off its bolted foundations. Another ripped the shard from my hands while the third wrenched me upright.
My knees shook, but I couldn’t have these vampires on suicide watch. Then they’d really truss me up.
I pursed my lips, pressing my hands against the pouring wound. “I can’t believe you guys fell for that.”
The Vissimo in the basement froze, and the grip on my arms slackened.
Glancing to where one of the triplets threw the cage, I whistled. “Looks like that dog house is ruined beyond repair.”
Perhaps I shouldn’t gloat too much.
Right now, I stood to the left of the panel. The trajectory from the door to me meant Kyros would miss the cleared space and petrol. If that was the trap.
Gina unlocked her tongue first. “Suddenly I see the appeal.”
Without shifting her eyes from my face, she snapped her fingers to the male who snatched me.
“Callum,” she said. “Sit her down. Watch her. She can’t get anywhere without help.”
… There was that.
“Vera, get a first aid kit. Her heart rate is erratic.”
Crap.
Dropping my eyes, I watched the dark blood seeping from my stomach. It wasn’t bright. Which meant it was venous blood, not arterial. That was the better of the two. Thank you, Truth Ranges.
The triplet let me go, shoving me toward the other Vissimo, who kicked a box into the place where the cage had been. Hands on my shoulders, Callum forced me to sit.
Dammit.
Back to the start. But I wasn’t in a cage anymore. One point to me.
The muted pop of gunfire sounded above our heads. As one, everyone glanced to the ceiling.
Breath catching, I squinted at a thick square groove on the ceiling directly above the cleared space before me. A wide track was carved out of the otherwise smooth surface.
I looked down. Then up again.
That had to mean something.
Gina lowered the phone from her ear, every trace of amusement gone.
She glanced at me. “He’s here.”
32
The door was ripped from its hinges.
Kyros stood in the buckled opening, which just admitted his towering frame. No more than five minutes could have passed since the first gunshot.
Five minutes was enough time to feel I’d lost crucial blood.
The vampires spread themselves throughout the room—not in an obvious funnel to the cleared space before me—but dotted at random in a manner I assumed was meant to mask the trap. The petrol had been moved away from the area before me as soon as the gunfire began.
Kyros’s shoulders heaved, and I got the sense the uncontrolled panting wasn’t from fatigue. An animalistic, ripping growl traversed the distance between us, and I shivered.
Kyros wasn’t home right now.
A leaden beat thrummed through the room for a moment as everyone stared at him with something akin to curiosity—as though wondering how the coming fight would go down.
“The space in front of me is the trap.” I spoke the words as fast as my mounting wooziness allowed.
He’d surely smell the petrol, so that would alert him to the burning threat.
“Shut her up,” a triplet snapped.
That’s right, asswipe. The little human figured your trap out.
Callum slapped me from behind. My head lolled from the blow, throbbing pain filling the left side of my face.
He returned his hand to my shoulder, holding me fast atop the box.
Don’t lose consciousness. Please.
I dragged in loud breaths, focusing on the furious snarls and crashing that had erupted around me.
Kyros had moved.
Attacked.
Opening my eyes, I fixed on my leather-clad stomach and thighs slick with my own blood before forcing my weary body to search for him.
Not hard.
I gasped as Kyros backhanded Gina. She was hurtled over my head, crashing against the concrete wall behind me.
He hadn’t been joking.
I’d never seen his power.
Not even close.
I could barely look at the dark creature cannoning through the basement. His eyes were beacons of green. His skin illuminated with unearthliness of a golden moon. Predatory power bulged his entire body, making his black shirt and pants strain to contain him.
My body trembled with distant fear despite the bone-wearing fatigue fast spreading through me. The vampires closest to me were glued to the action before us, tensed and ready.
Ten against one—what fucking cowards.
And they were still afraid of him.
Fierce pride swept through me. I had little concept of his power in comparison to others, but Kyros was a warrior.
I had to be a warrior too.
I had to get away from the cleared space. Something bad was meant to happen there, I was certain of that.
Pressing the heel of my palm into my dripping wound, I slumped where I sat