Page 34 of A Token of Blood and Betrayal

My response was simple and straightforward.“I’ll reevaluate our relationship at that time.”

“You are welcome to stay until dusk,” Jared said.

Well played, Jared.Perfect timing.Perfect cadence.

Satine slowly shifted her attention from me to him.I kept my expression blank, my heartbeat steady.Jared had finalized his claim of the compound with that statement, and he was forcing Satine to recognize his authority.If she stayed, it would look like she was accepting an invitation.If she left, it would look like she’d ceded the compound.

Of course, there was always the not small chance Satine would choose a third option and decide to kill us all.Given Satine’s intense glare, the latter seemed much more likely.

“Would you like The Rain’s email to apply for a room?”I asked, hoping to pull her attention away from Jared.

It worked.Despite the promise of death in her eyes, I kept my breath even.She couldn’t kill me outright.Did she know she could hurt me though?Arcuro had figured it out.So had Malachi, the vampire who had replaced Jared as Arcuro’s henchman.If that information had spread…

The tension in the room ratcheted tighter and tighter.I did my best to project calmness to my companions.All three were lethal statues ready to leap from their stone pedestals.

We were so focused on Satine and her vampires no one noticed the danger at our backs until it was too late.

Chapter Ten

Atraitor’sknifeplungedinto Jared’s back.Blake and Nora shifted, intercepting Satine’s people, and I shoved Jared’s attacker as hard as I could.All that did was piss the vampire off… and give Jared the half second he needed to pull the blade from his back and slash it across the woman’s throat.I turned away as he grabbed her head and yanked it off.

I searched for some way to defend myself and spotted the mini-bar to my right.A broken bottle wasn’t much protection, but it was something.I scrambled that way, fully expecting Satine or one of her vampires to grab me before I grabbed the bottle.I wrapped my hand around the neck, turned, and swung.

The bottle shattered against the skull of a vampire, slashing his face and slicing into my hand.I cursed and launched the glass remains at the vampire I’d just thoroughly pissed off.He sprang forward, his teeth aiming for my throat.

I screamed half a second before he did, but he kept screaming as I hit the floor.The impact knocked the air from my lungs, and the weight of the vampire on top of me kept me from drawing in more.He thrashed and wailed.His head clipped my chin, and a fist or an elbow cracked against my ribs.

I tried to shove him off, tried to wiggle out from beneath him, but his flailing limbs and spasms battered my body.He kept me pinned because I kept having to protect myself.

Suddenly his weight was wrenched away.

Blake.In wolf form, he took down a vampire I hadn’t seen coming, then he ripped out the throat of the one still screaming and thrashing.That’s when I realized the treaty had saved me, the treaty and then Blake.

I pushed back to my feet and stood unsteadily.The surprise attack and the massive spike of adrenaline had put me in reactionary mode.It had shut down rational thinking.I wasn’t completely unarmed.I had Christian’s bracelet tied around my wrist.

The strobe grenade was the best one to throw.It would handicap Jared along with the other vampires.Blake and Nora wouldn’t love it, but they’d shake it off fast.

I slid the marble out of its netted cage as Blake’s teeth latched onto another vampire’s throat.He wrenched his head left, then right, then left again, ripping through cartilage and bone until Blake tore free.The vampire remained upright another moment, long enough to see that his head was attached to the spine by the smallest amount of flesh.

I gagged.Ash replaced the body in seconds, but the image etched itself into my mind.

Blake snapped and lunged at me, clearly commanding me to get my ass out of there.I looked toward the exit.Vampires fought there as well—more must have come when they sensed the violence—but I might be able to make it.IfI chose to run.

I’d be a distraction if I stayed.Iknewthat.I also knew I’d feel responsible if any of my friends died.

No more hesitating.I launched the marble into the stone floor.The chamber erupted in a cacophony of discordant sound and flashing lights, like a thousand cameras blinking in rapid succession, fissuring the room into a million mirrored shards.

I squeezed my eyes shut tight, trying to save my vision.When the grenade fizzled out, I blinked the dark splotches away.I made out Nora and Blake in the twisting blurs and shadows.They were crouched low to the floor, but their reaction was nothing compared to the vampires’, who stumbled into walls and furniture and each other.It might have been comical if blood and black ash hadn’t painted the chamber floor.

Another hard blink, and I found Jared.Then Satine.Both appeared to be blind and in pain, but Satine was recovering much faster than Jared.

Satine had been mini-grenaded before.Christian had shattered one when she’d ambushed us outside of Austin.The fury in her eyes when they landed on me said she remembered that moment clearly.

Between one blink and the next, Satine crossed the chamber.

I tried to run.She shoved me down, grabbed a fistful of my hair, and jerked my head sideways to expose my throat.Her fangs glistened with blood and saliva.

“Know that I could snap your neck like a twig.”Her face came closer.Her breath smelled like death.“Know that I could drain you to the brink of death.I could revive you with my blood, then do it over again.”