She hadn’t transformed him. Another member of the coven—Christine—had brought him over. Christine had found Michael, broken and bloody, the victim of a hit and run car accident. He’d begged Christine for help.
The gate groaned louder as Michael opened the metal bars that lined the entrance. Iona hadn’t bothered opening the gate. She’d just leapt over the stone wall.
If Michael had known just what sort of help Christine truly offered, would he still have begged? Or would he have chosen death? Iona had always wondered…
“You should be dead,” Michael said, shaking his head as he advanced on her. “All this time…we thought you were dead.”
She kept her hands at her sides. Refused to let hope fill her. He was alive, and he’d just said…we. Others must have survived, too.
But…but she didn’t let the hope take over. Hope had been crushed too many times. “What happened here?”
“Latham,” Michael bit off the name of the werewolf at the top of Iona’s most-hated list. “When you left us, he came in with his wolves. They attacked during the day and burned the place around us.”
Her eyes narrowed. There should have been safeguards in place. Specific vampires and bodyguard humans who protected the area during the day while the vamp coven was more vulnerable. The compound had been set up with security systems, dozens of alarms. The wolves should never have been able to sneak inside and attack.
“How did you escape?” Iona asked him.
But he just shook his head. “I can’t believe…I’m so glad to see you!” Then he rushed forward and wrapped his arms around her. He smelled of fresh blood.
Michael had been out hunting. Had his prey been humans? Werewolves?
Her hands touched lightly on his shoulders. “How did you escape?” Iona asked him again. Goosebumps rose on her arms. Something was off, something felt—
A low growl drifted in the air. Iona swallowed.
Michael lifted his head. Pulled back a bit so he could stare down at her. “I didn’t escape.” He was smiling now. Flashing his fangs. He must have heard the growl, too. Like her, he knew the sound for exactly what it was.
The sound of a werewolf. After all, that deep, rumbling growl was pretty unmistakable. A werewolf was closing in on them.
“I killed the human guards,” Michael told her. He was proud. Bragging? “I made sure that the vamps on patrol were given drugged blood. Then I just walked away and let the werewolves have their fun.”
Fury had her trembling and more than ready to rip off his head. “Christine saved you!”
He shrugged. “Then she got in my way. Tried to get me to be a good, f**kin’ little vamp who followed the rules.” He shook his head and pulled a stake from his coat. “I’m not the following type.”
The wolf was behind him, racing with his giant jaws parted and his eyes trained on the prey that waited.
Michael pressed the tip of his wooden stake over her chest. “I’m guessing all that time, frozen like the dead, slowed you down, huh?” His smile widened. “I’m glad I get to be the one to send you to hell.”
She snatched the stake from him, and, before he could even have a chance to fight—he deserved no chance—Iona shoved that stake deep into his heart. “You guessed wrong.”
His lips parted. His eyes stared at her in horrified surprise.
“No time to beg this go around,” she said. “You’re dead.” Then she walked away while his body fell to the blackened earth.
The wolf was charging right at her. Iona braced her legs to face him.
But the beast started to change. Bones crunched and snapped, and the fur vanished from his body. Golden flesh emerged. Flesh she knew. A face she knew. It would be impossible to ever forget Jamie’s hard, dangerous features.
“I was…coming to save you…” The words were raspy and grating as his paws became hands that sank into the earth.
Her head tilted at she studied him. “I didn’t need saving.”
Jamie looked up at her. His gaze blazed. “That vamp’s not the only one after you.”
No, she didn’t think that he was. She wasn’t that foolish.
“A few other vamps were helping him, and they’re—”
“Here,” she finished with a nod because she’d caught their scents, too. They were just beyond the wall, waiting.
Maybe Michael had been their leader, so they’d let him try for first blood. Would they attack now that they realized she wasn’t weak? Would they be afraid—or would they try killing her, too?
“If they’re smart, they’ll run like hell,” Jamie said as he fired a fast glance toward the wall.
If they’d been smart, they never would have betrayed her coven.
Jamie’s head jerked to the right. “One’s running.”
But she already heard other footsteps. Pounding toward them. “And two are attacking.” Iona rushed away from Jamie as she ran to face the threat. Fury boiled in her, the kind that just made her want to destroy. So when she saw the two vampires charging at her with hate twisting their faces and their hands curled around stakes, Iona didn’t hesitate.
She was within range now. She’d just needed to get close enough—
“Good-bye,” Iona whispered and flames shot out from her hands.
Close enough to kill.
The vampires screamed as the fire consumed them. A fire stronger than anything they’d probably ever seen before.
My fire. One fueled by rage and magic.
They died quickly, though they probably didn’t deserve such a swift death. Not after what they’d done. Betrayal.
A hand touched her shoulder. Iona flinched and spun around.
Jamie backed up, lifting both hands in front of him. “Easy, love. I’m on your side.”
She wanted to believe that. “The woman…” Iona couldn’t look at what was left of her, but she didn’t need to. Iona remembered Luanne’s face. “She brought the blood to me that last night. Michael and his vamps…they gave me drugged blood.” That was how they’d managed to subdue her. She just hadn’t realized it at the time.
She’d gone to sleep in her home, and she’d woken in the room that would become her prison, woken just in time to see Latham and Brian. The spell had been cast. The taste of blood filled her mouth—Latham’s blood. She’d tried to lunge at them, but her body had refused to obey her commands.
If you won’t give me your blood, then I’ll just take it. Latham’s voice. He’d tried to woo her when they first met. Offered her promises of peace between the vampires and werewolves. He’d been handsome. Charming.