it, the inimitable voice instructed in her head. She shivered. There was no way she could be wrong.
She shook her head at Rodrigo. “You’re a pathetic, simpering, lovestruck blowhard. Megan will never love you, especially if you off her uncle.”
Rodrigo Jacopo’s smile vanished, and he yanked the girl’s shirt. Raspair relinquished the girl to Jacopo, saying, “She killed Gwendolyn and your son, Milfred.”
“The loony slut I could care less about, but a loyal son like Milfred...” Jacopo backhanded her face. She would have rolled off the train if he hadn’t kept his hand clamped on her shirt. His hand sizzled from Poe’s marinated skin, but he did not notice.
Poe licked the blood from her lip in fear that Rodrigo might get hungry. With a grateful sigh, she thanked providence for her mouthguard. She whispered something in the wind, meant for Rodrigo’s ears only.
With fury, Jacopo grabbed her much abused hair and prepared to toss her overboard.
Their pursuers were catching up quickly. Tense fighters on the roof of the three cars could almost smell them coming. “And Megan, too,” Poe added. “Shot her in the head myself. She was honing in on Sainvire and me.”
Like adding lemon juice to an open wound, Poe continued to talk, taunting anyone who could hear.
“And I gutted Megan, chopped off her luscious candy corn hair. Didn’t you see her headless corpse at the station?”
Before she caught Sainvire’s gaze, she received another punch in the mouth, opening up old cuts and tearing new ones. Not the teeth again! Crawling on the 359
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roof, blood leaking on rusted metal, Poe looked up at Sainvire.
“None broken,” she said with relief about her teeth. It was a pain to get the six-shooter out of her ankle holster without looking suspicious. She itched to blast these vampires who wanted to beat the shit out of her and her friends. But Sainvire wasn’t ready yet.
A young woman getting beat to kill time on his account wasn’t an easy feat to take. While she was on all fours a few feet from where he kneeled, Sainvire flashed a look that said get ready.
“You do that again, Jacopo, and I’ll annihilate you,” Maple warned, blocking his resonant kick with her mallet arm. Maple, quiet by nature, was something to behold when angry. Even Rodrigo took a step back.
For her effrontery, Ancients and young vampires alike surrounded Maple. Like a domino effect, Sainvire’s people rallied to protect their own. The tense situation boiled over.
No fewer than six limbs splintered, and two heads rolled to the ground. The latter, courtesy of Sainvire.
He could fight once more.
To this melee, Rodrigo was deaf and blind. The councilman shook from the urge to hurt the human who had dared kill his beloved, his reason for the ultimate betrayal. He had been looking forward to a new life with Megan without the domineering presence of Kaleb Sainvire. But all this plotting and planning was for naught. The person he most wanted was dead .
And all he could think about was killing the human crawling on all fours in front of him. The pest had even killed his only full-grown son. With renewed fury, he lashed at Poe.
“What are you saying?” Rodrigo bellowed, clutching her vest.
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Poe slapped his hand away and cussed him out in a whisper.
If she hadn’t been wearing her night vision goggles, Poe would not have seen Rodrigo’s eye vein plump up. He raised his hands to prove that he wouldn’t touch her.
“Megan squealed and begged like a dumb mule.
And rest assured, you were the one who tipped me off about her.” Jacopo was upon her. Luckily Poe had rehearsed beforehand what he might do to her.
“Fuckin’ sick, digging her uncle that way!”
She exposed only her left arm. Rodrigo grabbed it and yanked her up, unaware that Poe’s skin was erasing his fingerprints. He’s too angry to feel the holy water!
Before Rodrigo could do any more damage to Poe, Sainvire appeared from behind and perforated his lungs with his talons. The councilman dropped to the roof with a look of blind hatred on his face. “You killed the woman I love,” he hissed at Poe.
Poe retrieved the pink plastic turtle water gun from her pocket and said, “I lied. She’s one of my best friends. I’d never harm her.” With a harrumph, she squirted concentrated holy water into his mouth.
Jacopo’s face sunk in like rotten grapefruit. Slipping a four-inch knife from her wrist, Poe sliced his neck from ear to ear.
“He’s dead, Poe,” said