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“She knows exactly what to do,” Balthazar said. “As long as Lucas Ross lives, she’ll be after him. After anybody who’s with him. So maybe you want to think twice about how tightly you stick to this one. From now on, anybody who’s standing next to Lucas has a decent shot of ending up just as dead as he’s going to be.”
Coolly Kate glanced at her son. “Do you believe him?”
“Yeah,” Lucas said, drawing a stake from his belt. Then he slammed it into Balthazar’s chest.
I heard Raquel stifle a small cry. Balthazar gasped in pain, but he immediately slumped forward, unconscious and paralyzed.
Lucas said, “I want to burn this trash myself. Bianca can come with. I think it’ll help her get over what he did, torching him.”
Eliza nodded. Kate put her hands on my shoulders as I wiped my eyes. “Just remember,” she said, “you’re free now.”
The others helped us load Balthazar’s inert body into the van. I couldn’t get over how, well, dead he looked, with the stake poking out of his chest. Milos gave Lucas a few hints about good spots for burning vampire corpses, which made me think he’d done this several times before. That gave me the shivers.
I slammed the van doors shut. Lucas started the engine and pulled onto the road. Once we were a few blocks away, I slipped into the back where Balthazar lay and said, “Now?”
Lucas nodded, never taking his eyes from the road. “Now.”
With both hands, I grabbed the stake and pulled it out of Balthazar’s chest.
As soon as the wood slipped free, Balthazar jerked, then writhed beneath me in pain. His bloodied hands sought the gaping wound in his chest. “What the—”
“Shhhhhh.” I put one hand on his forehead. “You’re okay. We had to pretend we were going to kill you. There was no other way to get you out of there.”
“Bianca?”
“Yeah, it’s me. You remember what happened?”
“I think so.” Balthazar grimaced, but he forced his eyes open to look at me. “You and Lucas—”
“We broke you out,” Lucas called. “Listen, we’re on a tight schedule here. Is there a place we can drop you? Where you’ll be safe while you heal up?”
Balthazar had to think a couple seconds before he nodded. “Chinatown. A shop—I know the owner—he’ll hide me.”
“We’ll get you there,” Lucas said.
“Thank you,” Balthazar said. One of his hands found mine. Normally he was so strong, but now the pressure he put on my fingers was weaker than a child’s. “Black Cross—They aren’t—”
“They don’t know about me,” I said. “Lucas is taking care of me. I’m safe.”
Balthazar nodded. His handsome face was twisted and swollen, and I wished I at least could’ve brought some bandages. Even a vampire might require weeks to recover from injuries this serious. I tried to smile for him as I wiped blood from the corner of his mouth, but it was difficult.
At last we reached Chinatown. The street Balthazar told us to turn onto was small and unbelievably crowded. Almost every single store sign was in Chinese; it really felt like we’d driven to another country altogether.
Lucas double-parked and glanced over his shoulder. “You sure you can get where you’re going?”
“Maybe Bianca could walk with me.”
“That’s a good idea,” I said. It was too easy to imagine Balthazar passing out in the gutter and being dragged to a hospital, where he’d promptly be declared dead. “I’ll be right back.”
“I’m going to circle the block.” Lucas glanced at our passenger. “Good luck, Balthazar.”
“Thanks. I mean it.”
I got out first and accepted Balthazar’s heavy arm across my shoulders. He could stand but just barely. Once the van doors were shut, Lucas drove away. Although several people stared at Balthazar, bloody wreck that he was, nobody said anything. That was New York for you.
As soon as we started walking, Balthazar said, “Come with me.”
“I am coming with you. We’re going to find the shop. I think it’s right along here—”
