Page 55 of Blood as Sweet as Roses

Crimson

The hotel lobby is plunged into darkness as the power cuts out.

But I don’t mind.

I take advantage of my sharp night vision, lunging forward at one of the attacking vampires. He wears a dark hood with a mask over his features. Without hesitating, I go for his heart, plunging my stake deep into his chest. He twitches, and deanimates without a sound.

Emergency lights flicker on in an eerie, orange glow, along the two front desks. They illuminate the battle scene raging through the lobby.

It’s mostly vampires, locked in combat in a fog of supernatural motion. The shifters took the courtyard, the witches took the skies. Oana and Cedric managed to force us back from the hotel’s entrance into the lobby, but I don’t know if they gained any ground elsewhere.

We seem to be holding things well here, but I don’t know how long that will last. Vampires have good endurance, and can keep fighting indefinitely if evenly matched. If we can last to the dawn, the intruders will have to retreat.

My mind goes to Paige, alone on the holding floor. If we make it to sunrise, I can see her again. I have to keep her safe, at all costs.

I position myself directly in front of the emergency staircase, prepared to take down any vampire that makes it this far. I’m the strongest, the final guard between the attackers and the rest of the hotel.

Celine and Damien fall back from their positions in front of me. Celine’s black blazer is drenched in blood, her fangs down by her lips. Damien’s shirt is in tatters, his long locs falling over his bare shoulders.

“Why would Oana attack the hotel?” Celine says furiously.

“Because she hates us, and she loves chaos,” Damien answers bitterly.

“Because she knew we wouldn’t be expecting it,” I suggest, watching carefully for any movement. If anyone gets past me, they could make it up to Paige. I won’t allow that to happen. “It’s an impossible plan.”

“She wants to rattle us,” Damien sighs. “I don’t think she really believes she could take the hotel.”

“And she must have gotten support from the eastern shifters and the witches,” Celine says. She takes her phone from her pocket and tries to make a call, but the line is dead. “Fuck, they must have cut the cell service somehow.”

“Magic,” Damien confirms. “But it will take a lot of energy to maintain a spell like that, and I don’t think they have many witches on their side.”

“It’s not the whole coven, at least I don’t think so.

Just a few of the independent witches who serve Artemis,” I answer.

A lone vampire breaks through the wave in front of us and stumbles toward the elevators.

When he spots me, he tries to scurry away.

But I rush forward, grabbing him by the scruff of his throat.

He’s not prepared, and I easily stake him, tossing his deanimated body behind the desk.

Out of the corner of my eye, I spot a long-legged wolf barge into the lobby from the entrance to the courtyard.

Her white fur shimmers in the emergency lights.

She launches herself into a group of masked vampires, scattering them.

In the chaos, she manages to pin one down.

Then she shifts back into her human form to stake them.

“Ha! That’s thirty-four!” she declares proudly, twisting her ivory dagger-stake out of the deanimated vampire’s chest.

“Lexi, you’re naked again,” Celine points out.

Her sister looks down at her bare, blood-splatted body and makes a squealing noise in the back of her throat. “That dress was Balenciaga! Goddammit, how did Tudor manage to shift and keep his clothes on?”

“It takes a long time to perfect,” Damien says.

“I’m getting really good at shifting, though, aren’t I?” she says, looking over at her sister for approval.

“You’re doing great, Lex,” Celine says, although her eyes are watching a group of clashing vampires by a luggage rack. In a flash, she rushes to join them.

“Lexi, what’s happening in the courtyard?” I ask the vampire-shifter.

“It doesn’t look good,” she answers, wiping blood from her cheek.

“We’re keeping the eastern shifters at bay for now, but our witches and wolves are getting tired.

There were only a few representatives at the conference.

And the witches seem to think that Oana and the Artemis witches have a circle somewhere, and they’re using magic to block the cell service, and maybe infiltrate the hotel’s defenses.

They’re trying to counter it, but it’s hard to do that and fight at the same time. Can you spare any vampires?”

I look around at the pandemonium, and consider the risk of allowing any vampires to get access to the other floors.

“I don’t think so,” I answer. “Can you keep holding them off?”

Lexi’s blue eyes shine optimistically. “We’ll do our best, Crimson.”

I give her a nod, and she shifts back into her wolf form, then leaps toward the courtyard entrance.

I pull my phone from my pocket, trying again to reach anyone else.

But the cell service is still down.

A group of vampires rush me, and my phone clatters to the ground. Furious, I sink my fangs into the neck of the nearest one, grabbing another by her hair and pulling fiercely.

I just have to hold them off until dawn.

I have to keep her safe.