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I looked at both the cases, trying to find a weakness in them but there was nothing I could obviously see. I fired a bullet at the one with Vlad in but only a web of fractures appeared in the surface. I should have guessed that the glass would be bullet proof, but it was worth a shot.

“Tut tut. Do you really think I’m that stupid? Come on now, you’re running out of time.”

Vlad looked at me through the side of his coffin, his eyes conveying more than words could ever say. He already knew my choice and he was okay with that. He knew it long before Silas had put him in the box.

He nodded and closed his eyes. Ready to surrender to death.

I rushed forward, ignoring the way Benjamin’s eyes widened. There was a small black rectangular pad at the base of the coffin. I’d missed it when I first looked at the coffins, too distracted by trying to save Benjamin.

“So predictable, Damyr,” Silas drawled as he pressed his thumb against into the pad. As soon as the lid opened, I ripped the gag from Benjamin’s mouth.

“It’s a trap,” he shouted as I unfastened the ropes around his wrist and chest. He wasn’t telling me anything I didn’t already know. I lifted him up and out of the coffin, releasing the mechanism in Vlad’s coffin. A sinking feeling had the pit of my stomach dropping like lead. Vlad cried out in pain and I couldn’t look. I was too much of a coward to see what my decision to save Benjamin had cost me.

I turned to the door and found Silas blocking the exit with his gun pointed at us.

“It was never about us,” Benjamin said as his clung to my jacket. “It was always about you.”

“What?” I said, struggling to put the pieces together.

“Your little pet is right,” Silas spat, his anger making his hand tremble as he aimed the gun at us. “All these years I’ve waited for this. Did you really think I was ever going to let you go? Come on, Damyr! Think! I hate you for what you did, for what you stole from me. My family wasmurdered. I was an outcast, forced to beg for scraps on the side of the road until I managed to find the Hunters who had killed Edwin. I was lucky enough to find a vampire willing to make a deal and he tortured me for years as his plaything. He didn’t even see his death coming, the fool. Now, it’s your turn to suffer.”

The next few seconds happened in a blur. Silas pulled the trigger, intent on hitting me with a silver bullet. I prepared to fly towards him, to tackle him to the ground, knowing that I was probably going to get shot in the heart. But I didn’t care. I was taking him with me.

Except that didn’t happen.

The gun fired and, at the same time, I heard a sound that made my blood run cold.

One minute Benjamin was behind me, the next he was stood in front of me, his eyes wide with shock as he fell to the ground with a thud.

No!

Time froze. It couldn’t have been more than the smallest portion of a second, but it felt like a lifetime.

Feet pounded into the room but I couldn’t take my eyes off Benjamin. What had I done?

I surged towards Benjamin, not caring if Silas had the power to shoot me or not. Without Benjamin there was no point in living. He was my everything.

If he died…

He was breathing. Thank God. But there was so much blood. I pushed down on the wound in his chest, but the blood just kept seeping through my fingers.

I looked around in a panic. The others had made it into the room and were taking in the chaos in front of them. Silas had been forced to his knees as Bishop held a gun to his head. The bastard was still smiling as he watched me fall apart.

“Damyr,” Aleksey said as he knelt down beside me. “Turn him.”

I shook my head. He wasn’t sure what he wanted, I couldn’t take that choice away from him. “No. I can’t. We… I… We haven’t…”

Silas laughed bitterly. “Poor Damyr. Too afraid to turn your precious love?”

“Get him out of here!” Aleksey barked.

“Wait,” I said, my voice sounding distant. “His thumb opens the case.”

I heard the twins move Silas around the room and the soft hiss as they got into the coffin holding Vlad. I’d think about all that later, though. I needed to save Benjamin. I knew I had to turn him, knew it was the only way to save him, but I had hoped we’d do this differently.

“Benjamin,” I choked out. He was barely conscious. His eyes fluttered and they rolled back into his head. “Stay with me, just long enough.”

Just long enough for me to save you.