“Lazarus is dead,” I reply, my voice as empty as my heart. “He was staked. He’s gone.”
Cedric frowns in surprise, his eyebrows bunched together. But hequickly composes himself.
“It doesn’t matter,” he says. “I had no real attachment to Lazarus. He was just a replacement for Tudor.”
He’s close to me now, so close that we’re almost touching. His guard huddle nearer, but he raises a hand to stop them.
His voice lowers. “It can be you and me again, Celine. Finally rid of our Creator.”
I cast my eyes down, suddenly afraid of what looking at him might spark. But this makes him more frenzied, more urgent. He grabs my shoulders.
“Think of what it could be, Celine! Together, we can do anything. We can take over Lazarus’s business, take advantage of Tudor’s obsession with the witches to move into his territory. We can be the most powerful vampire mafia on the entire continent!”
I shake my head. “No…no, Cedric, I…”
But he squeezes my shoulders, pulling me closer to him.
I don’t stop him.
“Celine, nobody knows you like I do. I know your heart…your unbeating heart. I know how ruthless you are, how powerful you are. I know how important it is for you to be powerful, to be safe. And I can give you that. You could never fully trust Tudor, but with me, you know you’ll never be hurt again. You’ll be running the show…
“You and I…we understand each other. We’re the same, Celine. Nobody else will ever be able to understand that.”
I raise my eyes to his, finding their matching violet twins. I ease into his grip. I wasn’t expecting this. I thought that he would stake me immediately, furious at how I’d bested him.
I wasn’t ready for this.
Then the elevator chimes. Cedric’s head snaps toward the club exit. His vampire guard move in a blur.
I take the opportunity to wrench myself out of his grasp. He gives me a confused, almost hurt look.
There’s a roar from the front of the club and a standing table goes flying through the air, knocking one of Cedric’s vampires off of their feet. A massive bear barrels into the club in a flash of white, toppling over tables in its wake.
Lexi’s the next on the scene, towering in the high heels she refuses toever take off. Taking advantage of her superior strength and height, she grabs one of Cedric’s vampire guards and throws her across the room into the DJ booth.
“Take that, sucker!” she screeches.
She’s immediately pummeled by three of Cedric’s guard, who attempt to use their numbers to their advantage. Renata, who was following close behind, rolls her eyes and moves to assist her.
“I don’t need help, I’m fine!” Lexi yells, from under the pile of vampires, their limbs thrashing in every direction.
“You have a ridiculous definition of fine,” Renata snorts, pulling her dagger from the folds of her white blouse. Only Renata can keep her outfit crisp in the middle of an attack, after just being kidnapped.
A warm rush of gratitude fills me. I’m so glad my sisters weren’t hurt. But I can’t let myself get comfortable just yet. Cedric has a large guard. He must have brought most of Lazarus’s gang with him.
And where’s Amara? I look around the scuffle.
There’s a blast of red light from over the bar. Xia stands upright on a broomstick, riding it like a surfboard through the air. She laughs as she uses her red energy magic to scatter the vampires who are guarding Cedric. Amara flies close behind her, on the secondhand broom from Lazarus’s mansion.
“Oh, I missed this!” Xia shouts.
“Me too,” Amara replies, adding her gold energy magic to the fray.
Two of Cedric’s vampire guard can hover slightly, and they attempt to follow Xia and Amara, but the witches are too fast for them. It looks like our side is winning, even against Cedric’s numbers. Renata has staked two vampires already, and Nova has captured one in the coat check booth. I can see a few of Cedric’s guard hurrying out the emergency exit, not willing to continue a losing fight.
Cedric looks up angrily at Xia and Amara, then launches himself onto the bar in a supernatural leap. He might not be able to fly, but he manages to jump high enough to grab the end of Amara’s broom.
“Hey!” she shouts. She loses height, but manages to stay upright.
