the alley when my phone vibrated. I glanced over my shoulder, but Lucas hadn’t moved. I picked up the pace to get to the sidewalk, where I could answer without fear of my voice carrying to Edward. Before I was there, the phone stopped. I’d just set foot on the sidewalk when it vibrated again. I checked the number, but didn’t recognize it.
“Hello?”
“Where are you?” Jaime’s voice, words rushing out.
“We’re—”
“Get over here now. Stop whatever you’re doing, grab Lucas, and get over here.”
“We can’t. We’re following Edward. We have him on the run—”
“Shit! No, leave him. Just back off and leave him alone. Where are you? I’ll get the Cabal to send someone. Get back here—no, just get someplace—”
“Slow down, Jamie. What’s—?”
The line buzzed, then Cassandra came on.
“Paige? Listen to me. We’re with Faye. She knows who Edward’s next target is. It’s—”
I knew what she was going to say even before the name left her lips. I hit disconnect and fumbled to shove the phone back into my pocket, but it slipped and fell to the sidewalk. Ignoring it, I raced back into the alley.
Coup de Grâce
WHEN I REACHED THE ALLEY BEHIND THE CAFÉ, LUCAS was gone. Edward was on the move. Of course he was. He knew who was chasing him. He wasn’t running from Lucas; he was luring him in.
I raced down the adjoining alley, where we’d last seen Edward. I didn’t worry about how much noise I made. If Lucas heard me, he’d come running, away from Edward, which was exactly what I wanted.
When I rounded the first junction, I saw Lucas. He was walking carefully, looking from side to side, his back to me. I opened my mouth to shout to him, then stopped. If Edward was lying in wait around the next corner, any disruption could spook him. I wasn’t about to spook a vampire with a gun.
I jogged down the alley. A few yards from Lucas, as I ran under a fire escape, a shadow moved overhead. I whirled and looked up to see Edward, crouched on the fire escape.
“Lucas!” I yelled.
As I raced toward Lucas, I realized that we were in a blind alley, with only an alcove adjoining at the end. I wheeled just as Edward leapt to the ground. He raised his gun. I side-lunged into his firing path, and started casting a binding spell. Edward trained the gun on my chest.
“I’ll fire before you finish,” he said. His sunglasses were gone, and his eyes were as flat and emotionless as his voice. He looked over my shoulder at Lucas, who’d also frozen mid-incantation. “You, too. Cast and I’ll shoot her.”
“Paige,” Lucas said. “Step aside. Please.”
“So he can shoot you? You’re the one he’s after. That was the message Faye was trying to give us. You’re the target.”
“Do you really think I won’t shoot because you’re in the way?” Edward said.
Yet he didn’t. He lifted the gun, as if considering firing over my shoulder at Lucas, then lowered it back to my chest, clearly not comfortable enough with his marksmanship to try for anything but a torso shot. He might not care about adding me to his body count, but he wouldn’t take the chance that, in the time it took to shoot me, Lucas could cast a spell and escape.
“Do you know what Benicio will do to you if you kill Lucas?” I said.
“Same thing everyone else wants to do. Hunt me down and kill me. Do you think I care? I stopped caring the day I came back to my hotel room and found those Cabal assassins had finished their job.”
“We—”
“I walked into that room, and do you know what I saw?” His gaze skewered mine. “Her head on the bedpost. My wife’s head on the bedpost!”
I tried to summon up some sympathy, but all I could think about were the dozens of bodies buried behind that cabin.
A soft breeze fluttered down the alley, coming from behind us. Though I didn’t dare peek over my shoulder, I knew there was a three-story wall behind Lucas. No breeze could come through that. Was I casting without knowing it? I’d done that once before, under stress. Could I do it again? But no, I couldn’t rely on magic. Not now. I plowed ahead.
“So you took what was dearest to them,” I said. “But when Benicio finds out—”
“Are you listening? Have you heard a word I’ve said? I don’t care!”
“But you wanted immortality—”
“I wanted eternal life with my wife. Without her, it