by Laken Cane
“No.” I shook my head, resolute. “There has to be another way.”
“There is no other way,” he told me. “It must be your hand that wields Silverlight, and it must be you who flings her into the circle to pierce the demon.”
“No.”
“Trinity,” Miriam said, “the demon is killing many. You’ll have to destroy him or he’ll continue killing humans. Kill the exorcist.”
I looked at her. “Kill one to save many?”
“Exactly.” She smiled. “That’s exactly right.”
“It’s not,” I murmured. “I can’t do that.”
Angus hunkered down beside me. “Trin, this demon will continue killing if he’s not stopped. He’s taking innocent human lives every day to feed. Many women will die. And remember what he did to you. What he will do to you again if he’s not stopped.”
I lifted my gaze to his. “I want to stop him. But I can’t kill the exorcist to do it.”
Angus looked up at Clayton. “Convince her.”
“This man will gladly sacrifice himself to save the world,” Clayton said.
“Is he sick?” I asked. “Already dying?”
“No,” he answered. “But he has past transgressions he feels the need to pay for. He wears his hair shirt every day. He will do this with joy and will see it as an immense favor.”
“He’s insane,” I realized.
Clayton only shrugged.
“We’ll help you, honey,” Angus said. “All of us. We’ll guide your hand.”
“It has to be done,” Rhys agreed.
Gray waited, and burned, and hoped.
“Shit,” I whispered, and closed my eyes. “Shit.”
Rhys leaned over the fallen vampire. “Where does the incubus hide?”
“I’ll take you there,” Gray said. “Trinity will send Silverlight to stop me if I try to run. But I won’t trust you to release me if I tell you now.” He lifted his chin, his eyes dark. “He’s in these woods, but you’ll never find him without me. Release me, and I will lead you there.”
Angus stood. “Call your exorcist,” he told Clayton. “Go fetch him. We’ll wait here for you.”
“Wait,” I said, but Clayton, after Miriam’s quick approval, jogged away.
We were doing this.
And I was so not ready.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Shane pulled me away from the silvered vampire, and he was not happy. “If you let that vampire lead us to the demon, no one will hire you again, Trinity. And this isn’t just about you. I’m along for this ride, and I don’t want your bad reputation to affect my work.”
“Calm down,” I whispered, with a glance in Gray’s direction. “It’s not like I’m going to actually let him go after he leads us to Seth Damon.”
He threw back his head and inhaled deeply, then blew it out slowly before looking at me. “You did that with the first vampire you caught in the city. Once, you can come back from. You do it again, and you won’t.”
“What?”
“You can’t make fucking deals with your targets, and then go back on your word.”
“Why not?” I frowned, confused by his anger. “No one cares. They’re only vampires.”
“Because no one will trust you,” he shouted, drawing a few looks from the others. He clamped his mouth shut and when he spoke again, it was more quietly. “No one will hire you, and no one will work with you. No vampire will make a deal with you when it really matters. You won’t be a respected hunter, Trinity. There’s a rhythm to hunting. There’s a community, an understanding, and there are fucking rules.”
“But I don’t—”
He leaned forward and got in my face. “There’s a code. And if you can’t live and hunt by that code, you will not be a hunter.”
I was quiet for a few seconds, and I stared into the little knot of supernats standing over the silvered vampire, unable to look Shane in the eye. “I’m sorry,” I said, finally.
I hadn’t meant to be a dick, or an idiot, but I’d ended up being both.
He softened. “Honor,” he said. “It’s important.”
I nodded. “But if I let him go…”
“Captain Crawford won’t trust you to hunt for the PD again.”
“And we won’t get paid.” I looked at him, trying for a smile. “I really don’t want to work at Angus’s store for the rest of my life.”
I needed to hunt. Needed it. It was in my blood.
“Then you’ll find another way,” Shane said, as he walked away.
“How long do we have before the exorcist gets here?” I called.
“Half an hour,” he said.
“Dammit.” I couldn’t do everything. Not in half an hour.
I strode toward the little group. “Angus, will you deliver Gray to Captain Crawford?”
They all gaped at me. “Hell no, I won’t,” Angus said. “How else are we going to find the demon?”
“I’m working on it.” I gripped his arm and stared up at him. I was tall, but Angus was really tall. “Take him to the police station for me.” I hesitated. “Please. Trust me.”
From the corner of my eye, I saw Shane smile.
Yeah, I got it.
Angus shook his head, but his stare was gentle. “Be careful, Trinity.” He turned to Shane. “Truss him up, and do it right. None of that girly shit Trin has going on.”
Shane reached up under the back of his jacket and his hand emerged with a pair of silver handcuffs. He knelt beside Gray and got to work. When he was finished with the vampire a couple of minutes later, Gray was cuffed and wrapped from head to toe, and he wasn’t going anywhere.
“You gave your word,” Gray yelled, as Angus hauled him away.
“No,” I said. “I agreed to give you freedom if you led me to the incubus.”
“I need to tell you about Lucy.” But the silver was taking its toll and his voice was weak, fading, and tired.
“I’ll come see you when this is over.” But he was already gone, and he wouldn’t have heard my murmured words anyway.
I caressed Silverlight’s sheath, then turned and walked away.
“Hold up,” Rhys said. “Where are you off to?”
I turned back to face them. “I need to talk to Amias, and I need to do it alone.”
No one spoke—not even Miriam—so I left them there and went to find the only other person who could take us to the demon.
If he would.
I didn’t wander far from the group. I knew Amias would find me.
He did, not five minutes later.
I looked at him, and I waited for the rage. I could feel it, sort of, waving its arms and drumming its heels like a little kid throwing a tantrum, but it was easily dismissed.
I was sad to see it go, really, but no matter. The hatred was still there, and it wasn’t going to fade. Not ever.
He might think he ruled me, but he did not.
“Why are you smiling?” he asked quietly. He stood a few yards away, his hands at his sides. He wore no jacket, just a black button-up shirt and black pants. He shoes were freshly shined and expensive, and he looked like a mysterious gentleman taking a leisurely stroll inside the gates of his estate.
But I knew him, probably as well as anyone could know a master vampire, and it didn’t matter what he wore or how smooth he was.
He was a vicious animal.
“I didn’t want to leave you there,” he whispered. “I want you now, Trinity. Can you feel it?”
And it was as though his words were torpedoes filled with sex, because they pierced my eardrums, exploded in my brain, and left me gasping and doubled over, my fingers pressed to the two tiny puncture wounds on my thigh.
It took everything I had to straighten and pull Silverlight from her bed. She attached with a force that knocked the awful desire from my body, and she shook with the eagerness to taste the vampire who watched us.
“Your strength is impressive,” he said, smiling.
“Angus was telling the
truth,” I said. “You did something to my mind.”
He took a step closer, despite Silverlight. “Are you in pain?”
I frowned. “No. Why?”
“You don’t want to hurt me.” And he was so very, very proud of that fact.
I could feel myself paling. “What is wrong with me?” I wasn’t asking him, and he didn’t bother to answer.
I would have hurt him if he’d threatened me, but I didn’t stand there with the overwhelming need to rip his heart out the way I had before.
Before the sex.
Silverlight wanted to hurt him. I didn’t.
“What do you need, Trinity?” There was pity in his voice.
That made me mad. “I need the demon. You’re going to tell me where he is.”
“Of course.”
I stared. “What?”
“He’s just returned to his nest a few minutes ago. He is tired and weak despite his…night. We must stop him now.”
“His night.” I cleared my throat and continued a little louder. “What happened?”
“We need to hurry,” was all he’d say. “Daylight arrives in two hours and I can’t help you when the sun comes.”
“Gray told me I can kill the demon with Silverlight and a priest. But…”
“But you don’t want to kill the priest.”
“No,” I said, honestly. “I really don’t.”
“You slaughter vampires.”
“Not the same thing.”
“Someday it will be,” he said, his voice flat.
“Maybe, but not tonight. Tonight I have to sacrifice a man in order to save God knows how many humans. That’s…” I swallowed, then blew out a quiet breath. “That’s fucked up, Amias.”
“There will be a lot of fucked-up things before this night is over,” he predicted. “Your priest will be the least of them.”
I shuddered, and tried not to think too hard about his words.
“I don’t need you to lead us there.” Honestly, I was worried that Angus would jump the master, and I did not want to deal with that. “Tell me where he’s hiding.”
He didn’t change expressions, but I had a strong feeling he knew exactly why I wanted to go without him.
“Give me your cell phone.” He walked closer still.
Finally, I slid Silverlight back into her sheath and let him come, but when I handed him my phone, his fingers brushed mine and I recoiled so violently I knocked the phone to the ground.
He said nothing, just picked up the cell, slid his long finger across the screen, and then handed it back to me. And he was careful not to touch me.
“I put the address into your GPS, Trinity. Go now. I will be there when you arrive.”
“Wait…” I said.
He waited.
“It might not be a good idea for you to be there. I’ll have the supernaturals and—”
“Trinity.”
“What?”
“I will be there when you arrive.”
He slid away, quicker than a shadow.
Before I could follow, my cell phone vibrated. “Hello,” I answered. “Clayton?”
“Trinity,” he said, his voice cold but somehow urgent, “I’m on my way to you with the exorcist. Something has happened.”
“What’s wrong?” I tightened my grip on the phone. “Are you okay?”
“When Angus took Gordon in, they tried to arrest him.”
I stopped walking and stared into the darkness, suddenly terrified. “Tried to arrest Gordon?” I asked, stupidly.
“They tried to arrest Angus,” he said. “The butchered bodies of eight human women were discovered. They were flung into a pile behind someone’s house. The demon is losing his mind.”
“My God,” I whispered. “Amias was just here. He didn’t tell me.”
“Stay with the others. I’ll be there in ten minutes unless I’m stopped. We have to end this tonight, or the Red Valley supernaturals are all going to die.”
Then he was gone.
When I shoved the phone back into my pocket and looked up, Miriam, Rhys, and Shane were standing in a line a few yards away, watching me.
I wasn’t surprised that they’d followed me when I’d gone to find Amias. They all thought they needed to watch me every second, apparently.
“Who were you talking to, Trinity?” Miriam asked, but I could tell from the look of dark anger in her eyes that she already knew.
But there was no time to care.
“Eight human bodies were found,” I said, striding toward them. “They tried to arrest Angus. Red Valley is rounding up all the supernaturals, so you have to stay here.”
“He called you,” she said, coldly, as though that were the only thing she’d heard. She pulled her phone from her pocket and looked at it.
“Fuck that,” Shane said, his voice thick with disgust. “Clayton and the priest are on their way?”
“Yes,” I murmured. “Unless he’s stopped, he’ll be here in a few minutes. Do not leave these woods. They don’t have the manpower to come in here and take on the vampires. At least not yet. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
“Where are you going?” Rhys asked. “You can’t leave, Trinity. They’ll likely see you as one of us. If you’re detained, we don’t have a chance to kill the incubus.”
I knew that, I did.
But they were after Angus. And his kids.
“I have to help Angus,” I said. “I’m safe. Captain Crawford won’t want me. He knows I haven’t killed anybody.”
“I’m coming with you,” Shane said.
Rhys and Miriam looked at each other, then at me. “Those kids know where to hide,” Miriam said. “They’ll be safe. Just get to Angus. If he loses control, he may kill one of those officers.”
“He can’t come back from that,” Rhys said.
“I’ll find him.”
She nodded. “We’ll wait here for Clayton and the exorcist. Go fetch our bull, Trinity.”
I raced away, Shane at my side, my heart in my throat.
I wasn’t sure Angus could be saved.
I wasn’t sure any of us could be.
Chapter Thirty-Six
I called Crawford as we sped down Raeven’s Road, then left a message when he was unavailable. He was probably in the basement torturing the hell out of Gordon Gray.
I didn’t want to think about that, so I switched my thoughts to Angus. He was an obnoxious asshole, but I could admit to myself that I cared about him.
Maybe a little too much.
“Did you try his phone?” Shane asked.
“Twice. Went to voicemail.”
“He’ll be heading home,” Shane said. “All that matters to him is keeping his brood safe.”
“Drive faster,” I told him.
Lights from police cars swirled, coloring the darkness over Bay Town, and I had a moment to wonder how it’d gotten bad so quickly. Then Shane skidded to a halt and I jumped from the truck almost before it’d completely stopped.
We raced toward Angus’ house, but kept to the shadows. All around us were police cars, lights pulsing, screams, shouts, and barking dogs.
They’d taken over Bay Town.
For a second I was transported back in time, drifting in and out of consciousness as I was carted away from my sister’s house. I hadn’t known Amias then. Hadn’t known his name or his life or that he was a master.
I knew only that he was a vampire—and there were a lot of those.
The police assumed he’d died from whatever had been ailing him when he’d attacked me. I’d assumed the same.
When I saw him again, he’d been secretly watching me for God knows how long, and I was his obsession. The rage had exploded inside me and I’d wanted nothing more in life than to kill him. To hurt him.
I hadn’t understood the pain that had ripped through me when I’d gone after him, death in my heart and rage in my brain. I’d thought it was some phantom pain from the trauma I’d experienced at his hands.
&nbs
p; Little did I know he’d made himself my master.
Someday I would kill him, but right then, I wished he were there, helping me find Angus.
Shane grabbed my arm and pulled me into the shadows. Across the street, the police were dragging a screaming couple from their home. I pressed my fist hard against my teeth and stayed silent as bones cracked and blood sprayed.
“Wolves,” Shane whispered.
I nodded. Bay Town was full of supernaturals. None of them were safe, and many of them would die that night. “Let’s go,” I whispered, when finally the cops threw the wolves into the back of a cruiser and sped off, siren wailing.
The humans were scared, and they were angry.
They were dying.
And supernaturals would suffer for that.
Ten minutes later we arrived at Angus’s house. I was nearly certain he wouldn’t be there—surely he’d hide with his children. Angus would know how to avoid the human police.
But he was beside his front door, and he wasn’t alone.
He had Derry pressed up against the wall behind him, and he used himself as a shield while the police advanced, screaming, shotguns aimed.
I’d seen those guns before. The police didn’t bring the usual human weapons to Bay Town. The shotguns fired long-range electroshock projectiles, powerful enough to take down a shifted supernatural.
“He’s dead,” Shane said. “We need to go. There’s nothing we can do for him now, Trinity.”
“I’m not leaving,” I whispered, fiercely. “Don’t fight them, Angus. Don’t fight.”
But he was Angus, he was a bull, and he was protecting his kid. He was going to fight.
He began to shift, as did his daughter, and he was fast. His animal was impressive—enormous and black with long, sharp horns and massive hooves. And he was mad.
He charged the cops. He stomped one and gored another, then rammed his huge body into the third. The cop flew through the air and landed with a bone-crunching thud, as though he’d been hit with a truck.
Two dozen cops came running. They surrounded him, and every single one of them began to shoot.
It was torture to watch. I wanted to look away. I needed to.
But I wouldn’t.
Derry had abandoned her shift and crouched against the wall, her arms over her head, screaming.
