The world slowed, flipping frame by frame, as Ari struggled with her inner demons. She wanted this. A voice said no. The she-wolf smiled.
Then Ari was roughly yanked away. Andreas reached down and snapped the she-wolf’s neck with a powerful twist.
Reality bent. And snapped. Ari’s blood boiled with primitive rage. He’d stolen her kill. She sprang toward him. He turned, his lips drawn back, exposing white fangs.
Ari jolted to a halt and backed away, nearly falling over her own feet. Anguish clawed at her chest as the impact of the situation hit her. Her throat tightened, a scream stuck there. She and the vampire were ready to kill each other over the rights to take an enemy life. An unarmed woman. Ari raised a hand as if to ward off the truth and noticed the dagger still clutched in her fist. Shocked, she opened her fingers, and the blade clattered to the cave floor.
She looked at him. His dark eyes were hooded, a black curl had fallen across his forehead. The fangs were gone.
“Arianna.”
“Stay away from me,” she hissed. She whirled and ran as if all the demons of hell were at her heels. And maybe they were.
Chapter Thirty-Four
“Ari, wait. I’ll go with you.” Mike caught up with her near the cavern entrance and held out a flashlight. “They don’t need me back there.”
Ari stopped her sprint through the dark. The finger fire she’d been using to light the way was almost depleted. Breathing hard, she rested her good hand on her thigh. “Thanks for the light. Give me a minute, will you?”
Mike nodded, his eyes saying nothing.
Ari’s brain whirled with images and thoughts she couldn’t reconcile right now. The dagger in her hand. The salamanders, their eyes flickering with fire. Andreas standing over Sheila’s body. She willed her brain to shut them out and concentrated on slowing her pulse. She needed to quit feeling.
“Go help them with the wolves,” Ari said when she was sure her voice was steady. “I can get back on my own.”
“No. You can’t. Not with that arm.” Mike was matter-of-fact.
She had forgotten. Glancing down, she saw the bindings were tight; it was swelling. “I guess you're right. Let’s go.”
She started off in the lead, Mike followed. He didn’t attempt conversation, and the return trip up the cliffs was completed in silence. It was harder than she had anticipated. Without Mike, she wouldn’t have made it.
When they reached the top, Ryan was sitting in his off-duty car. The door opened when he spotted her, and he stepped out. “I heard there’s been some trouble.”
“Yeah, you might say that. Who called you?” As if she couldn’t figure that one out. She wondered how much Andreas had told him.
Ryan ignored her question, looking at her arm. “You’re injured.”
He was being careful, cautious. Andreas must have said quite a bit.
“It’ll keep,” she said. “Prisoners and bodies come first.”
A brief frown crossed his face before he shrugged, accepting her answer. No barrage of questions. His restraint made it easier to stick to business.
Mike left, refusing a ride, and headed back to the vampire compound.
Ari filled Ryan in on most of the night’s events. She didn’t mention the fire salamanders. Not now, maybe never. And she didn’t talk about how Sheila died. Surprisingly, Ryan took it all in stride. Of course, he’d already been primed.
“No human bodies,” she said. “In fact, no one local. They thought they could walk into Riverdale and take over.”
“Overconfident, huh?”
“Yeah, I guess. Too bad most of them aren’t alive to learn by their mistakes.”
Ryan gave a short, mirthless cop laugh.
He drove her to the compound. Mike was already there, and no one asked her what happened. The next hour was a flurry of activity. Carmella and the four vampires arrived from the caverns with the wolves, both living and dead. Carmella took no time in letting Ryan know the caves were off limits. He was fine with that, said the delivery saved him and the police department a lot of trouble. He called in officers to take custody of the prisoners and the coroner to handle the bodies. Ari started to follow the last officer out the door.
“So this is the vampire court, huh?” Ryan stood in the middle of the security area and looked around.
Ari stopped and turned back. “This is security. The audience chambers are down the hall. Sleeping quarters are far from here.”
“Not very fancy. Somehow, I expected plush quarters.”