If vampires could cry Silas would have. Listening and half seeing as Lara went mad with her grand plan, watching her torture Kylie was beyond enduring. And he, the great immortal vampire, could do nothing, not even lift a finger. He tried. He put every thought and bit of will into moving one finger. Nothing happened.
'No second chances' was what Ridley told him over and over and over as the elder rehabilitated Silas. Ridley had decided when Silas was ready to go it alone. Ridley had decided when check-ups were warranted. And Ridley, a man of his word, said 'no second chances.'
Lara's plan was absolutely brilliant. Hope leapt in his breast when he heard the car in the gravel, heard it a good bit before his protégée because he was the older stronger vampire even when he couldn't move. Hope sprang up like fresh shoots in the rain and then crumpled quickly into a pale twig in the too hot glare of the truth.
Without breathing Silas smelled the truth of the human blood on his lips. Silas would not get to say one word in his defense. Lara won. He did not watch her throw open the door to his death. His eyes were for Kylie alone even though he heard Ridley's blade slide from its sheath.
Ridley hunted with a gurkha, a sharp curved blade that severed necks in one sweeping motion but was still short enough to secret on his person in any alley, bar, or den where vampires might lurk waiting for human prey, ready to pounce without remorse. Remorse had saved Silas's life once upon a time. Now he could not call any up.
Kylie lay a few feet from him. The quicker Ridley dealt Silas's punishment, the quicker she could get to help. To the hospital in Richardson. Would Ridley let Lara take the injured woman to the emergency room? Surely not. Not with a bloody arm and Lara's questionable self-control. But Lara wasn't the vampire with Kylie's taken blood in her own, mixing with the vampiric and giving off the tell-tale odor of death taint.
No. Kylie would be safe. He had to believe that, and to die in peace. What other choice did he have?
YOU ARE READING
Christmas Consort
VampireConsorting with evil this Christmas? Two years ago at Christmas Kylie shot an innocent man in a moment of panic. At least, she thinks she did. Her nightmares are more real than the events these days and the only way to rid herself of them is to eith...
