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Monsters cannot love.
“Dominique is not a monster,” Cassidy whispered. Before she could say any more, a knock sounded at the door. “Yes?”
“Room service,” a young male voice replied.
Both women glanced at the remnants of their earlier meals, then at each other. Cassidy took the light gun from Francesca’s lap, stood, and forced an airy tone. “Wrong door. We didn’t order any.”
Seconds ticked by. Her pulse pounded in her ears. Any vampire outside that door would hear it, along with Francesca’s. When he spoke again, the bored tone was gone, replaced by the unmistakable timber of compulsion. “You placed an order. You want what I bring.”
Cassidy took a shaky breath and exchanged another look with Francesca, who blinked in surprise, then glanced at the window. She shook her head. They were on the fourth floor. The window was not an escape option.
“Open the door,” demanded a second, deeper voice. More ineffective compulsion.
Cassidy powered up the light gun and pointed it at the door with both hands. “We’re busy.”
The low, furious growl sounded like it came from a large animal. A monster.
Francesca got up, her movements still stiff from her battle the day before, and edged closer to Cassidy.
With a thunderous boom, the heavy hotel room door tore out of the wall, frame and all, and crashed into the room.
Cassidy pulled the trigger before she could see the invader. An ear-splitting shriek pierced her ears, followed by silence.
The gun whined in her hands, grew warm. The battery indicator registered more than half full, but for how long would that last? All night? She didn’t dare turn it off.
Francesca went for her phone. “911?”
Cassidy knew better, but nodded anyway. Too little, too late. Too crazy to report.
Voices in the hallway. Asking questions. Protesting. Compulsion. The voices went away. Through the open door, the square of hallway lit up midday bright remained empty. The gun whined louder. The handle grew slippery in her sweaty palms. She held it tighter.
Francesca cursed at her phone. Her call wasn’t going through.
A small thud from the window made Cassidy swallow her heart. Before she could utter a meaningless warning, Francesca grabbed the curtain and pulled it aside—and screamed.
Cassidy turned just in time to see the full-fledged beast clinging to the wall outside slam his skeletal fist through the glass. After that, everything happened very fast and precisely as she knew it would.
They had, after all, only one light gun.
She swung the beam around and lit him up just as he climbed through the shards of glass. There was only a glimpse of the skull face turning bright red. Then the gun tore out of her hand and hurtled at the window with such force the glass that remained shattered and blew out.
Picked up and tossed, Cassidy hurtled toward the bed like a stringless puppet. She flailed wildly to keep from bouncing clear off the mattress. As she flipped around, she saw Francesca face-to-face with the beast that had come through the window, her arm raised high, wielding a…plastic fork?
In a flash, a claw hand captured her wrist, eliciting a sharp cry. The beast roared into her face in all its horrifying glory, angled its head, and…
The other vampire flew at his partner and nailed him to the nearest wall by his skinny neck. “Stop,” he snarled. It was the deep-voiced one. The one obviously in charge. “Lose it now, and you know what Esteban will do to you.”
The beast subsided, but it remained close to the surface, just behind the hyper-dilated eyes in a coarse, tattooed face. His cohort let him go. Also dressed in a hoodie and jeans, he had a calmer but far more dangerous look about him.
Cassidy scrambled into a sitting position and marshaled every ounce of outrage she could muster. “Howdareyou? Do you have any idea who we are?”
“Shut up,” boss vamp snapped, using compulsion again.
“Clearly you don’t, or you wouldn’t be trying that foolish trick on us.” She got to her feet and locked her knees to keep them from buckling. Her head swam on top of her shoulders. Emotions she didn’t recognize boiled inside her. “I am your queen, you fool. Explain yourself. What is the meaning of this?”
This declaration gave the two blood-drinkers a moment’s pause.
Boss vamp mocked a bow in her direction. “No, I’d say it’s you who doesn’t know whoweare, or you wouldn’t have bothered trying to hide from us. The only thing you surprised us with is that you are here at all. You have no idea how many eyes and ears we control in this city. Or how many of us there really are. Do you?”
