“I’d been with Katie since high school. He took all her memories of me. There was no getting her back. She didn’t know me! Didn’t remember us!” she moaned.
It was all gut-wrenchingly clear now. Lauren had killed Katie rather than face what she saw as a horrible eternity without her. Katie might not have recognized Lauren, but her appearance was deceivingly sweet and innocent. Katie wouldn’t have hesitated to open the door. Lauren had gone to the woman’s house, broke her neck from behind so that she would feel no pain, then drained her completely dry so that no one else could ever have her blood. Afterward, Lauren lovingly arranged her companion on the floor as if she was simply resting. Sleeping Beauty waiting for her lover’s kiss to awaken her.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know the situation, but—” I started, but rage had finally overtaken Lauren’s grief.
“You’re sorry? You ruined our lives!” Putting one high-heeled foot on the table, Lauren pushed off the wall and launched herself at me, her fingers raised toward my face like claws. I tried to sidestep her, but hunger and fatigue had made me slow. Her nails scored four long cuts along my arm and another across my cheek before we crashed through the outer ring of tables. Still struggling, we smashed into the crowd of people on the dance floor. There was a cacophony of cries, curses, and hisses that went up at the collision, but we ignored them all as Lauren worked to regain her feet. Her eyes were locked on me.
Still lying on my back, I swung my leg around into her, knocking her back to the floor. I rose faster than her and slammed my fist into her face, breaking her jaw, before taking a step backward. Lauren howled in pain but still took another blind swipe at me with her long fingernails in hopes of drawing blood again.
Knox stepped in front of me, ready to take over the fight. To my surprise another combatant had jumped into the ring, and I hadn’t even noticed her in the nightclub. But then, that was Amanda’s special gift. She had a special way of fading into the background so that you didn’t immediately notice her there. It made her all the more dangerous.
Amanda had one fist wrapped in Lauren’s hair, pulling her head back so that the long expanse of her neck was exposed. Her right hand held Lauren’s right arm, twisting it behind her body. Hovering inches from Lauren’s throat, Amanda’s fangs were poised to tear it out if I so much as blinked my approval.
“Hold,” I said, brushing off my hands. “This is Knox’s fight.”
Amanda frowned, sheathing her fangs for the moment. I knew the look of disappointment. There was a truly heartless, vicious quality about Amanda. She reveled in their pain and the violence that our kind was capable of. Yet it was more than that. While Knox saw to the night-to-night workings of my domain in many ways, Amanda was an enforcer for me among the fledglings. She saw it as her duty to keep the young ones in line, and somehow Lauren had slipped by her. Amanda felt responsible, and now she needed to be a part of Lauren’s demise.
“Mira, please.” Amanda’s plea came out in a wavering whisper.
Slipping my hands into the front pockets of my jeans, I nodded. “Help him clean up.” I watched as Amanda and Knox ushered Lauren to a hallway toward the back of the nightclub where they would destroy her in the basement. As the trio disappeared behind a door, Adam appeared at my elbow. With another nod from me, he ushered Kari and Bridgette from the club. There was such a thing as guilt by association in my world. While they may have been innocent, I simply didn’t want to look at them.
I settled into the back corner of the empty booth and set my crossed feet on the low table as I waited for Knox. Something twisted in my stomach as I listened to Lauren’s screams just under the throbbing beat of the music that had once again started. The dancing seemed a little more frenzied as the occupants of the nightclub either enjoyed the rush from her painful end or fought to block out her death with music and dancing.
Our world was a delicate balancing act. We held these amazing powers in the palms of our hands, but in a moment of carelessness, we could lose everything to the humans that surrounded and outnumbered us. Over the long centuries, we created a series of rules and laws that we all had to abide by, from fledglings to the Elders in the Coven. But I’ve seen these rules crush those they were attempting to protect just as frequently as I’ve seen them save us.
Lauren broke our most sacred rule of never informing a hunter of our existence. Even if she hadn’t attempted to have me killed, she would have been dead tonight.
Bishop sat down at the table and handed me a linen tablecloth. With a grateful nod, I pressed it to the line of claw marks Lauren had scored on my right arm. He gazed at the assembled crowd, a frown teasing at the corners of his mouth.
“Didn’t quite accomplish what you set out to, did you?” I announced, drawing his gaze back to me.
“I can still take you back to Venice with me,” he threatened, his dark eyes narrowing on me.
“No, you can’t. I’d never willingly go, but it might have been easier if I had been mentally or emotionally broken by the events here.” Drawing a deep breath, I lowered the napkin that was stained with my blood. I was sore and tired from the various fights that had filled my night, but this one was going to be my most dangerous. “Were you the one to introduce Lauren to the Daylight Coalition member or did you handle that all by yourself?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he blandly said.
“Of course you do. You’ve been in town for months now, watching and listening. I know what’s happening in my own domain. Only the urging of someone older and stronger would have gotten a fledgling to actually plot out my death. Involving Justin Ravana’s family was a nice touch, though. He never actually contacted the Coven, did he?”
“No,” Bishop finally admitted, flashing me a smile full of fangs and menace, as he realized that I had figured out his part in this plot to end my existence. “Fledglings are meant to be used.”
“And Ravana?”
“I didn’t want to deal with him when I take over your domain.”
“Which you get if I go back to the Coven.”
“Or simply die.”
Bishop lunged across the short distance between us, as he drew a small wooden stake out of his pocket. I grabbed his wrists, but he was bigger and stronger than me, and I was already weak from the night’s encounters—something I’m sure he was counting on.
The chunk of wood bit through my flesh as he put his entire body weight behind the stake. Pain lanced through my body as it dug into my chest, grinding closer to my heart as I pushed against him.
A part of me didn’t want to kill him. I thought I had known Bishop, but I had been wrong.
“Don’t do this,” I cried in a pained voice.
“It’s too late to plead for your life,” he said past gritted teeth.
“I’m not. I’m pleading for yours.” Bishop increased the pressure on the stake so that the tip punctured my heart, winning a scream from me. Closing my eyes, I conjured up flames so that they instantly consumed his body. I continued to hold his wrists, trapping him in the booth with me. His screams rose above the music, add their own unique chorus to match Lauren’s screams coming from the next room. When he was reduced to ash, I removed the flames and opened my eyes. With a grunt, I pulled the stake from my chest and grabbed the napkin to once again stanch the bleeding.
I looked up in time to see Knox crossing the dance floor toward my booth. Fresh blood was splattered across his clothes and skin. Knox’s eyes glowed with an almost frightening light as he stepped back onto the main floor. Dropping the napkin on the table, I slowly pushed from my seat and walked toward him, meeting him in the center of dance floor. Energy vibrated from his slender form, born from the rush of killing another creature in what I was sure was a brutal death. Valerio would have taught him well.