Then it hits me. Until yesterday I hadn’t been a real vampire. I had eaten, but not human blood. I had fed, but not killed. Somehow the act of taking a human life had made my transformation complete.
Sebastian had lied to and manipulated me at every turn. Was there any truth to anything he’d ever said?
And now, he’s out there, watching, waiting for the right moment to come and kill my enemy. I certainly hate Roberto. I hate what he’s done to the country, possibly to the world. I hate what he’s done to Lily and to me. My hatred is broad, but not deep. As many reasons as I have to hate Roberto, none of them feel personal. But Sebastian? I have a lot of reasons to hate him, too. Deeply personal reasons.
Roberto marches up and down the street, dragging me behind him. “I know you’re out there!”
Thankfully, he’s walking more slowly now and I can keep up.
“How many times are you going to send one of your little pets in to try to kill me?” he calls out.
Wait . . . Sebastian has done this before?
“When are you going to figure out that I will always—always!—win?” He whirls in another direction. “You can’t beat me! You just can’t.”
Across the street, I see Carter and my father dash out of the clinic only to stop on the steps when they see Roberto and me.
“For the first century or so, your pathetic assassination attempts were amusing. But I am not amused anymore. Come get your little pet”—Roberto jerks me forward and pulls me in front of him. He brings the wooden chair leg up to my neck—“before I take care of this problem myself.”
The jagged edge of the splintered wood bites into my flesh, but I feel strangely disconnected from my fear. Of course it doesn’t hurt that he’s ripped my shirt and it’s hanging open in tatters. I’m mostly covered, but I feel strangely vulnerable this way, partially naked and unable to hide myself. It’s the embarrassment that stings the most. The shame of failure.
This was supposed to be my big gesture on behalf of all humanity. My great act of defiance. Some assassin I turned out to be. I murdered an unarmed valet and got myself captured.
Maybe this is how it was meant to be. I wanted to play a part in bringing Roberto down. Maybe this is simply the part I get to play. The dupe. The fool. The victim.
CHAPTER FIFTY
Carter
I hadn’t really thought about what Roberto might look like until I saw him dragging Mel out into the center of town. The guy looked younger and more delicate than any of the Elites. Hell, he looked like half the Greens back at Base Camp could beat the crap out of him. Despite appearances, he’d somehow subdued and captured Mel. Which meant he had to be pretty badass. Typically speaking, you couldn’t pack that much badass into 130 pounds of scrawny kid without some serious supernatural help. Ergo, the twerp tossing Mel around like a sack of laundry had to be Roberto.
Still, I was surprised. When you think of an evil vampire overlord, you don’t automatically picture a guy who could be a member of One Direction.
Frankly, I didn’t care who he was; I wasn’t about to let him get away with using Mel as some kind of bargaining chip. But how the hell could I get her out of there?
I glanced at Price first. This was his daughter. Yeah, he’d skipped out on them years ago, but hadn’t he just said he’d done this all for them? Surely he’d step up to save her.
But he just stood there, an expression of bemusement on his face.
“Do something,” I said, grabbing his shoulder and pushing him forward. “She’s your daughter. Help her!”
“That can’t be Mel.”
I fought the urge to slap Price upside the head. What was wrong with him? His daughter was in trouble— like, about to be staked through the heart in trouble—and he didn’t seem to be able to process that at all.
Then it hit me. He didn’t know what she’d become.
Besides which, other than that brief meeting at the clinic, he hadn’t seen her in years. In his mind, Mel was still the barely functioning ten-year-old he’d abandoned.
Now, he couldn’t reconcile that image with the one before him. This Mel had clearly overpowered a guard, cut off her own hair to complete the ruse, and done her damnedest to kill Roberto. The fact that she hadn’t succeeded didn’t diminish the fact that she’d tried. Price literally couldn’t believe his eyes.
Great, the one man who might actually be able to help her had been struck dumb.
Which left only me to help.
I pushed past Price to walk down the steps. There were still lots of civilians milling around. They couldn’t seem to figure out what to do. They were probably so used to taking direction from Price and Roberto that they couldn’t think for themselves anymore. Or maybe they couldn’t think past Price’s confusion.
Of course, all the people on this compound had thrown in with Roberto for whatever reason. I didn’t particularly have a lot of sympathy for them, but that didn’t mean I thought they deserved to die. Especially since there were families here. People with kids.
I turned back to Jonathan, grabbed him by the shoulders, and gave him a shake. “Get it together. If you can’t stand up to Roberto, fine. But at least get these people out of here.”
He looked at me a little blankly. “Who?”
“These people! They’re just standing around. Waiting for you to tell them what to do. Don’t you get it? There are no lights on, so that means the electricity is out. No electricity means no fences, and that the Ticks can get in. Say something to them. You want to be this great leader? Be it now.”
But he shook his head, scoffing. “The Ticks won’t get in.”
That’s when I stopped trying to get through to him. He was obviously so out of touch he had no idea what they were dealing with. I did. The Ticks would get in and they’d eat their way through this town in a matter of hours. Sure, maybe some of these people had the vaccine. Maybe most of them did. But the vaccine only protected you from being turned into a Tick. It wouldn’t do jack to protect you from having your heart ripped out.
I turned to the crowd and yelled, “The fences are down! The Ticks will get through. You’re all in danger! Get your families inside. Arm yourselves with whatever you have and don’t come out until well after dawn!” The people on the street looked from me to Jonathan and then to Roberto, where he stood with Mel. “They aren’t going to save you! You have to save yourselves!” A murmur of disbelief and fear rippled through the crowd. “Go!”
I wanted to roar with anger. With frustration. These people had put their faith in the wrong people. They’d blindly trusted Price and Roberto to protect them. They’d thought they could pretend the rest of the world hadn’t gone to hell outside their gates. They were wrong.
And it was this man’s fault.
I whirled back to Jonathan Price. An
I hauled off and punched him. Not just once. I pounded him. He stumbled back, tripping over the steps to land hard on his ass. He cowered before me, arms raised to protect his head. “No!” he cried.
The anger roiling inside of me didn’t let up. I wanted to destroy. I wanted to beat him to pulp. To slam his head against the steps. Anything to break the influence he had over these defenseless lambs who were about to be slaughtered by the Ticks.
Except suddenly they didn’t seem defenseless anymore. The crowd was scrambling away, scattering into buildings and houses, calling out their loved ones’ names and crying for help.
Chaos hit the square hard and fast. In the distance, the Ticks howled as if in response to the panic flooding through the people in town.
Price still cowered before me, but I turned my back on him and walked down the steps to where Roberto stood in the center of the square, Mel still in his grasp.
