Page 50 of Vampire Visions

I’d never seen a demon fade in full light. We usually jumped from shadow to shadow, needing the dark for the power to work at all. I didn’t know why it shocked me, but it did, and I wasn’t the only one.

The Kadences in the room laughed before speaking together. “Your precious heir has fled,” they all stated with certainty. “She’s run from her own battle.”

I knew my Kitten hadn’t run from anything, but not everyone knew her well enough to know how she’d react. I eyed all the clones, one after another, trying to pick them apart to find the real one. It felt impossible. If one blinked, they all did. Every breath they took was in sync. Every detail was the same, except for the one holding Charles.

The black smoke reappeared in the middle of the Kadence clones. Raging and roiling, the clouds spread, covering the entire floor of the room. Like dry ice creating black fog, it flooded the area, seeping slowly between the legs of each person in the crowded room. It was above my hips when it finally stopped growing, and I silently observed as three little black bats vanished into the haze.

A silhouette of Sloane stepped out, the smoke wafting around her, but not showing her body. She leaned forward to whisper in a clone’s ear, “You’re not the only one with tricks, Kade.”

Gone again, in a single blink, Sloane’s manic laughter sounded like it bubbled up from the smoke. It came from nowhere and everywhere at the same time. I couldn’t pinpoint its origins.

From three different directions, the clones were falling. Not a single one made a sound as the hellhounds dragged them down and the smoke swallowed them up.

“Come on, Lo,” Jack complained. “That army will be here in a minute. Stop playing and take her out already.”

Sloane popped up out of the smoke behind the Kadence who held Charles. That’s who I thought was the real one, too. She was so close when she whispered this time that I could see her lips brush the shell of Kadence’s ear.

“Found you.”

21

Vaughn

Saturday Late Night

The moment Sloane found the real Kadence, shit hit the fucking fan. I’m talking… slow motion, everything at once, and that thing that happens to your brain where it refuses to relay the sounds to your ears and it all goes whomp, whomp, whomp.

Her hellhounds had been tearing Kadence’s clones down, and they were almost done. What no one else seemed to realize was that the black smoke Sloane had created was feeding off of Kadence’s magic. It was literally eating her clones. Every ounce of magic she used was being recycled into Sloane. I’d seen dark mages use similar magic, but this was Sloane’s own interpretation of the spell.

She grabbed Kade’s right arm at the bend of her elbow, jerking it away from her body to give Charles a gap to work out of. He lunged forward as Sloane pulled back, breaking the hold on him, and immediately turned for Samuel. As soon as Sam was free, he and Charlie jumped into the fray, calling out orders and organizing vampires.

Sloane had one goal now.

Kill Kadence Moore.

Stone, Jack, Grim, and I all had one job.

Make sure no one interfered with Sloane’s — and now Novak’s — fight.

I wasn’t sure what Blaire had said to Novak, but whatever it was was the spark that the vampire needed to tip over the edge of his carefully molded control. I tried to watch both fights simultaneously while also watching for incoming threats. My fae eyes weren’t quick enough to follow all the movements, though.

Novak’s opponent, Gideon, was basically running in circles while mumbling. He looked utterly foolish. Novak stood as still as a statue, and I started to worry that whatever the imbecile was saying was a spell to hold Novak in place. When Gideon stopped, he lobbed a red ball of magic at Novak. Novak leaned his upper body to the left, dodging the magic attack seamlessly.

That was the only chance Gideon had to hit Novak. The vampire didn’t give free passes. He was livid, encroaching the point of no return rage. As the bloodlust set in, Novak’s skin turned to an ashy gray color, his face gaunt in appearance, and his eyes bled. The whites stained red, the pupils barely visible, and blood spilled over the lower lid of his eyes, cascading down his cheeks. It chilled me to my core.

In all the years that we’d been friends, I’d seen Novak like this exactly twice before tonight. The first was a challenge fight for his apprentice title a few months before we moved to Nashville. The second was after some asshole had grossly overstepped the lines with Blaire. We’d all taken a red-eye flight across the world for her. All six of us.

Novak loosed a feral growl, sounding more lion than vampire. Rushing Gideon head on, Novak reached for his arm, planting his foot in Gideon's stomach… and pulled. I twisted my face away when I heard the first pop, knowing that he wouldn’t stop there.

No. Novak was going to rip him limb from limb.

Sloane was on the other side of the room now. She and Kade tumbled together, all arms and legs, like those old cartoons that Novak made me watch. I could easily imagine a ball of dust around them as they rolled into each other. They moved so fast that I really only saw them in split second snapshots. I couldn’t tell exactly who was winning, but it didn’t look good for Sloane. Distant screeching bounced off the walls of the expansive ballroom, causing me to shiver at the pain in the sound.

The fight between Sloane and Kadence slowed long enough for me to watch a bone-jarring strike come from Kadence. Her fist connected with Sloane’s temple, and I watched as Sloane stumbled to a halt. The hit had dazed her, giving Kadence the opportunity to land several more punches before slamming Sloane on her back against the floor. The marble cracked, fissures running nearly the length of the large room. I couldn’t watch anymore without jumping in, but I knew that would be catastrophic for Sloane’s reputation.

Turning to check on Novak’s progress, I instantly regretted my decision. The moment I set my eyes on Gideon, I realized that all the screaming I heard in the background was coming from him. It echoed around the room, making it hard to tell which direction it came from unless you were looking the right way.

And that shit?