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Monster.
Mila’s gulp was loud in the quiet room. “Oh.”
I was fading fast. The pain was so bad, I could’ve whimpered like a wounded animal. Only blood would help.
The craving clawed at me, a vicious, merciless beast.
“Sorry.” I looked away from Mila’s anxious face. “But it’s…fastest way to heal myself. You…go. Put ice on your throat.”
“Don’t.” Her eyes blazed down at me. She squeezed my fingers, her tone fierce. “Don’t ever apologize for being you. Got it?”
I stared up at her. Warmth filled me, the special light that was Mila spreading to all the dark, secret corners of my soul.
“Got it,” I rasped.
But I waited until she’d left the room before I laboriously pushed myself up, crawled the few feet to Jessa, and fed.
27
Mila
Gabriel’s people sprang into action, removing Jessa’s body and cleaning his bedroom so thoroughly you’d never guess a bloody fight had taken place.
Joey had slept through everything.
I wished I’d been so lucky. As soon as I was sure Gabriel would be all right, I stumbled into the unused bedroom next to Joey’s and fell onto the bed.
I was exhausted, my throat bruised. Swallowing hurt. Hell, breathing hurt.
But every time I closed my eyes, I saw the lethal flash of Jessa’s stake.
I shuddered and stared at the ceiling.
Gabriel’s safe, and so is Joey.
But I’d been too weak, toohumanto fight her off. One blow and I’d been tossed to the floor, where I’d lain, gasping, like a fucking fish, ten feet from the switchblade Gabriel had given me. It might as well have been on the moon for all the use it had done me.
I pressed the heels of my hands to my eyes. Iwasa liability.
I must have dozed off. When I woke again, I heard the murmur of voices—Gabriel and another man. Something made me slip from the bed. I pulled on a pair of shorts under my sleepshirt, picked up the switchblade and silently eased open the door. But I couldn’t quite make out their words.
I crept down the dark hall, halting out of sight a few feet from the living room.
Gabriel spoke, low and mean. “What do you mean, you don’t know where Zaq is? He was chained to a fucking wall.”
I pressed a fist to my mouth. Gabriel’s brother was being held prisoner somewhere?
“He escaped.”
My brow furrowed. The other voice sounded so familiar.
“How?” Gabriel demanded.
“I don’t know. But he’s gone.”
“Or dead, and they covered it up so well even you can’t prove it.” Gabriel’s voice was harsh with anger. “Damn you to Hades. You should’ve gotten more men, gone in there—donesomething.”
“Enough,” the other man responded in clipped tones. “We can discuss my methods later. I have intel that the slayers themselves don’t know where Zaquiel is now, which tells me he is still alive. But he’s gone to ground.” A pause. “It’s almost as if he doesn’t want to be found.”
