Not all the Truebloods rise. Some look around, confused, but that doesn't matter. An older Trueblood man lunges over the chairs, fangs bared at Riley, and then my powers explode.
I make him miss Riley by inches, and then leap at the podium to attack Li. He claws at the wood, climbing, eyes wide and confused as Li screams and picks up a gavel.
And then the world bursts into motion.
The hunters stay back, but more Truebloods rise, following their masters, and a hundred snarls advance.
“Get in the lounge!” Riley shouts.
Zaza leads the charge over the chairs, eyes red, fangs bared. But Li tosses the first attacker back into the crowd, and he lands on his back, springing up. He tussles with Riley, who throws him back into the advancing crowd, making three more Truebloods trip.
“Stay back,” Walton shouts at me, appearing at my side. He glares at a pair of Trueblood women, and they hiss and claw at each other as he seizes control. On the other side of Riley, one of the younger Nightside guys holds back a Trueblood man with a chair. Other Truebloods hang back and shout.
It's chaos.
“But we didn't vote!”
“We need to vote!”
“This isn't standard!”
Some hesitant Truebloods grab for the attackers to restrain them, including the guy who was friendly with Riley earlier in the night.
“Kill them!” Li orders. “The monster is among them!”
“Yes. They're just Nightsides,” Zaza shouts, motioning for others to join her.
I seize three Truebloods at the front of the charge and make them turn around, shoving the other Truebloods back. I don't want to kill them. But I fear I'll end many tonight, before they take me down.
“Back! Back!” Riley shouts, punching another man trying to claw at his throat.
Keep shoving them back. Don't kill. Just shove them back. The pressure in my head intensifies, and my anger at the High Council rises. I want to destroy them. I want to end them for being unfair to us, for damning us before we had a chance.
“Is this necessary?” Enrico shouts at Li. “Protocol states—”
“I am the head of the High Council,” Li growls.
No. I want to destroy Li. I want to end her corrupt ass. If I do that, I can stop this. She orchestrated this. She and whoever sent that note.
I whirl.
Li looks down on me as the other Nightsides fight, holding back the crowd, and we make eye contact. Li's eyes narrow, and she moves to stand on top of her podium, over me, daring me to try something. The rest of the High Council waits in silence.
“Who are you?” she asks, and I hear her over the shuffling feet, hissing, crashing, and cursing.
I let my disguise melt away. I focus on the image of Miranda dissolving, and I stand there as Olivia as Li's jaw drops ever so slightly. But she closes her mouth, determined to keep control. “My name is Olivia, and I killed the highest members of Dominic Beaumont's coven.”
“You,” Li growls, crouching and ready to pounce like the predator she is.
Walton brushes me as a Trueblood shoves him back, and Stanley curses as he wrestles with another. But then more hissing breaks out as more Truebloods turn on each other, under Nightside influence.
Lily shouts something from the sidelines, but it's lost in the noise as I stare down Li.
“Did you break Trueblood law to do this?” I ask. “Talk about hypocritical. Come down here. Fight me.” My influence wraps around her limbs, but she's hyper-focused, and her mental shield is as strong as ever.
“Over there!” Lily shouts.
Li leaps down to the ground, graceful and perfect. Her long coat snaps around her, and I hear armor shifting underneath it. The bitch. She came prepared to destroy us. She knew about me already.
“So be it,” she says, baring her fangs.
I don't hold back on my power. This is what Riley meant.
She's a danger to everyone.
But then she leaps, making the first move.
Her nails rake like claws, digging into my throat on the other side of a blink. “You abomination,” she snarls as I fall in shock. “You should have never been born. You deserve nothing.” Her words are burning venom, pumping hot pain into me.
A wet trickle follows the maddening pain.
She's digging into my throat, and with a smile, as the fighting continues.
“Get off me!” I shout, gaze darting, dizzy with the pressure, and I seize the closest Trueblood, Zaza, and force her over to claw at Li. But Li is undeterred. The pain in my throat intensifies, and her nails feel as if they're digging into my windpipe. Breathing burns and stabs. Spots dance in my eyes.
“Her! Only her!” Lily shouts to the tune of trampling feet.
Figures appear above us, shoving Zaza out of the way, and a Nightside woman I saw earlier raises a metal fork and plunges it into Li's back.
Li hisses in agony and rolls off me, facing Lily and several Nightsides from the kitchen. Forks, knives, and pots of hot oil shine in the light, and a Nightside man spills the hot oil over Li, who screams as it scalds her skin. Sizzling follows as I push myself up, and Lily advances on the High Council woman as the other Council members watch in awe.
No one from the Council is defending Li.
Maybe we have a chance.
Li screams as the oil cools, and the smell of fast food and burning flesh fills the air. I push myself up, throat burning, as Lily plunges a kitchen knife into Li's back, barely missing her heart, to join the fork already there.
“Lily!” her father shouts.
A chair lands beside me, thrown by a Trueblood, a loyalist to Li, and I seize it, putting it in front of me as my throat continues to burn. But Li, still impaled, rises and seizes Lily in a flash, throwing her to the ground.
“You
