Author: Kalayna Price

Bobby stood behind the mage, blood dripping from his knuckles. As the mage turned, I saw why. The hole I’d ripped in the snake’s back earlier hadn’t healed—it hadn’t slowed him down either, but it was a large, seeping wound that now showed evidence of broken ribs, thanks to Bobby. My hunger blossomed. The mage’s blood smelled sour, but I was starving.

The mage pulled a large sheath of black scales from the void. A snakeskin identical to Akane’s—or likely, her twin sister’s actual skin. He wrapped it around himself and expanded into a huge serpent.

“Get back,” I yelled at Bobby. If the mage injected even a drop of poison into Bobby’s body…?

A vehicle swung around the corner. Of all the mooncursed luck. Humans could not be allowed to witness this fight.

Imagine their shock: me in bloody tulle, with claws instead of fingers, a giant serpent stretched across the pavement, blood dripping from Bobby’s fist, and Steven—I didn’t know where Steven was. I glanced around and caught him creeping toward the mage. Yeah, definitely not a scene for human observers.

I shouldn’t have wasted my concern.

The dark SUV slammed to a stop in the center of the road and the doors flew open. Ronco dashed out of the driver’s seat as Elizabeth stepped out of the passenger side.

Why do I get the feeling this isn’t the cavalry coming to our rescue?

“Trevin, we’ll handle this from here,” Elizabeth said as she shook wrinkles from her dress.

The snake’s head dipped in agreement, but it didn’t retreat. Ronco surged forward, headed not for the serpent, but for me. I wasn’t surprised. I lifted my claws, keeping one eye on the snake and one on the charging vampire.

The snake lifted its head, its mouth falling open, and a human voice emerged, “The silver, fool.”

Silver? Oh crap.

“Run!” I turned, taking my own advice. Bobby and Steven did the same.

Not that any of us had a chance.

Ronco tossed something thin and light-weight, and a cord wrapped around my bare neck. My skin went numb, my throat closing, and I stumbled, falling to my knees. Bobby glanced back as I fell. He stopped. Doubled back.

No!

I couldn’t speak. Couldn’t breathe. I clawed at the silver chain, but my fingers turned numb at the first touch, and my claws dripped with blood as I scratched skin I couldn’t feel.

Ronco slammed into Bobby. Another chain of silver glinted in his hands. I had to stop him. I had to…?

The serpent slithered closer and coiled around my body, constricting. His mouth opened inches from my face. His fangs flashed, dripping poison.

“Trevin, enough.” Elizabeth’s ballerina slippers made soft sounds as she trudged through the snow toward me. “Don’t hurt her.”

“Just this one?” Again the snake’s voice emerged perfectly clear, as if spoken from a human throat. His head dipped closer.

“No. We couldn’t explain her death. Besides, she’s much more useful as a decoy. Now go.”

The snake’s tongue flicked out and danced over my cheek.

Then he uncoiled and slithered back toward the warehouse. A scream tore down the street, and I looked up to see Steven fall, thrashing in the silver cords binding him. Bobby was already down. No. My stomach twisted. I flailed again with the cord, but the numbness was traveling down my body, making it hard to move. Ronco hauled Steven off the pavement, dragged him toward the SUV.

“Aaric, travel to me,” Elizabeth chanted in a sing-song voice, and the Traveler stepped into the space beside her.

He looked around, his thick brows cinching. “Elizabeth, what is the meaning of this? What is going on?”

“Ronco and I followed her.” She made the word sound distasteful as she jerked her small hand in my direction. “She met with a pair of shapeshifters, and we’ve captured them. I think the Collector will be pleased.” She pressed her forehead against his hand, and his eyes went distant, as if he were talking to someone else without moving his lips.

“She is pleased. You will be rewarded,” he said as his eyes focused again.

With her face pressed into his hand and tilted toward the ground, the Traveler couldn’t see the cruel smile that twisted Elizabeth’s lips. I could. But there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it.

The Traveler scanned the bloody street. “The Collector will send a clean-up crew.”

“Ronco has already sent for one,” Elizabeth said, tilting her head to look at him. Her face was once again pleasant, with no hint of the smile she’d worn a moment ago.

“Very well. Hurry home. Dawn is approaching.” He leaned down and kissed his companion lightly. Then he vanished as if he’d never been on the street.

Elizabeth turned back to me. When I’d first left Firth for the human world, I’d been unnerved by the unblinking glass eyes and painted smiles of porcelain dolls. Staring at Elizabeth’s perfect but cruelly carved features, I decided that my fear was well justified.

“You can’t speak, can you?” she asked, her voice tinny with mock concern. She knelt beside me and rearranged her skirts to keep them off the ground. “Not being able to speak isn’t good enough. You must not be able to share.”

Share? What the hell does that mean? Not that I could ask.

Elizabeth lifted my wrist. I tried to jerk away, to struggle, but my arms were numb. Useless. Her fangs flashed, but instead of biting me, she drew out the moment.

“It’s one of my abilities,” she whispered. “I lock away memories so no one can find them. And no one knows, except those few who cannot expose my secret. Like you.”

Then she sank her fangs into my flesh. The first wave of sensation hit me. I could barely feel my body, but the traitorous pleasure? That I could feel. My eyes bulged. When she pulled back, she smiled at me, my blood still staining her teeth. She giggled.

I blinked at her, incapable of doing more. What I wanted to do was rip Elizabeth’s throat out so that damned giggling would stop. Ronco dragged Bobby to the car, the shifter’s head lolled to the side. My hearing was too damaged by the silver to know if he was breathing, but if I could have moved, I’d have killed both the vampires or died trying.

A second SUV pulled to a stop behind Elizabeth’s, and two vampires jumped out. They hauled a large metal coffin from the back and hefted off the thick lid. Then all eyes turned to me.

No. Oh, hell no. They were not putting me in a coffin.

They were.

And there was nothing I could do about it.

As the vampires lowered the lid over me, Elizabeth reached inside and snagged the silver chain from my throat, pulling it free. Feeling slowly returned to my body, so I could feel the tires on the pavement as we drove, feel the coffin sliding as the SUV took a turn too fast. Voices filtered in through the metal walls surrounding me.

“—It’s fine. We’ve improvised,” Elizabeth said, and I strained to listen.

“If you hadn’t insisted on all the theatrics with the bodies, she never would have stuck her over sensitive nose into this,” a raspy voice said. The snake mage, Trevin? He was in the car?

“The girl was an unexpected element. But it’s fine. I have plans for her.” Elizabeth again. Was I ‘the girl?’ “Besides, it is all working out. Marina’s unbalanced, unsure, and her allies are pulling away from her. It won’t be long now.”

The mage’s reply was in a language I didn’t know. Who is Marina?

“Go. We’re almost there,” Elizabeth said, and the SUV slowed, the coffin sliding forward as the vehicle braked.

The scream that had been trying to escape finally tore free of my silver-burned throat as the vampires hauled the coffin out of the SUV. I screamed in panic, I screamed in rage, I screamed for help, I screamed for Nathanial. I hated the idea that Elizabeth could be listening, could be smiling at the sound, but I couldn’t stop. Once I could feel my hands I clawed at the interior, shredding the satin lining until my claws scraped on ungiving metal.

Then dawn hit. My senses felt it, and retreated. And there was nothing.

Chapter Thirty-One

As night fell a scream burst from my lungs even before my eyes opened to the sight of shredded satin inches from my nose. My own scream filled my senses, competing with the blood rushing through my ears.

Then I heard another sound.

A tremor ran through the coffin lid as something hit it.

Metal scraped against metal.

I fell silent, listening. Rescue or…?

My hands had shifted back to human form while I slept, leaving me without my claws and way more defenseless than I liked, but the lid was already moving. I slammed my shoulders against it, shoving myself free of the coffin. My fist lifted as I sprung upward. My arm cocked back. Then my gaze landed on crystal gray eyes framed by dark lashes. I froze.

Nathanial.

His arms wrapped around me, dragging me against his chest. The metal lid clattered to one side.

I didn’t move at first, too stunned by his presence. After how we’d parted last… “You came for me?”

“As soon as I could.” His lips pressed the words into my hair, and he held me tight enough it hurt.

My body finally relaxed, and I wrapped my arms around his waist, held him as I let him crush me against his chest.

“My memories—”

“Were altered,” Nathanial said before I could finish. “That is the only logical explanation. I should have seen the scales in your memory, but there was nothing, and that cannot be.”

I nodded, clinging tighter to him. The fact he believed me, that he believed in me again, made something inside me seem to click back into place. I looked up, and his lips pressed ever so lightly against my forehead. My eyes fluttered closed, and I drew in a deep breath, drinking down his spicy scent. But mixed in with the scents I associated with him was the smell of freshly turned dirt and drying blood.

I pulled back. His arms tightened before releasing me, but he didn’t stop me from stepping away. Nathanial wore most of last night’s tux, but his white shirt was torn and mudstained.