Vicky touched his arm, drawing his attention to her. His skin heated beneath her fingers as little currents of power ran from her to him and back again.

“Duke is mine,” she mouthed to him.

“If it’s possible,” he agreed.

She hesitated before reluctantly removing her hand from his arm. The break in contact opened an acute sense of loss within her. What happens if he gets killed tonight because of me?

Vicky recoiled at the thought and shut it down. She’d never get through this if she focused on the what-ifs.

The Savages were halfway into the basement now, and it sounded as if all of them had entered. Nathan counted his breaths as he waited for them to get closer before he started shooting.

Then, one of them turned the corner, and Nathan opened fire.

Unprepared for Nathan to be there, or for a gun, the Savage didn’t get out of the way, and the first bullet struck him in the heart. As the Savage fell back, Nathan continued shooting, taking out at least three more of them. Squeals filled the air as he wounded three more before the gun emptied and he tossed it aside.

Stepping out from behind him, Vicky hefted the hatchet, took aim, and let it fly. It struck the one charging at Nathan in the center of his forehead. The Savage screeched, its hands flying to its head as blood streaked down its face.

Vicky covered the four feet separating them in less than a second, sank her stake into the Savage’s heart, and tore the hatchet free before he crumpled to the ground. The remaining six Savages exchanged wary glances as they grouped closer.

Nathan moved to keep Vicky within arm’s reach as the remaining Savages edged toward the door where they entered. Lifting his crossbow, he aimed it at one of the Savages who ducked to the side. Anticipating the action, Nathan had already turned his weapon toward the vamp standing beside the one who dodged. He released the bolt, striking the vamp centimeters off its heart.

Vicky darted forward before the Savage could completely recover and swung the blade of her hatchet across the vamp’s neck. A gurgled cry emanated from it as it stumbled back, its hands flying to its torn throat. When another Savage lunged at her, she spun to the side in a graceful maneuver that left the vamp grasping air and Nathan admiring her even as he contemplated throttling her for moving so far away from him.

Nathan ran at the Savage still trying to recover from its slit throat. When he drove his fist into the vamp’s cheek, molars broke free to rattle against its back teeth. Planting his feet, Nathan slammed his fist into the creature’s chest when it leapt at him. Bone cracked and gave way until Nathan felt the vamp’s heart pulsing against his hand.

Tearing into the chest of a Savage was something he never could have done before reaching maturity. After that occurred, his strength, speed, hearing, vision, and smell became better, and his rate of aging decelerated.

Because his bloodline was the most powerful amongst the hunters, he’d always been stronger than most hunters. That increased last year when, on March fourth, he turned twenty-three, and realized he’d come fully into his abilities.

Enclosing his hand around the Savage’s heart, Nathan tore it from the creature’s chest and tossed it aside. Four more to go, and those four were all rushing toward the back door.

Vicky let the hatchet fly again. It whipped through the air, spinning end over end before burying itself in Duke’s back. His arms flew out from his sides; he shouted as his body lurched forward. Dirt billowed around him when he face-planted onto the basement floor.

Nathan ran by her, lifted a stake, and whipped it through the air to take down one of the other Savages while, at the same time, he fired his crossbow at another one. Neither of them were killing strikes, but they disabled and weakened the Savages.

Vicky lifted her crossbow and tracked another Savage through the shadows and fired; the bolt struck straight through the heart. Before the Savage hit the ground, Duke pushed himself up and raced for the door again, but Vicky was faster and intercepted him.

Her hand lashed out as he ran at her; she caught him under the chin in an uppercut that lifted him off his feet. A grunt of pain escaped him when he landed on his back, five feet away from her. On the other side of him, Nathan stalked the other remaining Savage.

Rolling to the side, Duke shoved himself to his feet. The blade of the hatchet was now buried all the way into his back with only the handle protruding. His movements were slower, but when he spun toward her, she saw the killing frenzy in his crimson eyes.

Vicky braced herself as he charged her again, seemingly too hell-bent on killing her to think out a better course of action. His lips skimmed back, baring his fangs at her while animalistic noises issued from him.

At the last second, Duke darted and came at her from a different direction. Vicky spun and launched a sidekick that caught him in the knee and snapped his leg to the side. Howling, Duke stumbled and almost went down, but he snagged her foot while it was still in the air and held himself partially up.

Before he could regain too much of his balance, Vicky jumped off the ground, and swinging her other foot up, she drove her heel onto the hatchet. Duke grunted, blood spraying from his mouth and over her jeans before he released her foot and slumped to the ground.

He drew his arms beneath him and tried to push himself up, but his shaking limbs wouldn’t support his weight, and he face-planted again. Fingers digging into the dirt coating the floor, he started dragging himself forward. Vicky pulled another stake from her coat as she stalked him. He must have heard her coming because he shuddered and mewled pitifully.

Vicky had been looking forward to this for seven months; she’d endured far worse than this because of him, yet she didn’t take the satisfaction she thought she would from seeing him like this. A creature in pain, no matter how repugnant it was, tugged at her sympathy.

“You don’t have to do this, Vicky. Don’t you remember how good we were together?” he croaked.

“No, I don’t,” she said flatly.

“I didn’t have a choice,” he whined.

“There’s always a choice.”

Nathan dispatched the last remaining Savage, but he remained in the shadows, watching Vicky. Duke heaved a breath and fell forward, turning his head to look at Vicky when she stopped beside him. Though she’d kicked Duke’s ass, there was no anger or joy on her face; there was merely a sad acceptance.

The strangest urge to hold her and assure her it would be okay hit him. He wanted nothing more than to protect her.

He shook his head to clear it of the impulse, but it persisted.

“No!” Duke wailed. “I had to turn you over to them. I was in deep, Vicky, real deep. I owed a lot of money to some scary vamps. They were going to kill me if I didn’t give them something. I’ve regretted it all this time. I cared so much for you, baby, really I did!”

Hatred coiled in Vicky’s belly, but she didn’t know if it was for him or herself. When she was younger, she dreamt about her mate, but with every passing year, the strange, growing certainty she would never have a mate started to fester in her. It hadn’t been a thing where she feared it might never happen for her; it had become this dreadful certainty that she would never have a mate.

Something in her changed with the knowledge of spending an eternity alone plunged her into a more reckless existence.

Lifting her head, her gaze briefly met Nathan’s as he remained half hidden in the shadows. It dawned on her… perhaps it wasn’t the realization she would never have a mate changing her over the years, but that somehow, instinctively, she’d gleaned the knowledge her mate was out there, and she would never be able to have him.

If they never slept together, never exchanged blood, and never went any further with the mating bond, she still fully expected he would be the end of her. Spending an eternity knowing she’d found her mate, and lost him, would destroy her.

And what would happen when Nathan inevitably died? She shuddered and refused to think about it further.

She focused on Duke again. One obstacle at a time.

“I cared for you as much as you did me,” she replied. “You say you owed them money, yet they gave you money when they came for me. I saw it, Duke, before they took me out of your apartment, I saw the money they handed you.”

“No, I… no,” Duke whimpered.

“How much did they pay you for me?”

“Nooooo,” Duke whined.

A creak drew Nathan’s gaze to the basement stairs. Slipping out of the dark, he raced across the basement before someone could enter. Stepping into the stairwell, he discovered two bedraggled children huddling together on the steps. They recoiled when they spotted him.

“It’s okay,” he said, but they hugged each other as their eyes fell on the bloody stake in his hand. Beads of blood plopped onto the floor from both his hands.

Vicky glanced over at Nathan when he spoke, and she realized someone had come to explore the noise.

“Don’t you remember how good it was between us?” Duke murmured. “How good I made you feel, how often you came. It can be that good again between us.”

“You must think I’m an idiot, and believe me, it wasn’t that good. I’m outstanding at faking it.” She faked almost everything in her life.

She’d had enough of this; she’d never wanted to torture him, only wanted him dead, and she didn’t have to know how much they paid for her. It might make her feel worse to learn how much Duke believed her life was worth.

Lifting the stake over her head, she gripped it in both hands before driving it down, through his back, and into his heart. Duke jerked, his mouth parted, and his round eyes met hers before the life slipped out of them and he slumped to the ground.

Rising, she wiped off her hands and walked over to help Nathan.

Nathan stepped toward the children but stopped when they clutched each other tighter.

“Shh, it’s fine,” Vicky soothed the children when she appeared beside him.

The blood streaking her face seemed offensive on her pretty features, and he resisted wiping it away as she stepped so close her arm brushed his. When she focused on the children, the swell of her power rippled against his skin.

“There’s nothing to see here,” she murmured to them. “You heard nothing and saw nothing. You’re perfectly safe.”

A glazed look came into the children’s eyes as Vicky used her power to change their memories and compel them to do what she commanded. At one time, this show of vampire power would have infuriated him. Hunters were immune to a vampire’s mind control abilities, but he despised that they could do this to others.

Now, he welcomed her calming these kids.

“Go on home now,” Vicky said.

The children leapt to their feet and raced up the stairs. Nathan watched them go before turning to her. “Duke?”

“Dead.”

He intended to find out who and what Duke had turned her over to, but first, they had to clean up this mess.