Lazarus half-turned toward the hall, nostrils twitching. The corner of his mouth pulled up like he'd just tasted something bad. "A werewolf?" he asked under his breath. He turned to regard us again with a new, more intense look on his face. "Were you working with the rebels?"
Werewolf? Part of me still felt like I was in the middle of some dorky cosplay event gone wrong. I halfway expected him to start yelling "fireball" and tossing little felt fireball cutouts from his pocket at me any minute. But I knew my sister better than anyone. If she believed something, I believed it. And I could still see the image of the bloodied man who had just stumbled into our apartment.
It was all in front of my eyes, but my brain still couldn't grab on. It felt like being pushed down an icy hill and trying to find a handhold. Everything was moving so fast and I couldn't slow down enough to get my bearings.
Lazarus loomed over us, and I couldn't say how, but I was sure he was deciding if he was going to kill us or not. I felt it in my bones.
I tried to swallow, but my mouth was completely dry.
Maisey inched in front of me. "Leave my sister out of this. She's still completely human."
Lazarus frowned, and I saw his ears must've been picking up something from the hallway outside I couldn't make out. Then a wicked smile appeared on his face. "You're both human," he said, a little louder than he'd been talking before. "But the Coven has decided to extend my jurisdiction to those who fraternize with dissenters. You have one month to run. If you survive it, we'll call off the hunt. Until we meet again, humans," he added.
I expected him to head for the hallway, but he went to my window, pulled it open, and leapt out.
I felt my breath catch. It was three stories down from here. Far enough that he'd surely die from the fall.
I briefly clutched onto the idea that he'd been mentally unstable, and I was about to look out to see his broken body on the street. I rushed to the window and looked down, but only saw the normal flow of traffic and pedestrians along the street. There was no sign of him.
As if my rapidly beating heart needed any more reason to explode, I heard heavy footsteps thump into the doorway again.
8
Sylvie
I was clutching a pillow in front of myself so hard that my fingertips hurt. I wasn't sure what level of protection I expected a floral print pillow that Gravy Boat had snagged to hell and back, but I held the thing like a shield.
My heart hadn't pounded this hard in my entire life, and I wasn't sure what I would do when a small army of vampires came hissing and clawing their way in through the door.
Instead, a massive, tanned man with an open coat, bare chest, and no shoes was standing in the doorway to our bedroom. His muscular torso was dusted with dark hair.
His hair was the color of creamy coffee, just like his eyes. They were piercing eyes, and my fogged brain remembered I'd seen this same guy just a few days ago. He'd been the one to remove the creep from my doorstep and call me an idiot for my paper airplane love note.
He looked over us and his eyes narrowed into gorgeous little slits. He let out a sound almost like a growl and seemed to be hesitating about something.
“Come,” he said in a chocolatey smooth, deep voice.
“Who are you?” Maisey demanded.
“I'm Riggs. And I'm the only fucker who doesn’t want to remove your pretty little heads from your bodies right now.”
“How do we know we can trust you?” I asked. "And why do you keep showing up in my apartment? Are you stalking me?"
“If I wanted to hurt you, I’d do it. I wouldn’t waste my breath playing tricks. So get the fuck over here and follow me or you can sit here until Lazarus and his crew come for you. It’s your call.”
Maisey and I exchanged a silent look, then we both nodded at each other. I don’t think we were thrilled about our options, but the gorgeous, half-naked man was making at least a decent point.
We got off the bed and I started to grab some of my things. A firm hand took me by the wrist. “No,” he said, eyes blazing. “There’s no time to take your things. We go now in one piece, or you can leave later in two.”
I swallowed, wishing I could hold his gaze without having to look at the floor like some kind of child. But God, I’d never seen anyone with even a fraction of his intensity. It was like standing next to a roaring bonfire. I could feel the power washing over me even from several feet away.
I tried to pull my hand from his grip, but he was frighteningly strong. That, or I was incredibly weak. Unfortunately, I feared the latter was probably more likely. “Are you going to hold my hand or are we going to go?” I snapped.
The man was looking at me so strangely that I felt like blushing or slapping him. I wasn’t sure which. The intensity on his face melted long enough for him to smirk. "You going to hit me with a baseball bat if I don't stop holding your hand?"
"You realize you're not wearing shoes, right?"
He grunted but didn't seem to think he needed to explain his bizarre outfit. He kept hold of my hand, dragging me toward the door.
"You two may want to cover your eyes if you're squeamish," he said, glancing at something to his right."
"Oh my God," Maisey said. "Steve."
My sister went toward the slumped body by the wall. Blood was smeared all over the walls. There were two more still forms lying face down not far from Steve. One had a series of four long gashes going down his back that split his suit. Almost like a swipe from a large claw.
I tried to shake that thought from my head, but I knew the image was going to haunt me.
With supreme bad timing, my cute neighbor opened his door. He had his motorcycle jacket on like he was about to leave, but then he spotted the three of us and the three additional bodies.
"Holy shit. What happened?"
Riggs jabbed a finger toward him, speaking in a low, terrifying voice. "Inside. Now."
I'd taken my cute neighbor for a tough guy, but I didn't fault him for immediately ducking inside and slamming the door. Riggs was terrifying. He was huge, too.
"Leave him," Riggs said to my sister. "They're vamps. They aren't really dead as long as their heads are attached."
"What?"
"They are going to wake up," he repeated to me, clearly impatient at having to keep explaining himself. "The cleaners will come back to finish the job on Steve, but these others..." Riggs trailed off.
Maisey was kneeling and trying to prop Steve, who was probably twice her size, over her shoulders.
"Put him the fuck down," Riggs said. "He's a vamp, and I'm not bringing a vamp in my truck."
"You said they'll come back for him," she said, straining under his weight. "I'm not leaving him to die. Are you insane?"
Riggs moved toward her, probably to rip Steve from her shoulders if his posture was any indication. I didn't know what came over me, but I reached out and grabbed his thick arm with two hands, stopping him.
He looked down at my hands, then at me.
"Please," I said. "She's not going to come without him. And I won't come without her."
I could see his jaw flexing in annoyance, but he finally let out a low sound in his throat. "Fine. But I'm not carrying that asshole."