“I killed the vampire,” she said in a low, monotone voice. “I took the stake and I just reached back and stabbed her in the heart. And she shrieked, and then her whole body began shriveling…it was awful.”
“She was just a vampire. She’d have killed you if given half a chance,” Damon said, clearly uncomfortable with playing the role of comforter.
“Like Violet was just a vampire?” Cora asked. “Don’t you see? I’m a killer now. And not just in self-defense, like it was with Violet
. I went into that house for one reason, and one reason only. To kill that woman. And what was the point? Samuel’s still on the loose. What I did just seems so stupid right now.” She shook her head angrily.
“It wasn’t stupid, it was necessary,” Damon said.
I nodded; I understood why Cora was so upset. There was something about that first kill that changes you, but it’s how easy it is to murder again that’s truly terrifying. As if the first time hadn’t been just a fluke, but something you’d secretly enjoyed. I moved closer to Cora, putting my arm around her in what I hoped was a comforting embrace.
She pulled away from me and rose to her feet. “I’m sorry if I disappointed you. I just need some time.” She turned and raced down the alley.
“Cora!” I called into the darkness.
“Don’t.” Damon shook his head.
“We can’t just have her running around the city when there are vampires everywhere. I’ll go get her.”
“She needs some time, brother. And we need to turn around, go back to the prime minister’s house, and kill Samuel. Finish what we started.”
Just as I was about to answer, I heard the sound of footsteps, far too quick to be human, passing by the alley.
“Bloody disaster. Must have been those damned Salvatore brothers again. Meddling was not part of our deal. All bets are off now. I’ll kill them both with my bare hands.”
“Quite right, Mortimer,” Lord Ainsley said.
“Can I have the girl?” Molly asked.
“Have the girl,” Samuel spat. “She’s caused me nothing but trouble. Her blood is spoiled for me.”
I turned to Damon. Without a word, he nodded to me, and we took off into the night, following the sound of Samuel’s conversation. Soon, I realized, we were headed down to the warehouses on the water.
“A killer always comes back to the scene of a crime,” Damon said as we walked toward the low, squat wooden buildings where Samuel had first begun his reign of terror. We were too far back, keeping a safe distance, to know which warehouse they’d gone into. But I knew it would only be a matter of time before we found them.
Damon cocked his head and sniffed the air. “Hold on,” he said. “Always best to power up before a fight.” With that, he turned and sped off in the direction of several drunken revelers. Of course. Damon was going to drain the blood of some degenerate. I felt a surge in my veins and wondered if I, too, should do the same. Damon was right: Wasn’t feeding just one way to prepare for the battle to come? But Samuel had already turned me into more of a monster than I’d been in twenty years, and I wasn’t about to let him turn me into something worse.
Before I could start to second-guess myself, Damon returned.
“Brother,” Damon said curtly. The scent of hot, fresh blood wafted from his mouth, and it was all I could do to keep my fangs from making an appearance. “Shall we?” he asked, indicating the warehouse where Samuel had hosted one of his famous dock parties.
I stepped onto a rotting crate and peered through a filthy window. A dozen people wandered about the room, wearing well-tailored clothes and looking like they had made a wrong turn on the way to a ball. I knew they must be Samuel’s vampires. In the center of the warehouse was a pile of bodies. Blood still dripped from some of the wounds on their necks, like a fountain in the center of a town square.
All of a sudden, one of the vampires turned toward me, fangs flashing. I jumped down, hoping I hadn’t been seen.
“Let me see.” Damon pushed me aside so he could look in the window. But it was too late. The window and door were suddenly smashed open, and two vampires barreled out, pinning me to the dock as I desperately writhed under their crushing weight. For being newly turned, they were surprisingly strong, and every time I seemed to loosen one of my limbs, it would be pinned down all over again.
I heard a crash as another vampire jumped down through the broken window. The sound was followed by a snarl. I twisted my head to see Damon and Lord Ainsley locked in combat. Lord Ainsley was growling and gnashing his fangs as Damon struggled to wrestle him to the ground. Damon ended up flat on his back instead.
“Hold off, Ainsley!” Samuel’s voice echoed as all the vampires looked up expectantly, as though he were a priest who’d just ascended an altar at a church service. “And hold off on the brother, too. They’re mine.”
He placed the heel of his boot on Damon’s chest and leaned his weight into his foot. Damon gasped, and I heard the crunch of a rib breaking.
“Let this be a lesson to you,” Samuel said, glancing at the vampires around him. More vampires had circled the two who’d pinned me down, and I could no longer see Samuel. All I could see were eight bloodthirsty vampires glaring at me, their newly formed murderous drive practically glowing in their eyes. “Damon here is a vampire who might have made quite a good foot soldier at one point. He’s smart. Devious. Charming. We could have been quite a team if he hadn’t made some unfortunate blunders in his youth. He set his sights on women he didn’t deserve. As if my long-ago love, Katherine, would ever truly have taken him seriously! But he persevered, only to kill carelessly. Not to mention choosing the wrong teammate.” At this, Samuel kicked Damon’s ribs and stalked toward me, leaving him gasping for breath.
A shaft of moonlight fell on Samuel, giving him a sort of spotlight. At that moment, I had a feeling those eight vampires would have been easier to fight off than Samuel alone. He looked tall, refreshed, and utterly triumphant. He was the hunter, and I was the felled prey. Samuel had two choices: kill or compel. I wasn’t sure which would be the worse fate.
He knelt down until his face was only inches from mine. “I’m done playing games.” Samuel cupped my chin and forced me to look him in the eyes. I squeezed mine shut.