Bitten to Death

you in order to continue the Trust’s business here.”

I looked at him, feeling colder than I’d be if I were truly dead. “Vayl left this place for a reason. Now we’re cementing him to it. If you don’t think he’s going to be sick and pissed, you don’t know him at all.”

Cole put his hand on my arm. I appreciated the outreach. Because I knew I was betraying everything Vayl had fought so hard for when he’d separated himself from the Vampere world decades ago. But I’d seen injuries like Disa’s before. Vamps didn’t recover from them. They simply died more slowly than usual.

Cam and Cole stepped forward to remove the mask from its stand. As soon as they touched it, the keening began, emerging from the mouth of the mask like an opera singer’s death scream. Jack began to whine. I shook my head.

Admes and Niall went to kneel by Disa, pulling her into a sitting position so the mask would slide down over her head and torso. “Don’t allow any part of your body to go inside the mask with her,” I warned them. “I can’t predict what would happen, but I don’t think it would be good.” I looked at my guys. “Ready?” They nodded. “Okay, here I go.”

I strode over to Disa, took a firm grip on Vayl’s sword with my good hand as I planted my foot in her chest and yanked. She didn’t feel a thing. Krios’s doc had her on so many painkillers she could’ve smiled through an elephant stampede. In fact, you might even say she was in a state of ecstasy.

As soon as the sword was free, our men lowered the mask over her, holding it steady so it wouldn’t topple over. We heard one piercing scream. And then, with the stomach-churning sound of rending flesh and crushing bone, her entire body began to rise up into the mask.

Cole looked at me, his eyes rounder than the poker chips that sat in my hip pocket. “This is bad, Jaz. Worse than watching all the Friday the 13th movies in one sitting. Which I did once.”

“This is what she wanted to do to Vayl,” I said. I knew it sounded cold, and I was sorry. Not for Disa. She’d dug her plot. But for me. Because I didn’t care.

Suddenly the mask’s eyes opened. Bored into mine. I felt light, almost separate from myself, like I had those few times when I’d actually traveled outside my body. I put my good hand on the mask to steady myself. The power beat into me, as if the entire Trust had balled up its mojo and thrust it through my chest. And I could hear her, Octavia, speaking to me just like Raoul sometimes did. Only her voice didn’t make me feel like my brain was about to shatter. In fact, it spoke so softly I could barely make out the words as they fell like coals from a burning log. However, at last I knew what she wanted.

“Aine needs to go into the mask,” I said.

“What?” Dave’s voice, its tone telling me I’d just leaped into Ludicrous Land.

Every vampire in the Trust began to protest. Loudly.

I began to speak. But the words weren’t ones I recognized. Not English, certainly. Just ones Octavia begged me to repeat. The vampires recognized it at once.

“What’s she doing?” Dave demanded. I felt him grab me around the waist. It jarred my collarbone, sending a brain-blowing shaft of pain through my chest and arms.

“Trayton, don’t let him pull me off the mask!” I gasped.

I heard the entire pack growl, lifting every hair on my body, and he let go. I kept talking, the words coming awkwardly off my tongue. Would anyone understand? Octavia, speak up! Slow down! I can’t—what was that word?

Trayton’s hand, gentle under my good elbow now, bore me up. His immense trust calmed me, focused me. Octavia’s voice came clearer. I repeated her speech exactly.

“What’s she saying?” Cole demanded.

Niall’s voice, distant and oddly lilting. “Because Hamon was murdered. Because Vayl is unwilling and Disa is undeserving, Octavia can reverse the power of the mask. If Aine wears it now, instead of it consuming her, it will pour all the partners’ knowledge into her. She will be able to lead alone for the first time since the Trust was formed.”

Leaving Vayl off the hook!

I dropped my hand and, still leaning on Trayton, turned to the vampire holding Admes’s arm. “Aine?” I asked. “Are you willing to risk it?”

After a tense, quiet moment when I swore I could hear my own breath moving in and out of my lungs, Aine stepped forward and held out her hands. Yes!

By now every vestige of Disa had disappeared into the mask. Cam and Cole picked it up one more time. They walked it to where Aine stood with her arms outstretched as if to give them each a big hug. When her hands contacted wood, she clutched at it, helping them lift the mask and then lower it slowly over her head.

For a minute nothing happened. And then Aine began clawing at the outside of the mask, her fingernails leaving tiny furrows in the wood as they moved from the rounded cheeks to the closed heart-door and off. Still she stood, apparently in one piece. Except for the scratching, which continued pretty much uninterrupted for the next five minutes. Until, suddenly, she screamed.

Admes lunged forward, reaching out for the mask. Cam shoved his crossbow into the warrior’s chest. “I wouldn’t,” he said mildly.

“She’s dying in there!”

“She’s screaming,” I told him. “But she has no means of making music on her. I’d say that’s a pretty significant development, wouldn’t you?”

“Admes,” said a smooth, silky baritone that I’d begun to think I might never hear again. “Tell me you are not threatening my son.” Admes raised his hands and backed away as Vayl lifted himself off the floor, using the sword sheath we’d laid across his chest to help him balance as he leaned forward.

I went to my knees beside him, Trayton making sure the move didn’t jar my shoulder. “Vayl.” I reached out, hesitated, touched the tips of my fingers to his cheek. So cold. He’d need blood soon. And this time I’d make sure it came from me.