Unbound

“I can still take you back to Venice with me,” he threatened, his dark eyes narrowing on me.

“No, you can’t. I’d never willingly go, but it might have been easier if I had been mentally or emotionally broken by the events here.” Drawing a deep breath, I lowered the napkin that was stained with my blood. I was sore and tired from the various fights that had filled my night, but this one was going to be my most dangerous. “Were you the one to introduce Lauren to the Daylight Coalition member or did you handle that all by yourself?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he blandly said.

“Of course you do. You’ve been in town for months now, watching and listening. I know what’s happening in my own domain. Only the urging of someone older and stronger would have gotten a fledgling to actually plot out my death. Involving Justin Ravana’s family was a nice touch, though. He never actually contacted the Coven, did he?”

“No,” Bishop finally admitted, flashing me a smile full of fangs and menace, as he realized that I had figured out his part in this plot to end my existence. “Fledglings are meant to be used.”

“And Ravana?”

“I didn’t want to deal with him when I take over your domain.”

“Which you get if I go back to the Coven.”

“Or simply die.”

Bishop lunged across the short distance between us, as he drew a small wooden stake out of his pocket. I grabbed his wrists, but he was bigger and stronger than me, and I was already weak from the night’s encounters—something I’m sure he was counting on.

The chunk of wood bit through my flesh as he put his entire body weight behind the stake. Pain lanced through my body as it dug into my chest, grinding closer to my heart as I pushed against him.

A part of me didn’t want to kill him. I thought I had known Bishop, but I had been wrong.

“Don’t do this,” I cried in a pained voice.

“It’s too late to plead for your life,” he said past gritted teeth.

“I’m not. I’m pleading for yours.” Bishop increased the pressure on the stake so that the tip punctured my heart, winning a scream from me. Closing my eyes, I conjured up flames so that they instantly consumed his body. I continued to hold his wrists, trapping him in the booth with me. His screams rose above the music, add their own unique chorus to match Lauren’s screams coming from the next room. When he was reduced to ash, I removed the flames and opened my eyes. With a grunt, I pulled the stake from my chest and grabbed the napkin to once again stanch the bleeding.

I looked up in time to see Knox crossing the dance floor toward my booth. Fresh blood was splattered across his clothes and skin. Knox’s eyes glowed with an almost frightening light as he stepped back onto the main floor. Dropping the napkin on the table, I slowly pushed from my seat and walked toward him, meeting him in the center of dance floor. Energy vibrated from his slender form, born from the rush of killing another creature in what I was sure was a brutal death. Valerio would have taught him well.

Cupping his head with my right hand, I stepped close and ran my tongue along his neck and up his jaw, drinking in some of Lauren’s blood from where it had sprayed across him. A shiver ran the length of his body, and his right arm locked around my waist. “Dear God in heaven, Mira,” he uttered in a husky voice. “You can’t do that.”

I simply chuckled as we began to sway to the beat of the music, his body hardening against mine. Knox tightly wrapped both arms around me, pulling me tight against him as he buried his face in the crook of my neck. His fangs scraped the bare, tender skin there, lifting a sigh from my parted lips.

The murder was solved and the plot to dispose of me had been unraveled. We could relax for a few minutes before the next disaster hit, threatening to tear apart our fragile world. We could afford this moment to forget about it all as we stood safe in our own sanctuary listening to music that pulsed through and around us.

Did she tell Franklin anything else about us? I silently asked after a couple minutes.

Nothing. His right hand squeezed my waist in what was meant to be a reassuring gesture. Just the address of where to find Bryce and to kill anyone that came to the house that night.

Barrett and the lycanthropes would see to Franklin. We would need to watch for anyone else during the next few months looking for Franklin or any signs that he had sent information to his companions at the Daylight Coalition. We still weren’t out of the woods, but we could see moonlight at the end of this dark journey.

“Bishop?”

“Disposed of.”

After the song ended, I pressed a kiss to Knox’s cheek and started to pull out of his arms, but he stopped me.