Jonas remained entirely still and watched him land.
“Ever the unfazed prince,” Tucker muttered. “We should get out there.”
“Wait,” Elias said. “We wait. It could be a move to draw us away from her.”
A shiver passed down Ginny’s spine. “You think that’s the powerful vampire who’s been moving me in my sleep.”
“The question is, why?” Tucker asked. “Just to enforce the rule about vampire-human relationships or is there another reason? Anything is possible.”
Tucker could say that again. There were so many more possibilities in this world she lived in now. She was ducked down in the back of a car, good vampires protecting her from other evil vampires. And why? She had no clue. But the life she’d once known seemed like nothing more than an uninformed prologue.
“Get all the way down, Ginny,” Tucker instructed.
She complied, but slowly crept back up to watch the action, Jonas’s voice reaching her ears through the window, muffled, yet sharp. Royal.
“I’m assuming this isn’t an accidental meeting. What do you want from me?”
The vampire smiled to reveal a row of long, sharp teeth. “Seymour Blithe at your service.” He tilted his head to the right. “Have you enjoyed having the loss of a loved one dangled in front of you like a carrot?”
To say Jonas bristled would be an understatement. His muscles seemed to expand and cast larger shadows, and even through the car window, Ginny could hear the slice of his fangs descending. “You tried to kill Ginny,” he rasped, his voice nothing more than a rippling ribbon of violence.
“I merely pointed the expendable human in the direction of her demise.”
“Why?” Jonas shouted.
“We really need to get out there and help,” Tucker snapped.
Elias made a sound of disagreement. “He’ll have no chance of defeating a being that powerful unless he’s protecting her. We stay.”
“I’m motivation?” Ginny pressed her hands to the glass, aching to fling open the door and scream at Jonas to get back inside. “Fine. Good. I wouldn’t leave anyway, just please go help—”
Before she could finish, Seymour flicked a wrist and sent Jonas catapulting to the opposite end of the alley. Ginny swallowed a scream at the sight of his strong body plowing into a row of trashcans. Before she could take her next breath, he was up, a darker shade of green than usual pinwheeling in his eyes. His jaw was tight enough to break—and it almost did when Seymour slashed a hand through the air and Jonas’s head went snapping back like he’d been punched, making him stumble.
“Do something,” Ginny pleaded.
Elias leaned forward in the passenger seat. “Wait for it.”
Indeed, there appeared to be a change overcoming Jonas. The malice in his eyes alone transformed him, and Ginny recalled what he’d said to her in the office of the funeral home earlier that night. These abilities are usually triggered in a vampire when he or she undergoes something harrowing. More and more every time. And you, love, most definitely fit that description.
In a blur of movement, Jonas whipped off his coat, leaving him in dress pants, suspenders and a dove gray button-down. Déjà vu nipped at her conscious, but she was too focused on praying for Jonas’s survival, that she could only disregard it and whisper a rush of words against the glass, fogging it slightly.
“Please, please, please…”
Time seemed to slow as she locked eyes with Jonas through the glass. The slightest downward flicker of his irises sent Ginny into a duck without hesitation—and Seymour’s body was thrown up against the car. Slam.
“Son of a bitch,” Tucker breathed.
Ginny straightened and watched Jonas pull Seymour off the car, using only an outstretched hand, and launch him up against the side of the building. She almost cheered. Started to, in fact, but Seymour chose that moment to rally, blasting Jonas with wavy ribbons of clear energy, throwing him off his feet and onto his back.
Leaving him vulnerable.
“No,” Ginny breathed.
A ball of crackling air hovered above the older vampire’s palm and he was seconds from hitting Jonas with it. While he was down.
No, she couldn’t let it happen.
If she was the catalyst for his abilities taking hold, then she’d do her job. She’d help him, instead of standing by like a spare part.
Seymour reared back, preparing to blast Jonas.
She’d have to dig deep for this amount of courage. None of her usual heroines would boost her this time—sorry, Elizabeth, Lauren and Grace. This time around, she was going full Bond Girl. With a deep breath, Ginny threw open the car door and stepped out.
“No!” Jonas roared, rolling and lunging to his feet.
Seymour turned with a beastly smile and changed his aim to Ginny instead. “Alas, she makes my task even easier.” Her feet lifted inch by inch off the ground, the floating sensation disconcertingly familiar. “Where shall I perch the little birdie this time? A skyscraper, perhaps?”