“Seems like your thralls are in trouble,” Antoine ground out as he pushed the blade inch by inch toward Tobias’s stomach.
“Who’s your ally?” Tobias asked, teeth bared as he struggled to keep the blade from moving.
“Wouldn’t you like to know.”Wouldn’tIlike to know.It must be Gabe—he hadn’t been far behind, after all—but if it was, he was alone. Doing pretty well against all those thralls.
“Doesn’t matter,” Tobias said. “We got what we came for.”
‘We’?
He wasn’t referring to his thralls. Vampires like him didn’t count them as worthy of mention.
His bond to Cally pulsed again, urgent and pulling at him. She knew he was fighting; she wouldn’t have done that if it wasn’t desperate.
“Noah!”
Still no answer. How could that be?
Tobias grinned, strained with the effort of keeping the dagger from piercing his stomach. “Are you just catching on?”
Antoine snapped his head forward, straight into the other vampire’s face, who jerked back too slow, his nose breaking with a satisfying crunch. The damage was minimal, but it was only ever a ploy to distract—and it had worked. Antoine grabbed his shoulder with one hand, then pulled and pushed simultaneously.
The dagger sank in deep, and Tobias gasped.
It wasn’t fatal, but the bond pulled him for a third time, Cally using her compulsion, and he couldn’t delay any longer. Antoine didn’t hang around to finish him off but leaped for the stairs, his shadows trailing behind him.
Diego lay lifeless at the top, eyes open and staring, his head twisted too far around. He had deserved better.
Antoine raced down the hallway, kicking off the far wall to sharply turn the corner.
But he was too late. Two thralls stood outside Cally’s room, weapons leveled.
How had they gotten past him?
The door was open. Someone was inside with her.
Then a woman screamed, the voice too full of anguish to recognize, the cry torn from her throat. Just one word, desperate, broken. “No!”
Forty-Four
“Isn’t there a panic room?” Eve asked nervously, as more explosions rocked the house. “Wouldn’t we be safer there?”
“It’s in the basement, off the kitchen,” Noah said. “Antoine designed it for Marcel, not for…” He met Cally’s eyes, moonlight catching his face. “They’re already in the house. We wouldn’t get there. We’re safer here.”
“What’s happening?” Eve pressed.
“Antoine’s fighting, that’s all I know.”
“Can’t you do the mind-link thing and ask him?”
“No, don’t,” Cally said quickly. “Don’t distract him.” She pulled Eve’s laptop around, the glow of the screen bright in the darkness, then closed her eyes. “Neart mo chnámh, seasaim go láidir, mo chroí ag bualadh, ní thiteann sé riamh.”
“Say what?” Noah asked.
“‘Strength of my bones, I stand firm; my heart beats, it never fails,’” Eve rattled off quickly, moving to sit beside Cally. “You’re still saying ‘thit-yun.’ It’s ‘hit-tyun.’” She paused. “Are you thinking what I think you’re thinking?”
“Damn right I am,” Cally muttered. “No time like the present to test it, right?”
“Uh, yeah, I suppose, if it works. Or no, absolutely the worst time ever, if it doesn’t.”
