“How do they know it wasn’t one of Varycas’s?” Mill asked. “Some internal turf move?”
“Because they arrived with that bunch from Tampa. You know the ones—that Instaphoto girl Roxy, with her little harem—”
“I really don’t want to be part of a harem,” Laura said, paling, her head against the door next to me.
“The one who died was a favorite for the girls,” Kate said. She snorted. “He was pretty hot.”
I could see Mill’s face in my head, his face darkening, his jaw clenching.
“This is all rumors?” he asked, his voice tight.
“It’s all true. I have my sources,” Kate purred.
“You were with Draven tonight, weren’t you?”
“Maybe I was, maybe I wasn’t,” she answered playfully, annoyingly.
“Nice.”
“I don’t have to tell you if you’re not going to tell me where you’ve been or who you’re with,” Kate said. “Draven’s pissed, regardless. A Tampa vampire going down in Miami? And stirring talk about reprisals? You know how touchy Lords can be.”
“Why does Varycas care if it was one of our vampires that died?”
“Because it was his club, and the cops got called. It’ll probably even make the papers. Varycas may allow a little more bleedover into the human world than Draven, but he’s not going to sit still for that much attention. He’s already howling at Draven. And Draven wants to smooth it over, so he’s sending envoys over there.” Kate giggled, and I wanted to slap her.
“He’s asked if I’d be one of them.”
“You want to get in the middle of this?”
“Why not?” Kate’s voice was snippy again. “Can you imagine if a full-blown territorial war between the southern and western Florida vamps broke out?” She cackled with surprising glee, and I wondered if maybe witches were real too. I questioned Draven’s judgment in choice of envoys, because it sounded to me like Kate was way more excited by war than peace.
“You seem pleased by the thought of bloodshed,” Mill said. Creepy that he read my mind.
“It’s been too long since we’ve had a good war,” Kate went on. “Everyone has been so … soft. Well-behaved. We’re vampires. Bloodshed is what we do.”
“We don’t drink our own,” Mill retorted. “We’re civilized. We follow the rules. We make peace. It’s what makes us better than the humans.”
“You mean it makes things better for the humans,” Kate said. “Peace and quiet, yawn. Hiding our true faces … our true teeth?”
He made a sound like a grunt of displeasure, and I imagined her all up on him.
It made my stomach drop.
“You always have had a soft spot for the bleeders,” Kate said. “We should be free to be who we are, do what we need to do. Those humans can exist and do whatever they want during the day. But the night …” She snickered. “It’s ours.”
“You can’t even see what kind of insanity that would lead to?” Mill’s voice was quiet, almost humble.
“I don’t care. I think that Varycas has the right idea, allowing his vampires in his territory to bring their human pets out in public. Draven could learn a thing or two from him.”
“We have to maintain the divide between our societies. We have to keep to the shadows,” Mill said, almost desperately. “If we don’t—if the humans marshal all they have against us … We will lose everything.”
“Mill, when are you going to realize … they couldn’t hope to stand against us.” She laughed. “You’re not one of them, you know. Your heart stopped beating a long time ago.”
“Kate, if a war breaks out, it is not going to go the way you think.”
Kate just laughed. “More of them will die than us just by population size alone. Besides, we can rebuild our numbers from the wealth of warm bodies in this city. What are they going to do?”
I slumped against the wall, sliding down to the floor.
Quiet whimpering floated through the darkness—Laura.
“It’s okay …” Gregory whispered soothingly.
I understood. The idea of a war breaking out in our city was terrifying. Given the vampires’ speed, strength, and insatiable desire for blood, the only logical conclusion was that Tampa was going to turn into a graveyard.
“Don’t be so mopey, Mill,” Kate said. “The humans have had it coming for some time.”
We’ve had it coming, have we? I reached up and touched the stake in my hair. I’d killed three vampires myself. And I was a seemingly helpless teenage girl.
Maybe more vampires were like Mill, who actually cared about humans, or were trying to maintain their own humanity. Maybe they would convince Draven that a war with an outrageous amount of human causalities would be a bad idea.
A prickling, burning sensation started at the back of my throat.
Who was I kidding? There was no way that the vampires would look out for humans over their own interests.
“I’m going to have to talk to Draven,” Mill said quietly.
“Why would he listen to you about anything?” Kate asked.
“I …” Mill started. “I don’t know. But this is spiraling out of control too quickly. Someone needs to stop it.”
Kate scoffed. “Do what you want, Mill. But regardless of what you do tonight, this war is going to happen. It might not be today, or tomorrow, but it is going to happen. And then the innocents will die, and blood will flow.” She dropped her voice so that I had to strain to hear her. “We’ll be like kings and queens. I don’t know why you fight it.”
The words echoed in my mind.
Blood will flow.
What had I done?
Chapter 28
Mill shooed his girlfriend out of his apartment less than ten minutes later. They had switched to arguing in hushed voices too soft for me to understand, and when he finally threw open the door to the spare bedroom, all three of us shrieked, terrified that it was Kate.
“Sorry,” Mill said, but didn’t stay to see if we were all right. He walked back out to the living room.
“Mill,” I started, clambering to my feet and hurrying out after him. I left Gregory to help Laura off the floor. “Mill, hold on.”
I didn’t like the way that my voice trembled.
Mill was standing in front of the windows, his arms folded across his chest.
“Mill?” I asked cautiously, taking a step toward him.
“I’m sorry you had to hear that,” he said, not turning to look at me.
“I—” I was at a loss for what to say. My mind was whirling so fast that it felt like the room around me was spinning. Maybe it was the loss of blood. I decided to sit down on the couch.
“How …” I tried again. “How are we going to fix this?”
Mill remained silent.
“And another thing—” I started again, anger flaring from nowhere. “You never told me that you had a psycho girlfriend.” Mill shot me a sidelong glare, but still did not answer.
Did he ever intend to tell me that he was dating some vamp witch who hated humans?
My cheeks flushed. Who was I to think that I was close enough with Mill to know that sort of personal information? He might have saved me a couple of times, but that didn’t mean we were friends.
My hands tightened into fists in my lap.
Get a grip, Cassie. There are more important things to worry about right now. Like a vampire war that could be starting under our noses.
How were we going to fix this?
“This is all my fault …” I mumbled. “If I hadn’t tried to track down Roxy and her gang, none of this would have happened.”
Mill sighed heavily and turned around to face me.
My heart sank as I gestured up at him. “You wouldn’t have felt the need to come bail me out of my own stupid decisions, and Charlie and Benjy would both still be alive …”
Tears stung the corners of my eyes. “And you wouldn’t be on their hit list, and they wouldn’t know that I was a human.” I
barked a laugh. “There is no way that any of this could have gone any worse.”
“Thirsty McGee could have made things worse,” Gregory said. “If she had found out we were here …”
Mill shook his head, glaring at the coffee table. “That’s why I had you hide. Let’s just say that she isn’t known for her gentleness.”
Gregory cocked his head at Mill. “Are you sure you’re not considering joining Roxy’s kink squad?”
Mill just gave him a glare.
“That much was obvious from her attitude,” I sniffed. Laura’s hands were trembling. It looked like Gregory’s arm around her waist was all that was keeping her upright.
“I was so scared she was going to find us … and eat me …” she whimpered.
“Nothing was going to happen to you while I was here,” Mill said firmly. “And I won’t leave you to be eaten by her either.”
“Very reassuring,” I muttered sarcastically.
“You’re starting to sound like Kate,” Mill said through gritted teeth.
“What do you see in her, anyway?” I said, my eyes narrowing.
“Not the time, Cassie,” Gregory snapped. “We sort of have bigger problems right now. Like a bunch of vampires fighting and killing each other?”
“He’s right,” Mill said.
I wasn’t going to let him off that easily, but decided to hold my tongue for now.
“So what do we do?” I asked. “If this other Lord in Miami wants a war, how can we possibly stop him?”
“We don’t have to stop him,” Mill said. “We have to stop whoever Draven is sending after Ivan and Roxy.”
I sat up straighter. “What? I didn’t hear her say anything about those two.”
“That’s because she didn’t mention their names,” Mill went on. “Before I chased her out of here, she told me that Draven was sending a sweep team after the rest of the group that the murdered vampire had arrived in Miami with. Draven wants them for questioning.”
“Wait” I said, getting to my feet. “‘Sweep team’? Does that means he’s going to … y’know …” I ran a finger over my throat.
“No,” Mill said. “They’ll be taken to him alive, where they’ll be compelled to tell him all about the girl who killed Theo, and me, her helper, of course.”
“If Roxy tells Draven about me, about what happened—” I sunk back down onto the couch again. “Mill … Draven will know I’m human.”
“And it won’t take very much for Draven to realize that the two of us are connected, especially after Roxy saw us leave together.” He looked pained. “I don’t exactly want Draven finding out that I’ve been working against him. Couple that with the fact that I was the one who killed a vampire in Varycas’s territory … well, I’ll be in trouble.”
I scrubbed my hands over my face. This wasn’t happening. This couldn’t be happening.
“Then we have to get to Roxy and Ivan first,” I said, hope piercing the despair washing over me like a monsoon. “If we can find them, we can—”
But I was unable to finish my thought. Nothing I could think of would work. There was no guarantee we could overpower them. And apologizing and asking to be allies against Draven would never work.
“What’s done is done,” Mill said.
My temper flared. “So you’re just giving up?”
“I didn’t say that,” Mill said. “All I meant is that the damage has been done with Roxy and Ivan.”
“What do you think they’ll do?” I asked. “Honestly?”
“Do you think they’ll run to Lord Draven?” Gregory asked.
“That’d be suicide,” Mill replied, waving his hand dismissively. “Slow suicide, at least. But Draven is in control of a very large territory. He’ll do all he can to track them down and find out everything they know about what happened tonight.”
He started to pace back and forth across the living room, running his hands through his short, dark hair.
“Draven has spies, obviously, and they’re all over the place. He learned what happened in Miami tonight from them, even if it’s only fragments. That’s why he sent the sweep team after Roxy and Ivan. He’ll capture them and torture them—”
“Torture?” Laura whispered.
Mill spared her only a momentary glance. “—to find out why they’ve done what they’ve done, and everything they know. If they disliked him as much as they said they did … it’s not going to end well for them.”
He paused, his jaw clenching.
“Draven does not take well to things going awry in his territory. That’s why he mentioned envoys, and peace talks. He’ll do everything he can to hush it all up, dispose of the problems, no matter how many vampires he has to kill. What Kate doesn’t understand is that peace is much more profitable than war for vampires. Draven will do all he can to keep the peace, because peace means he remains in power.”
“All of this is making my head hurt,” Gregory moaned, removing his glasses and rubbing his eyes with his thumb and forefinger.
“So we need to catch that sweep team,” I said. “Follow them—especially if they have a lead to where Roxy and Ivan will be.”
Though what we were going to do once we found them, I had no idea.
Mill considered—and sighed.
“I can’t think of anything better to do at the moment,” he said. His shoulders slumped with exhaustion. He looked over at Gregory and Laura. “You’ll have to come with us. It won’t be safe for you here if Kate comes back to spend daylight here.”
I felt a twinge of frustration. “She has full run of the place then?”
“Not the time,” Mill snapped at me. Then his gaze softened. “When we find them, we have to kill Roxy and Ivan.”
“Kill them?” Gregory asked, hushed.
“It’s the only way to keep them quiet,” Mill said.
“Wait, Mill, I didn’t think—”
“Cassie, it’s either this … or Draven finds out everything.”
My breath caught in my throat. When he put it so starkly … he definitely had a point. Even if I hated it.
“Besides,” he continued. “If we succeed … they won’t be a bother to Laura anymore after this.”
I looked over at Laura, whose eyes were as round as saucers. She was clutching Gregory’s arm as if they were sitting side by side in a movie theater, watching a horror film.
If only. How had things ended up spiraling so madly out of control in just one night? No more than eight hours ago, the plan had been to recon the vamps and find out how to protect Laura. Now it was seek and destroy. War loomed on the horizon, endangering not just my life, not just Mill’s, but all maybe every human in Tampa’s.
And in order to stop it … we had to keep Lord Draven finding out the truth about me and Mill.
Chapter 29
“How are we going to find this sweep squad?”
We had squeezed ourselves into the back of a silver Mercedes town car that Mill had called for. Laura had been reluctant to leave, even with the knowledge that Kate could come back. There were dark circles under her eyes, and her perfect hair was starting to tangle.
A strange impulse passed over me. I wanted to hug the poor girl and tell her that everything was going to be okay.
“Hey, you still have your stake?” I asked her gently as we stood on the sidewalk, waiting for the car to show up.
She nodded, her bottom lip quivering.
Mill, who was sitting up front with the smartly dressed driver, did not answer my question.
“Mill!”
He started, and then glanced over his shoulder.
“What?”
“How are we going to find the sweepers?” Gregory asked for me.
I had to admire Gregory’s courage through all of this. His brow had stayed one long, wrinkled line since he had climbed into the limo outside of Laura’s house. All of his usual good humor had seemingly been leeched from him.
I couldn’t hate him for wanting to protect Laura. But as I look
ed down and saw their fingers knotted together tightly on the seat between them, I couldn’t help but feel a little jealous. Laura may not have wanted Gregory as anything more than a hand to squeeze for moral support, but Gregory took it in stride, circumstantial or not. He was a rock for her when she desperately needed one.
A wave of loneliness swept over me. I hadn’t had that when I was dealing with Byron.
I still didn’t have it, even surrounded by people and Mill.
“It won’t be hard,” Mill said. “I contacted one of the other vampires I know who’s in Draven’s inner circle. He’s the closest I have to a double agent. I know the names of the vampires on the team, and where they’re headed.”
“Convenient,” I said.
“It pays to make friends with those in power, Cassandra,” Mill said.
Cassandra? I pressed my lips together in annoyance.
“So where are we going?” Gregory asked.
“To an old neighborhood in eastern Tampa,” Mill replied, checking the map on his phone. “Just down the road here.” And he craned his neck to be able to look up at the tall buildings rushing by us.
I wished I had more than one stake on me. Laura had never used one, and Gregory was defenseless. And on top of that, Mill was injured. I mean, I was too, but Mill was definitely going to be the one carrying us here.
“Okay, slow down,” Mill whispered, peering out the window.
The driver obeyed.
We found ourselves in a seedy neighborhood, where windows were boarded up, vines climbed up walls, and half the streetlights were out.
The driver stopped outside of an old theater, which was advertising movies that had released months before.
“That’s that discount movie theater, isn’t it? The one where that guy got shot last summer?” Gregory asked, leaning across Laura to look out my window.
“Oh, great,” Laura said. She would have melted into the seat if she could have.
Someone Should Save Her Page 13
