These circumstances were far from ideal with near-death on the agenda, but what choice did they have?
Ginny bucked and twisted in his arms, drawing more laughter from the High Order. Elias came forward, as if to get a better view of Ginny and Jonas, but he was pulled away by three guards. Past Larissa.
Larissa.
It didn’t seem possible that her flighty stepmother had been the figure in the crimson robe that appeared in her dreams and was now working for the High Order. That her prediction had nearly been the catalyst for Ginny’s murder.
Twice.
It made sense now, why Larissa never seemed to age. Although…why had she tried so hard to convince Ginny to leave Coney Island with her? To keep her away from Jonas, and thus the wrath of the High Order? Had Larissa been truthful about loving Peter Lynn? Ginny hoped so. Badly. The wool being pulled over her own eyes was one thing, but Larissa duping her sweet father was unacceptable. Ginny couldn’t think of that now, though. There was too much on the line. Her future with Jonas. His life. Hers. And she could only keep up the pretense of struggle for so long before the High Order realized she’d been acting.
“Look at him. Suddenly back to being so noble.” The king’s disgust was palpable. “Thank goodness the prophecy has amended itself. This council would never have survived under his weak leadership.”
“You are stronger than anyone I’ve ever known,” Ginny whispered, pushing up to speak right against Jonas’s ear. “Jonas. Now or never.”
They locked eyes briefly and she tried her best to communicate her total confidence in him. How rock solid it was. How much she loved him. He must have translated her look correctly, because he took a shuddering breath and closed his eyes, as if soaking in her words in as deeply as he could.
When he opened them again, they shone like emeralds.
Whereas minutes ago, he’d been ashen, barely able to stay on his feet, he resembled a determined warrior now. Fierce. Unbeatable.
He tilted Ginny’s head to one side and leaned down, pausing with his fangs an inch from her neck. “Please forgive me for the pain. Stay with me through it all. Stay with me.”
“Eternally.”
His fangs slid into the thick vein of Ginny’s neck and her limbs turned limp. She gasped at the ceiling, recognizing the difference instantly in the way Jonas took her blood. It was fast and ferocious and purposeful. He’d been afraid of killing her before, but now…in a way, killing her was the point.
Dizziness assailed Ginny, her eyelids growing heavy. Jonas’s hand twisted in the material of the hotel maid uniform Elias had stolen for her to wear, pulling her ever closer, his gruff sounds of satisfaction turning into desperate growls. This was it. The change he’d told her would come over him—his true nature as a predator. She wouldn’t be around for much more of it, because her vision was already growing dim and she couldn’t feel her feet, her hands, her lips.
Her head lolled backward and she caught sight of Larissa creeping backward into the shadows, pulling the hood back over her head. Maybe Ginny’s lack of blood had her imagining things, but she swore the seer gave her a quiet nod.
“Enough,” said the king, but of course, Jonas didn’t listen. At being ignored, Clarence’s fist rapped off the throne and made Ginny’s head pound. “Enough.”
Whispers rose like a funnel cloud in the hall.
He’s turning her.
He’s turning her to circumvent the rule.
A searing pain ripped into her neck and Ginny bit down on a whimper, but it wouldn’t be contained and it turned into a full-fledged scream. Jonas almost broke away then, but she somehow found the strength to reach up and hold him fast. With a choppy sound of alarm, laced with definite hunger, he pulled deeply of her blood, taking her all the way down to the floor and quite simply preying on her, his full weight pinning her to the carpet.
The pain in her neck dulled.
Everything dulled.
A light appeared in front of her eyes and helplessly, Ginny followed it—
Jonas’s weight left her suddenly and in the hazy distance, she heard a loud crash. Someone picked her up and wind licked at her skin, before she was set down once more. When she managed to crack open an eyelid, she found herself at the bottom of the wide staircase she’d come down…hours ago? Minutes?
The numbness inside her dropped out and the pain lashed back in, holding her organs hostage in a clenched fist. Her mouth opened on a silent scream and she started to shake. Was this it? Was it happening?
“Jonas,” she whimpered pitifully. “Jonas.”
Ginny clawed at her chest, ready to rip it open to reach the agony in her heart and it seemed to go on forever, cracking like a whip to the rest of her insides, inflicting damage—and she experienced every brutal second of it. No way out, there was no way out and the human inside of her searched for help on instinct, turning onto her side and attempting to call out.
No one heard her. Not with the battle taking place.
The High Order no longer sat in their thrones. They surrounded Jonas in a circle, their robes in tatters. And Jonas…she’d never seen him as he was. Like a God. He fended off the attacks they hurled in his direction, capturing their energy and sending it back twice as powerful. Felling them one by one.
But they continued to rise, regroup, attack again. Unfazed.
“You shouldn’t be able to last a minute against us,” said Clarence, awestruck. “Where did you gain such power?”
Elias appeared at Jonas’s side, his gaze rife with meaning and emotion. “Threaten a vampire’s mate once, he grows stronger to protect her. Take her life? Threaten it again and again? You’ve created your own worst nightmare.”
“We don’t have nightmares anymore,” droned Jonas’s sire. “We don’t sleep.”
Not acknowledging Clarence’s comment, Elias instead nodded at Jonas. “It’s time. You’ve got this. I have your back.”
“How touching,” Jonas’s sire sneered, sailing a bolt of opaque air in Elias’s direction. Elias rolled to the side, but not before he was winged by the moving force field. With gritted teeth, he got to his feet and started to rejoin Jonas in the middle of the circle, but something caught his attention and made him smile. It didn’t take Ginny long to realize what it was. Tucker.
Tucker…and an army. Hundreds of men and women.
They thundered down the stairs around her with a deafening war cry, running head first into the fray with Tucker at the lead. The army moved at such a high speed, there was no mistaking them as vampires. One man in particular fought balanced on a prosthetic leg, a baseball cap pulled low on his forehead. Several of them were knocked to the ground before they could reach the High Order—who were now unmistakably the enemy—but it was impossible to stop them all.
Despite the miserable state of her body, Ginny couldn’t help but watch in breathless triumph as the High Order were captured, one by one, held down and subdued by the makeshift army. This was it. The rightful beginning of Jonas’s rule. It all started here and she was proud of him. So proud.
Jonas stood over Clarence, his shoulders rippling with ferocity. “You die now in her name,” he rasped, raising his right hand, fisting it until his sire started to choke, scratching at the invisible hands around his throat.