Jaci gasped, a bolt of fear burning away the cobwebs in her mind. Her eyes flew open, confirming the worst.
Viansa loomed over her, glossy red lips stretched into an evil grin.
“I told you, lab rat,” she taunted. “You tookmyvampire. Now I’m taking yours.”
“No!” Jaci bolted upright, and the gruesome image vanished.
“Jace?” Gabriel sat up next to her, holding her close. Tight.
“I thought she took you,” Jaci whispered. Her frantic heartbeat thudded in her ears, the rush of blood making her dizzy.
“It’s okay, love,” he said. “No one took me. I’m right here.”
Jaci blew out a breath. Gabriel’s warm embrace grounded her.
The darkness faded away.
The study.She was on the couch in the study. She and Gabriel had fallen asleep there after he’d fed. Hours ago, from the looks of it.
The sun hadn’t yet risen; orange and purple streaked the indigo sky. It was no longer snowing. No longer windy.
She glanced down at her wrist. The puncture wounds had already healed, leaving nothing but a dull ache to remind her of the bite.
Alive. She was alive. Gabriel was alive.
It was just a nightmare. Just her succubus asshole sister trying to get inside her head and scramble it all up.
“Okay?” Gabriel asked, pressing a kiss to her forehead, and she nodded, the now-familiar brush of his lips calming her.
“Just a nightmare,” she whispered, desperate to believe it.
And for a minute, she almost did.
Then an ear-splitting, blood-curdling scream shattered the pre-dawn peace, and Jaci knew—in a terrifying instant—it hadn’t been a nightmare at all.
Chapter Fifteen
Gabriel and Jacinda reached the backyard just seconds after Dorian and Charlotte, all of them hastily dressed, still blinking sleep from their eyes, shocked into utter paralysis by the sight.
In the frozen, predawn darkness, a young woman stood at the end of Dorian’s infinity pool, bundled in winter gear, waist-deep in the water. Her breath misted in white clouds, her body trembling so violently it sent ripples out across the surface of the water.
Gabriel sucked in an icy breath. Blinked. Tried to make sense of a thing that defied all logic.
Is that… Sasha?
He blinked again. It was definitely Sasha.
And there, floating face-down in front of the girl, looking as dead as any man Gabriel had ever seen in such a state, was Aiden Donovan.
“Aiden?” Gabriel whispered, the impossibility of the whole scene making his thoughts slow and fuzzy, as if his mind were wading through molasses.
“That’s... That’s my sister.” Charlotte’s voice was equally soft, equally confused.
Next to Gabriel, Jacinda shivered but said nothing.
Even Dorian was immobilized.
“But it’s… nearly Christmas,” he said, as if that had anything to do with it. “It’s too dark for swimming.”
