“Snack time, sweetie,” Viansa crooned. “Better not waste a drop!”
With neither hesitation nor emotion, Gabriel grabbed a red-headed fox shifter seated on the barstool next to Viansa and bit into her artery, sending a spray of blood across his face. After the first taste, he latched on harder and sucked, a deep groan of pleasure reverberating through his chest, mixing with the sound of his incessant slurping.
Jaci climbed over the bar and tried to intervene, begging him to stop, but it was useless. He was too far gone, too focused on his task, too caught up in Viansa’s thrall. When she tried to physically pull him away from the poor woman, he turned and growled at her, then went right back to his meal.
Moments later, the woman slumped forward, completely unaware, completely drained.
Gabriel stood stock-still, a robot awaiting his next command.
“Fuck.Fuck!” Jaci reached for the woman’s neck, pushing through the warm slick of blood in search of a pulse.
Nothing.
“She’s dead,” she whispered.
“Uh, yeah? That’s what happens when a vampire drains you.” Viansa rolled her eyes. “Honestly, kiddo. You’d think you’d have that part figured out by now, considering you’re fucking the guy. But… whatever. It’s not my job anymore to school you on the harsh realities of life. I lost that privilege the day you left hell.”
Through gritted teeth, Jaci said, “Fine.”
“Fine, what?”
“I’ll do it. I’ll help you break the gates.”
“Really?” Viansa bounced on her barstool, clapping her hands like a little girl. “Like,reallyreally?”
“Really really,” Jaci said, but Viansa was already frowning again.
“Iwantto believe you. I’m just not sure you’re fully on board with this.”
“I am,” she said, knowing there was no other choice. “I swear it. Just stop with the torture show, and I’m all yours.”
Viansa glanced at her fingernails, then back to Jaci, clearly unconvinced.
“I don’t know, Jay. Maybe we needonemore example, just to drive the point home. Pun intended.” She reached into her purse, eyebrows waggling.
Jaci recognized that new light in her sister’s eyes, a particular joy that only burned in her cruelest moments.
“It’s fine,” Jaci repeated, desperate to regain control. “I said I’d help you and I meant it. We can start right now. You don’t have to—”
“Gabe, my little sugarplum? I need ateensy-weensy favor.” Viansa pulled something out of her purse and tossed it to Gabe, who caught it easily.
It took Jaci a beat to realize what it was.
A stake. Sharp, wooden, deadly.
Sheer terror ran through Jaci’s limbs, paralyzing her.
“There’s only room foronequeen in this city.” With a menacing, blood-red grin, Viansa pointed at Charley, who’d been standing in front of the bar several feet down, frozen in place since Viansa’s arrival. Then, her eyes hardening right along with her voice, she said, “Take that vampire bitch down.Now.”
In that dreadful moment, as Gabriel tightened his grip on the stake and stepped forward, life flashed before Jaci’s eyes.
Not her own, but Charley’s.
She blinked and saw Dorian and Charley on their wedding day, glowing with so much love and happiness they rivaled the sun. She blinked again, and there was Dorian, kneeling in the dirt and weeping over a headstone, inconsolable and lost without his queen. Another blink and Sasha appeared, her once-bright eyes dim and dark as she wandered the halls of Ravenswood, calling out for a sister who’d never answer. On the last blink, Jaci saw her new friend Charley—the vampire queen who’d given her a second chance, the woman who’d seen past her many mistakes and offered understanding instead of scorn—collapse in a pile of ash.
Every heartbreaking image rushed through her mind in a heartbeat as Gabriel marched toward his victim.Viansa’svictim.
Ten seconds till impact.
