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Morgan struggled against Teresa’s grip. Her feet scrabbled against the balcony bars until one of her shoes fell from her feet. Teresa tightened her hold, and Morgan’s eyes bulged as she gasped for air.

“I always knew you’d kiss his ass.” Teresa continued. “You were always his sidekick. Always the weak one, the follower.”

I took another step forward. My brain calculated speed, distances, and possibilities. The balcony was about fifteen feet away. I could cross it in less than a second with vampire speed. But Teresa would see me coming. Morgan would be over the edge before I reached them.

“What do you want?” I asked, stalling for time.

Teresa grinned. “I want what Zand promised me, together forever.”

“And this doesn’t get you any closer to that.”

“It’s the first step.” Teresa said, her fingers flexing around Morgan’s throat. “Call your brother. Tell him what’s happening. I want him and his little nurse to hear this.”

“I’m not calling anyone.” I said, taking another cautious step forward. “It’s just you and me. Let’s talk this through and come up with a compromise.”

Morgan’s eyes locked with mine, desperate and pleading for my help.

“Wrong answer.” Teresa’s evil grin vanished. “There is no compromise. You have to see that. Harlen, you picked the wrongside. Zand left me and started a new family. Gill, you and Zand kicked me out. So, it was my time to start my own family.”

“Marisol is your family?” I asked, trying to keep Teresa talking and distracted.

It happened so fast that even my vampire senses barely registered it. One moment Morgan was there, pinned against the railing. The next, Teresa’s arm extended in a swift, violent push. She let go.

And Morgan was falling.

As I sprung forward. My body moved with pure instinct and panic. But I was too late. I was too slow. I reached the balcony edge just in time to see Morgan’s body tumbling through the darkness. Her arms were outstretched as if she was trying to grab the night’s air.

A screamed tore from my throat, raw and primal. I gripped the railing so hard the metal bent beneath my fingers. Twenty stories below, Morgan’s body grew smaller, a bright shape against dark pavement.

“No!” The word didn’t begin to contain the horror that ripped through me.

A movement to my left snapped my attention back. Teresa had jumped onto a balcony two floors down. She looked up at me with a face of cruel triumph.

“You picked the wrong side.” This psycho bitch called up to me. “Tell Zand I send my love.”

Before I could move, she leaped again, a dark shadow flitting from balcony to balcony with inhuman grace before she disappeared into the darkness.

I pounded the railing with my fist, the metal rattled beneath the impact. My mind couldn’t process what had just happened. Morgan. Falling. The sound her body would make when it hit the concrete below. The sound I couldn’t bear to imagine.

I should have been faster. Shit, I should have anticipated Teresa’s next move. I should have protected Morgan like I promised Zand and Chanel I would. Like I promised myself I would.

The rage came first, a red-hot flood that threatened to consume me from the inside out. Then something else, the leaden weight of failure. The thought of letting down the people who mattered to me. Morgan, she mattered more than she knew.

I turned from the balcony. My movements were robotic as I rushed back through the condo toward the hallway. There was no time for elevators. I yanked open the stairwell door so hard it tore from its hinges.

There were twenty floors between me and Morgan’s broken body. Twenty floors of nothing but failure and the knowledge that I’ve let down the one person who saw something in me worth trusting.

The stairwell became a blur of steps and painted walls. I took entire flights in single bounds. My body moved faster than human eyes could track. The rage and grief inside me fueled something primal, unlocking speed I didn’t know I possessed. Each landing barely registered beneath my feet. Twenty floors, nineteen, eighteen—counting backward toward the inevitable horror waiting below.

“Fuck!” I cried out so loud that I’m sure it woke the residents on the sixth floor.

I burst through the exit door so hard it slammed against the outer brick wall. The sound was like a gunshot in the quiet night. My eyes found her mangled body immediately. Morgan laid lifeless on the concrete. Her small body was twisted in angles that human bodies should never form. Blood pooled beneath her, spreading outward like dark angel wings. She was my angel.

No.

No.

No.