Alive. She was alive.
“You aren’t listening!” The warehouse door swung open, and Kieran walked in. He’d exchanged his shredded clothes for fresh ones. “I reconsidered your offer. Yourdeal. I’m ready to accept.”
A woman followed him. Pale skin, smartly dressed in a dark blue suit and skirt, and with her silver blonde hair arranged into a slightly messy bun. She gave Kieran a cool look.
“I know why you called on me. The desperation in the request was a nice touch.” She looked around the empty warehouse. “It’s a less fearsome crowd than last time. Smaller, too.”
She spoke with an accent. British. Her tone was so soft that it almost came off smug.
Kieran snarled. “We took some losses.”
“Somelosses?” The woman chuckled. A chilling sound. “Over half your people are dead, have disappeared, or are crawling back to the very pack you pulled them from. That is not a loss. That is a death knell. What could I possibly gain from aiding you now?”
Kieran glared at her as if equally inclined to plead or attack her. The woman’s composed expression suggested she was ready for either action.
“Ow…” Evie groaned and touched her head with a wince.
Harper leaned towards her, the ankle chain pulling taut. “Evie? Are you okay?”
“That woman… She hit me with her gun.”
Evie got into a seated position. Her cuffs rattled, and she looked down at herself.
She went statue-still.
“Where are we? And Nell. Where’s Nell?”
“I don’t know. They injected me with something, and I passed out.” Harper swallowed. “Back at the cabin, I heard screaming. And gunfire.”
Evie’s hands shook. Her breathing picked up, and she held it in before it could turn hyperventilating.
This was like when she’d been held captive, Harper realized. Those vampires hadn’t bothered with restraints most of the time. They’d just kept her in a cell. A concrete hole with no windows and no hope of escape.
“It’ll be fine,” Harper said. Though, her trembling voice didn’t agree. “We’ll get out. We’ll get rescued. Maya’s probably bringing the cavalry right now.”
Evie’s eyes flicked. Then widened. “Wait… Maya, she… Oh my God. Harper, I’m so sorry.”
Harper’s stomach surged, the image of Maya’s impaled body coming back in devastating detail. All the blood, her gray skin, the snow catching on her dark hair.
“There’s nothing to be sorry about. She was moving.”
Evie’s gaze softened. “Harper, she got staked. Do you know what that means?”
“I don’t care what it means! She’s not dead. I saw her move. I’m sure of it.”
She wasn’t, really. Her consciousness had been fading, and it had been so dark. It could have just been her imagination.
No. No, itwasn’t. She’d moved. Harper hadseenher move.
Evie looked at her, almost startled. As though ready to disagree again. Instead, she nodded.
“Okay. She moved.”
Her eyes drifted to Harper’s throat. She stiffened again, her mouth pinching into a thin line.
“She fed on you?”
Harper touched her neck. The skin was warm, but it didn’t hurt. Maya had barely pricked her skin.
