He grabbed her with both hands, tangling one in her hair because it was hard for him to grasp with his digits encased in ice and he needed a way to keep her from running. The other went straight to her tentacles and ripped. The part of my mind that wanted badly to keep a distance thought, It’s kinda like watching a disgruntled electrician tear the cables out of a fuse box.
But, of course, it wasn’t like that at all. And when he didn’t stop there, I realized we could be in big trouble.
“Vayl!” I put both hands on his shoulders, though his shirt had begun to shred and the cold burned my palms. “You’ve got to stop!”
Cole made a sudden move that caught my attention. He’d kept quiet up to this point. Observing the action, watching the CIA’s wanted man. Now he drew his Beretta Storm and trained it on him. I looked over my shoulder. Petrov Kublevsky’s companion was slumped over his drink, as if he’d had way more than he could handle. But he’d come in after us and our uproar would’ve made a lifetime alcoholic recall one of his more spectacular blackouts. Kublevsky had risen halfway off his chair before he realized Cole had taken aim at him. At least it seemed that way. But I saw the glint of metal, held close to his chest as he pretended to sit back down.
I yelled, “Cole, he’s armed!”
They both fired at once. Cole had won more shooting competitions than his wall had room for trophies. He should’ve nailed the guy and walked away clean. He had the angle and ample cover. But Vayl and Disa were fighting, wrestling almost, and they rammed into him just as he took the shot.
The shove pushed him right into Kublevsky’s line of fire while it threw him off, guaranteeing only that he wounded his target while the bullet that should have zipped harmlessly past his shoulder buried itself in his chest.
“Son of a bitch!” Cam swung his gun off Disa and emptied it into the Russian, who managed to return a single round as he slammed backward into the wall.
I screamed as Cole fell and Cam tumbled into a bar stool before collapsing to the floor.
Dave raced to Cam’s side, so I went to Cole. I stood over him like a stone-cold fool who’s been clubbed on both sides of the head and can’t think what to do. “Vayl?” I whispered. He’d reached down for his cane. But his ice-encased fingers wouldn’t close around it.
“What do I do?” I murmured. “This is . . . it’s just like the prophecy. Maybe Cassandra was wrong. Maybe you have met your sons. And because it was too soon, they’ve died again.”
I gazed into Cole’s pain-bunched face, stifling an urge to run a comb through his tousled hair. I turned my eyes to Cam, lying still on his side. When I looked back at Vayl I realized he’d heard. He’d understood. He stared at the two young men at his feet.
When our eyes met I realized he wasn’t seeing me at all. “You did this!” he cried, turning on Disa with an expression I recognized because I’d worn it myself only seventeen months earlier. It was the mind-bending combination of grief and rage that had nearly driven me mad.
He slammed his hand against his chest, shattering the armor that covered his fingers, sending ice shards flying from them like poisoned darts. Once again he grabbed for the cane, his hand tightening and twisting even as he straightened. The sheath flew across the room, knocking the napkin dispenser off a table before clattering back to the floor. Disa watched it with unbelieving eyes. “Vayl!” she screamed. “You are Vampere! I am your mate!”
He pinned her with dead, black eyes. “You are nothing to me!” He shoved his sword through Disa’s heart. Since it was metal it didn’t kill her. But, already weakened by her previous injuries, she couldn’t seem to hold her feet against this one. She dropped to her knees. He jerked the sword free. As if I could read his mind, I knew his plan.
“Vayl, no!” I cried. “You’ll die!” But he was buried in more than ice. He swung the sword with all his might. Not knowing what else to do, I screamed at Dave. “Banzai!”
He turned from Cam, who he’d just helped sit up. What? my mind yelled even as my twin and I charged Vayl, both of us going in low. My eyes sought Cole. He too was rising, pulling his shirt open to check out the damage on his bulletproof vest.
“Vayl!” I screamed as Dave and I raced toward him. “Stop! Cam and Cole are alive!”
We hit him just as his sword sliced into Disa’s neck. I screamed again as I felt my collarbone crack when it met the unyielding armor encasing Vayl’s thigh. The entire floor shook as Dave and I took Vayl down. When he didn’t immediately move, I turned to Disa. She was still in one piece, but just barely. The sword had split into her neck and lodged in her spine. She lay in a heap on the floor, the blood puddling beneath her like a filling tub.
I wasn’t at all surprised when the face rose from those red waters to blink at me in utter frustration. “She must die,” it said.
“No. If she goes, so does Vayl. Give me another choice.”
I’d never seen anyone gnash his teeth until that very moment. Not pretty. Especially when done by a blood vision. But finally he realized I wasn’t going to budge. “All right, then. There may be one other option. But it is not going to be popular.”
Chapter Thirty-One
We took the plane back, since there were too many of us for the helicopter and we were in a helluva hurry. Jack harassed us all the way from Skofja Loka to the Trust, tripping people up, ramming his big shoulders into our legs in a way his grin said was friendly but I began to think was otherwise. As Admes bused us all to the villa, I whispered in Jack’s ear, “You don’t have to tell me how much this plan sucks. But until you come up with a better idea, it’s all I’ve got.”
Trayton and his pack, along with Kozma and the five werebears he could muster on short notice, met us at the Trust’s borders, followed us inside the mansion, and provided the numbers we needed to herd everyone into Hamon’s hallway. They, more than anything, had convinced the Trust vamps to follow my lead.
“It’s this or war,” I’d told them flatly. “The Weres have agreed to lay aside their grudges against you, righteous though they are, in return for your cooperation with my plan.”
Opening the doors to Hamon’s suite again posed something of a dilemma until I decided to summon the vision one last time.
Gesturing with my good arm for Genti to step out of the crowd, I had Trayton and Phoebe hold him as I pulled my knife. “You’ve got a lot to answer for,” I told the shaking vamp. “It’s hard to know where to start.” I nodded to Aine, who stood near the back of the crowd wearing a dark red veil, her hand steady on Admes’s elbow. “But I’m thinking you can give her some payback right now.”
I directed Phoebe to hold his arm over the case that held the fedora and, with one quick move, slit the sleeve of his fancy blue jacket as well as a foot-long opening in his skin. Phoebe snarled, her silver-painted eyelids crinkling with delight, as the blood poured onto the glass. “Trayton can remember you cheering as he fought,” she whispered into the vampire’s ear. “Your pain is like candy to me, suckster.”
“Put your fangs away,” I told her. “You know the deal. You bite somebody, you’re going to start a new fight I’m not willing to referee.”
She glanced at Trayton, who gestured for her to back off. He returned my grateful nod and added a slow wink that reminded me I wasn’t alone in this. I glanced down the line at Cole and Dave, who each gave me a sober nod. So good to have trusted people at my back again. It made even this tonnage easier to bear.
I stared back at the blood. Whispered, “Okay, Hamon. Now would be a good time to—”