He was right, I realised. I wasn’t sure whether it was a good thing or a bad thing, since my agreement to Covington’s deal was now meaningless.

“Cut it, Imani!” Covington ordered.

Fake it. We need him to believe we’re vulnerable, Sam. Fake it.

Liking that idea, I doubled-over and cried out…much like I had when I’d killed my Sire and our blood-link had severed. Jared did the same, scrunching his face up in agony as we both toppled onto our sides on the floor, clutching our stomachs. All the while, Covington smirked. Imani was the image of confusion. I could only guess that Jared had assured Antonio, Luther, and Sebastian that we were faking the whole thing, because they didn’t look as devastated as they should. If I hadn’t known them so well, though, I might have believed they were.

Be ready, I said to Jared. I’m going to need to drop the shield or he’ll never buy that I’m truly weak. We need to be ready in case they choose that moment to attack. I don’t think they will because I’ve agreed to his deal, but they might.

One good thing was that since my gift was tied to my emotional state, whenever my emotions were running high – and they certainly were right now – energy seemed to envelop the surface of my entire body. Once the shield was gone, I could absorb that energy and use it to strengthen my gift. I had every intention of doing so, but I would have to be careful and discreet about it or Dana would notice and Covington would know that my agreement to his deal was bollocks.

Don’t think I’m letting you die tonight, Sam. The steel there almost made me smile.

I have no intention of dying. If Imani’s gift had worked, I would have given my life for the people here. But I wouldn’t give Jared’s life for anyone – not even for these people. If that made me cruel, so be it. I’d never pretended to be a good person.

Shoving aside my anxiety, I let the shield fade, but nobody moved to hurt us. Why would they? We were both curled up like foetuses, seemingly too weak to move. As I’d known it would, the surrounding energy very slowly began to lick across my skin – just small little wisps, since my gift was ‘low on battery’, but I’d take what I could get. Subtly, I used my palms to suck it inside me. Soon enough, I’d be so strong that the energy would cover me like a blanket. But right now, I was no match for the Feeder in front of me.

Dana looked at her hands; they were dripping with energy the way mine often did. Her pupils were dilated, making her look like a junkie. “I feel…so alive.”

Covington didn’t seem to care. “It seems your little assassin has a heart, Antonio. Who would have thought it?”

“You will not leave this place alive.” Antonio’s voice was strong, hard, and pure ice.

“I think you’ll find that I will. Now, I’m a man of my word, so this is how it’s going to work. My vampires will escort everyone other than Sam and Imani out of this room. There’s no need for you to watch your mate – or should I say ex-mate – die, Jared.”

Dana turned to Covington. “Let me kill her. Let me take the last”

“You’ve had your fun, Dana. It’s now my turn.”

Eloise strolled over until she was standing in front of me. Then the bitch kicked me in the head. Oh she’d f**king pay for that. Jared swung his arm out to grab her, but then two of Covington’s vampires came to drag him away. Ire zoomed through me, causing more of the surrounding energy to cling to me. Again, I discretely sucked it in. Jared, don’t fight them! Keep up the act!

He let them take him, let them move him far behind me, though he cursed the entire time. Eloise chose that moment to kick my head once more. I didn’t need the scent of my blood in the air to know that I was bleeding. Subtly taking in more energy, I promised myself this bitch would be nothing more than a pile of ashes soon.

“Damn, her blood smells good,” someone said.

“Yes, it does,” drawled Covington. “Maybe that’s how she’ll die. Maybe I’ll drink her dry.” Hearing Jared curse him, Covington laughed and looked down at me. “I don’t think he likes the idea of me feeding from you.” Jared flung another string of curses at him, and I heard a thud followed by a grunt of pain from Jared. The bastards who were holding him must have hit him. Still, he cursed at Covington. Why wouldn’t he bloody shut up? It was so tempting to abandon the weak act and attack them all, so tempting to

Suck it in, Sam!

That was when I realised what he was doing. He knew that hearing him get hurt was feeding my fury, causing more energy to slither over me. Smart, but I’d still like to smack him for purposely getting hurt. More wisps of energy clung to me – longer and thicker now – and I took them inside me, charging up. But this time something was different…The mix of energy within me hummed beneath the surface of my skin, pushing at me like a caged animal that wanted to be freed…almost as if it was as pissed off as I was.

Antonio winced, and I realised that Covington’s knife had nicked him. A ribbon of blood flowed down his neck.

Jared growled. “I will kill you for this, Covington! You’re already dead!”

Dana conjured a small energy ball and threw it at Jared, making him grunt in pain. She laughed, delighted. Oh I was definitely going to make sure that f**king little bitch suffered before I killed her!

An all-consuming anger surged through me; anger that intensified when Eloise once again kicked me – this time in the gut. The pain, the sight of her evil smirk, and the scent of both Jared’s and Antonio’s blood in the air was simply too much for me to take. Utter hatred and a white-hot rage filled me, mingling with the ice-cold fear that was already pumping through me. And I wanted nothing more than to blast them all out of the f**king room and over that balcony.

Covington spoke. “Now it’s time for you all to” He cut himself off…most likely because a gasp flew out of me and my spine locked.

The humming under my skin became more of a pulsating sensation. Then a cold draft suddenly shot through the room…just like last time. I almost smiled as a familiar silvery-blue wind built around me, swirling and swirling. About f**king time. Eloise wisely backed away, moving so fast that she fell on her arse. Faster and faster the wind of energy swirled, and then bang. The energy seemed to explode outwards, knocking everything down in its path and sending it zooming away. Some of the vampires collided hard into the walls while Covington, Eloise, Dana, and – shit – Antonio went crashing through the windows.

Jumping to my feet, I dashed over to the balcony with Jared at my heels and looked down. The four vampires were getting to their feet, confused. Antonio looked at his vampires that were still surrounded by Covington’s men and yelled, “Attack!”

Once again, all hell broke loose.

Chapter Sixteen

(Sam)

Most of Covington’s vampires that were below us flew back and hit the ground hard. I suspected that was thanks to Harvey’s gift. Animals burst onto the scene out of absolutely nowhere – a jaguar, spider monkeys, apes, and tropical birds. No doubt Alora had summoned them. They leaped into the fray without hesitation, which was a really good thing because many of the enemies were trying to get to Antonio. To my relief, he was holding his own.

I turned to Sebastian and Luther, who were covered in pink jelly since their bubble had burst after it crashed into the wall. “You need to get down to Antonio. He’s their number one target.” Sebastian opened his mouth – no doubt to reprimand me for the risk I had been prepared to take – but then shook his head. Yes, there would be time to talk later. He took Luther’s arm and teleported them both out of there.

“Get back here, you bastard!” a feminine voice screeched. Swerving, I saw that Paige and Imani were chasing after a retreating Langley. Covington’s other vampires were scraping themselves off the floor, but Jared took each of them out with an electric bolt.

He tangled his hand in my hair and gave me a hard kiss filled with anger yet also relief. “We’ll talk about the fact that you risked yourself again later. Right now, we fight.”

I couldn’t have agreed more, so I said nothing as he teleported us outside. The bottom fell out of my stomach as I took in my surroundings. The once beautiful community was such a mess that it looked more like our tactical training field. But I didn’t have time to mourn that. Not now.

Instead, I held out my palms and sucked in the surrounding energy, recharging my gift until it was at full strength and I was spilling hybrid energy once more. God, it felt good. I then conjured my whip, enjoying the familiar feeling of it buzzing against my skin.

“We stay together,” insisted Jared.

A quick glance at Antonio showed me that most of the mansion’s guards were staying close to him, helping Sebastian and Luther protect him. But I wasn’t sure he needed their help. Antonio was demonstrating just how strong an old vampire could be as he eliminated everything that came at him. A big help was that one of the guards had some kind of liquid shield in place that weirdly absorbed every bullet and weapon aimed at them.

Sure that Antonio didn’t need my assistance, I sought out my squad. They were grouped together near a restaurant at the other side of The Hollow, taking cover behind what was left of the building…almost as if defending it. I had to wonder if that meant there were people inside the restaurant who needed protecting.

A whizzing sound in the air was the only warning I got. Jared and I both ducked. If I hadn’t had Pagori speed, I wouldn’t have managed to dodge the bullet. Instantly, I formed a large boulder in front of us. More bullets came our way, but they simply became embedded in the solid mound of earth.

Jared briefly peeked around it, moving back swiftly enough to avoid another bullet. “The bastard’s lying on his stomach on the sand.”

His exact location was all I needed to act. Remoulding my whip into an energy ball, I swiftly peeked around the left of the boulder and slung it at the sniper. His ashes joined the rest of those that were scattered around the sand.

“Good shot, baby,” praised Jared. “Keep moving.”

“Aim for the armed ones.” While a large number of the vampires were engaged in combat, snipers were positioned around the place, picking people off while they were distracted during the battle. Most of them were on the rooftops while others were on the sand or stooping behind heaps of rubble. “We need them gone.”

He nodded. “Then we’ll teleport to the squad.” They were our responsibility and it was up to us to lead them. But for now, we had to trust that they could do what they had been trained to do without us.

We proceeded to use the boulder as cover as we attacked as many of Covington’s vampires as we could reach. Jared targeted them with lightning bolts while I threw energy balls, energy beams, and used my whip to snatch snipers from the roof and slam them into the ground. Knowing better than to remain in one position too long, we moved from cover to cover as we worked – heading left and going past the mansion, and then past the Guest House. I felt sick each time I came near a dead human or a badly injured vampire. Luckily, some of the guards who had the ability to teleport were appearing to take the injured to safety.

I froze when I saw that Evan, Alora, Paige, and Imani were in the middle of what had become a battlefield, trying their hardest to break through some sort of protective circle. There was a similar circle further along, but that one was much larger. I had to wonder if the smaller one was protecting Langley and the larger one was protecting Covington. In any case, I didn’t like the sight of the four of them in the thick of things. “We need to help them,” I told Jared. “They’re trying to get to Langley.”

He followed my gaze and stiffened. But then he shook his head. “This is their fight, baby. It’s personal for them. Langley killed Bran, who Alora adored and who Evan automatically respected for protecting her all this time. To add to that, Langley hurt Paige and he tried to use Imani. They want him dead, just like I want Covington dead and you want the Feeder and Eloise dead. Besides, all the animals are helping to protect them. And Paige is pretty ruthless.”

It was true; her gift might heal, but it was clear right then that it was indeed a weapon – she stole people’s injuries and attacked others with them, and reversed any wound she was given back onto whoever had harmed her. The animals were also quite merciless in their efforts to protect. And that would have to be enough, because Jared was right – this was personal for them. No one could talk me out of going after the Feeder or Eloise or Covington. I’d be wasting my time trying to pull them away from Langley, and I’d probably also endanger them by distracting them. Plus, I had to get to the squad.

So Jared and I continued targeting the armed vampires. Our combined efforts eliminated the majority of them, but a large number of the snipers that were remaining had noticed us and been smart enough to try to quickly take us out. A worrying amount of bullets rained on the large mound of rubble that we were currently squatting behind. Some of it had crumbled on top of us, grazing our skin.

“Shit,” muttered Jared. Just because we healed quickly didn’t mean we felt the pain any less. He signalled for me to follow him as he slipped into the building behind us, which was the Residence Hall used by the humans.

Taking cover just inside the doorway, we narrowly missed more bullets. “They’re going to come in here after us,” I pointed out. “We should” That was when I heard panicked cries coming from upstairs. “I think some humans are hiding here.”

Jared cursed softly. “Then we need to lead these bastards away from here. Teleporting out of here won’t help. We need to make them follow us, need to leave a scent for them to follow.”