“Just sleep. I’ve got you. I won’t let anything hurt you tonight, or ever.”
As I drift off to sleep, I believe him, unaware of how fragile that promise is.
Wakefulness doesn’t come as quickly as it should considering the direness of the situation. At first, I have a vague recollection of Becks leaving the bed. Then murmurs filter into my awareness. When I blink my eyes open, it takes a few moments to adjust to the low light.
I sit up sleepily to catch Becks and Ensley standing in my doorway, talking in rushed but hushed voices. Realizing I’m awake, their faces turn toward me, and my stomach jumps into my throat. Even in the darkness I can see the blood dripping down the side of Ensley’s face.
“What’s happened?” I ask, flinging the covers off.
“Stay here with Haven,” Becks tells his sister, and then hands her something. “These are the keys to the SUV. If you need to, take her and run.”
“It’s been snowing for the last two hours,” Ensley says. “Those roads are going to be crap right now.”
“I know. It’s just as a last resort.”
“Wait. What’s going on?” Becks’ gaze is hard when it lands on me, and cold as a winter storm.
He must realize he’s frightening me, because his face softens. “Some vampires seem to have found us. The others are fighting them off. I’m going to help. Stay here with Ensley. She’ll protect you.”
“You’re leaving me?” I ask, panicked.
“I don’t want to, but they need me. You’ll be safe here. For now.”
His last “for now” hangs in the air ominously.
As I’m processing, he comes over and gives me a hard and fast kiss. It’s over before it’s almost begun. “If something happens, you run. You hear me? You don’t wait for me or any of the others, you just get out of here.”
“But, Becks, I-I can’t just?—”
“I’ll be fine. I’m hard to kill, remember. You need to look out for yourself. For your sake, and for both worlds.”
He waits for my reluctant nod before taking off.
Ensley grabs a hand towel from the bathroom and presses it to the side of her head, staunching the flow of blood from her injury.
“Let me take a look,” I offer, but she waves me off.
“It’s not bad, I swear.”
I cast my gaze out the window to see red starting to encroach on the moon. About a quarter of the orb is tinted.
“How much time until totality?” I ask, dread swirling in my gut.
“About thirty minutes. Then the window is forty-eight minutes.”
She means the window in which the demon has to steal my power and kill me.
“But we haven’t seen the demon,” she’s quick to add. “It’s just a group of vampires.”
“It’s here somewhere,” I say, fear churning inside, making my muscles weak.
Somehow, it’s found me. And it’s not going to leave without what it came for.
Ensley frowns but doesn’t contradict me. She goes over to my dresser and starts rifling through it. She pulls out some clothes just as a scream pierces the night, making me jump. I go to look out the window, but she grabs my arm and yanks me away.
“We have to get to a more secure room.” She tugs me into the hallway and then into the hidden surveillance room across the hall. It’s as good a hiding place as any because it doesn’t have a window and the entrance is concealed.
Just as she closes the door behind us, glass breaks somewhere below, followed by the telltale thud of footsteps pounding on the hardwood floors.
