Chapter 69 #3
“Sarah,” Ethan said gently. “We can talk this out, find a way forward, one where we all get to go home.”
“What about Nathan, did he get to go home?” she screeched, fire fluttering through her eyes and dying again. If the burning took hold, Sarah would erupt.
Georgie gasped, her fear palpable.
Sarah watched her, a cruel smirk edging her lips. “Do you think—”
A scream cut off her sentence, coming from outside. We all tensed. There were two ways in, the way we entered and the other end of the hallway. Unless a vampire tore out the bars on the small windows?
The air tensed and grew ice cold. Vampires. I twisted my head, my hand on a blade. Ethan half turned, keeping one eye on Sarah.
“Well, well, well,” Rodney purred as he came into sight, followed by Kenneth, Monique, and Janice. “This is quite the party.”
I breathed a sigh of relief.
Monique and Kenneth positioned themselves behind Sarah.
“I heard all that screaming and I had to see what all the fuss was about.” Rodney leaned against the wall behind us casually.
“Any major issues?” Michael asked.
Rodney interlinked his hands and cracked his knuckles. His bloody knuckles. “Depends what you call issues.” He switched his attention to Georgie and his casual demeanor switched to something harder. “I thought you were heading home?”
Georgie licked her dry lips and swallowed. “We decided it was best to stay a bit longer.”
He narrowed his eyes, a muscle ticking on his jaw. “I see, I’m glad I decided to observe proceedings.” When no one responded, he said, “Please.” He swept out a hand. “Don’t let me interrupt the fun.”
My attention returned to Sarah. She didn’t look nervous or defeated. She looked smug.
Unease curled in my stomach.
Sarah paced back and forth like a cat about to pounce. “Further to our little book discussion, I did not harm your little toy. If you kill me or lock me up without due cause, a whole society of my sired vampires will seek retribution and be within their rights to do so.”
Your toy. How Karson had described me to Rodney. My eyes flew to Monique. She stood beside Kenneth, her hands by her side, her face impassive. Behind Sarah.
Behind Sarah.
“You killed Mary,” Karson roared, spittle spraying from his mouth, his face reddening. “She was my loved one. I am within my rights to seek revenge.”
Sarah stopped pacing. “Mary, why on earth would I kill her?” she snorted.
“Do not play games with me.”
“I’m not the one playing games,” she spat.
The tension ratcheted up in the room. I could feel it barreling against my skin, like I’d been dropped into an avalanche.
“If your sired vampires want to take me on, I promise you they will lose. I will remove every last one of them from the face of this earth. If you think for one second their threat holds any sway over my actions, you are sadly mistaken.”
Sarah smirked. “Perhaps you could tell them in person, then.”
Vampires flooded in from both ends of the room. At least fifty of them, probably more. They stood around in a half-circle around her behind Monique and Kenneth.
Josh urged Georgie back until she was pressed against a wall. He stood in front of her; he’d protect her with his life. But he wasn’t a fighter …
Rodney darted his eyes to Sarah’s.
She shrugged. “Just a little extra insurance. If he hurts my mother, or me, they are under instructions to remove the girl he loves.”
The sound of my heart drowned my hearing.
Where were our vampires? Did Rodney kill them?
Karson didn’t look afraid. He didn’t look worried. He snarled, “We are at the point where if you move, if any of them move, your mother dies and you follow shortly after. I would suggest you send your dogs home and you give Monique the honor of returning the bone dagger to you.”
“What crime am I charged with?” she asked.
“You tried to kill Amelia, and you took Mary’s life.”
“I didn’t touch the old woman.”
“You lie!” His roar shook the lights.
Marg’s chains rattled as she trembled.
Rodney straightened. “She has a point, there has been no crime proven here. Amelia is alive. You cannot start a war based on assumption.”
“You would betray me?” Karson redirected his fury to Rodney. “You would turn against your oldest friend?”
“No. I’m saving you. I’m preventing a war from erupting.” He scanned the collective of vampires. “It is the last thing we need.”
“She attacked Amelia. It’s only because we got there in time that she’s still alive.”
“You killed my brother!” Sarah shrieked. “A throat for a throat is written in our laws. Amelia will be dead by your hands sooner or later anyway, just like Anastasia.”
Karson went white with rage. Fire flared in his eyes. There was a cracking sound, then something wetter, like a spade slamming packed, wet earth.
Marg screamed, and her whole body jerked back, her mouth gasping at air like a clown at a show.
Karson’s hand was dug into her chest.
Sarah wailed, a pitiful, broken sound.
“Karson, no!” Ethan shouted.
Marg’s eyes rolled back until all I could see were the whites, then her head flopped. Her breathing was thin, ragged. She was alive—just.
“Kneel, an inch is all I need to rip her heart from her chest,” Karson snarled.
“Stop,” I whispered, my hand shaking as I stepped closer and reached for him. “You don’t need to do this. Please, don’t do this.”
The fire dimmed in his eyes.
“We’ll work something out together, all of us as a team. I love you. We all love you.” I saw the hazel of his irises rise through the burning. I saw relief as if he wanted to work this out too.
I had the man I loved back. We’d work everything out. He’d choose negotiation over death. Peace over war. Love over hate.
Then the temperature of the room turned ice cold. Their powers vibrated against my skin and deeper to the core of my body. I took my eyes off Karson briefly. More vampires spilled into the room, silent as shadows, looking lethal and ready to fight. I didn’t know if they were friend or foe.
Until Sarah’s vampires rushed at them.