Antoine took a last look around and sighed. His gaze flicked over Nico’s corpse like it was a hole in the carpet. Then he held out his hand. “Come,ma chérie.It is time to leave this place.”
“Is there nothing you want to take?” she asked, slipping her hand into his.
He hooked the bag from her shoulder, looping it around his. “It is all just material possessions, and replaceable.” He pulled her against him, sliding his arm around her waist. “The one thing I want, I have here.”
She smiled, pressing her hand to his chest. “Am I your possession too?”
“As much as I am yours.”
“Quite a lot, then.”
He picked her up in his arms, zipping through the house in a blur of speed, her stomach left behind. But she’d grown used to the sensation and tucked her head in against his neck, not wanting to see the thrall corpses in the hallway.
Antoine took the stairs up to the top floor, where he paused. “So this is how Nico got in.”
The skylight had been smashed open, shattered glass covering the floor of the room below and crunching under his boots as he carried her up to the roof. There he stopped, the cold night air making her shiver and cling to him more. Beneath them, the yardlooked like a giant had walked through, tearing up the lawn. Bodies lay everywhere. Strobing blue lights marked the police presence, and they’d moved closer. Two squad cars were directly outside the house, and nervous-looking cops held weapons as they approached. They didn’t look up.
“Almost a century here,” Antoine said nostalgically.
“I’m sorry.”
“Ah, well.” He turned to her. “Come, it is time to leave. I will take you to my other house. It is not as grand as this one, but in truth, before I met you, I spent far more time there.” He leaped into the night, shadows trailing around them both, the cold biting through her thin clothing. She curled into his warmth, stole a look back at the house—walls shattered, windows gaping—and knew he’d never return. “It will just be the two of us,” he continued, “which will be a nice change. In fairness, I think Marcel has enjoyed having so many guests. I worry about him most of all.”
“Do you think he’ll be all right? With the police?”
“If he’s not out by mid-morning, I will contact the mayor and call in all the favors he owes me.” He landed on the roof of someone’s house, took two quick steps, and leaped again.
The wind whistled past, and she shivered in his arms.
Antoine noticed immediately. “You are cold.”
“You’re warm enough, as always, but I wish we’d stopped for my coat.”
“You are right, we should’ve.”
“With the police arriving at any moment, there wasn’t really time.” She pressed herself closer, seeking the heat of his body. “Is it just me, or are you traveling faster than you used to?”
He chuckled low, and she felt it reverberate through his chest. “Your fault,ma chérie. I am more powerful with every passing day, thanks to your blood.”
Yet still not powerful enough to fight Roberto.
How strong would he need to be? And how powerful was their enemy? For she was in no doubt: Roberto was as much her enemy as Antoine’s.
“Nico wanted to take me alive, and bring me to Roberto. He called me a witch.”
Antoine stumbled as he landed on the next building, his brow furrowing as he looked down at her. “That is… concerning. But, on reflection, not all that surprising. It explains how he returned so quickly from the Order’s cell.” He tsked. “I was a fool not to anticipate it.” He leaped again, the sharp acceleration stealing her breath. “If Gabe is correct—and I believe he is—then it follows both Nico and Tobias are Roberto’s spawns.”
“Spawn,” Cally muttered into his chest.
“What?”
“You always say ‘spawns’. It’s a collective noun.”
He stared at her. “We were discussing the most powerful vampire in Boston, and his interest in taking you away from me. But of course you’re right—the correct use of English is the priority here.”
“It… just…” She buried her face in his chest, if only to rub her cheek against his warmth. “It slipped out.”
“When vampires have appropriated the term, ‘spawns’ becomes accurate, does it not?”
