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Hayley jerks her attention in my direction, her eyes widening. My whole body trembles at the sight of her fear. I failed her by not protecting myself better. I was far more caught up in ensuring that she was safe that I didn’t even care about whether or not I would be. And now we are in this position. I know her. She would rather put herself in danger than let me sacrifice myself to save her. I will not let them use me to manipulate her. I won’t.
“Don’t do it, Hayley. He’ll take my heart regardless. Destroy them!” I say, grinding my teeth through another wave of pain. “Destroy them and save yourself. You are most important.”
Hayley opens and closes her mouth, jerking her attention away as the leaders try to take advantage of the distraction, but they can’t. Not with Sawyer, Knox, and Monroe. They won’t back down. They won’t stop. Even though she hesitates and stares at me with fear in her eyes, the fight still goes on around us.
“If you even think of removing his heart, I will not only cut yours out, I will destroy every single member of your coven. Your threat will only cause your demise. Now let him go.” Hayley straightens her shoulders, narrowing her eyes. “You have two seconds.”
The leader squeezes harder, stealing my breath away. Shadows dance across my eyes, and the world spins. This is it. He’s taking my heart and breaking Hayley’s in the process.
“No!” Hayley screams, rushing forward.
I think I pass out, the darkness suppressing the pain for a couple seconds until I open my eyes, staring at the tiled floor. My nose squishes against it and I feel my wet blood pooling around me.
Gunshots ring out, and I ease my head sideways, staring at a group of donors coming from the elevator. A vampire stands beside them, shooting at somebody above me. Not just someone. The fucking leader who tried taking my heart.
Hayley grabs under my arms, hauling me to my feet as if I weigh nothing. “Cooper! Fuck, Cooper!”
I gasp a breath. “I’m fine. Take cover. The renegades—”
Blood squirts across both Hayley and me, and I stumble as I try to lift her up, but my body doesn’t want to cooperate, my wound still too great to do anything to the force the strength of my vampire nature.
“The Bella Crew sentences you to death for hurting one of our members. You tried to take his heart, so we are taking yours, Reed.” Sawyer stabs his blade into the back of the man. “We didn’t want a war, but we’ll not allow you to continue with your plan.” Shoving his blade all the way through, he sends guts and blood pouring from the vampire before he drops him.
“You will pay!” Another of the leaders, who I think is Augusta, rushes Sawyer. He pushes him into a wall, showing that despite his small frame compared to Sawyer’s towering one, the vampire can still overpower him.
Hayley hisses at the sight, breaking away from me. The leader doesn’t have a chance to glance behind him before she jumps on his back and sinks her teeth into his throat. Sawyer jabs his hand into his chest and yanks out his heart, holding it up.
“Everyone, down!” The renegade vampire shoots his gun, spraying the ceiling with bullets. He aims his weapon at the remaining leaders and opens fire, getting them to take their attention away from Sawyer.
Narcisa ignores him, grabbing her com device. She clicks the screen a second before the room turns pitch black and an alarm rings through the air. Everything happens so quickly that I don’t get a chance to figure what the fuck is going on before Monroe locks his arm through mine.
“Come the fuck on, Coop. We fucking gotta get out of here.” Monroe yanks me, dragging me from my spot.
“Knox, Sawyer, Hayley?” I ask, my breath struggling to even out, my body still radiating with pain from almost having my heart pulled from me.
“We’re good. We have to go after the fucking leaders. This is our only chance.” Sawyer gets close enough that I can see the silhouette of his tall figure in the glow of his com device. “They’re headed down.”
“You’re not going anywhere,” the strange vampire says, interrupting our conversation. “They are weak enough. You need to come with us. Now.”
This guy has got to be kidding me.
“If you don’t, you’ll all go down with this fucking building. We have explosives everywhere. This whole city will blow up in the fucking night. We have nothing else to lose.” The vampire hits a couple of buttons on his com device, and the lights turn back on. He must’ve hacked their system too. I don’t know exactly how far the renegades go, but I know that they have a network even outside of the city. At least, that’s what Monroe said.
“You’re bluffing.” Sawyer grabs Hayley, picking her off her feet.
The vampire snarls, his anger twisting his dirty features. He looks like he’s been living in the sewers, staying out of the shadows. I don’t know how many vampires hide below ground, but I know it happens. There’s an entire crew down there, according to the guys. They’re called the Rats. Smacking his hand on his com device, he smiles wickedly. A moment later, the whole building quakes, and I stumble, catching myself on Monroe.
“Don’t test me or I will settle for the one below us. Come on. We don’t have much time before the leaders get their shit together. You’re going to need us.” The vampire motions to the group of donors with him. “Now give us the dhampir. She doesn’t belong to you.”
Heat rises in my chest, his words triggering my deep-seated need to protect Hayley. He has some fucking nerve, coming here, guns blazing, expecting that we will just hand over our girl.
“You’ve got to be fucking—” Monroe shudders as one of the donors fires his weapon, spraying Monroe’s chest with bullets.
Hayley screams his name, wiggling in Sawyer’s arms. She manages to break free only to jump at Monroe. Flipping over him, she clings onto his chest and blocks him protectively.
The vampire grabs the weapon from the donor, ensuring that he doesn’t accidentally shoot Hayley in the process.
“You can’t just come in here with these demands. I don’t belong to any fucking person. I’m not a piece of property. The Bella Crew are my protectors, and you will respect them. If you want to talk to me, you need to ask nicely. I won’t accept anything less. You guys are disgusting, sending men in to try to rape me. If I had a say, you would be facing a whole lot worse than what the leadership has planned. I’m not your fucking savior, nor am I your ally. And I will make one thing clear. If you hurt any of my guys, I will take your fucking heart. I will slaughter all of you. Do not underestimate me.” Hayley huffs a breath with the words, her anger tensing her muscles.
