him. Instead she went home and collapsed onto her bed, still holding Nikolas’s invitation.
CHAPTER 26
SARAH RETURNEDto wakefulness gasping, struggling to fill lungs with air thick as charcoal ashes, and struggling to clear vision fogged with . . . she didn’t know. She could see, but the sight seemed imperfect and she could not tell why.
“Sarah Tigress Vida, stand up.”
Her mother’s voice, formal and cold, instantly cleared Sarah’s mind despite the disorientation she could not seem to shake. She felt off-balance as she found her feet, trying to keep herself from shaking. She sought uselessly to smooth her wrinkled jeans.
Adianna stood behind Dominique, her face pained as she sought Sarah’s gaze. Sarah opened her mouth to speak, but Dominique cut her off before she could say a word.
“I want no excuses,” Dominique stated flatly. “I am not a fool, and I have known what has been going on since the start of these events.” At these words, Adianna’s gaze fell. “You were warned, and you had more than one chance to halt this . . . disgusting infatuation. Now this.” Dominique threw to the ground Nikolas’s poem- invitation.
“Mother—”
Dominique held up a hand to halt her daughter’s words. “I might have turned a blind eye upon your association with the vampires at your school, since you would have in time come to your senses, but
Succinctly and in order, Sarah’s crimes were listed. Befriending her prey. Lying to her kin. Endangering her kind by revealing them to the vampires when she told Christopher the truth. Bargaining with Nikolas, and giving up her Vida knife. Telling the human Robert who she was without Dominique’s permission. The list went on and on, including transgressions so minor they would have been overlooked any other time, and through it all Sarah had no choice but to try to stand without swaying.
Sarah reached for her power to steady her nerves, but found herself grasping at air. She could feel the magic still humming deep in her blood, but Dominique had bound it—that explained the disorientation she had felt when she had first awakened, and that was why every sense seemed dulled. Without her magic available, she was little more than human.
“You have until tomorrow night to prepare yourself,” Dominique announced at last.
To prepare herself for the trial, Sarah knew. By then Dominique would have gathered the leaders of the other lines, and Sarah doubted she would be acquitted. Every word Dominique had spoken had been true.
When Dominique turned and left the room, Sarah sank back onto the bed, dazed. Again she tried to reach for her power; she could sense it so clearly, but could not use it. What would it feel like to have it stripped away completely?
It was only eight o’clock at night. So early, but it might as well have been the end of the world.
“Sarah . . .” Adianna’s voice was soft as she closed the door and sat beside her sister. “I’m sorry. I thought you had the sense to break it off with them, and I thought you would be better off if Dominique knew right away rather than finding out sometime later . . .” Adianna shook her head. “I never should have let it get this far.”
Sarah’s eyes widened as Adianna quietly ordered, “Get out of here. As it is, your magic will come back in a few days, and you still have your knife. But if you’re here tomorrow night, Dominique will disown you and take it all away.”
“I’m not going to hide from her.”
Adianna shook her head violently. “This isn’t about your pride anymore, Sarah. This is about your
“And when Dominique asks where I’ve gone? Will you lie for me?” Sarah demanded. “I won’t have you killed for me.”
“I won’t be,” Adianna answered calmly. “Besides Dominique herself, no one will fault me for defending my sister.” When she saw Sarah’s hesitation, she added, “It’s your only choice, Sarah.”
“To hide for the rest of my life from every one of my kind doesn’t seem like a very good choice.”
Adianna swallowed thickly. “Better than being dead.” Her gaze still locked on Sarah’s, she stood up and turned away. “I’m going to bed, Sarah. I’m going to lock my door and turn on loud music, and if I don’t hear a car leaving, that’s not my fault.” She shrugged. “Good night.”
After Adianna closed the door, Sarah sat for a moment more.
To hide forever was not a very good option. Neither was being disowned—and she had no hope that she would be found innocent of the crimes Dominique had listed.
Her gaze fell on the invitation Dominique had thrown to the ground, and her decision was made. There was only one way out.
She spent about an hour orientating herself, getting used to using her body without the sixth sense her magic usually provided, and she was confident she could do what she needed to.
She needed to kill Nikolas.
Sarah wrote a note to Adianna and Dominique, stating her intent. Dominique had accused her of endangering her kin and protecting Nikolas—which, in her attempt to protect Nissa and Christopher, she had done. The only possible way out of this mess was to confront Nikolas.
In truth, Nikolas wasn’t the worst of his kind—he didn’t torture his prey, and he didn’t kill nearly so wantonly as his strength would allow. He hunted, as all vampires hunted, to kill the bloodlust. His marks were the only element that made his kills more obvious than kills by others of his kind. Had Christopher not separated from his brother before Dominique had started organizing the chaotic mess her predecessors had allowed the Vida records to become, his marks and name would have been just as infamous as his brother’s.
This was not the time to ponder Christopher’s guilt or Nikolas’s innocence. This was the reason hunters knew better than to mix with their prey. It created shades of gray, where there had once been just black and white.
She didn’t know what she would do when Nissa and Christopher hunted her down. She refused to kill them. But she also refused to run; hiding until she died, old and lonely, seemed worse by far than dying the quick death every hunter knew marked the end.
She didn’t bother to hide her knives when she left, but instead put on a black tank top and black shorts; over everything she threw her leather jacket, so the weapons wouldn’t be quite so obvious while she was still in the human world.
After taking the keys to her Jaguar from the dresser, she went outside and started the car.
The clock read 11:59 as she pulled into the driveway at Nikolas’s house.
CHAPTER 27
NIKOLAS TOOK HER COAT as she entered. The house was empty except for the two of them.
“Are you losing your resolve, Sarah?” Nikolas asked, and Christopher halted in his pacing. “You’ve been near enough to kill me for a whole two minutes, and you haven’t even drawn a knife.”
“Is Christine okay?” Sarah asked, not acknowledging Nikolas’s question.
Nikolas sighed. “Christine is fine. Even Kaleo is still alive. In fact, I haven’t had a chance to kill anyone noteworthy in the ten hours since I last spoke with you. Does that settle your curiosity?”
Sarah ignored the taunt. “Christopher, what are you doing here?”
