Page 9

My expression sours. “Because something like this has happened before in this city, before—right around the same time you were born. And I didn’t connect the dots before, but you told me that not everyone in this city is so enamored with the vampires. Who helped you, Ophelia?”

Something hardens in her expression. I see something different there. Defensiveness. Protection. She shakes her head. “You’ll never get to her. It would literally be impossible.”

“Ophelia!” I bark, feeling my veins flare hot.

That hunger in my blood grows a little more insistent.

“Don’t you fucking get it?! This mess you’ve made, there isn’t any coming back from it.

There is no hiding from it. There is no manipulating it.

Do you not understand that the death toll is rising?

Do you understand that whoever you’re protecting is responsible for the death of at least five vampires?

That now you have five deaths on your hands? ”

“Lana,” Ophelia says my name, a terrified, overwhelmed whisper.

My nostrils flare as I smell her again. The copper racing through her veins. The rush of her blood through her body. My mouth salivates.

Fuck.

This is what Clementine was so worried about. What Sysco and Harry were so impressed over. I feel it sparking. The hunger. The craving.

I need to get out of here, soon. I need to get something to drink before I do something I can’t come back from.

But I don’t have time to drink.

Now, I need to fucking fix this.

“You’re going to fix Ares,” I say, my voice quaking with rage. “I am going to find him, and you are going to fix what you broke.”

Ophelia’s eyes are swimming now, but the tears don’t break. She shakes her head. “Lana, I don’t… I can’t…”

My blood goes cold. I take one more step toward her, only two feet between us now. “You don’t what?”

She may be three inches taller than me, but I’ve never felt more confident in my stature, my body. I feel ready to tear the world apart, and Ophelia will not get in my way.

“I don’t know how to undo it,” she admits, fear shaking her every word. “I… I’ve never tried.”

“Well, there’s no time like the present,” I say.

My hand snatches out, and I grab her arm.

“You know what fucking sucks? You were once the person I trusted most. And now I don’t even trust that you won’t run.

You can hate me all you want, but you’ve really left me with no choice.

You’re coming with me until you fix Ares. ”

“Lana, let go of me,” she snaps, trying to yank out of my grasp. But it’s almost laughable. My grip doesn’t loosen even a hair. My fingers tighten around her arm. “Fuck, ow! Lana!”

I pull my phone from my back pocket and dial Billings. Ophelia lets out a string of curses, trying with everything she’s got to yank out of my grasp.

Billings answers after two rings. “Miss Kincade.”

“I need you to pick me up. You still have my location?” I ask, getting right to it.

“I do,” he says, and I hear the phone shift on his end, as if he’s pulling me up right now. “I can be there in two minutes. I’m close.”

“Perfect, I’m in a hurry,” I say, relief coursing through me. “See you soon.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you,” Ophelia snarls as she tries yet again to yank away from me. She’s going to be horribly bruised later.

“Trust me, it feels like shit to go there, but you don’t have a choice anymore,” I say, disgust transforming my expression as I look at her, our faces only a foot apart. “Scream while we head downstairs, and I will put you out. You know I can.”

She does, indeed. It’s how we met. Ophelia came to my self-defense classes. She’s seen me demonstrate knocking an attacker out without causing damage.

She goes white. “So, it’s really come to this? It’s really gotten this bad. Over him? A vampire?”

“He is my fiancé,” I say darkly, my tone confident. “He’s the best person I’ve ever met. The person I’ve felt the safest with. The one who would do anything for me. And I will always choose him. Come on.”

I march us to the front door. I lead us through, never loosening my grip on her. And Ophelia must sense it, my newfound strength. That something is different. Because she doesn’t make a peep as we head to the elevator, then ride to the ground level.

By the time we walk outside into the busy day, Billings is parked at the curb. I guide Ophelia to the door, open it, and push her inside. I climb in after her, dropping hard into the seat, and lock the doors.

“Give me just a second, Billings, I need to call Harry for the address,” I say as I pull out my phone. “If she tries to run while I call, catch her.”

Ophelia looks at me with absolute terror.

“Yes, Miss Kincade,” Billings says in that deep voice, not an ounce of hesitation. His eyes fix on Ophelia’s reflection in the rear-view mirror.

I hold my phone to my ear, and Harry picks up after just one ring.

“You’ve found him?” he asks without greeting.

“No,” I answer simply. “But I have the person who did this to him. I need her contained until we get Ares. I need the address for the vault.”

Harry rattles it off to me, and I repeat it to Billings, who immediately sets out in that direction. “I’ll meet you there,” he adds.

“See you in twenty,” I say. “Could you do me a favor and bring me something to drink? It’s about to be a problem.”

He hesitates for just a second. I don’t blame him. I’m something new, and we’re all learning as I go. “Sure. See you soon.”

I end the call.

I look over at Ophelia, who is staring out the window, shaking her head. “Can you even see and hear yourself, Lana? Do you realize how much of a stranger you are now?”

Anger rages through my veins. All of this, and she’s going to try and make me feel bad? “Right back at you, O.”

She gives a humorless chuckle. “Guess this is just life? It grabs you around the throat, forces you to make decisions you never thought you’d make. And suddenly, you don’t even know who the hell you are.”

I settle back into my seat, clenching my jaw. I don’t want to hear shit from her right now.

“You could fix all this, you know,” Ophelia says. “Just forget all of this, La?—”

“Nope,” I bark, my voice like a razor slicing through her manipulation.

I launch sideways before she can get the words out—the words she’s trying to use to influence me. My seatbelt’s already off, and I surge across the narrow space between our seats, twisting my body like a viper striking.

Her eyes flare wide just as my right arm snakes around her neck.

I tuck the crook of my elbow tight under her chin, my forearm pinning her throat, my bicep pressing firm against one carotid artery while the inside of my forearm crushes the other. I lock my left hand behind her head and press, forcing her skull forward into the hold.

She jerks beneath me, elbowing wild—but she seems to forget everything I taught her in class. She’s not a fighter, not really. But I was raised in a ring.

“Billings, don’t stop driving,” I bark as I tighten my hold.

“Wasn’t planning on it,” he replies, though his eyes flick to the rearview mirror with concern.

Ophelia wheezes, her legs kicking, one heel slamming against the center console. She claws at my arm, fingernails digging into my skin. It’s desperate. Panicked.

“Go to sleep,” I mutter as I keep my grip.

My heart thunders, but my mind is clear. Keep the pressure. Don’t crush her windpipe. Don’t let her talk. Just hold.

Five seconds.

Her struggling weakens.

Six.

Her limbs twitch like dying wires.

Seven.

Her body goes limp.

I hold for one more beat to be sure.

Then I ease her down into her seat, guiding her head gently against the rest.

“Dammit,” I breathe harshly, brushing hair from her clammy face. She’s breathing, just unconscious.

I slide back into my seat and breathe deep, adrenaline fading, my hands buzzing. I can still feel the shape of her neck against my arm, the tremble of her fear, her desperation to get the words out.

I warned her.

I can’t let her hurt anyone else. Not ever again.

The silence after is deafening.

“Seems a lot has happened in a very short span of time,” Billings says from the front seat. My eyes rise to meet his in the rear-view mirror.

“The whole of reality has shifted,” I reply simply.