Move. Move. Move. My instincts roared to rip the throats out of the guards and dispatch the threat to Valor. To get her in my arms and wend her out of danger.
But my duty…that was to the one woman I didn’t see.
“Where the fuck is Avianna?” Hawke growled.
“Shit,” I muttered.
“Should we maybe do something?” Xavier asked, leaned up against the wall behind one of the soldiers. “Or would you like to see how this all plays out?”
“We can’t risk the bullets without knowing where the princess is,” I answered. Did one of these scumbags already have her? My stomach heaved at the thought.
“You bit off more than you can chew this time, Kyle,” Valor replied, her voice a hell of a lot stronger than I was feeling right now. My fear for her was a bitter flavor in my mouth, stuttering my heartbeat and crippling logical thought. All it would take was one bullet, and I’d lose her forever.
She was human. Frail. Breakable. There was only so much my blood could do if she was injured, and she hadn’t even had one exchange, let alone the three it would take to make her immortal…if the drop of vampire blood in her lineage would even allow it. She might very well die in transition—stop.
Next to me, Hawke shut his eyes and lowered his blades, leaning his head back toward the ceiling and breathing deeply.
“Now is not the time for your anger management techniques,” Ransom whispered.
“At any second, the vampire army will be at your door, brother, and there will be no place for you to go,” Valor continued, tugging Daphne under her arm. “If you let us go now, chances are you can save your men, but the longer you wait, the more certain it is that you’ll be slaughtered just like you deserve.”
An evil laugh lifted the hairs on my neck.
“If Avi’s out of the hallway, she’s out of danger as long as we keep them from firing into the walls,” I noted. “We’ll have to move quick and that’s one thing we’re not in this place.” The iron saw to that.
Xavier rolled his eyes and flicked his wrists. The shadows moved from the corners, twining around the guard’s feet.
“She’s here,” Hawke determined, opening his eyes. The fucker looked downright scary. “I can smell her.”
Ransom lifted his brows. “I say we let him finish his villain’s speech and then go for it.”
“I’m not leaving her in there one second longer than we need to. Hawke, if you can scent her, fucking find her.”
“On it.” Hawke’s eyes scanned the hallway. Thank God for the glamour, since he was easily a head taller than the tallest human here.
“You think I didn’t plan for your monstrous boyfriend to come after you?” Kyle snapped, reaching for his weapon.
Icy rage spread through my veins. If he so much as touched her, I was going to—
“You think I didn’t cause a distraction to ensure they’d protect the weakest of their kind? You might be worth something to their second, sister, but I somehow doubt you warrant the protection of their full guard. Not when there are” — he let out a fake gasp — “children at stake. Not that I’d call their kind children. They’re just tiny little scourges, waiting to grow up and become bigger scourges.”
“You attacked younglings?” Valor spat at him, surging forward, but Olivia held her back.
Hawke turned toward the center of the hall, his gaze pinned on a spot where a poster hung on the wall. “No. Fucking. Way.”
“I did what was necessary! Don’t you see what they’ve done? They’ve turned you, Valor! They turned you from an honorable woman with a bright future to a traitor who got her own father killed! Look at you!” He waved the weapon haphazardly, making my heart clench.
“Work faster, Hawke.” I wasn’t sure I’d be able to hold back much longer, and if my need to protect my mate got the princess killed…well, that wasn’t an option.
“Look at you!” Valor fired back. “Attacking children! Keeping our cousin hostage for what, Kyle? So she can be a child bride? What happened to you?”
“You want our cousin to leave?” A smile played across his face. “Fine. She can leave with your little fangy friend here. I won’t touch either one of them. But you have to stay, sister. I need the secrets locked inside your head more than I need the cooperation of another family.”
I sucked in a breath, my chest cranking tight because I knew what would happen. It was what she’d planned all along.
“I agree.” She gently pushed Daphne into Olivia’s arms.
“Excellent.” Kyle’s eyes danced with glee.
Valor stepped forward, and Kyle took her wrist.
“No!” I shouted, already moving forward.
“Stay away from the right side of the wall,” Hawke hissed somewhere behind me.
The room went pitch dark, but I saw it all.