“We’ve lived in the shadows long enough!”
“No, you’ve just lived long enough.”
Connor wasn’t attacking her. Whatever he’d done, she didn’t believe he was like his father.
Neither was Duncan.
She broke away from Connor. Grabbed for the scalpel on the back table. I can’t let his father’s death be on him.
Some sins shouldn’t be carried.
Duncan yelled her name, but she didn’t stop. Her fingers were tight on the scalpel, and she moved as fast as she could. What good was being a vamp if you never used your power? So she amped up her power and moved faster than she’d ever moved before.
It seemed like everyone around her was moving in slow motion. Connor was lunging for his father with bared fangs.
Duncan was reaching for her.
Ian was smiling.
Smiling…
And lifting a weapon she’d never seen. A wooden stake that had been tucked in his prison overalls.
So even as she stabbed down with her knife—slicing over the bastard’s throat—he shoved that stake into her heart.
“Told me…be ready.” Blood spurted down the front of Ian’s throat. She hadn’t cut the bastard deep enough. “Vamps…coming…”
And the slow motion ended for her. She sank to her knees and stared at the stake hanging from her chest.
She felt the cold whisper of death on her skin. The same whisper she’d felt in that alley, a year ago. Goosebumps rose on her even as a strange numbness filled her extremities.
Duncan was shouting for her, and she wanted to answer him, but she couldn’t.
The gas kept filling the room. The stake—it had sank into her heart.
She knew it had found the mark because her heart had stopped beating.
I’m sorry, Duncan.
She’d just wanted to protect him, but now, it looked like she’d just left him to face his nightmare without her.
I’m sorry. Her lips formed the words, and then she could say no more.
Ian’s claws came toward her, and she knew he planned to take her head.
Chapter Thirteen
I’m sorry.
He couldn’t hear the words, but he could read them on her lips and they ripped right through him. Duncan shoved his father aside—his father, his f**king father—and grabbed for Holly.
Her eyes were sagging closed. Blood pulsed from her wound. No, this couldn’t be happening. Not to her. He’d left her in the infirmary so that she’d be safe.
Not so that she could be staked while trying to fight his past.
“Vampires. For all their strengths, they can still be so damn weak.” Disgust had thickened Ian’s voice.
You have no weaknesses. Pate had promised him that, but the guy had been wrong.
He had a weakness. She was bleeding out in his arms.
A dull roar filled his ears. His hand was on her throat, trying to feel for a pulse, but nothing was there. “Holly?” He shook her.
Her eyes weren’t opening.
“You won’t leave me!” He whispered the desperate words to her.
She hadn’t let him slip away, and there was no way that he’d let her—
Claws pressed into his back. Sank into his spine. Twisted. The agony burned through him, but he didn’t let Holly go. He couldn’t.
“Worthless piece of shit,” Ian snarled into his ear. “You think I didn’t smell you all over her? I knew…” His claws yanked out of Duncan. Drove in again. “I knew you were linked to the bitch. Mated to a vamp.”
Mate. Yes, she was his mate. She was everything.
“I just had to get to her…” Now the claws were at his throat. “In order to make you weak. Just like he said…”
The claws were about to slice across his jugular. His father’s claws.
Stay in the closet, baby. No matter what happens…stay in and stay quiet. In his mind, Duncan saw warm golden eyes, swimming with tears, staring down at him. Mommy loves you.
Love.
Holly wasn’t moving.
“Who. Said.” The snapped words didn’t even seem to have come from him.
Ian still had his mouth near Duncan’s ear. “You thought you were stopping us, didn’t you? But when you started hunting the paranormals, he got smart to you. He’s in your precious FBI, and he’s not gonna let his own kind be caged.”
“Tell me who the f**k he is.”
“He’s a werewolf, an alpha, just like me. We’re gonna rule. Gonna make the humans scream. Putting us all together was a mistake. Now we’re just stronger. We’re—”
“Get the hell away from him!” Connor’s scream. The enraged roar of a man, but for a moment, Duncan could have sworn that he heard…
Help me…help me, Duncan! The cry of a child.
Ian was yanked away from him. His father and Connor met in a fury of fists and claws.
Duncan’s fingers wrapped around the stake in Holly’s chest. The stake wouldn’t kill her. Well, she wouldn’t stay dead, not unless she lost her head or her body was burned. As soon as the stake came out, she’d heal.
He ripped that damn stake from her. Smashed it into bits.
Her eyes flew open as she sucked in a deep breath.
His Holly. His world.
He bent his head. Pressed his lips to hers. “I love you.” Because she needed to know that. “Now, please, stay here. Whatever happens, don’t move.”
Stay quiet.
Because he didn’t want her in the line of fire.
Duncan looked up. Ian had Connor pinned against the far wall, and the older werewolf was going for Connor’s throat.
Gathering all his strength, Duncan lunged across the room. Before Ian could slice open Connor’s throat, Duncan caught his hand. “That’s my brother,” Duncan said as his body vibrated with fury. “And you aren’t hurting him anymore.”
Connor’s gaze flew to Duncan. There was disbelief and wild hope fighting in his stare.
His stare…golden just like their mother’s had been.
I remember him now. From the moment that he’d seen Connor in that basement, the memories had started to push through the shadows in his mind. My brother.
Ian whirled to attack Duncan. His father had yanked the silver scalpel out of his chest and he drove that scalpel right toward Duncan’s heart.
And the bastard was smiling as he did it. “Let’s see you save someone now, hero.” The scalpel sank into his flesh.
Duncan glanced down at the weapon. “Isn’t it supposed to burn?”
Ian’s face paled.