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I lunged for him, determined to prove just how real my silver stake was, but the vampire was faster. He darted out of the way, and my weapon gouged a deep line into the brick wall, right where he’d been standing. I tried to spin around, but I was off balance, and my movements were rusty. A vicious kick landed on my ribs, and I swore as I sprawled across the ground, my stake rolling beneath a dumpster.
“You bitch!” The vampire tried to kick me again, and I rolled the opposite way, cursing my weakness. My flight from the Tower had drained a lot of my strength, and captivity had dulled my once-lightning-quick reflexes. The vampire grabbed me by the hair and yanked me on my feet, then banded an arm around my waist and pulled me against his body.
“Where did you get those stakes?” he growled. His fangs scraped against my neck, sending a rush of anger through me. “Vampire hunters haven’t been sighted in decades, not since the witches closed their borders!”
The witches closed their borders?I almost asked the question out loud, but I didn’t want to reveal my ignorance. Instead, I snapped my head back and stomped on the vampire’s instep at the same time. His nose crunched on impact, and as his arm loosened, I grabbed his other arm and flipped him over my shoulder. My stake followed him to the ground, and his death scream echoed off the alley walls as it found its mark in the center of his heart. Blood burbled over his lips, and his skin sagged around the bones of his face. As his immortality faded, so did his body, his muscles withering away until he resembled nothing so much as a mummified husk.
Probably similar to what I looked like right now, honestly.
The back door to the building on my left burst open, and two more vampires spilled into the alley. They’d obviously heard the commotion, because one of them brandished a sword, and they both looked like they were out for blood. I sprang to my feet, a stake flying from my hand, but the swordsman knocked it aside it with a slash of his blade. The second one flung a hand out, and I cursed, dodging to the left as the air rippled with invisible energy. Still, I wasn’t fast enough, and the telekineticblast clipped my shoulder, spinning me the opposite direction and causing me to stumble.
“Take her alive,” the telekinetic ordered as the swordsman advanced. “The boss will want to hear about this one.”
Rage surged through me, and I palmed two stakes. I’d just tasted freedom for the first time in what felt like eons—I wasn’t about to let these bloodsuckers put me in a cage. The swordsman rushed me, and I dropped low to avoid his strike, then stabbed him in the thigh with my stake. The vampire roared as his dark blood spurted into the night, but it wasn’t a fatal blow. His crony tried to hit me with another telekinetic blast, but I gathered my legs beneath me and leaped into the air before he could connect. The icy wind caught my duster as I soared into the air, fanning it out behind me, and I threw my second stake at the telekinetic. His eyes bulged out of his skull as the silver weapon pierced his heart, and he dropped to his knees as his body disintegrated.
But the second vampire had followed me into the sky, and I was too slow to avoid his strike. I twisted in mid-air as he brought his sword down, and raised my forearm to block. My vambrace absorbed the powerful blow, but the force of it sent me flying. Pain exploded through my entire body as I crashed to the ground, a cloud of dust kicking up as the pavement cratered beneath me.
The vampire’s boots hit the pavement, and I rolled to my side, struggling to rise as he stalked toward me. “I’m going to rip your throat out and feast from your neck right here in this alley,” he growled, his eyes burning with fury.
So much for taking me alive.
I made it to my knees by the time he closed the distance between us, but my hands were shaking so badly, I could barely draw my next stake. A wave of hopelessness washed over me, and despite myself, my shoulders began to sag.
Was this really how I was going to die? Finally free after untold decades spent trapped in a tomb, only to meet my end in a filthy alleyway at the hands of a low-life vampire grunt who couldn’t even use magic?
The vampire reached for my throat, then stopped, his hand inches from my skin. His eyes widened, and my breath caught as his arm trembled, refusing to obey him.
“I think that’s enough for tonight,” a familiar voice said.
A clawed hand punched through the vampire’s chest, tearing a hole straight through the center of his body. This time, it was my turn to stare, wide-eyed, as that pale fist clutched the vampire’s undead heart, then pulled it back through the hole in his body. My would-be murderer collapsed to the ground, revealing the other vampire standing behind him.
But comparing the vampire towering above me to the one on the ground was like comparing a cute little firefly to a comet streaking across the sky. While the vampire bleeding out in front of my knees had been lethal, he was little more than a typical vampire grunt, possessing heightened strength, speed, and senses, but no magic to speak of.
The vampire standing before me practically radiated power. It shimmered in the luminescent glow of his skin and hair, in the subtle shift and hum of the air surrounding him. His aura filled the alleyway, taking up far more space than his lean frame warranted.
“Hmm.” Maximillian studied the heart in his hand for a moment, then crushed it in his fist. Blood ran down his muscled forearm, staining his sleeve before he lowered it so the blood could drip onto the cobblestones instead. He studied me beneath lowered brows, his starfire eyes gleaming. “Sorry to interrupt, but it looked to me as though you required assistance.”
I pursed my lips, not sure how to respond to that. I definitelydidrequire assistance—still did, in fact, as it was taking every ounce of strength I had just to stay on my knees. But I’d be damned if I thanked a vampire for anything.
“Why did you kill him?” I demanded.
Maximillian’s eyebrows rose. “Is it not obvious?”
I huffed out a breath. “He’s a vampire. One of your own people. I’m a witch. Your enemy. It’s not obvious at all.”
Maximillian’s lip curled with disdain as he glanced down at the dead vampire at his feet. He kicked the body aside as if it were a piece of garbage, then crouched before me. Even squatting, he was still a head taller than me, and I scowled, cursing myself for being so short. The clouds drifting across the sliver of moon above us cast his face in shadow, but his eyes glowed with an inner fire as he studied me.
“It’s very simple,” he said, sliding a finger beneath my chin and tilting my head up to look at him. “You are under my protection. Which means that so long as you remain in this city, you are mine. And anyone who touches what’s mine, dies.”
He spoke softly, but the intensity in his voice rattled me. “I’m not yours,” I hissed at him, affronted by the very concept of being owned by a vampire.
He chuckled. “Not yet,” he agreed, rising to his feet. He held out a hand toward me, but I made no move to take it. “You fought well, Kitten. I can see why your name still strikes fear into the hearts of vampires, even all these years after your presumed death.”
“Kitten?”My mouth dropped open, so shocked by his audacity that I couldn’t even bring myself to be angry. Was this soft-spoken, cold-as-ice vampire actually calling me by apet name?
He shrugged. “You’re all of what, five feet tall? Even shorter when you’re on your knees.” He smirked, and my face grew scalding hot. “You’re pint-sized, adorable, and a whirlwind of chaos. Kitten is the perfect nickname for you.”
“I’m five-foot-three,” I seethed, seizing his hand. I’d be damned if I was going to spend even one more second kneeling before a vampire, even if that meant I had to accept his help.
