Page 44

Chapter 43

Rolf

R olf bent over to retrieve the knife from the floor, and instead of putting it into his boot, he handed it to Adeline. He still had three more, but when he was getting dressed, he realized that Adeline didn’t have a single blade in this entire room. He didn’t doubt, however, that she could make a weapon out of anything. In fact, he was almost surprised she hadn’t tried to use the candelabras or the mirror. Then again, she had looked awfully weak and malnourished when he first saw her.

She looks healthy now, his wolf noted.

She looked better than healthy now. She was immensely attractive when she was planning on killing her coven back in the cabins, but here, she was divine. Her skin glowed, her hair had turned glossy and so dark it was almost black, her eyes were deep blue like the night sky, her cheeks were ever-so-slightly flushed, and her lips plumped as she worried the bottom one between her teeth.

Gorgeous, he sent her through their bond. Her eyes flashed to him, and she sent him back the insatiable feeling of lust.

Rolf suppressed a groan, not wanting to give in to those feelings quite yet as it would prove difficult for him to fight when he was hard.

His wolf snorted.

Quiet , he snapped back.

“I am going to set the bed on fire,” she whispered, casually holding his blade. It looked ten times more deadly in her small hand. She played with the weight of it, then slipped it in the gap behind her dresser, away from the door.

The voices closed in.

He guessed they were probably ten paces away since he couldn’t quite make out what they were saying. His head whipped around the room. There weren’t many places to go except under the bed ( Absolutely not , his wolf growled) or behind the curtains ( Out of the question, he scoffed). Rolf spun to the corner of the room where the door would open. He slipped into the shadows, another knife in his palm, and pressed his ear against the frame.

Adeline’s eyes gleamed with delight as she took the candles and set the side of the bed on fire. Then she placed the candelabra on the nightstand and knocked it to the ground. Several of the candles caught the bed skirt on fire. Next, she tossed the sweat- and sex-stained sheets into the flames.

The room filled with smoke.

Adeline ran to the door and started banging. Rolf watched with a mixture of awe and pride as her body morphed into a facade of distress, the mask covering her from her face to her toes. This was an assassin—calm, calculated, deadly. She was a force to be reckoned with, and he was so glad that she had fed from him. Everything about her screamed to his basest instincts to run away.

He took a few deep breaths, keeping his heart rate low.

The door opened and Rolf’s view was cut off.

“Juliette!” Adeline cried out.

“Adeline!” It was the same blond vampire from earlier.

There was some scuffling.

“Grab this!” Juliette cried. Two grunts and then his bond flared in his chest.

Run!

Rolf didn’t need to be told twice. The smoke filled his entire view, so he felt his way around the door. Smoke billowed out into the hallway. His eyes burned. He suppressed a cough.

No one in the hall, his wolf replied. But four feet running up the main stairs.

What had happened to the other voice?

He didn’t have time to find out. Rolf turned to his left toward the servants’ doors and tripped on a large box. The lid flew off, revealing an intricate mask and white fabric, lined with pearls, that shimmered silver.

His heart stopped, his throat tightened, the room seemed to tilt underneath him. He stooped to take the items but at the last minute decided to leave them. Rolf reached for the handle of the servants’ door; it turned before he could grab it. He sidestepped to the nearest window and slipped behind a pillar near a large fireplace, sinking into the shadows. A glamoured servant stepped into the hallway from the door he had almost opened. They walked with a measured pace to Adeline’s room, completely unbothered by the smoke.

From his darkened hideout, he watched as two servants ran up the stairs with buckets. Juliette rushed out of the room and opened the balcony windows on either side of the hall. Fresh air poured in, and the smoke leaving Adeline’s room slowed to almost a stop.

The hallway was abuzz with the comings and goings of the servants and their buckets. Juliette picked up the wedding dress and brought it back to Adeline’s room. All the servants filed out and the door closed behind her. Soon, the hallway was quiet, as if the fire had never happened. But his wolf was still on high alert, so he stayed in the shadows.

Down by his feet was a set of spiderweb-covered fireplace instruments. A poker, a brush, a shovel, all propped up together. His hand wrapped around the poker and he pulled it out, careful not to let it clank against the other metal objects. He slid it behind his back, relieved he had found a weapon.

A lock clicked, the door to Adeline’s room opened, and Juliette stepped out. She grabbed the box left by the door and walked down the hall. Right to Rolf’s hiding place.

He stepped out from the shadows, stopping her in her tracks. He held his hands behind his back, keeping the poker hidden.

Her back straightened and she sniffed the air, eyes narrowing for half a second, and he wondered if she was trying to place his scent.

“The were-shifter,” she whispered, eyes wide as she looked him up and down quickly.

He cocked his head to the side but said nothing. Sweat cascaded down his back, but his wolf kept his heart rate in check. They were hunters facing off. Neither of them could show fear.

“I’m Juliette, I’m?—”

“The vampire who slit Adeline’s throat,” he growled. A threat if she tried anything.

She held up a hand. “It’s not what you think…”

“And you think you’re going to convince me otherwise?”

Juliette’s act of innocence may have fooled Adeline, but Rolf wasn’t buying it for a second. He didn’t trust her, he had no reason to. As far as he was concerned, this was the vampire who was second-most responsible for why Adeline was in this horrific position to begin with. She’d slit Adeline’s throat, weakened her enough to bring her back here, and was acting as…what? Adeline’s chum all of a sudden?

Juliette said, “I didn’t have a choice.”

Her shoulders slumped forward, and she sighed. Alarms went off in his head; his wolf snarled at the change. Rolf looked down his nose at her petite figure. She was small, but he knew how deceiving looks were when it came to these creatures.

“Ah, so this is where I get lectured on how you have no free will under your maker,” he scoffed.

Rolf didn’t understand Juliette being on their side. He knew not to trust anything a vampire said—it didn’t matter that Adeline had promised to help her get free. How long had it taken Adeline to break out of Erik’s clutches? A hundred years? Juliette, on the other hand, was still here, acting as his puppet, but then all of a sudden wanted to get free?

No, something wasn’t adding up.

Distrust , his wolf snarled. Eat her up.

“Consider me impatient,” Rolf said. What angle he played from here on out depended entirely on whether or not Juliette knew everywhere he had been. The keys weighed heavily in his pocket. The mate bond thrummed to life between them. He only hoped that the stench down in the servants’ cells and the smoke from the fire had covered up his scent. He figured he might as well act as if he hadn’t even been in Adeline’s room yet. He took a step forward, almost bumping against the box in Juliette’s arms. “Where is she?”

“I—I can’t tell you that. Not right now, it would ruin everything,” Juliette whispered and shook her head. Her eyes darted everywhere and finally settled on his face. She adjusted the box on her hip, and the silvery mask slipped from the top of the dress. Layers of lace were gathered underneath a silk-covered corset. Fine beading lined the boning of the bodice, and the delicate crystals glinted with elaborate silver thread.

“Is that a wedding dress?” Rolf cocked his head and raised an eyebrow. He knew the answer, but something told him Juliette wouldn’t give him one.

Instead, Juliette gave him a pained expression and shifted the box away from him. “You weren’t supposed to see this; you aren’t supposed to be here.”

“Why?” Rolf asked, stepping closer. “Hiding something?”

“No, the timing, it’s not?—”

“Fuck your timing,” Rolf said, again stepping closer, reaching for the dress. “If this dress is meant for Adeline?—”

“Wait!” Juliette whispered, taking a step backward. “I?—”

Anger rumbled beneath his skin, his wolf threatening to dismember anyone who got in the way. If Juliette ran, there was no doubt in his mind that his wolf would give chase.

Liar. She’s a liar. His wolf hadn’t been wrong yet, and she needed to pay for what she was doing to Adeline. There was no way Juliette was an innocent bystander in all of this.

But before Rolf could do anything, laughter echoed from the main stairs, down to where they stood. Fear gripped him, and suddenly, it was as if Rolf acted outside of himself. He watched, detached, as one of his hands snatched the dress out of the box. Slowly, he backed his way toward the servants’ door.

A small group of vampires ascended the stairs, and the eyes of one of them locked onto Juliette, who had the decency to pretend to be shocked. Then the vampire’s eyes shifted to Rolf, and his face split into an evil smile. He was tall, with long black hair, and those eyes seemed to look right through him. A terror shuddered through Rolf.

I’m his next meal, he thought. Fuck that .

With his other hand, Rolf swung the fire poker out to his side, knocking a candelabra to the ground between him and Juliette. She took a hasty step backward as the flames licked at the carpet, creating a wall between him and the vampires. He held the train of the dress over the fire.

“No!” Juliette screamed, diving to get the dress before the flames consumed it.

Rolf dropped the dress just out of reach of the fire. She snarled, pointing at him as the vampires dashed down the hall. He turned and ran. He didn’t look back, didn’t dare.

He ripped the door open, slamming it shut behind him, and slid the fire poker through the door handle to barricade it. He took the stairs two at a time, not bothering to see if he was being pursued.