“She helps me with my magic!” Cally cried. “I need her!”
“Not for this you don’t. Bond the vampire, fuck the vampire—that’s a different kind of magic.” His fist clenched in her hair, tilting her head back. “Do we have an understanding?”
“…Yes.” What else could she say?
“One month to show me results. After that, your dad and your friend start losing pieces. Am I clear?”
“Yes.” Her stomach filled with nausea, and not just from the blood she’d swallowed.
Was Darian right? Could she force Antoine?
How she wished she’d told him the truth from the beginning. Never brought Eve with her, never gone after Nico, never walked into his cell.
“As an added incentive, we’re keeping Eve here, and your dad just forfeited his 401k. We’ll give it back when you’ve deliveredfive dead vampires.” He jerked her head as he released it. “Now, do I have your…commitment?”
“Yes.” The word came out as a whisper, yet was no less damning for that.
Darian walked to the door and banged it twice. It opened with the grating of metal on metal. “We’re done. Bring her.”
The vampires were at war, and Antoine wanted his revenge. Was that justification enough? Could she somehow…leanon him, without making it an order? Give Darian the results he wanted, without forcing Antoine to do something he wasn’t going to do anyway?
She was hardly aware of the two Order soldiers who lifted her from her chair, checked her cuffs, and dragged her out of the room.
“I’m returning to upstate New York,” Darian told another man. “I will report this development to the Primus Vigil in person.”
“Yes, Sentinel.”
“Wait,” Darian ordered, and Cally’s escort halted. “Ensure she’s hooded on the way out, and give her back her phone when you drop her off.” He addressed Cally, his eyes hard. “Don’tbreakit, this time. If you fail to give me updates when I demand them, expect packages to start arriving at Fisher Hill. Small ones. The size of a finger.”
Cally shuddered and lowered her eyes.I’m so sorry, Eve.
“Get her out of here. Take her back to her vampire lover.”
Thirty-Four
They bundled her into the back of a sedan, and Cally’s tears spilled unseen inside her hood.
Her wrists were still handcuffed, a symbol of the far stronger ties Darian had bound her with. She could snap them. She could kill the Order guards driving her away from Eve.
What good would it do? What punishment would Darian exact?
She had a month to show results. Not to get Eve back, just to stop them torturing her.
Hell, Antoine could kill all the vampires he wanted. Cally had no problem with that. But to do it because sheforcedhim to? Even if she could?
It would destroy him. Their bond, their love.
She reached for him, feeling the tug northeast, but where it usually gave her comfort, now it was burdened with guilt. She tried to shy away from it, to think of other things, but therewasnothing else.
Only Antoine. Only Eve. Only her dad.
And how she’d betrayed them all.
The sedan rumbled over uneven ground, jostling her in her seat, then the wheels hit asphalt and the ride smoothed. The hood revealed nothing but the occasional flash of oncoming headlights, creating silhouettes of her Order escort in the front seats. They spoke little to each other and completely ignored her, driving her away from Eve and back to Antoine.
Fisher Hill, Darian had said. But of course Anthony Du Pont was on his list. She’d found him easily enough, and the Order had been looking for longer. Darian had wanted her to know he had the address.
The miles rolled by and her tears blurred her vision. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d cried. Was it for Eve? For Antoine? Or just her fear and shame?
