I don't know.
We're in stalemate, the Dominion leader toying with me and screwing with Andrei's head.
"I kill you, don't I?" Andrei says and shrinks back.
“Precisely why you should accompany me,” purrs Gabriella.
I desperately shake my head and reach out. "Andrei. It's not true. Don't go with her."
"Keep her safe, my sweet," says Gabriella as she strokes Andrei's hair from his face. "Come with me and Maeve can return to the Blackwoods. They’ll protect her."
"I'm not safe if you take me back to the Blackwoods," I retort.
"Of course you are, stupid child! You're already closer to the family, aren't you?"
Fear jerks my limbs as she mouths Poor Nikolai at me.
She smiles slyly at my shock and Andrei's confusion, then sighs as she indicates Jamie. "I’m not sure what to do with that one, though."
I turn to where he lies face down on the floor with Ash standing guard between him and the amused Leon. Ash pulls himself tall. "Don't touch him."
"Excuse me, little shifter boy, did you speak?"
Ash glowers and Tobias places a hand on his arm. “Stay quiet."
Frustration bubbles through Ash, who steps closer to Jamie; Leon leans forward and runs his tongue along his teeth before snickering.
I’m going to distract her.
I blink as Tobias speaks in my mind. Is that why he’s stayed silent? Because he’s weighing up what to do?
“Let the kids go,” he says to Gabriella in an even tone.
She arches a shaped brow. “I won’t let Maeve or Andrei go.”
Tobias closes the space between him and Gabriella. Their height matches and they lock gazes. “Let them all go.”
Her mouth twitches into a smile, her attention fully on him. “Really, Tobias? Are you going to fight me?”
As Gabriella speaks to Tobias, something lands at my feet and I look down. The grimoire. In a reflex move, I kick the book behind me just as Andrei runs towards the distracted Gabriella. He slams into her back in an attempt to knock her forward.
She barely staggers and spins around, one arm shooting out to seize him around the neck. He chokes and drags his fingernails down her hands, desperately trying to loosen her grip.
"Look at the sky, child,” she whispers. “Consider your next move."
I tip my head up, stomach lurching. What could be up there ready to attack? Orange streaks the clouds on the distant horizon, but there's nothing else in the sky.
Daybreak.
"Leave Andrei alone. Let us go." My plea sounds pathetic when shouted at the powerful vampire and her lips purse in amusement. Andrei continues to choke, and we're stuck as hard as we were when Anastasia held us in place with magic.
A frustrated Tobias says something in an urgent tone to Ash, as Leon is distracted gleefully watching Gabriella's action. I watch as Ash quietly backs away into the trees. Gabriella turns as she detects the movement but Ash already disappeared.
Leon moves to follow Ash. "Stay here, Leon. Kill the witch."
"No!" I shout and move to block Jamie from him. Leon backhands me and I sprawl on the ground, breath knocked from me as I slam into the earth.
“Leave Jamie alone,” snarls Tobias. “You gain nothing from killing the witch.”
“I do,” she says softly. “Pleasure. You of all people should understand that.”
The words are barely from her mouth before Gabriella is thrown backwards and loses her grip on Andrei. Her back hits the tree behind and her legs crumple from under her. Gabriella’s hair falls forward, obscuring her face as she holds either side of her head.
“You sealed the witch boy’s fate by attacking me, Tobias.” The guttural voice sounds nothing like Gabriella did moments ago, and her hair moves away from a face contorted into a horrific mask of evil, the whites of her eyes red, the irises and pupils both black.
This is my first time encountering a hemia vampire set to kill, and an instinctive fear unlike anything I’ve felt before spreads from my chest to my stomach and limbs, freezing me in place.
“Just fucking kill him!” she snarls at Leon then narrows her eyes at Tobias. “As for you...” She grabs Tobias and lifts him like a mother picking up a child, and throws him to the ground close to me.
Obediently, Leon drags the unconscious Jamie from the ground and cradles the back of his head. Time slips into slow motion as the vampire's mouth curves into a malevolent grin before he opens his mouth. Somebody screams as the vampire holds Jamie's neck to his face and the world swirls away from me.
My body jerks the way I do sometimes at night when I'm halfway between sleep and waking, and a metallic taste fills my mouth. There's a heaviness in my mind, my thoughts dampened by a dark thirst, and the world looks different.
The scream was me, and I'm not Maeve.
Chapter Thirty
MAEVE
Aware of a weight in my arms, I look down. Jamie. His head lolls back and blood spills from a wound in his neck. I force the body I'm occupying to hold both hands over the gash in Jamie’s neck. To stop feeding.
I’m Leon.
I can take over minds to influence somebody's actions, but this creature has little mind to control. The nauseated horror that overcame me as I watched events is washed away by the primal side of the vampire I'm locked into.
How can I fight instinct with thought?
All I want is to taste the blood.
My mouth filled with blood once in the past—as a child I skidded across muddy grass on my bike and slammed my face on the handlebars. I knocked my teeth into my lip and remember looking in horror at the blood pouring from my mouth.
This blood tastes different. There's an added something, almost as if I can taste, feel, and smell at the same time and it's exhilarating. I’m not only in a vampire’s mind, but I'm also in his body and experiencing his response to witch blood. A laugh in my head taunts me as I struggle to pull away from the inbuilt blood lust in this creature's head. This is harder than I thought.
Leon projects an image in his mind. One of Jamie bleeding out on the floor as he laps the blood. He shares the zinging pleasure he's had from past kills and my hands shake where I hold them over Jamie's wound.
A weakened Tobias elbows Leon—me—out of the way and I lift my hands to my face, staring at his blood covering them. The body I'm in is too overwhelmed by a primal urge that I can’t control and the desire for more blood builds.
"Maeve. Leave his mind," urges Tobias.
The creature I'm inside wants to push Tobias aside and continue drinking and I'm facing my hardest battle yet. I struggle to stand and move this vampire away from Jamie's spilling blood—to let Tobias take over. I focus on my love for Jamie in a desperate hope this will override the creature clawing against my humanity and tempting me to kill my friend.
I've saved Jamie's life once. He can't die. If this was his time, I would've seen his death at Leon’s hands in a vision.
Wouldn't I?
"Ash!" yells Tobias as he holds a hand over Jamie's neck. He closes his eyes and holds his other arm across his face, looking away.
I'm vaguely aware of others joining the scene as I force Leon to stagger to his feet and walk backwards. Every step I influence him to make, he counteracts, drawn back by Jamie’s blood. The Maeve I left is slumped on the floor and I see Ash hesitate between helping Jamie and going to me.