Death Game: Supernatural Battle (Vampire Towers #3) - Kelly St. Clare Page 0,92
me north. “He can’t be coming here.”
Ten tense minutes proved he wasn’t. He’d relocated to a place in Black.
11:50 a.m.
“Time to get in the car and act like we’re moving down the runway.” Kyros’s anger was mounting, along with his desperation.
Laurel messaged him again as we slid into the car with my crew. Jillian sat on Evie’s lap due to Tommy’s presence. His relief upon reading the text was immediate, though it dispersed in a flooding rush, replaced by determination and dread.
Increasingly, I found myself yearning to hear his thoughts. Feeling his emotions was like not quite sneezing. That determination could mean anything. Did Kyros have his own plan? A point to negotiate?
Emotions were so subjective out of context.
Laurel looped the car down to the end of the runway and then circled back toward the entrance gates.
11:56 a.m.
My palms began to sweat. Kyros didn’t have enough time to stop me now. I’d trapped him in the meeting and thwarted his attempts to keep me safe again. This time, I actually felt bad about it because after everything I’d done, I was walking into this battle by myself again. And there was every chance Kyros would hate me for it again.
We could come back from some things. Not from others.
Doing it this way felt like it gave most respect to everyone hurt along the way.
As soon as Laurel left the airport gates, Kyros’s rage slammed into me. I gasped at the force of it, clutching my chest.
“He knows, huh?” Tommy asked drily.
Shit! Did he ever.
“Yep,” I choked. “Not happy.”
Tommy patted my knee. “Save his family. He’ll get over himself.”
Betrayal. Fury. Fear. The emotions rolled through me in pulsing waves.
Laurel’s eyes met mine in the rear-view mirror. “Directions.”
I waded through Kyros’s reaction and focused on his location. “Head in the direction of Black. What’s there, do you know?”
“That’s where the kings roll the dice each night,” she said. “Kyros didn’t tell me the address of the negotiations. He didn’t trust that you’d board the plane quietly, or that I wouldn’t tell you.”
“Gotta give it to the punk, he knows you,” Tommy said, wrinkling her nose.
I smiled. He’d never mentioned me gaining the power to feel his location either, so I assumed he had no idea that was a two-way street.
The drive through Bluff City to Black was one hundred times worse than the wait in the hangar. I clasped my trembling hands together and closed my eyes, trying to regain my calm.
“Do you remember how straight Agatha’s back was?” Tommy asked.
Pretty sure I’d never seen it bend.
I straightened in my seat, her stern reprimand ringing in my ears.
Tommy continued. “She always kept her chin tilted, too. And her eyes. She had that you’re a piece of peasant vermin look down to a fine art.”
Taking a breath, I lifted my chin as though my grandmother had tapped her finger underneath it. I remembered the vermin look well. When people pissed me off, my topaz eyes held the same fire.
Tommy squeezed my knee, winking. “There you are.”
I tossed her as much of a smile as I was capable of.
“Don’t forget why you’re doing this, Basil,” she murmured.
For me.
For Tommy.
For my grandmother.
My oldies.
For Kyros.
And not to sound like a superhero, but I was doing this for Bluff City too.
My shallow breaths deepened, and the clamminess left my palms. This could go one of two ways, but regardless, I’d conduct myself with dignity.
Dignity my grandmother gave me.
Laurel pulled up outside a large building I couldn’t recall glancing at twice in my life. It looked like a conference centre.
Before I forgot, I sent the address to Fred.
Kyros’s fury had largely melted away to panic at this point. I sent him as many soothing and calm thoughts as possible, knowing his powers would be bursting to take over.
Get. Away.
I jolted in my seat.
“Basil?” Tommy asked in alarm.
An awed gasp left my lips. “I just heard Kyros in my head for the first time.”
“Freaky shit,” she replied.
Kyros?
Leave, he shouted in my mind.
Whoa, that was really loud. He followed the order with a barrage of words I couldn’t make sense of. I winced, pain stabbing over my brow.
“He wants me to leave,” I said, sliding out of the car after Josie.
My crew surrounded Tommy and me, and as I approached the building doors, the steady stream of Kyros’s thoughts hammered my forehead.
What is she fucking doing here?
I told her to leave.
She can’t be hurt again.
Never.
Protect my true mate.
Kill.
“I need a second,” I announced, leaning against the wall.