I shake my head. “There aren’t even that many vampires in New York. And thanks to you, five of them, maybe more, are recently dead.”
She’s so cool, so calm, I want to rip her fucking eyes out. But I can’t really even see them. My vision of her continues to flicker, continues to wipe in real time.
“It’s no longer just about numbers, Lana,” she says, and the moment she says my name, my skin crawls. “I’ve recently heard about the influence a certain cell of Born hold over this city. And I want it to stop.”
My whole body goes cold. The Barons. She’s talking about the Barons, and I know it with every cell in my being.
“Harry Kim. Sysco Sullivan. Augustus Lonan. Giovanni Bosco. Cliff Morgan. And Ares Hunt,” she says, each word like nails in a coffin. “The influence they hold over this city is unacceptable, and I will see it end.”
I shake my head. No. Holy shit, no. “Augustus is dead,” I blurt. I’m saying more than I want to, but it’s like I can’t hold allof my own thoughts. Like some of them are slipping out before I can catch them. “Ares killed him after what he did to Ophelia and the others. Giovanni is also dead, and Cliff has been missing. We assume he’s dead. So, their influence is over. It’s done.”
She looks pleasantly surprised at that. “Thank you for that information,” she says with a smile that flickers before my eyes. “But I’m afraid this is an all-or-nothing mission. Tell your friends to clear the city, or I will do it for them. And they’ll never see me coming.”
I want to throw up. Scream. Cry. I want to pummel this twisted woman into a bloody pulp on the sidewalk, but I can’t move. My feet remain glued to the ground beneath me.
Why won’t all the insanity just stop? Can’t things just chill the fuck out for a while? The dire situations just keep piling up, one on top of the other.
“What got you here?” I ask, my words like ice. “What gave you such a God complex?”
She shakes her head. “We can talk psychology all day, but it won’t change anything. It won’t make you understand. But you need to tell your friends. I won’t wait much longer. Ares is a very proficient killer. Maybe I’ll use him again. Or Sysco. He’s quite unpredictable, isn’t he? Or maybe it could be Harry who takes out the rest of them. He’s so calm. I would like to see what it’s like when he loses control.”
“Fuck you!” I bark, trying with everything I have in me to lunge at her. I want my hands around her throat. I want to smash the back of her head against the pavement. I think I’d like to sink my fangs into her neck and see what her blood tastes like. I want to takeallof it.
“A warning, Lana, a heads up. That’s all this is,” she says, her demeanor calm despite my outburst. “I will clear this city. So, those who wish to live need to leave New York.”
I stare at her, seeing her without being able to see her. Every word she speaks, I feel them in my bones. I feel them in my chest. The history is there. The proof is evident. She’s taken out the Steele family. She already made Ares kill so many.
If she says she will do this, she’s going to do it.
And she’ll use someone I love to accomplish it.
“We need some time,” I say, and every word feels like a defeat. “There’s someone here, someone with ties to the Royals. They’re trying to bring back the Blood Father, and I would think that’s the last thing you would want.”
Finally, what I have to say stills her.
Her face pales. Her shoulders slump. Her gaze narrows.
“There is a necromancer and a vampire with too much knowledge and a family mission looking for his bones as we speak,” I say. I can feel it. I won’t defeat this woman. So, I need to get very, very clear on what needs to happen now. “We’re close. And we plan to stop him. So, you need to give us time to take care of this.”
Dammit. I wish I could actually see this woman. I wish I could read her better. Does she realize how serious this is? Does she take me seriously? Does she understand the gravity of what it would mean for the Blood Father to return?
“Two weeks,” she says. My skin prickles as she speaks, and instantly, a ticking clock starts counting down in the back of my brain. “You have two weeks to resolve this situation. No longer. Then I will take care of it myself, and I will choose which of them, maybe even you, suits me to clean New York of the Barons.”
Fourteen days. And then she’ll turn one of us into a weapon.
“Do you understand the gravity of what I’m saying, Lana?” She asks as she steps forward. I want to take a step back, to put some distance between us, but I remain frozen, the world tilting surreally around me. "You can’t stop me. They can’t find me.Many have tried. I’ve erased my identity from memory. You’ll forget my face the second I’m gone. You’ll forget my voice, my walk. I’ve honed this gift over decades. I am the blank space no mind can hold."
A chill settles into my bones. My instincts scream, every part of my body aware I am prey before a predator who doesn’t need claws or teeth.
"Do you understand?" she asks, her voice suddenly thunderous in my mind.
I nod.
I don’t just understand. I believe her.
She nods. "You have your time. Two weeks to find the necromancer, to stop the Blood Father. But no more."
She snaps her fingers, startling me.
