The Devi inside of me waslivid; we both were.
Suddenly,a male vampire appeared beside me holding a device.
“Moveand your mother dies,” Layla said.
Iwent through ten different scenarios in my head. My mother was fifty feet away,Prudence, ten feet. Could I hold Prudence with magic and get to Layla withoutmy mother getting harmed? No. I was fast but not faster than a bullet. Thehouse shook with my barely contained magical rage; the Devi wanted to endthings. Now.
“Stopthat!” Prudence shouted and threw black magic at me, as my white magicreflected hers causing me no harm. The shaking stopped as I shoved the Devidown inside of me.
Igrinned at Prudence. “Scared?”
Thevampire holding the device grabbed my right arm and attached the device aroundmy upper arm like a metal cuff with an LCD display screen. I tried to strugglebut I heard Layla cock the gun from across the room. Cold, numbing fearsaturated my body. My whole life I was conditioned to just sit by while mymother’s life hung in the balance at the hand of my father. Now it felt like itwas happening again and I was helpless.
Ifroze, completely still as my mother looked surprisingly calm. We held eachother’s gaze as I felt a pinch in my arm. Looking down, I saw that the devicewas draining my blood into a bag. Mother eff. There was nothing worse as adominant than having to helplessly submit your will.
‘Kai,I’m in the open front door. There is a vampire taking my blood. Prudence is inthe living room and Layla has a gun to my mother’s head in the kitchen,’I told him.
Hewas tired, I could feel it, but at my words, Alpha power surged through thebond as he again pulled from the pack and pushed hard to get to me faster.
Laylahad her back to the glass door that opened out onto the patio. Kai bought mymother this house. We had dinner here with her once a month. He knew the entirelayout and I was hoping he had a plan because I was so severely screwed rightnow.
“Ilove you, Aurora,” my mother suddenly said, calmly meeting my eyes. If Laylathought she could scare my mom, she was mistaken. My mom was a domestic abusesurvivor. She could take a beating. She took many beatings from my dad and neverfought back. That’s why it shocked me when my mom’s arm flung out quickly and karate-chopcracked Layla in the throat causing her to drop the gun.
Holyshit! Go, Mom! I shook off my shock and slammed the vampire nearest me againstthe wall, ripping off the arm cuff which spurted my blood everywhere. Thevampire snatched the hanging full blood bag from the bottom, and head-butted mehard in the face before bolting out the front door. Dammit!
“Freeze!”Prudence yelled, as black mist surrounded me and my legs felt cemented to thefloor.
Isaw that Layla now had my mom’s throat in her hands.
“Layla,no! I’ll go with you. I’ll give you my blood, just stop!” I screamed as my mother’sface turned purple, her body slack. A grin spread across Layla’s face as shedropped my mother to the floor, gasping and coughing. Just behind Layla, outthe kitchen window, I saw a streak of black and smiled. Kai came crashingthrough the back window, spraying glass over Layla and my mom and knockingLayla to the ground. He sank his teeth into Layla’s arm, which was raised aboveher head to protect her face as my mom rolled off to the side and out of theway. Kai was engaged with Layla, hopefully two seconds from ripping her goddamnhead off as I struggled to breathe against the black witches’ power. It creptup my legs and was trying to cover my body. Oh, hell no. Never again.
“Youfreeze!” I shouted at Prudence and took a deep breath, unleashing a cloud ofwhite mist to chase away her black. My legs were tingly but I could move, I ranat Prudence with the speed of a vampire and slammed her against the wall,screaming my biggest battle cry. She looked shocked as I quickly transformed myface into my werewolf form and attacked her neck, going for the kill. But thesecond I bit down, my snout was shocked with electricity. I yelped as she threwme off, smiling. Ow! What the …? I was shaking, my breath ragged as I shiftedmy face back to human.
Suddenly,the sounds of shattering glass all around the house flooded my ears as vampiresdescended into my mother’s home. They were flying into every window, completelysurrounding us. Prudence grabbed one of my arms but I threw her off and pulledthe stake from behind my back and rammed it through the nearest vamp’s chest,making it rain ash. These bastards were everywhere! We were so screwed!
“Needsome help?” Max’s voice boomed from the front door.
“Getmy mother out!” I yelled at him. A series of gun shots rang outside and I breatheda sigh of relief. Max had brought the militia. God bless paranoid human beingswith large gun collections. They just saved our ass. The bullets wouldn’t killthe vamps but it would slow them down so they could be staked. I turned to dealwith Prudence, but she was gone.
Glancingat the kitchen, I saw my mother with a nine-inch blade in her hand, standingbehind Kai who was wrestling with Layla. Whoa. When did my mom become a badass?Max side stepped around Kai and Layla’s fight and took my mom out the back doorto safety. Earl, Trent, Jai, and others poured in through the front door,stakes and guns drawn. Layla quickly stood, taking Kai in her arms, and steppedback, getting her footing. She squatted and then jumped up throwing him out theopen back door. Jesus! Kai sailed through the air and landed with a thud anddidn’t get up.
“Kai!”I screamed and began to run into the kitchen.
“Aurora,down!” Earl shouted and I hit the floor without question. A silver stake flewpast me and just missed Layla. She glared at Earl with red-hued eyes and thenran out the back door as bullets flew all around me. Hissing and gruntingfilled my ears.
‘Kai!’I screamed again. He wasn’t moving. He wasn’tdead or I would feel it but he was out cold. Oh God. I army crawled across thebroken glass, cutting up my elbows and forearms. Once I made it outside. Ijumped up and ran to Kai, placing his wolf head in my lap. After a moment, he jerkedsuddenly, then whined. He took a few gasps of air through his snout thenshifted to his human form, groaning.
“Jesus,Kai. You scared me.” I shook his shoulders, barely keeping my shit together.Seeing a strong-ass vampire queen chuck your mate out the window like anewspaper really tested your sanity.
Herubbed his head, opening and closing his jaw. “Now you know how I feel everytime you get hurt,” he commented.
Ihuffed and pulled him close to let his warm body press against me. My wolf wasrattling my skin like a cage, ready to break free.
