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I noticed Gravy Boat in the cab of the truck standing on the front dash, hissing with his back arched.
“I’m happy to see you brought your sister, as promised,” Lazarus said.
“I did.”
“Clearly you didn’t bring her with any real intention of handing her over, though, did you?” Lazarus asked. “No,” he answered himself, clearly enjoying his little evil villain moment. “You wanted to lure me out here. But why? Was it so those silly little wolf friends of yours around Westwick could hope to infiltrate the grounds while I was gone?”
Riggs tensed, and I felt an odd dual emotion. It was like the shock in my own body was there, but somewhere in his direction I could also feel boiling anger and surprise. Was it his blood in me? Kyla hadn’t mentioned that the connection would go both ways like that. But she admitted she hadn’t known, too.
“Now,” Lazarus said, holding up a hand. “Before you run off to warn them, let me assure you it’s too late. I requested a little help from The Coven. They’ve sent some of their best vampires to surround your friends. I promise you this much, their deaths will be quick. So you can take solace in knowing your first and last act as the Alpha of the Silverbacks was leading them to a quick, mostly painless death.” He shrugged, as if this was a not-so-bad consolation prize.
“How did you know?” Riggs asked.
“Pax didn’t appear to appreciate being embarrassed by you. He came to us and told us the plan as soon as he knew. You should know better than to trust your former enemies, Riggs. The first rule of leadership is to learn which of your subordinates has eyes for your power. Who more obvious than the one you gave a taste to then stole it back from?”
“Was this part of the plan?” I whispered.
Riggs shook his head.
“Give both girls to me,” Lazarus said. “Do that, and we’ll give you the same relatively quick, mostly painless death we’re offering your pack.”
“Fuck you,” Riggs said.
“To be honest, I would’ve been disappointed if you came easily.” Lazarus gestured to the women at his side and everything happened faster than I could follow.
One of them was on top of me, pushing me backwards until I slid in the grass. I heard Kyla scream out and Riggs grunt as Lazarus rushed into him. The woman on top of me hit me so hard my vision flashed white and the next thing I knew Riggs was ripping her from me and tossing her into a gravestone, breaking the whole thing in half.
I glimpsed Kyla trying to choke one of the other women. Gunshots rang out, and I saw that Lazarus had pulled out a pistol and started shooting. Riggs picked me up and did a running slide to put us behind a gravestone.
Bits of rock were blasted away from the stone, blasting my eyes with dust that made me blink through tears. Suddenly, I wasn’t so grateful for my enhanced vampire hearing as it made each gunshot spike through my head like hammer blows.
My hand came away bloody when I touched it where the woman had hit me, but I couldn’t find a scratch. Fast healing, I thought dumbly, even as chaos was erupting around me.
The gunshots halted as Lazarus went to reload, and Kyla took the opportunity to pounce on him and try to wrestle the gun free. That was when Riggs let out an inhuman roar beside me and the white flashes and sizzling sound filled the air. In moments, he was a terrifying, massive silver haired wolf charging straight for Lazarus, who was on his back and reaching for the gun Kyla had knocked away.
I had no idea what I was doing, but I ran after him like an idiot, screaming at the top of my lungs. I saw one of the women get to her feet and rush toward him, trying to intercept Riggs and protect Lazarus. It was almost like he could see what I saw, because he subtly wove to his right, narrowly missing her outstretched hands that would’ve otherwise caught his hind leg.
I took the woman’s momentary confusion as an opportunity to lower my shoulder and run it into her side as hard as I could. I surprised myself with the violence of the impact and how far she went bouncing away from me.
Kyla and I worked together to pull back the other woman while Riggs pounced on Lazarus, who had gotten back to his feet. It looked like Lazarus was melting into the shadows just before Riggs reached him, but his wolf form apparently wasn’t fooled. He bit down on seemingly nothing, but his snout started dripping with blood.
He whipped his head to the side and Lazarus’ limp form materialized out of thick shadows that spilled off him like steam.
