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26
Drexel
Iget that I haven’t been in this game long and that, although my family started training me after my tenth birthday, I’m nowhere near as experienced as anyone else in this little group assembled by the Astor sisters.
But I still should have gone and stood guard outside. Done something other than sit here with this human woman who seems determined to learn everything she needs to know in one single afternoon. Which is entirely impossible, and frankly, a waste of my time.
“Okay, so vampires can be killed with silver? Not a stake to the heart?”
“If you hit their heart with the silver blade, they’re done for. Still best to remove the head, though. You know, to be sure.” She pales, and I fight a smile. “Vampires can kill other vampires by ripping out their jugular, though. Something in the venom. It happens to be Tarnley’s specialty from what I hear.”
She pales even further, turning almost as white as the t-shirt she’s wearing. It’s not that I have anything against humans. Quite the contrary, actually, as I rather envy them. At least, those of them who go on to live normal, happy lives. Not the ones who seem determined to die by the age of— “How old are you?”
“Twenty-seven, why?”
Twenty-eight, then,I finish out my thought, being generous on the timeline. Honestly, I’ll be surprised if she makes it the next month.“No reason.”
Mags strolls in, stealing the breath from my chest. Before I met her, I never understood that term. After all, how the hell could someone steal your breath and you survive? But now, seeing her every single day, I completely get it. I feel like an idiot, but an informed idiot, at least. “Shouldn’t they have been back by now?”
“They’ve only been gone two hours,” I remind her. “Probably won’t be back for at least another few hours.”If they’re still alive at all.
Magnolia starts to say something but stills immediately, eyes going wide.
“What is it?” My hand goes for the blade at my back as a surge of adrenaline my kind refers to asThe Hunt.The blast of supernatural energy rushes through me like a booster, enhancing my already quick reflexes.
“Someone is here. I think—”
The door slams open, and footsteps thunder down the hall. I rush forward, grabbing Mags and shoving her behind me as I draw my blade, prepared to strike down anyone who comes through the door. A million different scenarios roll through my head, one after the other.
Did the council decide to come for us after all?
Was this a trick to get the others out of the house so someone could come after Mags?
When Fearghas and Eira burst into the room, I relax.
“I’m sorry, I don’t know how to read the wards,” Mags says as she comes to stand beside me. “Or rather the feelings they give me.” Her brows draw together. “Weird.”
Redirecting my attention at Fearghas and Eira, I completely forget all about the wards. While I haven’t known the fae long, I have never seen him as pissed as he is now. His entire body is rigid, his stance predatory. And beside him, Eira looks no more relaxed.
I sheathe my blade. “What is it?”
“They have them.”
“What?” Mags squeaks.
“The councils, they’re going to execute them.”
“Where’s Ridley?” I demand. “We have to get them out of there!” Fear suffocates me, sending my mind reeling over the hundreds of ways we could be late getting to them. I can’t lose anyone else; my entire family was wiped out overnight.
And Delaney, Rainey, the others—they are like an extension of that family. I already lost Jack, a man who’d quickly become like a brother to me, I won’t lose anyone else.
“The bloody bastard is missing,” Fearghas growls. “I can’t find him anywhere.”
“We aren’t going to have much time,” Eira says. While I don’t know much about her faction, I do know sirens are deadly when pissed.
“How are we supposed to get in there?” Mags asks, voice shaky with emotion. “Their wards will tip them off the moment we step onto the property.
“It’s already warded against me,” Eira growls. It’s then I notice the strain in her slumped shoulders, the crusted blood on the sides of her face. “Tried to get in, and all the liquid in my body started being ripped away.”
