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But nothing could draw me back. I was slipping into a darkness unknown, a nauseating world of dull colors and muted sounds. The vampire fighting with Matéo cackled loudly as he swung his sword. Even those motions were slurred like I was looking at everything through a dirty telescope.
The ground gave way beneath my rear paws. Lightning split the sky, illuminating the boulders and the muddy ground. Slick earth coated my belly as I slid backward. And the world spun on its axis once more.
I was falling. And I couldn’t stop.
Chapter 21 - Matéo
Everything shattered when I saw Rose slip off the cliff. Nothing else existed at that moment as I left the vampire waving his sword with furious movements motivated by the words of his partner. The information swirled through my mind as I lunged at the edge of the cliff to catch my mate.
But I was too late.
She was already over the edge.
My mate, I thought.She just fell off a fucking cliff.
Behind me, the vampire chuckled. The sound irritated me to no end, prompting me to turn around. He used the tip of his sword to poke at the remnants of his friend’s neck.
“That’ll grow back crooked,” he joked darkly. “But not when I do the same to you.”
I stomped the ground and growled, lowering my head to prepare for a strike. But not his strike.
Mine.
Grace echoed from his limbs as he poised himself with the sword, looking more like a well-trained fencer than a vicious fang.
“It’s better she’s gone,” he teased. “She won’t have to see you suffer. I would have preferred her watching you die—or the other way around—but this works out. A little mercy before death does the soul good.”
My growl expanded, sounding more like thunder with every advancement toward the wretched creature in front of me.
“Smart doing it that way,” he commented while matching my pace.
Every step I took toward him put distance between us. But really, he was just trying to get away from the cliff.
He shrugged. “Putting wolfsbane in the blood. You mutts just love biting. Why didn’t we ever think of it before?”
The twisted grin on his face made me act sooner than anticipated. Closing the distance took no time at all. Within seconds, I was on top of him, pinning his hands to the ground and bouncing on top of him to get him to lose grip of the sword. The vampire—who was addressed as Cesar before his dead friend got temporarily deader—laughed maniacally.
“Domingo had you fooled!” he screamed. He rolled, trying to push my weight off him. But my weight was too much. “He knew who you were from the very beginning. Toying with you like that—it’sgenius.”
You sick son of a bitch, I growled. I stomped on his hand, getting the sword handle out of his fingers.I’ll make you pay!
Cesar’s laughter doubled. “Sergio knew your family’s scent, knew just how to track you disgusting mutts.”
My fury overrode any ability to think. All I could picture was Rose slipping over the edge of the cliff repeatedly, her defeatedyelpswallowed by the storm. Claws dug lazily into the loose earth where she attempted to regain her balance.
“Took a long time,” Cesar rasped. “He wasverypatient, but I heard that he did it so well. Domingo wassoproud.”
And then she was gone.
Lost to the sea.
Lost to the sea.
Cesar’s hand snapped. He howled while trying to wiggle away. His laughter had died during the course of me slamming his hand with my paws. The fingers bent in odd directions as he dug his elbow into the mud, trying to shovel his way from beneath me.
Beside me, bones snapped and sickening gasps rose from the second vampire, the one regaining consciousness. I didn’t have much time.
I had to make this count.
