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Dropping to her feet, Adeline darted around Juliette and grabbed the lantern. With a quick look at the werewolf who had dismembered two vampires already, she whistled at the top of her lungs.
Adeline chucked the lantern up in the air, aiming for the exit back to the cabin. Its glass smashed into the wall. The tar pitch coating the cave walls erupted in flame, blocking the way back to the cabin as the flames enveloped the entire tunnel.
The werewolf changed focus and turned to approach Juliette and Adeline. But the other two vampires were already making a run down the tunnel to the cliff, and everyone knows that a werewolf enjoys a good chase. The werewolf shifted on its feet and took after the vampires, snarling and snapping its jaw.
Juliette’s face was healing, and Adeline knew she didn’t have much time. The dagger glinted in the light of the flames, but within seconds, Juliette grabbed it and approached Adeline.
“Oh, Adeline,” Juliette crowed above the roar of the flames. “What on earth do you think you’re accomplishing here?”
Adeline stepped backward, heading down the tunnel to the right. “I’m going to live with my mate.”
“The hell you are,” Juliette hissed, flipping the knife back and forth. She was utterly focused on Adeline’s movements, unbothered by the destruction behind her.
The flames caught on more beams in the cave behind Juliette, the fire creeping down the other tunnel. Adeline immediately thought of Rolf returning to his human form as the moon slipped down the horizon before he could kill the vampires. Would she have enough time before sunrise to finally kill her maker? Or would she, too, succumb to poor timing?
She shook her head and tried to clear the thoughts from her head. “Did you think I wouldn’t figure it all out, Juliette? That you kidnapped him, glamoured him, and dropped him right in the middle of the most dangerous werewolf territory in Europe?”
Juliette just shrugged, stalking down the tunnel toward Adeline.
“Did you think I would just forget?” Adeline kept talking. How could she forget her mate? The weeks after he went missing, she visited Rolf’s family home in Whitby, talking to the youngest brother, Theodore. She met the Selkie Fae he had married and their adorable children. Their life was so idyllic that Adeline left wondering if she would have been able to lead a somewhat normal life with her mate one day. But she eventually gave up after years of dead ends and no information on her lover’s whereabouts.
The flame she lit for him had never died, even a century later. A howl resounded in the tunnel, and her heart skipped a beat.
Her werewolf had been successful.
Juliette pressed forward, urgency in her movements.
“So eager to get away from my were, one would almost think you’re afraid,” Adeline sneered, emboldened by the triumph of her beast.
Juliette roared and lunged, driving Adeline backward, but she didn’t act fast enough, and Juliette had her pinned between her legs. Adeline twisted, trying to throw the older vampire off of her. Fighting against the strength of her maker, Adeline cursed when she realized how far from the entrance to the tunnel they were. She needed to get through the gate before the sun rose.
Adeline thrashed, clawing at Juliette. But it was useless; Juliette was far older than Adeline and stronger. Juliette slammed the blade down into Adeline’s shoulder. She screamed as the silver seared through her skin and muscles, rendering her right arm useless.
“I’m no more afraid than I am displeased and disgusted,” Juliette whispered in her ear. She twisted the blade, and Adeline fought back tears. “Do you think my coven are the only vampires who will discover what abhorrent things you’ve done?”
Adeline gritted her teeth. She didn’t care about the other vampires. She just wanted to be free of her maker. “I don’t care.”
Juliette cackled, throwing her head back.
“I don’t,” Adeline said again. Her shoulder throbbed, and she felt like vomiting. But she pressed forward, knowing the sun would rise soon. She just had to keep talking to give Rolf time. “I will kill anyone who comes after us. The sweetest revenge will be to watch you die a slow and painful death at our hands.”
“I’d like to see you try,” Juliette leaned forward, twisting the blade again.
Adeline bit her tongue so hard she tasted blood. Her fangs immediately sharpened. A shadow fluttered behind Juliette, and for a brief moment, she thought it was Rolf coming to her aid. Instead, it was another vampire—one of the ones who fled down the tunnel.
Where was Rolf?Fury and fear bubbled in her gut. Juliette twisted the blade again, and Adeline’s eyes unfocused. She blinked back tears; she had suffered far more pain than this before.
The scent of blood filled the tunnel, and the vampire crept closer. The vampire’s face was half ripped off, and one of his arms hung limply at his side, broken bones protruding through his skin that had tried to heal around the wound. He bled profusely from several punctures, but somehow he was still standing. Juliette turned. She cried, leaping off Adeline to support the injured vampire. She opened her wrist, allowing him to drink her blood to heal. With whispered words of affection, Juliette coaxed the injured vampire to drink.
Her lover,Adeline realized. Acting quickly, Adeline grasped the handle of the blade embedded in her shoulder and pulled, grunting as it seared again through her unhealed skin.
Adeline grabbed the silver tip of the blade, wincing against the silver that cut into her skin, and silently prayed to whoever listened in the sky above. She threw the knife at the half-dismembered vampire, and it landed with a thunk in his eye. The sound of singing bone competed with the crackles of the flames in the timber supports. He fell backward, sliding down the cave wall with the silver blade shining through the back of his head.
“No!” Juliette screamed, but Adeline had already started running. The flames of the fire filled the tunnel, the heat pressing against Adeline’s back as she headed toward the entrance. She didn’t look back to see if Juliette was following her.
The silver gate was in her sight when the breath was knocked from her lungs, and she tumbled forward. Sharp nails dug into her scalp as her head was yanked backward.
Juliette dragged a claw across Adeline’s exposed neck, blood welling from the slice. “You will pay for all of their deaths,” she hissed.
