My face soaked with searing tears, Jack and Ezra shouted at me, holding me on their laps in the cab of my truck after they had wrangled our seatbelts off. Powered magic scalded through my chest. I could scarcely keep my eyes open. I couldn’t speak and was barely able to breathe as I continued shivering, crying out through clenched teeth. Only instinct had me keeping my lips over my teeth, my bitty fangs extended.
Trying to keep me contained, Jack fumbled with his cell, yelling into the receiver, “I don’t know what’s wrong with her!”
“Headlights behind us,” Ezra rumbled over my sobs, lifting me against his chest in a bone-cracking hold, his heartbeat accelerated against my cheek.
Vaguely, I heard tires screeching, a car stopping next to us and, only a beat later, Pearl’s concerned voice through the open window. “Is everything alright?”
“No!” Jack bellowed, his voice stressed in bewilderment as I jerked against them, another whimper fleeing past my pinched lips. “We think Dominic was attacked, and something’s wrong with Lily!”
“Oh my God!” Pearl cried. A car door slamming. Heels swiftly clicking on blacktop.
“Wait!” Ezra hollered, his body predatory still against me. “Pearl, get back in your car!”
A gunshot echoed through the night, vibrating, heavy with implication. I knew the unmistakable, forbidding sound now after taking my weapons classes. Too bad I was in too much damn agony to feel any of the shocked anxiety weighing severely in the cab. I would gladly take that over this torture.
Pearl screamed instantaneously, profoundly suffering, echoing my own heaving cries.
“Fuck,” Ezra rumbled harshly, slipping farther down on the seat, taking me with him as at least five more rounds fired sharply, my truck wobbling to the right, then the left, jerking hard. Almost instantly, more shots erupted, sounding like they hit Pearl’s car. “They took our tires.” Ezra yanked me against him completely, lifting my legs off Jack and ordering him, “Get Pearl. She took a hit to the shoulder.”
I could still hear her crying outside my truck somewhere. Blinking my eyes open, I saw Jack’s eyes glow brown; my eyes stuck on his frightening expression. Power began swirling inside the cab, lifting my hair and taking from me the little bit of breath I could get. He threw the door open, jumping outside and, suddenly, a wall of blue water surrounded him in a tight circle from head to toe. The water moved like a waterfall, but in reverse, a constant rage of liquid rushing upward on the outside and possibly traveling downward on the inside, rotating, but I couldn’t see inside to tell; Jack was completely unseen inside the protection.
“Christ,” Ezra muttered, yanking the door closed as the circular wall of water raced around the front of my truck, a radiant, shiny aqua in my headlights. More shots fired, the noise louder than before, and Ezra smashed me on the seat, covering my body with his. He grabbed for his cell on the floor, and we both heard Pearl cry out in pain, hopefully just from Jack aiding her.
Ezra placed his cell to his ear without dialing out, King Venclaire obviously still on the line, and muttered, “We’re surrounded. Multiple gunshots coming from various locations. Pearl’s been hit, and something’s seriously wrong with Lily.” He paused, listening over Pearl’s and my cries, and the rapid gunfire, then stated quickly, “We’re about five miles out. I think we can make it if you take out the ones closest to your house.” He nodded, listening to King Venclaire as Jack opened the driver’s side door.
All I saw through my narrowed gaze was the wall of shimmering blue water, but I could hear Pearl’s groans from behind it and Jack’s soothing voice as he tried to calm her.
“We’re coming now.” Ezra pocketed his cell, telling the wall of water, “Five miles to the King’s house. We’ll have to run. Can you make it with Pearl?”
A masculine snort sounded. “I can make it, but we need to hurry. The shot was silver and it didn’t exit. Her power’s down.”
Ezra stilled with the news.
I moaned, “Dominic…I can’t…” I didn’t understand it. “I can’t feel him. Gone…and the power…” I sobbed, keeping my face against the heated flesh of Ezra’s neck. “I can’t feel him!”
Silence for a heartbeat, then another round of shots fired, reverberating harshly.
Jack murmured swiftly, “We need to move.”
“Go,” Ezra ordered. “We’ll be right behind you.”
The wall of water dashed out of sight with Pearl sobbing in pain within its depths.
“Hang on,” Ezra ordered softly. “Put your arms around my neck, and hold on tight.”
“I hurt,” I whimpered. “Too much…power.”
“I know you hurt, but my power is helping you right now. Just hang on to me,” he hushed softly, wrapping his arms around me tight and, abruptly, we were flying. At least, it felt like it. I cried out at the initial jarring, but I wrapped my arms around his neck as he blurred into the night in large, zigzagging patterns.
I squinted over his shoulder while he used his Vampire speed, which was infinitely faster than mine, allowing my eyes to glow. Men in hooded red robes were exiting out of the dark tree line on either side of the thin road, carrying shotguns and torches. It was the last thing I saw before Ezra really started running, little more than a blur, the pace dizzying.
Darkness finally took me.
Pacing the formal living room of my biological dad’s house, still in confusing, impressive pain, my jaw — fangs not relinquishing in length — was clenched so hard my teeth were grinding while the tears continued tracking down my cheeks. The place looked like, well, a King’s home. A traditional King’s home with Victorian furniture of ivories and oak, little lamps with dangling crystals, and ivory carpeting that smelled brand new. If my Core didn’t ache so acutely, I would have asked him where his real quarters were, because this sure as hell wasn’t a Vampire’s home. This was a home for political entertaining that would suit all kinds.
A yank of my shirt kept my hands busy. I was a mess of emotions and a bundle of energy. After waking on the couch with King Venclaire watching over me, I had jumped away from him and began my stalking. Going one way toward the mass of Vampire guards — all dressed in black fatigues — he had lining one wall, and then toward him, Ezra, King Fergus, and Jack, who were all covertly watching me and quietly talking together. As if I couldn’t hear them.
Keeping my head down, my wolf riding my tone, I growled, “How much longer?”
Pearl was in another room with King Nelson who was working on her injury. Honestly, I didn’t really care. She wasn’t dead, and she wasn’t going to die, from what I had heard. Right then, all I cared about was Dominic. I kept trying to call him telepathically, but I wasn’t getting a response, and I didn’t appreciate what they were whispering over there.
King Venclaire murmured in a soft, soothing voice, “King Kincaid should be here shortly. We’ll know then. You should sit down.” He had tried his power on me, too, but it hadn’t helped the throbbing inside my Core; his mien had altered to neutrality at that fact.
I shook my head, my hair flying about my flushed face. “Just let me go check.” I glanced to the door, my wolf snarling at the guards moving to block it. “I need to find out what’s wrong with Dominic.” I rubbed at my chest. My Core was bursting with power, so much so that it branded, but there was an empty place too. The spot where Dominic resided.
It terrified me.
“Lily, please sit down,” King Fergus murmured just as gently as King Venclaire, and I couldn’t help the growl my wolf shot in his direction. “You’re going to exhaust yourself more than you already are.” He said this with dried blood splattered all over him.
King Venclaire was also covered in blood, as was Ezra and Jack. Jack had carried Pearl while she was bleeding, so that explained his appearance, but I was betting there were a few less men in red robes out there tonight judging from the others’ stained clothes.
I shook my head again, feeling very much the wolf inside me. “No,” I growled low. “I’ve got,” a yank of my shirt, rubbing my chest, “too much.” A deep breath, a few jumps in place, a shake of my limbs. “There’s too much in me. I need out.”
Both Kings went mute, staring, their countenances the same now: a quiet detachment.
My wolf rumbled a soft growl, my chin tucked down and my eyes glowed. I understood they weren’t going to allow me to leave, so I pivoted, stalking once more.
King Fergus whispered, “That’s not a good sign.”
“What’s not?” Ezra probed, not bothering to keep his voice down, knowing I could hear him and not seeming to care.
“A mate, a wolf,” my biological dad murmured quietly, smoothly.
I turned in my prowl to see King Fergus nodding.
“Quit talking about me as if I’m not here!” My wolf’s growl that exploded from my chest was low, rumbling pure menace, as fear and irritation grabbed hold. A pulse of power shot out from me in my panic, straight at their group. They visibly jerked, and I snapped my glowing gaze to the men at the door. Caged in. “Let. Me. Out!” Another shot of power pulsed from my Core, my magic giving me what I needed to escape, and the men at the door stumbled, falling to their knees.
The two Kings were swiftly in front of me, while Ezra and Jack crept up behind me.
I gradually crouched, plenty Shifter, a smidge Vampire, as they surrounded me.
King Venclaire held up his hands as I rested on the balls of my feet, one of my hands on the ground in front of me, the other ready to grab someone, my eyes glowing bright. His tone softly hypnotic, he whispered, “Lily, you need to calm down. King Kincaid will be in here in a matter of moments. I can hear his car pulling up the driveway now.” He lifted a thumb over his shoulder where his men were picking themselves up. “I don’t want any of my men hurt so, please, calm yourself.”
I took a delicate breath, managing to sanely spell out, “I don’t like being caged in.” Another deep breath. “Back away.”
As one, all four took a fluid step back.
Gradually rising, I cocked my head and listened. My biological dad hadn’t lied. I could hear King Kincaid’s car on the driveway, but I didn’t say so because it was possibly my Vampire hearing helping me there. I resumed pacing, brushing between Jack and Ezra. They didn’t try to stop me, but they were watching me even more closely now. Whatever. I just wanted Dominic to get his butt in here and hold me tight so I could do the same to him.
Hearing the front door open, I stalled, ready to pounce on Dominic as soon as I saw him. He was seriously going to get an earful. No mate should ever leave the other hanging like this.
I flexed my fingers, shuffling on my feet, eyes glued to the doorway.
King Kincaid and Fi came in to view.
They stopped under the archway of the door.
All oxygen left me.
My feet went flat and I started backing up, shaking my head rapidly.
My heart beat a chaotic rhythm, dread filling me soul-deep. Chest constricting, I gasped for air that didn’t come. I grabbed my throat and my chest, staring at their tear-stained faces.
Appearing as if they had aged a hundred Com years, their bloodshot eyes found mine.
I banged against a wall, leaning heavily on it. “Don’t,” I whispered thickly, knowing their expression. I had seen it once before. Last year, on my mom’s friend’s face, right after she had found her dead. “Don’t you dare say it.” A sharp shake of my head. “He’s not dead.”
“Lily,” Dominic’s dad spoke, his voice rasping, cracking. “Come here, honey.” Gently, he released his grasp on Fi’s shoulder, who wobbled and wiped her wet cheeks as he crept toward me. “You’ll be alright. Just come here.” His arms were opened wide, his feet still moving, and his voice broken, splintered, like my heart, the very depth of me. “I’m so sorry, honey. There was nothing we could do.”
I choked on a gut-wrenching sob, my mind screaming denials. “He cannot be dead!” I jammed a pointed finger at him. “He is not dead.” Mine! Dominic was mine! Shaking hard, I demanded, “No, goddammit!”
Dominic’s dad was so close. Too close made this real. It couldn’t be real.
A cool breeze brushed my hand. A window. Mind raging, I screamed, “He. Cannot. Be. Dead!” Dark eyes, so like Dominic’s, gazed back at me with compassion. Almost on me.
Twisting sharply toward the window, I threw myself at it. The screen busted with the force of contact, flying out with me. I didn’t even feel the impact as I hit grass, rolling. I didn’t look back as I heard the shouts.
I ran.
Ran away from death that seemed to follow me everywhere. All I’d ever loved was dead.
I wasn’t going to deal tonight with my life’s mate gone forever.
My feet kept moving, my heart and Core shredded beyond repair.