Full. Full. Full. It is here… It is… walls… only… of…
I broke out of the weirdness to find myself on the floor, the crystal dagger in my right hand.
Layla loomed over me, her face storming with fury, her fangs bared.
“What happened?” I asked, a searing ache in my forehead.
Dammit. This shit again.
“You sniveling bastard!” the vamp screamed, red eyes raging.
The vampire king shouted something at her, but she fell on me, opening wide to bite my face off.
I drove the dagger into her heart. Her eyes widened, going from scarlet to black. Blood poured from her nose and mouth, quickly drying and turning black.
A final breath sputtered from her throat, her skin cracking like dry clay.
“Layla?” The vampire king spoke from behind me.
She collapsed into a cloud of red bone dust. I swallowed some of her, rolling over to cough my guts up.
What the hell? This dagger shouldn’t work on a vamp. It needed to be a stakeblade, since the bloodsuckers had fortified themselves against anything else.
Whoa.
“What have you done?”
The king’s voice spurred me into action. I jumped up, running at him with my awesome new weapon. Coming in like a fucking hurricane, the dagger inches away from skewering him.
A terrific screaming in my head killed my attack. I lumbered to the side, the blade vanishing in a puff of silvery smoke.
“Shit!” I yelped, crashing into the mantelpiece.
I saw Oliver tumble, his vase shattering, his stem breaking.
“No!” His pain became mine, skewering me with sorrow.
Oliver…
Not my Oliver…
Silvanus grabbed me by the throat, lifting me off the ground. His eyes blazed with terrifying fury. I kicked out as he choked me, lifting me higher.
I called to my stakeblade again. If this was my end, I’d go out fighting. I stabbed at him, getting nowhere.
Just die!
Just fucking die!
“Enough of this,” he growled. “You’re coming with me.”
He manhandled me across the room and slammed my head into the wall.
I tumbled into unconsciousness.
CHAPTER TEN
PARIS
