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Skyla went stiff in my arms. “What?”
“That’s why he had enough money to pay half a million in collateral,” Silver said. “In fact, he had a lot more. Almost five million, for a promised, nameless hybrid who hadn’t yet enteredathanasía. The current front runners were a pack of vampires on the west coast. What were you waiting for?”
He kicked the chair onto its back and stood over the man. “The money wasn’t good enough? Or you didn’t want to be a vampire? When were you going to pull the trigger?”
“I wasn’t.” Kramer coughed up blood.
Wraith smiled. “Wrong answer.”
Shadows poured from Wraith’s hands, covering Kramer, writhing and shoving down his throat. He couldn’t even scream, body convulsing under the power. When Wraith let him go, he coughed, barely catching his breath. “Fuck. You.”
“What was that?”
“FUCK YOU.”
Silver laughed. “I’ll pass. It would be a step down. But thank you for the invitation.”
“When were you going to sell Skyla out?”
Kramer looked over at Skyla, who trembled in my arms. I held her tighter, leaning in to kiss her neck. Whatever instinct told me to do it, she took a deeper breath. She needed to be grounded in this moment as her world further crumbled underneath her.
“October,” he bit out. “Her birthday.”
“No,” she said. “No.”
Her twenty-fifth birthday was one week away. The day she could triggerathanasía, or be forced to trigger it. If she were taken or sold before then, it was like handing over a weapon who could be stripped of her mind, so long as they took it before she became immortal. If that happened, she would never come back.
“Yes,” he said, pure rage in his gaze. Resignation rested there, too. He knew he wasn’t walking out of this basement alive, and he would make it hurt while he still could. Skyla grabbed my hands where they circled her, deciding whether or not to move. “You knew my parents,” she whispered. “You said you knew them.”
“I did know them. So what? They were the idiots who somehow got lucky enough to have a hybrid and weren’t willing to do anything with it. It was almost too easy. The Court of Sunlight even gave me gifts in exchange. Taking out your parents was enough for them when I told them you’d died at birth.”
Wraith took his knife and dug the point into Kramer’s cheek. “That’s why you look like a newborn baby in spite of your age?”
Kramer did look younger than he should. Now we knew why.
Skyla put her face in her hands, heaving breaths. She wasn’t crying, she was having a panic attack. Silver came to us and caged her between our bodies. Her face was bloody when he pulled her hands away. “I’m sorry, Skyla. We didn’t know. Delta got curious last night and put it together. He and Comet are out collecting your things, and every last cent of Kramer’s money for you. I know it’s not enough.”
“I thought—” her voice quivered.
Nothing in my very long immortal life made me feel as much rage as that sound. Skyla in pain. Skyla broken.
Silver lifted his hands to her face. “I know, baby girl. I know.”
He stood there for a second until Kramer made a sound of pain, and he glanced behind him. “But I want to know what you want for him, Skyla.”
She leaned back against me, and I took her weight gladly. “What do you mean?”
The smile on Silver’s face was grim. “I mean the damage he’s done to you is far greater than what he did to us. What do you want us to do with him?” He brushed his thumbs over her cheeks. “If you don’t want to decide, that’s okay too.”
Slowly, she shook her head. “I don’t want to choose. But I never want to see him again.”
Silver nodded. “Don’t worry. No one’s going to see him again.”
Kramer moaned behind him. “Please.”
“You really think there’s a chance of that now?” Wraith asked. “Feel free to keep begging though. I like it.”
Looking at me, Silver nodded. “Grave’s going to get you cleaned up, and when we’re done, we’ll take you to see the surprise, okay?”
