Couldn’t do a fucking thing but wait.
“Viansa,” Jaci tried again. “What do you want? I said I’d help you with the hell gates, but I can’t doshitif you won’t talk to me. Stop fucking around and face me like a real demon. Now!”
Viansa’s shrill, earsplitting laugh pierced the air, but it hadn’t come from any of the group. Jaci couldn’t even place the source—the succubus was nowhere and everywhere all at once. Taunting them. Surrounding them.
“Fuck this,” Gabriel said. “Time to go.” He grabbed Jaci’s arm, tried to move her down the tunnel, but they’d only managed to take a few steps before Viansa jumped again, this time returning to Colin.
With a wild roar, Colin blurred into them both, the impact knocking Jaci on her ass. She heard Dorian shouting at Colin to stop, heard the snarl of Cole’s wolf, heard Gabriel cry out in such deep, all-encompassing agony, Jaci was terrified to look. Terrified she’d find him mangled and mutilated, seconds from turning into ash.
When she finally got to her feet and got her bearings, Colin had Gabriel against the cracked stone wall, one arm against his throat, his fist embedded in Gabriel’s chest.
The crypts fell silent, the splash of Gabriel’s blood on the floor and the pounding of Jaci’s own frantic heartbeat the only sounds that reached her.
Dorian was the first to speak. The only one who dared.
“Colin,” he said gently. Desperately. Tears glazed his eyes, but he kept his voice steady. “Don’t give in, brother. Please.”
“I love it when you beg, vampire king,” Colin said. Rather, it was Colin’s voice, but it wasn’thim. Wasn’t his face. Wasn’t his warm, compassionate eyes and sweet dimples.
In that moment, Colin wore the mask of a monster.
“Yeah, I’m kinda bored of this game anyway,” the monster said. “Time to end—”
“No,” Jaci gasped, and the gleam in Colin’s monster-eyes confirmed her worst fear.
Viansa was going to kill Gabriel.
“Whatever you want,” Jaci whispered, too petrified to move. To even cry. “I’m right here, Viansa. I’m all yours. Just don’t—”
“Why not?” Colin snapped, his voice high and tight. “You tookmyvampire. Maybe I’ll take yours. Only fair, right?”
“Ormaybe,” came another reply, sharp and clear, “we’ll send you back to hell and call it a day.”
Isabelle.
The witch hurled a glass jar at Colin’s feet. It shattered with an explosion of indigo light, magic sizzling along the ground and racing up the stone walls, enveloping Colin and Gabriel in a cloud of smoke.
Jaci felt Viansa’s dark energy scatter. A flood of shock and confusion, a spike of sheer terror, the overwhelming desire to flee, and then… Nothing but lightness in the air. Room to breathe.
By the time the smoke faded, the bitch was completely gone.
“Gabriel,” Jaci whispered, and across the broken, blood-stained alcove, the vampire prince caught her gaze and smiled.
Keeping his eyes and Jaci, he said, “So, Colin… I don’t suppose you might… I don’t know. Unhand myfuckingheart? Preferably while it’s still beating?”
Colin gasped, blinking in disbelief as his awareness finally returned and he took in the gruesome sight.
“Colin,” Gabriel said again, softer now. “Are you with me?”
“I… Yes. I’m… so sorry, brother. This is… quite unexpected.”
“Quite uncomfortable as well.” Gabriel grinned, clearly trying to put on a brave face. “No sudden movements, Dr. Redthorne. Surgical precision, yes?”
“Of course,” Colin said, clearing his throat. “Of course.” Slowly, painstakingly, he released Gabriel’s heart and withdrew his fist.
Collapsing back against the wall, Gabriel unleashed a sigh that quickly turned into a relieved laugh, and Jaci watched in awe as the mangled hole in his chest closed, flesh and bone knitting back together as if someone had just hit the rewind button on the whole gruesome scene.
By the time he stood up and pulled Jaci into an impossibly tight embrace, the only evidence that he’d been attacked at all was the ragged hole torn through his shirt, the pool of blood still glistening at his feet.
