Page 42 of High Stakes and Soulmates (Fanged Mistakes #3)

“I’ll tell you everything you want to know!

” Casimir’s victim cries after Casimir simply looks at the man.

“Phil offered to have his maker turn us into vampires, but first we had to do what he said. He told us to find some people to kill, which we did. His maker turned us months ago, but once he wandered into your territory, he started… setting things up to make it a spectacle. Staking them to the wall, doing things like that. And it was Phil’s idea to start with his parents.

He said only the humans who helped him kill the people he listed would be given eternal life.

And those who failed would face damnation. ”

“So the couples who were drained and staked to the walls were originally people who were seeking a way to be turned into vampires?” Cyrus asks in disbelief. I guess that explains why they were at the elderly couple’s house but weren’t the killer.

“Right! They didn’t make the cut. They weren’t good enough,” he says.

“It was a test! A trial! They had to do it without faltering and they would be gifted eternal life. They weren’t good enough.

They panicked. They went back to the scene…

afraid they’d left evidence there, and I believe they planned to turn it in.

But our maker was watching and he knew that they faltered. ”

Cyrus’s jaw tightens. “So they had to be good enough to be turned? And being good enough is killing a defenseless elderly couple and then your own people?”

“All of us knew what we were getting into when we agreed to this. And they couldn’t handle it, so they had to be eliminated to avoid the risk of exposure,” the man says. “Only those worthy would be turned, and the rest were sacrificed so we could become vampires.”

Sacrificed? So would Louis stake one to the wall to fuck with me and Cyrus, and then use the other person as the blood source for a newly turned vampire?

So every “sacrifice” resulted in a new vampire?

A new vampire doesn’t have to drain and kill a human, but it was originally seen as the best way to give them strength for their new life.

It was a fucked-up tale that the last drops of a dying person would give you the most strength.

So they’d drain one and stake another, and these people were just fine with it.

And all the while, Louis was simply toying with lives. I can see him dragging around these humans desperate for a longer life and forcing them to do depraved acts just for an ounce of fun for himself.

“So that means you both should die then, right?” Casimir asks. “Sounds like you haven’t kept this guy’s code.”

“No! I didn’t say anything! I didn’t open my mouth and blab shit to anyone!” the guy I’m holding protests. “He did! He’s the one who deserves to die.”

“Evidently, a sense of comradery between you all doesn’t exist,” I say.

“We don’t care for those who can’t follow the rules,” the man I hold snarls.

The one Casimir holds looks up at him as he desperately reaches for him. “Please. They’re going to kill me, please.”

Out of the shadows walk about eleven vampires, and two more come out of the club. Some are young, but not all of them.

“He’s told them everything!” the man I hold yells. “He told them everything!”

“Is there a problem here?” Phil asks as he joins the rest. I can’t help but wonder if someone told him we’d shown up. Were they waiting for us?

“Where’s Louis?” I ask.

He shakes his head with a smirk. “I don’t know a Louis.”

“Where’s your fucking leader? What’s he go by now?”

“He told me to keep an eye on you, and I’ve been doing just that so I’d know where you guys were going and when. He’s been quite pleased,” he says. “And you guys welcomed me in with open arms. How sweet of you.”

Casimir throws the guy he’s holding to the ground and turns to Phil. “What’s your plan here? Do you have absolutely no idea how underpowered you are?”

“I don’t think we even need power, do we?” he asks as I see more vampires stepping out of the trees. Anxiety weighs on me. Why the fuck did I bring Cyrus here? I knew it was safest to leave him at home. I should never have taken him somewhere so unsafe.

“So you’re just going to throw a bunch of young vampires at us?” Casimir asks. “I see some older ones, but most of these vampires are practically defenseless, they’re so young.”

Phil grins. “We don’t have to live to win.”

My stomach tightens as I draw Cyrus in close. “Stay with me. Please. Stay with me.”

“I’m right here,” he assures me.

There are at least twenty-five of them now, and even if we’re stronger and older, there are only six of us.

“We’re getting Cyrus away,” Casimir orders. “Move, now.”

I grab Cyrus while Yorick and Atticus stand on either side of me and Julian shifts.

The first man who attacks Casimir is beheaded faster than anyone can even react.

I think it surprises a couple of them, but the older ones aren’t deterred.

They rush us and while they can’t knock Casimir down, they swarm him and Atticus.

“This way,” Yorick says as I clutch Cyrus’s hand, knowing this means that Louis is around here somewhere. He has to be. He’s going to try to take Cyrus from me. He knows that Atticus and Casimir are likely stronger than anyone he can throw at us, so he has numbers on his side.

Why did I even let Cyrus out of the house? Why did I ever do this? Why?

Dread washes through me as someone rushes me and I drive them back.

Yorick tears them to the ground and Cyrus squeezes my hand.

But it’s like another person is there the second they’re torn back.

I hit them away but three more fill their space and I can sense even more coming at me from behind.

I turn as one lunges for Cyrus, and I drive the attacker to his knees before another rips into me.

I nearly lose my grip on Cyrus as I tuck him in, not caring what they do to me as long as I’ve wrapped him up safely in my arms.

“Hey, it’s okay. You’re panicking,” Cyrus says, his grip on me tightening. “Calm down. Please. Just calm down.”

But I can’t. It’s all rushing back to me—everything I’ve ever done wrong, and the very moment I lost Arturo.

I tuck Cyrus close as they swarm around us, cutting us off from the others.

I know I need to stay by the rest of my group, but how the fuck can I when they’re pushing me away?

Any time I try to make it back to Casimir and the others, I’m driven farther from them.

I can’t lose Cyrus. I can’t lose him.

Cyrus places a hand on my cheek, and it draws my attention back to him.

“Ezio, you told me you specialized in assassinations. You told me that you were the best killer in your unit. That the very reason they never wanted to let you go is because you were the best.”

“I can’t lose you.”

“You’re not going to! I’m right here! I’m right fucking here!

” he says. “Louis is fucking with you. He’s getting in your mind.

He’s making you panic. I have my gun and I also have a knife.

I didn’t know what I would need for tonight.

” He sets the knife in my hand as he forces me to let go of him so he can hold his gun.

Cyrus gives me a reassuring smile. “Come on. We can do this together, okay? It’s going to be okay.”

Someone grabs for Cyrus, and I lift my hand to block him before I drive the blade into the side of his head. He reels back and I slide it over his throat, hoping he’ll bleed out or be downed at the very least.

I hear Cyrus’s gun go off as I pull him back toward the SUV, but before we can even reach it, someone rams into the vehicle, flipping it onto its side. There are so fucking many of them.

“Move!” Atticus snaps. He shoves me and I cut down another man before I grab Cyrus. I don’t know where Casimir and Julian are, but Yorick and Atticus push me into a run, trying to urge us away from the crowd of vampires where I now see Casimir fighting.

“It’s okay,” Cyrus says. “We’re doing okay.”

Why is he over here trying to reassure me when he’s the one who has to be terrified?

I draw him close and quickly rush from the crowd…

only to realize that they must have been driving us in a certain direction and I fell for it.

At least twenty more vampires wait for us, and I question how the fuck Louis could have so much influence.

I recognize some of them… some of the faces that’d been there the night my brother died, like the woman who’d spoken to me who had been in the group blocking my path.

Will tonight turn out the same as that time?

“So we meet again,” she says as she rushes forward. I sidestep her at the very last second, narrowly yanking Cyrus out of her path. Yorick pulls her back, but there’s a man on him just as quickly.

“Keep moving,” Atticus urges. He throws the woman back as I hear something behind me. I turn just as Yorick shoves us back and blood hits me. I can hear Cyrus’s heart beating wildly while I hold him against my chest.

“RUN,” Yorick yells, holding a hand over the stake driven into his chest.

“How dare you touch him?” Atticus shouts as he tears the heart out of the vampire who’d staked Yorick.

“Yorick,” Cyrus yells, trying to run to him, but the vampires cut us off. I can’t even see Yorick or Atticus. They’re breaking us apart one by one, keeping the others occupied to get Cyrus and me away from them. But I don’t know what else to do.

I try to fight them off but there are too many, and anytime they rush me, they try to tear Cyrus from me.

I can’t even get a moment to think before I’m turning to kill another who has grabbed on to him, resulting in someone stabbing me in the back.

I tear the blade out of my back and use it to cut the head off the man who placed it there before drawing Cyrus back to gain even a bit of space, but every time I do, I find myself farther and farther away from the rest of the group.

One comes in on my side and I manage to kill them, but how long can I kill them one by one? Every time one dies, it feels like three take their place.

I grab Cyrus and push forward, hoping to turn in a way that will allow me to meet back up with Casimir. I can’t even see or hear Yorick or Atticus. All I can do is see the other vampires pushing me away from the safety of the others and closer to whatever hell Louis has set up for me.

I pick Cyrus up and run. If I can make it back to Casimir… if I can make it back, it’ll be alright. If I can?—

The moment my foot hits the ground, I realize I’ve stepped on something.

I hear the clank of metal before the blast throws me off my feet.

Pain tears into my legs as I lose my grip on Cyrus and hit down hard on the ground…

and then they’re on me. They tear me back while Cyrus rushes for me.

They’re dragging me, but my legs are torn apart and I’m unable to get them under me to escape.

“Get back! Let him go! Get back!” Cyrus screams.

I can hear his gun go off again and again, but what the hell does he expect he’s going to accomplish? I’ve fucked up again just like I did with Arturo. Louis has proved to me again and again that I am nothing up against him.

Agony rips into my chest when I feel something slam into it, pinning me to the ground like the victims who’d been staked to the walls. But I’m not human, and it’s not enough to put me down. It’s not enough to stop me.

I tear it out and roll up on my hands and knees as blood runs from the hole in my chest that slowly heals, just like my legs.

I lunge forward, driving the stake through the heart of one man before I ram it through the head of another.

They start to pull back when I rush for another, no longer aware of what direction Cyrus is even in.

“Cyrus!” I yell.

But my call is never answered.

They crowd around behind me, ushering me forward… and I know that Louis has him. I know that I’m going to lose him like I lost Arturo. I can’t lose him—I can’t. I would tear this world apart for him. I will slaughter every last one of them.

My grip tightens on the knife Cyrus gave me. I plunge it into the neck of a man coming toward me and quicken my pace. I have to stop Louis. I have to kill them all. I have to make this nightmare end.

“Cyrus!” I yell. “CYRUS!”

As soon as I drop another body to the ground, the vampires step back, crowding around me and giving me only one path forward. They’re driving me toward the monster who has taken the man I love.

And I’m going to make him pay.