Hess was saying something to Beatrice with a snarky look on his face, while Corry looked miserable and terrified beside him. Her plain green T-shirt was wet at the neck from tears, and—God, was her arm broken? Behind Corry, I could just make out the outline of a door, which had been painted to match the pink stucco of the exterior walls. No wonder I had never noticed it; I was generally scared and distracted whenever I met with Dashiell. There was a very small window in the door, at eye level, which I’d always thought was just a regular window into the house.

I turned back toward Jesse, telling him who was who, with the exception of the men I didn’t know. “You see the door?”

“Yeah. Come on.” We took the three steps back to the doorway, where Albert waited with the gun.

“Why is Ariadne here? And who is with her?” I hissed.

Albert’s face was grim. “She came to make her move against Dashiell. Carlos is the master who’s sponsoring her. The guy with them is a werewolf, muscle for hire.”

Talk about your bad timing, I thought. I bet Ariadne was wishing she had waited just a bit longer for her hostile takeover.

“Why haven’t you burst in there yourself?” Jesse asked Albert. “You could probably get a shot at Hess before he sees you. Isn’t that the kind of thing Dashiell pays you for?”

Albert just stared at us nervously.

“He’s afraid,” I said, understanding. “There’s a null out there, and he’s scared of getting hurt or killed while she’s so close. God, Albert, that really is cowardly.”

“Shut up,” he growled. “Listen, if you two are so brave, you’re welcome to storm out there. I’ll take you around to the servant door.”

“Give me my gun and we will,” Jesse retorted.

“So you can shoot me and then Dashiell? Yeah, right.” Albert shook his head. “I may get in trouble for not rushing out there, but I’ll definitely get dead if I let Scarlett Bernard waltz past me and take a shot at him. No, you go without a gun.” I opened my mouth to protest, but he just glared at me. “Or I could always just shoot you here, see if the sound distracts that guy long enough for Dashiell to jump him. That seems like a good plan, too.”

I closed my mouth and looked at Jesse. We didn’t have time for this. He nodded at me.

“We’ll go,” I said to Albert.

“Fine.”

As quickly as possible, Albert guided us in a wide circle around the patio, whispering directions in the dark as he held the gun at our backs. We ended up in a large, lavishly equipped kitchen that I had never seen before.

“Why do vampires need a kitchen?” Jesse whispered, but I just shrugged and rolled my eyes.

“Here,” Albert said, pointing at the interior side of the servants’ door.

I peeked through the little square. The vampire opposite Dashiell, the one closest to Corry, was saying something I couldn’t hear.

“Do you have a plan?” Jesse asked me.

“I’ll get the girl. You go for Hess.”

“And the vampires?” he said, glancing at Albert, who was waiting fifteen feet back, still holding the gun and looking much more comfortable as a vampire.

“Hopefully won’t try to kill us the second we get through the door.”

“Okay.” He took a step toward the door and then looked back. “Hey, I guess you’re off the hook for murder.”

I made a face at him.

“Ready?” he asked.

“Wait! Jesse?”

“What?” His eyes searched my face.

“Um, I’m just sorry. That you got sucked into this.”

He grinned. “Weirdly? I’m not.”

And we burst through the door.

Chapter 33

Jesse went straight for Jared Hess as though he had blinders on. Hess heard the door open and swung the gun around, but by the time he had it pointed the right way, Jesse had crossed the five feet between them and tackled Hess around the waist, driving his shoulder into Hess’s wide torso. In his peripheral vision, he saw Scarlett grab the teenage girl and crouch down in the nearest corner, getting her as far from the action as possible.

Hess went down with an oomph, and the gun went flying out of his hand—and clattered straight down the long oval table, stopping in front of the lean cowboy-looking guy with the shoulder wound. The cowboy looked at the giant vampire across from him for a split second and then dove for the gun, just as the big vamp pulled his own out of a shoulder holster.

As the cowboy managed to shoot the vampire in the face, Ariadne screamed a terrible, inhuman scream and launched herself over the big table, straight toward Beatrice. She was still in the nulls’ proximity, so her scramble across was more functional than graceful, but she dropped into Beatrice’s lap within a second, trying to dig black fingernails into the other vampire’s eyes. Dashiell cried out and tried to pry Ariadne off his mate, which caused the vampire sitting across from him—Carlos—to jump onto the table himself, trying to protect Ariadne.

Of course, Jesse only barely registered all of this, as he was in the middle of an old-school playground fight with Jared Hess. The two of them made a fairly even match: Jesse had trained in combat at the police academy, but Hess was fifty pounds heavier and fast as anything. Hess recovered from the tackle to pound terrible blows on Jesse’s head and shoulders. Jesse jerked his head upward, slamming it into Hess’s jaw, which snapped shut with an audible click. Hess released him but clubbed Jesse away with a punch on the ear, forcing him to roll away. For a moment, the world seemed to have lost gravity, and Jesse struggled to get his feet under him.