snapped. The SUV bumped hard and sent all of them close to the ceiling.
“I meant, use it when I told you to,” I hissed back. “Why did it take you so long to figure out it was a ploy?”
“Because…” Cassius didn’t finish the statement.
Because he doesn’t trust me to make the right call when it comes to my parents’ killers.
“Well, it’s fine. Sinclair is just on the vampire equivalent of steroids, and we need to get out of here. But other than that, it’s fine. Carter, are you okay?” I searched the young vampire’s face. “I’m sorry this happened.”
“It’s fine.” The SUV hit another hard bump, and we all bounced. “He didn’t hurt me or anything. Look, maybe I can do what he did, and—”
“If you feed off Raphael, I’ll kill you,” I said evenly, meaning every word. “Not only because I think it’s wrong, and it’s illegal, but also because we don’t know what he just did to himself. I’m not letting you act stupid. He has a whole lot more information on this than we do.”
“Okay.” Carter nodded. “Then can we switch seats? I haven’t fed since that fae broke into my light proof room and grabbed me.”
“Sure,” I said nicely. I shifted to make it easy and got into the back. Carter carefully walked over me and fell into the front seat. When I shifted back, I looked out the back, seeing only two small dots for headlights. “They’re gaining on us,” I said softly. “Cassius, can this thing go any faster?”
His foot hit the gas, but the lights kept getting bigger.
“To outrun it before we reach the city? I don’t know, but I can make sure they don’t drive us off the road,” he answered.
“That will have to do,” I said. “Raphael?”
“I’ll be fine,” he mumbled. “Just need a few minutes for the punctures to heal and the blood to replenish.”
“Has a vampire fed off you before?”
He shook his head.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, touching the bite gently. “He heals faster than you.”
“He’s also a vampire,” Cassius said from the front. “He already had a better-than-average healing factor. He’s full of rich, fresh blood, and it’s supernatural with its own quirks. There’s no telling what he can do now.”
That was terrifying.
I watched as it gained on us, heart racing. The getaway should have been the easy part. It should have been the part where everyone took a moment to breathe.
“We need to talk about your communication skills when we’re done,” Cassius said from the front seat.
“Yeah,” I agreed. “I really thought you would get it sooner.”
“Shadow stepping with other people is stupid and dangerous, and you’re lucky Raphael is alive.”
“What did you tell him before taking him?”
“He told me to hold my breath,” Raphael said with a groan. “How close are they?”
“Too close,” I answered.
“Do you have the thing you wanted?” He didn’t sound mad. I was a little grateful for that.
“Carter? You have that USB still?”
“Yeah.” He held it back, and I grabbed it, shoving it into my pocket for later. “What is it?”
“Intel on who killed my family, on whoever is trying to wipe out my kind. Sinclair told me he had it, hoping I would go for the easy trade. I really didn’t consider he would get a bite out of Raphael and actually get his powers,” I explained. “That’s not normal.”
“Nothing about this entire situation is normal,” Cassius snapped, but it was missing the bite he normally could put in his voice. Did that short distance shadow stepping really take it out of him that much?
I didn’t have time to care about it. Sinclair’s SUV was pulling closer, and I watched as the vampire crawled out onto the roof. My eyes had adjusted enough to the night to pick out some new changes to the vampire. His red eyes were glowing. His muscles seemed bigger, and the black veins were now visible on his hands. His face was nearly all black and his teeth? They looked like they could scissor off a limb.
What the hell is he becoming?
I didn’t get much more of a chance to think about it. He leapt off his SUV as it drew closer and landed on the top of ours. Black nails sank through the roof like butter. Carter was the one screaming as Sinclair peeled off the roof.
28
Chapter Twenty-Eight
I was shocked speechless. Unable to say anything, I grabbed Raphael and yanked him down, keeping him out of Sinclair’s reach. Unthinking, I tried to put my body over