My heartbeat stuttered, then slowed as Samuel drank and drank. I couldn’t even tell him to stop. Couldn’t even try to appeal to his logical side and tell him I was worth more alive to him than dead.
He was a bloodmad vampire with too much unchecked power and there would be no stopping him right now.
Black sparkles flooded the edges of my vision just as Samuel ripped his fangs from my throat. He grinned down at me, his mouth dripping with my blood. “I’ll get the pen now, darling,” he said, eyes blood-lusty and dazed as he licked his lips. He shoved me to the floor, and I felt the impact.
He’d healed me of the paralysis, but still, I couldn’t move.
I was too weak. My heartbeat was too faint, the breath in my lungs was too short.
My lids were heavy, the darkness in my eyes bleeding over everything. I focused on the mark on my hand, thinking it was the best thing to see in death, only coming second to Hawke’s eyes.
I spiraled inward, drawing up every memory of Hawthorne I could, as if that would somehow conjure him to my side, or at least send me to some sort of afterlife that consisted of the times we’d spent together.
The first time I’d seen him when he’d visited my school all those years ago. The way he’d made me laugh with how frankly he spoke to Alek.
The first time he’d discovered my power, shielding me from gunfire when we’d raided Valor’s brother’s compound to save Daphne. He’d felt me then, stood with his arms on either side of me, took a bullet for me, despite me being invisible.
Our first kiss, passionate and carnal and forbidden.
The first time he let down his guard and allowed me to see him, all of him, and I knew there was nothing more beautiful than the stunning, jagged male before me.
I should’ve told him how much I loved him the second I’d returned to Alek’s residence.
I should’ve told him how sorry I was for thinking we had time. Time for him to realize how wonderful we’d be together before I showed him the mark.
I should’ve done so many things.
My body grew heavier. Air was more difficult to come by as I gripped those precious memories like a lifeline. I shut my eyes, the effort to hold them open a second longer far too difficult.
And a loud bang sounded from somewhere behind me just as everything went black.
21
Hawke
I burst through the door to Avi’s bedroom, kicking the damned thing off the hinges. The screams had stopped, but her fears had only beat at me louder when we’d made our way into the manor. I’d emptied my magazine on the way up the stairs, taking out every Deveraux who had stood in my way while tracking Avi’s fear like a bloodhound.
And still, she only feared for me. Feared that Samuel would kill me next…next because she believed she was already dying. Like fuck she was. I grabbed a hold of the single translucent thread that still bound us, the thread that had transmitted Avi’s pain and yanked.
Samuel stood above where Avianna lay crumpled on the floor in the corner of the room, blood dripping from his lips, his hand raised against her with my dagger. My hand flew and my blade found its mark, pinning his hand to the wall. He dropped the other dagger and snarled in my direction with bloodred eyes.
The fear of discovery emanated from the opposite corner, and I spun, my hands already moving as James lunged toward me. My next dagger landed in his throat and I didn’t bother to watch him fall against Avianna’s empty bed as blood gurgled from the fatal wound because I was already turning back to the open door—toward the fear of failure and death.
“My lord, the wards—” I cut off Greenbriar’s announcement that Jocelyn had taken down his defenses with a dagger to the heart. He staggered against the doorframe and fell to his knees, his heart stopping before he slammed into the ground.
Samuel roared, ripping his hand from the wall, my dagger still firmly embedded in his dripping palm. Before he could yank it free, I threw the last two I had, but he twisted. The daggers hit flesh, catching him just beneath his ribs and next to his heart.
I leapt forward—Avi was only a dozen feet away, but Samuel staggered into my path. A fist surrounded my heart, squeezing with an iron grip, slowing its beat. Pain erupted in my chest as blood ceased its flow to my veins. There was no oxygen, no way to breathe through the vise that held me prisoner.
Samuel.
I hit my knees and clutched my chest, my throat constricting around the air that wheezed through, the sound sickening my stomach as the pressure on my heart only increased.