Page 18

Chapter Seventeen

Enzo

I licked my lips, tasting the lingering metallic sweetness of Angelo’s blood, and leaned against the headboard as it coursed through my veins.

The warm sensation swelled from my core outward, like a lake swollen from the rain, lapping over every muscle and organ.

Where there had been searing pain before was now replaced with a tingling sensation of healing, slowly erasing the poison that had been destroying me from within.

My body shuddered involuntarily as damaged tissues knit themselves back together. I gasped for breath. My lungs drank in the air greedily, the knife-like pain of earlier breaths now just a memory. The relief was so intense it brought tears to my eyes, and I wiped them away with trembling fingers.

“Better?” Angelo stood at the edge of my bed, studying me with an intensity that suggested he was monitoring every subtle change in my condition.

“Much.” I cracked my neck, the sound echoing in the quiet room as tension radiated through my shoulders. “We have to find Joy. I suspect that Maximo plans to use her for some dire purpose. Why else would he want her so badly?”

“If Balthazar is behind this…” Serenity folded her arms across her chest, standing rigid at my bedside.

A faraway look glistened in her eyes, pupils dilating with remembered terror, as if she was reliving a horror when she was trapped in hell.

She swallowed hard before continuing. “Then just like he tried to do with me, his plan is for her to go dark side.” A single tear slid down her cheek, which she brushed away with an angry swipe.

“Every time she uses that power, she’s probably losing a piece of her soul. ”

“Tell me more about this power,” Angelo said. “Did Joy use a spell when she called upon the shadows?” His fingers absently traced the small puncture on his wrist where he’d drawn his own blood for me.

I shook my head, wincing slightly as the movement sent a final wave of dizziness through me. My stomach lurched with the unpleasant sensation. “No. I don’t know how she did it.”

My skin crawled as if insects were marching beneath it, goosebumps rising on my arms as I recalled the eerie sight. “It was like... like she pulled the shadows from the room somehow.” My fingers made grasping motions in the air, trying to illustrate what words couldn’t fully capture.

“The shadows formed a protective barrier, hiding the girls behind her at Ravenwood Estate and then me when Maximo stood over me.” A mixture of awe and fear swelled inside me as I remembered what she had done.

She was powerful and she was mine. “The darkness seemed to respond to her—obey her—as if it were alive.”

Angelo frowned. “I’ve never heard of anyone possessing this type of power without using a spell or some kind of magical object.” He glanced warily at Serenity who had bowed her head. “Unless she’s cursed.”

Serenity raised her head slowly. “We have to find her, Angelo.”

I nodded. “I think this is just beginning of Maximo exploiting Joy’s power. What if she can control those shadows to do more than just protect people?”

Angelo’s eyes darkened. “Then she would be a threat to our family.”

A threat meant elimination—plain and simple.

For centuries, that had been my calling card as Angelo’s enforcer.

My chest tightened as I weighed the unthinkable.

I never hesitated in putting down our enemies before, making problems disappear without leaving a trace.

It was business, never personal. But I wouldn’t hurt a single hair on Joy’s head.

Not even if it meant a war between Angelo and me.

Some lines even an enforcer won’t cross.

Serenity ran over to him and put her hand on his arm. “You can’t hurt her.”

Angelo ignored her and focused on me. “We need to find out Maximo’s plan. Most likely he took her back either to Ravenwood Estate or Tremé House.”

I clenched my jaw at the mention of the old Creole mansion in the heart of the historic Tremé neighborhood, a place I knew all too well. Despite my vampire abilities, the Barone family had made that property nearly impenetrable even to my kind.

The ornate wrought-iron balconies and weathered facade concealed powerful magical wards—ancient spells that burned like fire when crossed.

I’d discovered this the hard way decades ago, leaving with scars that had taken weeks to heal.

The human guards with their weapons were no concern, but those blood-bound enchantments that Maximo Barone had commissioned from Marsha…

those were another matter entirely. If Joy was being held within those walls, freeing her would require more than just vampire strength and speed.

It would require cunning and possibly sacrifices I would have to make.

“We need to find out which one,” Angelo said, his voice carrying that deceptively casual tone that I’d learned centuries ago always preceded his most dangerous decisions.

He paced across my bedroom, his footsteps silent despite the hardwood floor, a predator’s instinct never fully suppressed. “I want to see what Joy can do myself.”

A cold weight settled in my stomach as I shifted uncomfortably against the pillows propped behind me.

The meaning was clear—he’d assess whether she would live or die, expecting me to carry out the deadly blow if she was deemed a threat.

My hands clenched, the silk sheets twisting between my fingers.

“I could get us into Tremé House,” Steve said as he rubbed his neck, a nervous gesture that drew attention to the red marks where Angelo had choked him. He stood awkwardly at the foot of my bed, his eyes darting between Angelo and me, seeking approval. “I know the security codes.”

Angelo rolled his eyes, the gesture somehow more threatening than a shout.

He stopped his pacing and turned sharply toward Steve, his silhouette cutting an imposing figure against the dim light from the windows.

“Maximo isn’t a fool,” he said, drumming his long fingers against the mahogany bedside table, each tap like a tiny gunshot in the tense silence.

“He would have changed those codes by now.” His signet ring caught the moonlight, the ruby at its center gleaming like a drop of fresh blood.

“We need to split up,” I said. “Half of us go to Tremé House and the other to Simon’s.”

Angelo locked his gaze with mine. “Pascal, Steve, and Lorenzo will pay a visit to Tremé House, and Enzo, Dimitri, and I will pay another visit to Simon.” His eyes darkened, pupils expanding until they nearly swallowed the iris.

His fingernails lengthened slightly, a subtle tell of his barely contained rage. “Simon’s played his very last game.”

I flipped the blanket off me with a swift, decisive motion, ignoring the sharp twinge of pain that shot through my still-healing wounds. The cool air hit my skin as determination burned through my veins hotter than fever. “Then we need to move now.”

“But it’s daylight,” Steve said uneasily, backing toward the shadow of the doorway. His pale skin seemed to tighten at the mere thought of the bright afternoon sun. “I can’t go out in sunlight.”

“I know this.” Angelo motioned with his hand, long fingers curling impatiently through the air. “Come over here.”

Steve stepped away from him, shoulders tensing. “Why?”

Angelo’s expression hardened. Without warning, he bit savagely into his own wrist. The sound of flesh tearing was obscenely loud in the quiet room. Dark blood—darker than human blood—welled immediately.

“Because the only way you can survive, asshole, is if you take my blood.”

Steve stared transfixed on Angelo’s wrist, the hunger visible in his eyes. His pupils dilated until his eyes appeared almost red, and his fangs extended with an audible click that betrayed his newborn status. A small, involuntary sound escaped his throat—half protest, half desperate need.

“Feed.” Angelo stretched out his wrist, the blood now trailing down his pale skin in rivulets. He didn’t move closer, forcing Steve to make a choice. “The ancient blood protects. Even from the sun…temporarily.”

I could feel Steve’s fear radiating across the room, a cold counterpoint to the heat of his hunger. But I needed him— needed him to gain access to Tremé House to help locate Joy. “Do it.”

Steve’s resistance crumbled. Slowly, as if drawn by strings, he approached Angelo, who remained perfectly still, a predator allowing himself to be fed upon.

When Steve finally reached him, he hesitated only a moment before sinking his fangs into the already open wound.

The first taste broke something in him. He drank greedily, desperately, clutching Angelo’s arm with both hands.

Angelo’s eyes met mine over Steve’s bent head. They held neither pain nor pleasure—only the patient calculation of one who had played this game countless times before.

As he drank, Serenity raced over to me and clasped my arm, her cool fingers gentle against my skin. Concern etched deep lines around her eyes as she leaned closer. “Enzo, are you sure you’re healed enough?”

Angelo observed me with clinical detachment, scanning every inch of my body, searching for any signs of weakness.

I met his gaze unflinchingly, my jaw set in defiance.

I was the enforcer and Maximo had stolen something that belonged to me.

My fangs pressed against my lower lip, the familiar sensation of predatory anticipation unfolding in my system.

A mistake he would regret. And I would make certain he lived just long enough to understand that.

“I’m healed enough.” I drew on my strength and stood on my own, refusing anyone’s help.

My legs trembled slightly beneath me, but I straightened my spine with fierce determination, swallowing back a groan that threatened to escape.

Pride and desperation warred within me—pride demanding I show no weakness, desperation to find Joy before it was too late.

The thought of her in Maximo’s hands fueled me with a rage that threatened to turn me into a nightmare even other vampires would fear—something vicious and uncontrollable.

“Enough.” Angelo snapped his fingers, cutting through the wet sounds of Steve’s feeding. But Steve, lost in bloodlust, kept sucking hard, his throat working convulsively as he consumed the ancient blood.

A growl erupted from deep in Angelo’s chest—a sound no human throat could produce.

He grabbed Steve by the hair, fingers tightening into a vise, and flung him off with terrifying ease.

Steve’s body arced through the air before crashing into the far wall hard enough to crack the plaster.

He slid to the floor, Angelo’s blood still smeared across his chin and neck.

“Do not disobey me again, fledgling.” Angelo narrowed his eyes at Steve. The wound on his wrist was already closing, the supernatural healing slowing to a stop as if his body knew the exact amount of blood needed for the ritual. “You’ll be able to be out in the sun for four hours. No more.”

“Sorry.” Steve wiped the blood from his mouth with the back of his hand. His eyes, though, still gleamed with the residual high of Angelo’s blood—older and more potent than anything he’d tasted since his turning. “What happens if I’m a little late?”

Angelo shrugged with elegant indifference, straightening the cuff of his shirt. “Then you’ll burn.” His tone suggested he might find this outcome more educational than tragic.

Steve’s face paled to an almost translucent white, the blood he’d just consumed seeming to retreat deeper into his body. He kept his mouth shut, but I could see the questions and fear swimming in his eyes—the terrible realization of how vulnerable he was in comparison to the rest of us.

“We leave in thirty minutes,” Angelo said, his eyes flickering briefly to where my hand gripped the bedpost for support. If he noticed my weakness, he gave no sign of it, a small mercy I silently appreciated. “I will contact the others and tell them of our plan.”

“I want to go.” Serenity stepped in front of Angelo’s path, her stance defiant.

I tensed, recognizing the dangerous territory she was entering. Few dared to challenge Angelo so directly. A mixture of admiration and concern tightened my chest as I watched her—brave, foolish Serenity, always willing to put herself in harm’s way.

“No. Maximo possesses something that almost killed an ancient vampire. I don’t know what his poison could do to a Nephilim, and I’m not willing to find out. You will stay here.”

Relief washed through me at Angelo’s refusal. The memory of the poison’s agony was still too fresh, my body still too weak. The thought of Serenity suffering the same fate made the monster inside thrash to get out and kill, kill, kill.

She held her head up high. “Angelo. I’m powerful and?—”

He clasped her chin. “I know you are, my little Nephilim. But I won’t be able to do what I need to do if I’m worried about you. If Balthazar has somehow escaped from his cage, I don’t want you anywhere near Tremé House or Ravenwood Estate.”

My blood ran cold at Balthazar’s name. The ancient evil that had once held Serenity captive in hell itself. If he was truly involved... I glanced down at my still-healing wounds with new understanding. The stakes were even higher than I’d realized.

A shadow of fear glimmered in Serenity’s eyes. She gripped his arms and her gaze searched his face. “Promise me you won’t kill Joy. You’ll bring her back here.”

My heart seized at her words. She was pleading for Joy’s life, knowing full well that Angelo might see her as nothing more than a threat to be eliminated.

I held my breath, every muscle in my body tense as I waited for his response.

In that moment, I knew with absolute certainty that if Angelo ordered Joy’s death, it would be the end of centuries of loyalty.

I would turn against my king, my maker, for a human girl I barely knew.

It was as terrifying as it was liberating.