Page 42 of Dance of the Phoenix (Cloak of the Vampire #3)

Aileen

Before Jebediah and Eleanor could move, Logan and I attacked.

Both of us launched ourselves at Jebediah.

Logan used his Gift, his enhanced strength in his legs thanks to his years as a soccer prodigy, to shoot a kick, which contacted, at Jebediah’s midsection.

Before Jebediah could respond, I came from behind him and chopped the nape of his neck with an intense precision.

A normal human would’ve passed out from my chop, but Jebediah was a vampire—and a Gifted at that. So all it did was give him a momentary concussion that made him stagger in place.

As Logan used the momentum to launch a set of kicks at Jebediah as if he were a punching bag, I turned around toward Eleanor. All she did was stand and stare at what was happening with dead, dark eyes, her body immobile.

Why wasn’t she fighting?

Why was she only standing and staring as if she was simply awaiting her turn?

Something was wrong.

And without thinking twice about it, I closed my eyes and thought, Stop !

The soft pounding in my temples, along with the sudden silence, told me time had listened to my command, and I opened my eyes and looked at Logan, who gave me a quizzical look. “What’s wrong?”

Part of our plan was to use my time-stopping power only in an emergency, in case one of us was on the brink of death, so as not to exhaust me.

But this was a different emergency. “Eleanor is acting weird,” I said quickly, knowing I had less than thirty seconds to talk to him.

“You’ve got a handle on Jebediah, so let me handle her by myself. ”

Logan’s face contorted in rising anger. “Aileen, we agreed to stick to the plan of doing everything together—”

“I know!” I snapped, cutting him off, pointing at Eleanor. “But she’s not even moving! Let me handle this on my own.” I sucked in a deep breath and said, “Please.”

Logan looked at Eleanor for a few precious, long seconds. The pain rose in my head steadily and angrily, ready to take me under unless I released my hold on my power soon.

He then let out an angry breath. “Fine. But keep some of your attention on me in case I need your help.”

Relieved, I said, “Noted,” and thought in my head, Resume !

The noise of the audience returned with a vengeance, and I approached Eleanor, while Logan continued his onslaught on Jebediah, who now seemed to get ahold of himself and began to fight back.

“Eleanor,” I said when I was right in front of her, my hands on her shoulders. “Talk to me. Please.”

She stared at me, but I could tell she wasn’t really seeing me. She did not speak.

Heartbeat quickening, I gave her a shake. “Please, Eleanor, talk to me,” I said, feeling so helpless. How could I possibly fight her, let alone kill her, when she was like this?

The ground suddenly shook. Heart lurching to my throat, I whipped around to see Jebediah had come to his senses and seemed to be activating his Gift. He was the one causing the ground to shake somehow, making Logan lose his balance momentarily.

Jebediah then rocketed toward Logan and shot a punch to his gut that made Logan reel back and cough blood.

Fuck.

Letting Eleanor go, I ran toward Jebediah and sent a kick to his knees. But Jebediah must’ve sensed me coming this time because he evaded me almost too easily and punched my ribs so hard, I fell down, out of breath, as pain bloomed where he’d punched.

What the hell was this man’s Gift?

But there was no time to figure it out, because Jebediah was now on Logan, pinning him to the floor seemingly without effort and punching his face over and over again. Logan thrashed, trying to release himself from under Jebediah, but Jebediah was somehow strong enough to hold him down.

Adrenaline rushed over me, and I was about to climb to my feet and head over there when a cold, metallic thing suddenly pressed against my throat.

A knife.

Held by Eleanor, who somehow came from behind me.

“Don’t move,” she whispered in my ear, her voice lower and far more deadly than I remembered it. “Or I’ll cut your head off.”

And it was then that I remembered something crucial. Something I’d forgotten.

Eleanor used to belong to the Renaldi League. She used to do bloody, dirty work for Renaldi under the pretense of being a prostitute.

She was taught how to kill. To assassinate, to be more precise.

Whatever was going on with her now, I realized she could actually kill me if she wanted. And it seemed she did want to do just that.

Meaning I had underestimated her and put Logan and myself in danger.

No, I thought determinedly, closing my eyes. We can make it. Stop !

This time, the pain was so unbearable, I could barely open my eyes. But I did, watching as Logan struggled to wriggle out from under Jebediah’s frozen weight.

“Goddammit, Aileen!” Logan now yelled, face bloody and almost disfigured.

Through the pain, I took the knife from Eleanor’s hand and pushed her hand away.

According to Ragnor, weapons weren’t common in the arena, for the vampires strived to show their powerful abilities without relying on external factors.

So the fact that Eleanor brought a knife could only mean one thing.

She wasn’t here for show.

She was here to kill.

I walked toward Logan, fighting the pain, as I helped him up to his feet. “Let’s take him out,” I said, wincing both because of the pain and Logan’s furious glower. “Berate me after we finish this, please.”

Logan spit blood and gave me a single, angry nod.

Resume! I thought, and the pain receded, leaving a wave of weariness I could’ve really done without.

Before Jebediah could act, Logan and I attacked him together. He shot a kick to his head, while I aimed my own kick to his knees. Both our kicks connected together, making Jebediah cry out.

I glanced behind me to see Eleanor looking at her hands, not making a move at us. She looked almost robotic, as if she were operating under direct orders, and she wasn’t to move until further commands.

Whatever the reason for Eleanor’s strangeness, it gave me time to focus on beating Jebediah.

Jebediah tried to kick at Logan, but Logan recoiled slowly, too slowly for Iovan’s Imperium to take effect. Gritting my teeth, I ran toward Jebediah and grabbed his shoulders, shooting my knee to his back. Jebediah swiveled around, but I jumped away ... and slipped.

I fucking slipped on the marble floor.

Jebediah’s eyes flashed in victory as he came at me full force, somehow causing the floor to shake and rumble, making it hard for me to try and get up.

He aimed a kick at my head, and I could barely roll away from him. By then, Logan reached from behind, wrapping his arm around Jebediah’s neck. “Aileen, use it!” Logan screamed at me as he struggled to keep Jebediah immobile with his hold, as Jebediah thrashed and struggled against him.

The floor stopped shaking, probably thanks to Logan distracting Jebediah, so I managed to climb to my feet, the adrenaline numbing the ache in my ribs.

Knowing there would be hell to pay later, I closed my eyes and, for the third time, thought, Stop!

Time barely obeyed my command this time, and I knew we had only seconds before my control would slip. “Do it!” I screamed at Logan through the silence in the arena.

Logan didn’t hesitate; he pushed Jebediah to the floor and, with one foot on his back, Logan raised his other foot, and with power and strength no human could hope to have, he stomped down on Jebediah’s neck, cutting through the skin, meat, and veins, ripping through until his foot touched the floor itself, severing Jebediah’s head from the rest of his body.

I could barely see Logan’s face turn to shock when I felt my hold on time slipping before I could even command it to resume.

The cheers returned, but the crowd suddenly turned silent, as if not understanding what was happening. Which made sense; for them, one moment Logan was barely holding onto Jebediah, and in the next blink, Jebediah was on the floor, dead, blood pooling under him.

Before the exhaustion could kick in, I forced myself to rise up and turn around to face Eleanor.

But Eleanor wasn’t there.

And when I looked for the knife I’d taken from her, I didn’t find it anywhere.

Then I heard the crowd collectively gasp, and I slowly turned around.

Eleanor was right before Logan, holding the knife in Logan’s chest.

My heart stopped, and I couldn’t move as Eleanor, using strength I didn’t know she was capable of, twisted the knife and curved it before taking it out, a beating heart impaled on its sharp, bloody edge.

Eyes wide, Logan fell to his knees, looking down at his gaping chest. He then turned to look at me, his face slack with shock, before, to my utter dismay, he smiled.

Then Logan crumbled to the floor into a puddle of his own blood, dead.