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“Adam, what?” The surprised look on his face quickly tightened to betrayal. “How did you get in here?”
I swallowed, and glanced at Reynard, at a loss for where to even begin to explain how or why we’d broken into Sebastien’s room.
Reynard straightened too, and glanced at me, silently asking how much he should say.
“Zee, we just—”
“You can’t be here.” Zee’s eyes widened. “Neither of you can be here. You have to go now, before he—”
“Before he what?” Sebastien purred, slinking through the door. “Do continue. I’ll wait, while you all try and think up some explanation for why the fuck you’re in my room, rifling through my shit.”
A heavy, expectant silence fell over us.
Sebastien chuckled a heartless laugh, and his cruel, cold eyes cut to Zee. “Did you think you could trick me, Zodiac?”
“Zee doesn’t know anything about this,” I explained. “It was all my idea.”
But Sebastien wasn’t listening. He sashayed toward Zee, tail sweeping, wings back. “You know what I do to bitches who misbehave.”
Zee’s tail twitched, but instead of standing taller, he folded his arms over his fluffy gown. “Leave.” He gritted his teeth, making the muscle in his cheek twitch. That one word was meant for us.
“Oh no,” Sebastien laughed. “They fucking stay and watch. Since I’m owed a show, and these two cockteasers pulled out early.”
“Zee didn’t know about this,” I protested, starting forward, but Reynard’s arm shot out, blocking me. Sebastien would punish him, more than he already had. He’d hurt him.
The defiance on Zee’s face fizzled out. His shoulders drooped, lowering his wings. “It was my idea,” he lied.
“Zee, no—” Why would he say that?
“It was me,” he told Sebastien, dead in the eyes. “Let them leave.”
“The fuck did you think was going to happen?” Sebastien demanded of him. He reached up his sleeve, and withdrew a slim length of chain. Zee saw it, and from how his eyes widened he knew what it meant. “You think you’re the first to try and tear up your contract? You know what I do to little bitches like you?”
I couldn’t stand by and watch this. “Stop!”
Sebastien spun, and launched the chain at me. Its short length shouldn’t have reached, but as he whipped it out, the links extended into a long, jagged length that shot across the room toward my neck. Reynard lunged, and flung up his arm. The chain looped around his wrist, tied off, and Reynard let out a low warning growl, the chain now fixed on him.
“I caught a sucker. You wanna play, vampire?” Sebastien crooned “You think you can take me Baron? Like old times?” He yanked on the chain, jolting Reynard forward a few steps.
“I don’t need to,” Reynard warned. “Gargoyle, attack Sebastien.”
The gargoyle thundered into the room and barreled toward Sebastien.
Sebastien dropped the chain, pulled a pistol from under his jacket, pointed it at the gargoyle’s chest and pulled the trigger. The weapon barked, the gargoyle jerked, but kept on marching for Sebastien. Sebastien fired again, then again, making the gargoyle jerk each time.
Sebastien would kill his own guard. “Stop.” I glanced at Reynard. “Stop this.” He could order the gargoyle to stop, but wouldn’t.
Sebastien fired a fourth time, and the gargoyle dropped to his knees, then pitched face first into the floor. Dead.
“Ugh, what a mess.” Sebastien grumbled. He suddenly swung the gun up, aimed on me.
“No!” Zee yelled.
Reynard moved, turning into liquid shadow, and must have slammed into Sebastien, because he was there one moment, then gone the next. The smoky-glass partition exploded as a vampire and a demon flew through it.
Sebastien shrieked, landing on his back on the bed. Reynard had him pinned, jaw wide, fangs extended, going for his neck, but Sebastien levered him back, wrestling. “Zodiac!” Sebastien screamed. “Call him off, or every last fucking demon in this club dies because of you! Just like Cherise. They’ll all die!”
Zee’s tail lashed now. He glowered at Reynard, still trying to sink his fangs into Sebastien’s neck, then at me. Fury poured off him. His tail beat the air, whip-like.
