“What’s this?” Cyrus hissed into my ear. “A token of affection from your knight protector?”
He pried my fingers loose and snatched the bottle. Ferocious fingers seized my chin and squeezed my face roughly, forcing my jaw down.
“All this time you let me think I’d created the perfect companion, and you were just waiting to sink the stake into my heart.” He popped the lid off the vial and tilted it. A single drop hung on the edge, poised to fall directly into my open mouth. “We’re more alike than I thought.”
“Don’t do it,” Nathan warned.
“Why? Because you’ll kill me? You’ve already proved you can’t. You’d enjoy it too much.” Cyrus tipped the vial a little more. The suspended drop trembled and I closed my eyes.
I wasn’t ready to die. I might not have anything to live for, but an empty life sounded a lot better than an uncertain afterlife.
“Please,” I whimpered as best I could with limited movement of my jaw.
“Oh, shut up, Carrie. What a useless specimen you’ve turned out to be. Did you think you could betray me with no consequence?” His fingers gripped my face tighter. “What were you planning to do? Beg for mercy? Tell me you love me?”
Though it burned my soul to do it, I nodded a little, terrified my movement would bring the liquid onto my flesh. “I do love you.” It wasn’t completely a lie, but he didn’t buy it. I couldn’t exactly blame him.
“Do you think I’m stupid? Do you think I didn’t sense your betrayal?” He licked my ear. “Every moment I was inside you, I felt your uncertainty. Your fear of me. You never made your choice.”
Nathan sucked in a sharp breath, and hot shame flooded my face.
“Oh, does that bother you, Nolen?” Cyrus bit my neck softly. “I bet you thought you were rescuing a pure damsel. Don’t let her fool you. She begged for it. She let me use her like a whore and she drank my blood as payment.”
“Gentlemen don’t kiss and tell,” Nathan quipped.
How can he joke at a time like this?
“I never claimed to be a gentleman. Unlike others in this room, I don’t deny my true nature.”
Cyrus let the drop of holy water fall. I twisted away and it landed on the bare shoulder of my injured arm. The liquid burrowed through my skin and the flesh underneath like a scorching bullet. I bit my lip to stifle my cries.
“I do wish you’d scream, Carrie. You have such a beautiful scream.” He sighed and tipped the bottle again. “Ah, well, just one of the things I’ll miss about you.”
The vial flew from his hand before he could spill the rest on me, and his grip released. I fell to the floor. I couldn’t move my arm, and it felt as if it had been severed from my body while it hung lame at my side.
Nathan pinned Cyrus to the wall, his face changing as he flashed his fangs. The holy water splashed their legs, and smoke rose from the floor where it burned their feet.
Cyrus brought his knee up and kicked Nathan away. He hit the floor and rolled out of reach. I saw Cyrus withdraw a stake from his sleeve. I shouldn’t have been surprised that he’d lied about being unarmed.
I jumped on him, sinking my fingernails into his face. One finger slipped into his empty eye socket, and it was all I could do to keep from yanking my hand away in disgust. He twisted violently, dislodging me, but I landed on my feet. When he stopped to wipe the blood from his eyes I was on him again, locking my legs around his waist and pummeling him from behind. He threw himself backward, crushing me between his body and the wall. The breath rushed from my lungs in a great whoosh and I slid to the floor, clutching my chest. He stood over me, ready to strike.
Nathan got to his feet and slammed his elbow into the back of Cyrus’s head, bringing him to the ground. Once he was down, Nathan delivered vicious kicks to the back of his head until he stopped struggling.
“Is he dead?” I gasped, using Nathan’s proffered arm to climb to my feet.
He didn’t look at me. His gaze was locked on Ziggy’s motionless body. “No. And he won’t be out for long. Let me get Ziggy and we’ll go.”
As soon as he uttered those words, the doors to the foyer blew off their hinges.
A forceful and foul-smelling wind blew us both against the wall in a shower of wood splinters. Ashes exploded from the cold fireplace as flames leapt up seemingly from nowhere, and the remaining furniture turned over from the magnitude of the blast.
A tall, sickly vampire slid into the room. His eyes burned red, and his long white hair trailed behind him as he floated effortlessly above the ground. Although he looked much older, and though I was nearly overcome by the stench of decay, I recognized him.
It was Cyrus’s father.
The Soul Eater.
“Carrie, run!” Nathan shouted. He sprang toward Ziggy’s body.
I grabbed him by the arm. “No, Nathan, there’s nothing you can do for him!”
The ancient vampire slowly came closer, his bloody, dripping claws outstretched.
“Don’t go. I’m so hungry,” he said, the sound of many voices speaking all at once.
“Fuck you!” Nathan screamed, and for a moment I thought he’d charge him without a weapon. “You took everything from me!” He’d totally lost it. I’d never seen anyone so angry. All the resentment and rage that Nathan had been holding back from the world finally surfaced as he howled at the Soul Eater.
The vampire cocked his head, like a child who couldn’t understand why he was being punished. “Just let me have a taste. A little taste.”
The Soul Eater pointed to me. “You. Come to me.”
“No!” Nathan grabbed my hand and ran for the door.
“Don’t run from me, boy!” The Soul Eater’s tone was like fire. “I smell my blood on you! Why do you not serve your master?”
“I will never serve you again.”
The assassins poured down the stairs. Some had removed their hoods, and they high-fived each other on a job well done.
“Get out!” Nathan shouted. “The Soul Eater’s awake!”
It had never occurred to me their plan might have hinged on the Soul Eater’s vegetative state, but power had radiated from the old vampire. Logic and instinct collided in my brain, and I knew even this large number of assassins were no match for his awesome strength.
They knew it, as well. It didn’t take them long to move. They ran for the back door, some jumping over the stair railing to save time.
But Nathan had a different exit planned for us. I tripped over my ridiculous shoes and wrenched my ankle. Nathan never missed a beat.
“Hang on,” he ordered, scooping me up in his arms. He slung me over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and ran out the front door, down the steps and onto the driveway, then across the snow-covered lawn.
“Just a little farther,” he repeated over and over, a determined mantra more for his benefit than mine.
I held on to him for dear life with my one usable arm as he struggled to keep his footing on the grass.
Please don’t fall and break both of our necks. Not now, not when we’re so close to getting away.
The front gate was closed. “Can you climb?”
I wiggled my good arm. “I can try.”
“Good enough for me.” He boosted me up. I scrambled to the top, but slipped going over and fell to my feet on the pavement.