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I’d listened to every word of the conversation from a safe distance, then followed her when she left and went straight to Anya’s.
She had been inside Anya’s building nearly all day. Despite the sun constantly taking its toll until I felt fatigued and my thoughts grew sluggish, I couldn’t make myself leave. She hadn’t been truly on her own since I met her, and the idea of just walking away and trusting she would be okay felt unconscionable. Reckless.
Cara was the most important thing in my bleak world, bond or not.
Maybe she couldn’t be mine anymore—if she ever had been—but I would at least make sure she was safe. Happy. Protected.
A few minutes before sunset, I felt something strange. It was like the bond waking up inside me. There was a slight pull in her direction at first, then it grew stronger until I knew I wasn’t imagining it.
What the hell?
I was sitting on the roof across from her building when Seraphina appeared at my side. She was wearing an oddly human assortment of clothes—a black skirt, white t-shirt, and sneakers.
I could still feel the growing sense of bond between Cara and I, but I hoped to distract myself from the confusing question of how that was possible. “Why are you dressed like that?” I asked.
“You told me not to let the girl out of my sight. I thought I might be less suspicious like this if I had to follow her into a building.”
“Oh,” I said, then I grinned. “The look suits you.”
Seraphina stared straight ahead. “Shut up.”
There was a clatter of footsteps behind us on the rooftop. I stood, spinning to face the sound.
My stomach sank.
It was a small army of vampires. All female. All beautiful. Bennigan’s charmed army, I thought.
They were all standing in a row across from us, eyes loaded with hostility. Even more joined them, some climbing up from the wall of the building and others emerging from the staircase. I noticed the Marsh children, the Whites, and several others I’d recently tried to win to our side standing there as well. “What is this?” I asked.
“This is a compromise,” Adam Marsh said. “We keep you here while Bennigan takes what he wants.”
“You all agreed to this? Don’t you have any backbone? Any self-respect?” I asked.
Kira, who was standing just in front of Violet White, shrugged. “I told you where we stood, Lucian. The power is on Bennigan’s side. I don’t want to cross The Council, so I’m crossing you.”
“Wait,” I said. “Who is The Council?”
Adam answered. “It was Shadow Force, but they changed their name.”
I shook my head. “This ‘council’ is behind shattering The Order? For what? To pretend none of us ever swore to The Pact?”
Kira stepped closer. “Most of us swore to The Pact because people like you would hunt us down if we didn’t, Lucian. Now you’re just a memory. A dead man who hasn’t gotten around to getting dead yet.”
I was also unfortunately severely weakened from so much sunlight. My thoughts were coming sluggishly, and my body felt taxed to its limits already. “Why now?”
“Because someone powerful wanted it this way. I don’t know, and I frankly don’t care,” Kira said. “All I know is we have to keep you here while they take your little human.”
I jerked my head down toward Anya’s, where I saw Bennigan and his vampiresses kicking in the front door.
Shit, shit, shit. I’d let Kira distract me from watching Anya’s and given Bennigan a chance to get to her door while I was still here.
I’d only taken one step toward the ledge of the roof to jump when I heard a rush of approaching feet, some much faster than my sun-weakened efforts.
Countless hands grasped me just as I was leaping away from the roof and yanked me back, slamming me to the ground and pinning me there. To my side, I saw Seraphina biting and scratching, but ultimately being overwhelmed and pushed down as well.
“Let me go!” I roared.
But it was hopeless. Bennigan had made sure he had more than enough help to keep us contained. I strained against the hands holding me, swearing revenge on anyone I could see.
The sound of gunshots rang out and the hands holding me relented.
Alaric was running toward us with a pistol in either hand, shooting wildly. The idiot still hadn’t learned to aim, and one of his bullets thudded into my own thigh. I groaned in pain, then rolled off the edge of the building, vaguely hoping the few minutes of starlight had been enough to heal me through the incoming impact.
The wind screamed in my ears and my stomach lurched from the brief fall. I hit the ground hard, bouncing up from the impact and landing a second, much less violent time.
For a few seconds, everything was black, and my body was wracked with pain.
