Vampire Debt - Supernatural Battle (Vampire Towers #2) - Kelly St. Clare Page 0,120

me there?”

“Besides the list I’ve already given you?” I snapped. “Let me rephrase that for you. You’re not stepping foot inside my house. If you can’t control yourself enough for me to come to the tower, then drive over. I’ll meet you outside. If that’s what it takes to convince you that I’m leaving this vampire-infested city, then whatever. I won’t change my mind.”

Kyros was holding onto his control by a thread, but he managed to hold it together. “I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”

“Make it thirty. I’m tired and need to shower. So I don’t try to kill you.” I disconnected, holding fast to my furious and panicked cocktail of emotions. That mask couldn’t crack. Regret and sadness couldn’t slip through my fingertips.

Not until the triplets had me in their possession.

Ten minutes had passed since Theodore’s call.

Twenty minutes remained.

By the time Kyros got here, I’d be long gone.

26

“The master called and told Laurel you’d meet him outside the house,” Evie said as I stepped outside into the night.

Four minutes to go.

Her eyes widened at my apparel.

“Do I look like Jessica Alba in Dark Angel?” I asked the Indebted, forcing a bright grin.

Dressing head to toe in leather made sense considering I was likely walking to my death. Last time, it turned out pretty handy in keeping my organs inside my body.

She smiled back. “No idea. I’ve never seen it.”

“Today’s youth.” I tutted.

“I’m fifty-nine.”

Of course she was. I started walking down the driveway, crossing my fingers inside the pockets of my leather jacket. “I’m meeting Kyros at the gates.”

“Okay,” she said pleasantly, falling into step beside me. “How are you going with your new senses?”

I groaned. “Not great. Apparently things will improve over the first few weeks. It seems like a long wait when everything is so off-kilter.”

She grimaced in sympathy. “I bet.”

The gravel crunched underfoot. I focused on keeping my breathing even, grateful beyond measure that Evie was here instead of Laurel. She’d know something was up immediately.

My hands were slippery on the metal of the front gate when we slipped through a few minutes later.

“Hey, Evie?” I asked in a low voice.

She bowed. “Yes, Basi?”

Guilt panged, and I swallowed it back. Tommy needed medical attention without delay. That was if I could keep the triplets from killing her before then. Despite this, I didn’t want any of my Indebted friends hurt in the coming minute.

I glanced at her, wrinkling my nose. “Do you mind giving me some space for a few minutes? I’ve got bad news for Kyros and want to get everything straight in my head before he arrives.”

On time, I hoped.

If Kyros arrived early, I was fucking screwed.

“Of course,” she replied, concern etched on her beautiful face. “I can’t go too far though.”

The moment Evie put a few metres between us, a body slammed into me.

Snarls and shouts erupted, but they were lost to the whoosh of wind and blur of trees in the warped mess of my new senses. I fought against dizziness, staring up into one of the triplet’s face.

He didn’t sneer down at me, entirely focused on putting distance between us and the estate.

Knowing Kyros was fast on our heels, I couldn’t blame him.

“How far away is he?” the triplet spat.

I breathed through nausea. “Ten minutes. He’ll be running now. Don’t count on more than a few minutes.”

“If he catches up, you know what happens” was the cold reply.

A blurred glimpse of a huge house told me that we were on the estate opposite mine—the Gregorians’.

A car waited on the far side of the property.

I stared at it, blood pounding in my ears, my body otherwise numb.

This is it.

“Get in and shut up,” the triplet hissed as he shoved me in the back seat.

“Stop talking and drive,” I hurled back, glaring at him.

The back of his hand met my face with a sickening thud of flesh. I crashed against the seat, landing behind the driver’s seat.

The door closed.

With a screech of tires, we were moving.

I blinked through the pain, testing the movement in my jaw. My senses were more sensitive now, and I would have expected pain to have heightened. The sensations on the skin surrounding my throbbing cheek were stronger though, overriding the pain somewhat.

“Which triplet are you?” I asked the vampire as I pulled myself up onto the seat.

His lips twisted in a smirk. “I’ll give you one guess.”

Theodore. Hatred filled me as I stared at him in the rear-view mirror. “There are a few things you should know if you