Page 244 of Volik

The room shakes as Volik watches the recorded video of another vampire choking his mate.

There is no calming him. So I don’t try. I simply send out waves of my own magic, calming the earth, so my house stays standing.

Volik jumps to the screen.

His back heaves when the other male licks his mate’s hand.

“P-put her down!” someone near the camera cries.

“No.” Morell’s mouth pulls up into a smirk. “I think I’ll keep her.”

Volik hisses at the screen, and the sound makes my skin crawl with unease.

Then we watch Morell jump across the hall of mirrors.

But he’s still holding Nix with his arm around her throat. So she’s ahead of him.

And she’s the first to go through the sheet of glass when he jumps through the window.

A pained cry drags itself out of Volik’s throat, and he presses his hands over his heart. Not caring that the magicked dagger, made for killing vampires, is pressed against his chest.

“Ma Fleur.” His words are choked, and when he turns to me, tears are streaming down his face. “Help me save her.”

I dip my chin and head back toward the stairs.

My lids lower, my attention moving to the world map in my mind.

I focus on the grounds outside the Palace of Versailles.

And I find the location I need.

At the top of the stairs, I stride down the hall toward my portal room. And I don’t slow my stride as I walk through the third portal from the left.

My feet land on grass outside the cabin.

I wave my hand over the depression Volik left in the ground, and the earth shifts, filling it back in.

One more wave and the bits of burned grass tremble. Then regenerate.

Chapter 110

Volik

Rage and sorrow and the most intense feeling of failure battle inside me as I step through the portal, away from wherever Dread’s home is, back to the cabin near the lake.

My heart is still racing.

He is hurting Nix.

Her heart will not stop racing.

He tasted her blood, against her will.

My heart pounds so hard it hurts.

I will kill him.

Even if I have to do it with my final breath.