A soft touch on his shoulder, a gentle breath on the air, the familiar scent of the woman he loved.
Gabriel exhaled, the rage inside him receding.
No question, Duchanes deserved to die. Right fucking now. But it wasn’t Gabriel’s call. Not anymore.
“So yes, Duchanes,” he continued. “Iamletting Jacinda fight this battle. Cheering her on every step of the way. And when she finally decides she’s done with you, when she snaps her precious fingers and turns your rotting corpse into ash, when she turns on her heel and walks away without so much as a backward glance? That’s when I’ll come for you. Jacinda is going to end you. ButI’llbe the one to dump you in that nameless dirt hole, just like I promised. And do you know why?”
Duchanes shook his head, his eyes wide with new fear, his heart sputtering in the wake of his bleak new reality.
“Because Jacinda Colburn is a fuckingqueen,” Gabriel said, “and handling the dust of your pathetic corpse is a task far beneath her.”
At that, Gabriel slammed the hatch closed, got into the car with his woman, and drove as fast as the icy roads would allow, straight up to Ravenswood.
* * *
“Do you think Dorian will be upset?” Jacinda asked when they finally pulled into the driveway.
The manor stood sentry before them, as enigmatic and impenetrable as the vampire king himself.
A pang of unease flickered in Gabriel’s gut.
He’d just survived a raid on their enemy’s warehouse. Slaughtered more mages than he cared to recall. Watched Jacinda take down a veritable army of monsters. And locked the bastard they’d been hunting for months in the trunk of his car, barely conscious.
But surviving his big brother’s inevitable wrath?
Gabriel sighed. “There’s a good chance I’ll need to detonate you again before the day is through.”
Jacinda grabbed his hand and squeezed, her laughter filling the car as readily as it filled his heart. “I’m on standby if you need me, Prince. Always.”
Chapter Five
The crypts beneath Ravenswood Manor were impossibly vast—a dark, twisted labyrinth of stone passageways and alcoves so creepy Jaci wondered if Augustus Redthorne had hired his decorator straight from hell.
Definitely not the ideal place to spend your final days reflecting on your shitty life choices, but thanks to the legendary hospitality of the vampire king, that’s exactly what Renault Duchanes would be doing.
Dorianhadbeen upset—that much was clear from the moment he’d opened the front door and took in the filthy, bloody sight of them—but thankfully he’d stowed his anger and focused on the issue at hand, helping them get Cole to one of the bedrooms and Renault to the veritable dungeons.
Now, while the others helped Isabelle and Colin take care of the wolf, Jaci and her man were playing “Bad Cop, Worse Cop” with the bloodsucking prisoner—a last-ditch effort to suss out intel about Viansa and the bigger demonic threat.
“You missed me, Ren,” she said to the bloodsucker, her smile widening. “I can tell.”
Renault had just awoken from his long nap in the trunk, and now, chained to a damp wall in an even damper alcove, he trembled with rage.
Well, it was either rage, rapid onset pneumonia, the cocktail of botanical poisons cruising through his bloodstream, or all of the above—but tremble he did.
Colin had helped her turn the vampire poison into a time-release IV drip, ensuring the bastard would remain conscious and alert, but physically drained, stuck in a state of perpetual half-deadness until she was ready for him to fuck off in earnest.
Soon, she hoped. Soon as she and Isabelle finalized the binding spell. Then she’d turn him into a gray, carve out his heart, and unleash the spell on Viansa... Assuming they could find the succubus. Assuming they could keep her in one location long enough to work their magic. Assuming it actuallydidwork.
Lots of assumptions there. Lots of hope. But if everything worked out, the Redthorne curse would finally be broken, Viansa’s powers would be on permanent lockdown, and Jaci would be able to stake this motherfucker once and for all.
“You’ll pay for this,” he ground out. “You’ll—”
“Listen, bloodsucker,” she said. “Maybe you were absent from class the day they taught Advanced Intimidation Tactics, but when the intimidator himself is chained up in a royal vampire dungeon and pumped full of really bad juju, his threats don’t pack the same punch. Mine, however…”
She hauled off and clocked Renault in the mouth, knocking out a couple of his molars. Hurt her hand like a bitch, butdamn—totally worth it.
Gabriel let out a soft chuckle beside her. “Brains, beauty, magic, and one hell of a right hook? I’mdefinitelykeeping you.”
