The room falls still for a beat. This is what hope sounds like in the mouth of a vampire.
Before Kayden or anyone can respond, the sound of shattering glass cuts through the air like a gunshot.
Eira.
Her water glass lies in pieces on the floor, her hands trembling at her sides. She's gone deathly pale, her entire frame shaking.
"Eira?" Donna says, voice laced with concern.
"Are you all right?" Asher moves toward her, already bracing to catch her if she falls.
Eira stares ahead, chest heaving. Her eyes dart around the room until they land on me, locking in with an intensity that makes my skin crawl.
When she speaks, her voice is hollow, distant, as if it's not entirely her own.
"Death," she whispers. "I see death. Everywhere."
Her face contorts in pain, like a spike of agony just split her mind in two. She opens her mouth and screams. The sound is inhuman, deafening and piercing.
I clap my hands over my ears, the screech reverberating through the bar like a sonic weapon. Glasses rattle. A few shatter. The lights flicker. For a moment, it feels like the air itself is breaking apart.
Then—silence. Except for the ringing in my skull.
Eira collapses, but Asher and Tomas catch her in time. She's limp, unconscious, her breaths shallow and erratic.
The party is over. No one speaks. We're frozen in the aftermath, anxiety coiled tight in the room like a wire about to snap.
That's when we hear it.
Engines. Several.
The grind of tires on gravel. Doors slamming. A convoy of cars pulling up just outside the building.
We all exchange looks.
Kayden is the one to break the silence. "Well," he says dryly, rising to his feet. "This can't be good."
No joke in his voice now.
My stomach twists, dread rising in my throat like bile. Something's wrong.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Sage
Asher lowers Eira gently into Donna's care, and then we all move toward the front door. Kayden peers out the window, brow furrowed.
"Bunch of blackout SUVs and suits," he mutters. "Maybe a senator's convoy took a wrong turn into the Twilight Zone."
The joke lands like a stone. No one laughs. Not after Eira's scream.
Because this isn't a coincidence.
I step toward the door on instinct, but Asher catches my arm. "Let Tomas and me take point," he says, voice low and clipped. "We don't know what kind of threat we're dealing with."
My pulse spikes. No, they don't.
But I do.
