Reign of Night (Thorne Hill #7) - Emily Goodwin Page 0,68

drawn. Ella screams again, and Scott tenses before madly scrambling to get something from a drawer in his desk.

“Hello, my love,” he tells me, and our eyes meet for half a second before he turns back to Scott, who's holding a knife. Lucas could move with vampire speed and take it away from him in two seconds flat, but he stands there with a smirk on his face, patronizing Scott further. Lucas holds his hands out to the side and steps in front of me.

“Go on, tough guy. Stab me.”

Scott’s eyes are wide in fear, and he throws the knife, cutting the palm of his hand in the process. The butt of it thuds against Lucas’s arm and falls to the ground.

“You missed, but even if you hadn’t, this wouldn’t have killed me.” Lucas picks up the knife and presses the tip of it into his finger then slowly drags it down, slicing open the skin from his fingertip down and through his palm. It makes me cringe, and I know he’s going to heal in just a second.

“That won’t, but these will.”

Lucas and I both jerk around and see three police officers in the threshold of the office, with guns trained on Lucas. Right, they have wooden bullets now. Fuck! I magically soundproofed the room so no one would hear me questioning Scott. But it also meant we wouldn’t hear anyone outside of the office. If I hadn’t cast the spell, Lucas would have heard them coming.

Binx growls, and magic sizzles around my fingers. And then I notice the body cams.

“Callie, no,” Lucas warns. “Don’t expose yourself.”

“He cut me!” Scott holds up his hand, showing off the little slice on the base of his palm. “He cut me!”

“Seriously?” I turn toward him, and the police swarm in.

“Freeze,” they tell both of us. “Put your hands up,” they demand, and one of the officers flicks on a little light attached to his gun. At first I think it’s a laser, like the one snipers use to ensure they hit a target. Lucas slowly raises his hands and I realize the light is a UV light, and it’s burning him.

“Stop!” I cry. “He’s not doing anything. He didn’t do anything.”

“Stay back, ma’am,” another office tells me.

“He didn’t do anything!” I repeat, and the lights flicker above us.

“Callie, my love,” Lucas says calmly, eyes meeting mine again, silently telling me to stop and stay calm, though there’s no fucking way that’s happening. My breath leaves my chest and my nerves prickle. The lights flicker again.

“They came in here uninvited,” Scott goes on. “And attacked us, completely unprovoked.”

“That’s not true and you know it!” I look at Ella, hoping to find a shred of humanity in her. She’s staring at the floor, refusing to meet my eyes.

There are three officers, and Lucas alone could have them on the floor in the blink of an eye. He saw the body cams, too, and I know we’re fucked. Lucas attacking officers and getting away is exactly what Scott would want and the last thing we need. He would move fast enough he’d only be a blur, but I know the footage is being streamed back to the station where it can be slowed down.

And me? I could blow this place to bits…and it would all be caught on film.

Our hands are tied, dammit.

“On your knees,” an officer tells Lucas, pointing the laser at his chest. It burns through his clothes but gets no reaction from Lucas. “Eyes on the ground. One move, fanger, and I’ll pull the trigger.”

“It’s going to be okay,” Lucas tells me, knowing how easily we could get out of this…only to run into more problems in the end.

“Please,” I beg. “He didn’t do anything wrong!” The lights above us start to hum with electricity.

“It’s her!” Scott yells. “Arrest her!”

“Sir, I’m going to have to ask you to calm down,” an officer tells Scott as another pulls what looks like a blindfold cast in silver chains from his utility belt. Covering up a vampire’s eyes is protocol to keep them from being able to hold anyone spellbound.

My heart jumps into my throat, and anger surges through me. How Lucas is able to stay so calm is beyond me, especially when we have the ability to just run out of here…only to be tracked down later. Scott will have a field day with the headlines, too, blasting Lucas for resisting arrest and attacking humans, blaming him for the three humans I cast sleep