Page 9 of Possess Me at Midnight

“He’d like you dying even less. Sabelle, the clock is ticking. We need to move now.”

Damn and blast! “I’ll take them both. But it will be your job to tell them to get along. I refuse to play referee.”

“Done.”

I sigh. “I’ll grab the book and a few items. Tell Lucan and Ice to bring Bram down and to meet me at the foot of the stairs in thirty minutes.”

Both incensed and horrified, I charge toward Bram’s office and approach the Doomsday Diary’s hiding place. Bloody, high-maintenance men. How the devil am I to navigate the razor’s-edge tension between them while simultaneously preventing Lucan’s slips into feral behavior, deflecting Ice’s smoldering desire, and honoring Bram’s expectations?

Later. I can’t worry about that now.

I grab the book from my brother’s now-empty office, pausing to scan the familiar space. Will Bram ever sit behind this desk again, commanding his empire with that iron will sheathed in velvet charm that’s uniquely his?

Swallowing a lump of worry, I race toward the study doors, feeling the clock tick down to danger. The air suddenly feels thicker, charged. My magical senses prickle in warning seconds before the floor beneath me shudders.

A deafening blast drowns out my gasp, the sound so intense it feels like needles piercing my eardrums. The walls groan and buckle. As I stumble into the corridor, acrid smoke billows everywhere, burning my throat and stinging my eyes. Tears roll down my cheeks as I fall to my knees, clutching the diary against my chest.

Through watering eyes, I see Duke stagger to one of the front windows. The blood drains from his face as he turns back with horror. “Get out, everyone! We’re being attacked now!”

Chapter

Four

Ice

* * *

As Tynan and I are stashing the Doomsday Brethren’s weapons, the first rumblings of war shake the estate. The ceiling above thunders.

We’re definitely under attack.

Then I hear a woman scream. My blood runs cold.

Sabelle!

In a choice between preserving the hardware and saving magickind’s princess? That’s no choice at all.

After tossing aside the last few weapons, I quickly conjure thigh-deep water and douse most of our cache so they’re useless to Mathias or the raiding Anarki. Then I whirl, braced for incoming danger as I charge up the stairs.

Smoky chaos confronts me. The ceiling’s crumbling plaster rains down. But other than thick, choking haze, the corridor is empty.

“Sabelle!” I shout over and over as I stalk to Bram’s office, the library, the dining room. Broken glass crunches under my boots. All empty.

Duke stumbles toward me from the front door, a fresh gash in his forehead dripping blood down his face. “Protections are compromised. We have minutes at most to evacuate. Find Sabelle. Get her and the book away from here. Take Lucan with you.”

I hate that plan, but there’s no time to argue. MacTavish will slow us down. Put us in more danger. But my annoyance at dragging him along is nothing compared to my concern. Though I’ll never hold Sabelle, she’s…everything. For the nearly two hundred fifty years of my existence, a wizard’s urge to mate has been a head-scratching mystery. After one look at her, I comprehend perfectly.

If she becomes Lucan’s next mate, I will endure it because he’ll treat her well. But I will sacrifice every drop of blood in my body before I lose her to that monster, Mathias.

“Have you seen her?” I’ve screamed my throat raw searching.

“Sorry…” Duke sends me an apologetic grimace before he runs toward the back of the house.

Since I can’t give up, I press on. “Sabelle!”

Finally, I hear a faint voice. “Up here.”

Another explosive boom resounds through the house, but her voice, like a siren call, lures me. I charge up the stairs and burst into one bedroom after another. Finally, I find one that’s shades of gold, all silken and sumptuous. She’s inside.