The bond tugged constantly. She couldn’t stop thinking about him. How he’d hate her for controlling him. He’d see her as worse than Belle.
What if Darian was wrong, and shecouldn’tmake him do what she wanted? Could she encourage him through normal means to kill more vampires than just those who had entombed him?
Hell, Nico was already out of the picture. There were only two others, Tobias and Roberto. Not enough to meet Darian’s ‘quota’. She would have to tell him, and beg him to help her. Maybe that was the answer—maybe he would, just because she asked. Not because sheforcedhim, but because he wanted to.
Damn it,whyhadn’t she told him about the Order when she’d had the chance?
Because he would’ve tried to kill them all for blackmailing me, and likely got killed in the process.
Helpless with no options, whichever way she turned. And her tears wouldn’t stop flowing.
“Stop sniveling, bitch.”
The first words either of them had said to her.
“What do you expect? I can’t breathe in this hood.”
“It doesn’t matter now,” the driver said. “We’ve come far enough.”
The other turned in his seat, reaching back. He pulled off the hood, yanking out several strands of her hair at the same time.
They were on a two-lane back road, cutting through dense New England woods, white pines rising above a tangle of maples and undergrowth. Cally didn’t know what time it was, but few cars came the other way.
It could be any road in rural Massachusetts, except they were heading back to Boston. Her bond tugged northeast still, straight through the windshield and on.
Except it didn’t. It veered left, the angle rotating even as she focused on it. And their road was straight.
Antoine was on the move. Not only that, but for the bond to shift so abruptly, he was close. Was he coming for her?
She felt a thrill of hope. Did he know where she’d been? Would he know where Eve was?
But it was quashed just as fast. She wasn’t there anymore, and he had no sense of distance. He’d only be able to track her—and only if he checked.
She focused on the bond, willing him to find her, yet fearful for the confrontation. What would happen? How would she stop him from killing the Order guards, and what punishment would Darian exact if he did?
It wasn’t just her that was trapped, it was him too. And it was all her fault.
The road she was on kept straight. If Boston was northeast, Antoine was due north of her now, yet the angle veered slightly every second. They passed through a small town, taking the back road out of it, and Antoine was almost directly ahead. A car whipped past, its headlights bright, but it wasn’t Antoine’s Audi. She strained her eyes, watching every car that came their way for one that might be a low sports car.
Another drove past, too large to be his, but Cally gasped as the bond abruptly pulled from behind her. Thathadbeen him; she’d caught a fleeting sense of his proximity. But now he was going the wrong way. Had he been focusing on her too? Did he know?
She strained to hear brakes screeching or tires skidding, but the road noise was too great. She wanted to turn in her seat and look through the back window, but to do so would alert her escort. Her pulse thumped in her ears.
A minute crawled by, another mile with the bond pulling directly behind her. Wherewashe?
Then a car roared past, overtaking. It briefly held level with them, and she felt him near. It was a silver SUV, and it swerved in front of them.
“Shit!” the driver muttered, then slammed the brakes as Antoine’s red lights filled their windshield. Cally was thrown against the seat in front as they lurched and shuddered, tires screeching. “The fuck is he—”
Antoine had stopped, forcing them to a halt, andbothdoors on his car opened. She had a brief glimpse of him in his usual all-black and long leather jacket, blurring with vampiric speed, then the passenger window exploded inward, the Order guard pulled out through it. His neck snapped with a crack that echoed through the night.
“No! Don’t kill—”
The other door was yanked from its mountings, and a woman in a revealing evening dress plucked the hapless Order driver from his seat. He flew through the air, his scream cutting off abruptly as he slammed into a tree trunk with a crunching impact.
Damn it. We needed one of them.The thought was quickly overlaid by another as she stared at the woman.Is that… Belle?Why isshehere?
Then her own door was pulled off, and Antoine was silhouetted against the night.
