The drive to the mansion took more than an hour through the New York traffic. Luckily, the limo’s polarized windows kept out the worst of the light, or Val knew they’d have been fried by time they arrived.
As it was, she had entirely too much time to brood. It was all she could do to keep her mind off the image of Cade bleeding and broken she’d seen in all too many memories -- his, Abigail’s, even Mason’s.
Cade himself said nothing, though when she tried to touch his mind, she saw he was busy planning, remembering past fights, and trying to work out strategies to counter the ancient’s favorite moves.
Without him to distract her, Val felt her fear intensifying. She rolled her shoulders, trying to fight it off. This was necessary. They had to confront Ridgemont if they were going to save Beth. Yet in the back of her mind, a small voice hissed, Evil. Run.
Damn it, no. She clenched her fists and gritted her teeth. She was not a coward. She would not leave her sister at that monster’s mercy. He had to be stopped, for everybody’s sake.
But by the time they pulled up at a set of wrought iron gates set in a massive stone wall, Val’s heart was pounding so hard it was all she could do to breathe. She watched, swallowing, as Cade glared up at the camera mounted on a pole jutting from the fence. “I’m here to see Ridgemont.”
There was a pause. Cade looked over at her in the silence. Despite his grim expression, he sent her a wave of warmth and love that made her fear recede. “I love you, Val. No matter what happens, remember that.”
But even as he comforted her, she could sense the guilt in his mind, the regret at taking her into danger. “Ridgemont set us on this road,” Val reminded him, trying to shield her fear from him. “We’re just playing the hand we were dealt. Anyway, I love you too. And we’re both walking out of this thing alive.”
She caught a shadow of doubt before he quickly hid it.
“We are going to make it, Cade.”
“Yeah.”
The gates swung open. As they drove through them, a small voice in Val’s mind whispered, Behind you. There’s something behind you. She fought it, trying to concentrate on Cade’s grim, handsome profile. But every instinct she had was screaming that clawed hands were reaching over the seat for her face. Until, unable to take anymore, she whipped around and stared wildly over the back seat.
Nothing there.
Shamefaced, she looked over at Cade, who was looking at her sympathetically. She gave him a sickly smile. “I’m a little… jumpy.”
“It’s not you. You’re picking up Ridgemont’s power field.”
“What? You mean this sense of” -- she hesitated to say evil -- “this feeling is real?”
“Yeah.” He pulled over and parked the car.
At the end of a curving walkway in front of them was a huge mansion that looked like something out of an English comedy of manners. It should have looked cheerful in the sunlight, sprawling, built of sturdy red brick, covered in ivy, surrounded by perfectly maintained beds of flowers. Yet staring out at it, Val shuddered at the sense of darkness it radiated. “Damn. It’s got its own psychic soundtrack.”
He nodded and opened the car door. “The first time I saw Psycho, I thought, ‘I know that music. Follows Ridgemont wherever he goes.’”
“And you lived with that for more than a century?” Wrinkling her nose, she got out of the car. “How did you keep from going nuts?”
Cade took her elbow and started up the walk. “You can get used to damn near anything.”
“Wait.” Val licked her dry lips and stared at the door, fighting to ignore the voice that hissed, Run. “Are you just going to go knock? Shouldn’t we try to sneak in or something?”
Cade shot her a glance of barely contained impatience. “You don’t sneak up on somebody with that much power, Val. He feels us just as clearly as we feel him.”
She blinked. “Damn, I hope we don’t feel anything like that.”
Cade’s lips twitched. “I let slip a thought about the Psycho comparison once. He said he hears the theme from Mr. Rogers Neighborhood when I’m around. I was deeply offended.”
Val grinned. “He was pulling your chain. I think it’s more like The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.”
Then the front door opened, and evil rolled out in a dark wave. Val whirled to face it as her heart leaped into her throat. Ridgemont grinned at them, then winced up at the cloudless blue sky. “Miserable day out. Come in out of the sun.”
The light was beating down on top of her head, but Val instantly decided she preferred third degree burns to getting any closer to him.
Cade lifted a brow at her, and she gritted her teeth. She was not a coward, damn it. But stepping through that door was the hardest thing she’d ever done. When Ridgemont stepped aside to let them in, Val forced herself to saunter past him despite her howling instincts.
He looked so damn normal with those scarred, battered features and the beefy shoulders that put her in mind of an aging jock. But each time she glanced away, she half expected to see rotting flesh when she turned back.
“Why do I keep wishing for a cross?” Val thought to Cade.
“Wouldn’t do you any good,” Ridgemont said, with a slow, mocking stretch of the lips that wasn’t remotely a smile.
“If you broadcast, he’s going to pick it up,” Cade told her, then turned to Ridgemont. “Let’s get this done.”
The vampire nodded and turned. “I’ve got the arena ready.”
Arena? she thought with a new flare of fear. Oh, God. They fought in an arena in my dream.
They followed the ancient, Val grateful he wasn’t walking behind her. The thought of her sister in his power made her shudder. “Where’s Beth?” she demanded.
Ridgemont shot her a smile that made her flesh crawl. “Waiting for us.”
How the hell are we supposed to kill that, she wondered, trying to keep the thought from surfacing enough to be read. Despair threatened to swamp her. She shook it off. Despite the dream, Cade believed they had the strength together. That was enough.
It had to be.
As they walked through the house, she was vaguely aware of an impression of wealth and taste -- fine paintings, rich carpeting, antique furniture. If not for the sense of suffocating evil, she might have been impressed.
As they started down a corridor, Ridgemont nodded toward a set of stairs. “Up that way is the gallery where you’ll find your sister.”
Automatically, Val started toward the stairs, then stopped in mid-step and looked back at Cade. “What about you?”
“I’ll be in the arena,” he said. “You’ll be able to see me.”
Close enough to link when he needed her, she realized, reading the reassurance in his eyes. She nodded and started up the stairs two at a time.
The doorway opened out into a balcony overlooking a huge, round room. Val stepped through warily, her eyes immediately flying to a familiar figure sitting straight and still in a chair. Beth’s head snapped around, brown eyes widening with terror until she recognized her sister. “Valerie!” Automatically, she started to get up, only to jerk to a stop. She was handcuffed to the arms of the chair.
“God, baby!” Val rushed over to her and stooped to give her a fierce, hard hug.
“Are you… Ouch! You’re squishing me!”
Val remembered her new strength and let go hastily. Beth collapsed back in her seat. Swallowing her anxiety, Val scanned her sister’s face, taking in the pale, tight features, the long, white neck revealed by the scooped neckline of her knit shirt. No bites. She sighed in relief, then grimaced. Where I can see them.
“Are you okay?” Beth asked, looking her over just as hard.
For a moment, Val almost put a guilty hand to her own throat, then remembered the evidence of Cade’s fangs had healed. “I’m fine. Has he hurt you?”
“No, not yet.” Beth’s soft mouth drew into a grim line. “But I could tell he’s been thinking about it.”
Val stared grimly down at the steel bracelets around Beth’s slender wrists. “We’ve got to get you out of these cuffs.”
Beth frowned down at them. “One of his flunkies has the keys.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t have time to find him.” Val grabbed a cuff in one hand as she braced the other against the arm of the chair. I can do this. I can.
She yanked.
Beth gasped. The thick handcuff chain snapped like a five-dollar necklace. With a grunt of satisfaction, Val grabbed Beth’s other arm and broke the chain that held it. Grinning, she looked down at her sister’s eyes.
And saw fear.
Beth shrank back in her chair, brown eyes widening until the whites were visible. “He said McKinnon would make you one of them. He did, didn’t he?” The blood drained from her face until it looked as though she’d pass out. “You’re a vampire.” She spoke the last words in a soft, despairing whisper.
Val’s heart contracted in a hard, hopeless ball and lodged in her throat. Oh, hell. “It was the only way to stop Ridgemont,” she said, knowing her sister would never understand.
Beth scrambled to her feet and backed away, grief and fear on her face. “What… what are you going to do to me?”
Val reached out, then dropped her hand as Beth recoiled. “You don’t really think I’m going to hurt you?” Hurt bloomed in her chest.
“Are you?”
“It’s not like the movies, Beth. We’re not killers.”
Beth thrust her chin at Ridgemont, who was watching from the arena below. “He is.”
“That’s because he’s a sociopathic sonofabitch.”
“Thank you!” the ancient called mockingly.
She ignored him. “Cade and I are different. We’re still human. We’re just changed. It’s a virus or something.”
Beth shook her head. “Viruses don’t give you fangs, Val.”
I’ve got to get her out of here, Val thought. So just go with it. Looking into the fear and pain in those beloved brown eyes, Val forced her shoulders to straighten. “Okay, you win, I’m a monster. Get out. You’re free. Go.”
Her sister glared over the balcony railing at the ancient, who watched them from below. “He’s not going to let me leave.”
“Ridgemont doesn’t give a damn about you,” Val said, knowing it was true. “He just used you to make sure we didn’t back out.” She glared down at the ancient. “Isn’t that right, bloodsucker?”
“Oh, yes. In fact…” He grinned as if hugely entertained. He wore a chest plate she recognized from her vision. He glanced at a slim black man who was working with a tangle of equipment at his feet. “Miller?”
The man looked up at him. “Yes, sir?”
The ancient nodded toward the balcony. “Escort that young lady out of the house and call her a cab. I’m done with her.”
“Yes, sir.” He slipped out the door.
Val’s gaze slid to Cade, who was half-dressed in his own armor, surrounded by a couple of assistants tightening straps. He looked up at her, his expression grim, and gave her a sympathetic nod.
She turned to find Beth staring at her, silent tears rolling down her face. She said nothing. Val couldn’t think of a single word that wouldn’t make things worse.
Miller stuck his head in the balcony doorway and said, “Miss?”
Beth looked from him to Val and hesitated, obviously torn.
“You remember one thing,” Val said in a low, shaking voice. “No matter what happens, I’m still human and I’ll love you until I die.”
Beth stared, paling. “You think he’s going to kill you.”
Despite herself, Val smiled a little bitterly. “I’m already dead, remember?”
Gray eyes stared into hers. Then Beth drew herself up to her full height. “I’m not leaving you. No matter what you are.”
Val cursed silently. “I don’t want you here. It’s not safe.” What if they lost and Ridgemont decided to celebrate afterward?
“I don’t care.” Her face took on that mulish expression Val knew too well from living with her for eighteen years. “You’re still my sister, no matter what else you are.”
If Beth refused to go and Ridgemont took her, the whole thing would be pointless. Cade could easily die for nothing. Helpless rage boiled up in Val, triggering a rise of the Hunger. Mentally cursing the rotten timing, she started to suppress it, then changed her mind and let it come. Fangs erupted into her mouth. Deliberately, she opened her jaws and bared them, pulling her lips back into a snarl she made as monstrous and terrifying as she could. “LEAVE, Beth!”
Her sister’s eyes widened in horror as she stumbled back in shock. Val hissed like a movie vampire. With a strangled scream, Beth whirled and ran past Miller. Her feet thumped on the carpeted stairs as she descended them two at a time. It was all Val could do not to collapse in the chair and sob.
Slow, mocking applause filled the air. “I haven’t seen a show this good since I watched the Bard play Hamlet,” Ridgemont called mockingly.
A loud crack sounded.
Staggering, the ancient turned, lifting a hand to his bleeding mouth as he stared at Cade. “Why, gunslinger -- a sucker punch. I’m surprised at you.”
Cade replied with a roll of inventive obscenities, at least half of them in languages Val didn’t even understand.
Ridgemont grinned. “I didn’t even think you knew those words.”
“You broadened my horizons, you son of a whore. Let’s quit fucking around and finish this,” Cade snarled. He looked up at Val, his eyes flat and dark. “Come on, sweetheart.”
Shaking off her grief, she moved to the chair, ignoring the handcuffs still hooked to the arms. She sat down and leaned back, closed her eyes and let her body go limp. And went to him.
He enveloped her in all the warmth and sympathy he couldn’t show in front of the enemy. “Baby, I’m sorry.”
“She thinks I’m a monster.”
“She doesn’t know what the fuck she’s talking about.”
“Doesn’t she?” She remembered the look in Mason’s eyes, the taste of blood in her mouth.
“Look at Ridgemont and tell me we’re anything like that.”
Ridgemont watched them with dark amusement while one of his assistants buckled something onto his forearm. He looked smaller through Cade’s eyes, but the sensation of age, power, and evil swirling around him felt even stronger. “Jesus, he keeps getting nastier every time I look.”
“He bleeds, Val. That means he can die.”
“Lift your arm, Cade,” one of the men said to him. “I need to tighten the strap.”
He obeyed, and the man began to pull a length of leather attached to a metal cuff around his arm.
“What are we doing? What’s going on?”
“He’s helping me with my armor.” They were wearing a breastplate made of some metal that gleamed like silver. The attendant grabbed another strap and cinched it tight.
“What the hell does Ridgemont think this is -- the thirteenth century?”
“With a few twenty-first century improvements, yes,” Cade thought, arching his chest to check the fit and nodding his approval at the assistant. “The armor is Ridgemont’s design, made of a space-age polymer stronger than steel at half the weight. Not that weight means a damn to us.”
“Why wear armor at all? Seems he’d want it as dangerous as possible.”
“Yeah, but he doesn’t want it over too fast. Besides, with our strength, it’d be easy for one of us to cut the other in half.”
She winced. “Pleasant image.” A thought occurred to her. “Can he hear us?”
“No, not when we’re sharing minds like this.”
Ten minutes later, Cade was fully armored, from the gorget around his throat to greaves that covered the shins of his boots. He flexed his arms and squatted, bunching his muscles, testing the fit, directing the attendant to tighten this or loosen that.
Nearby, Ridgemont was doing the same. The tension grew until it seemed to fill the air like the thick pine scent of the sawdust that covered the floor.
At last, the ancient walked over to him, carrying a sheathed longsword in both hands. He presented it with a slight bow. “A new weapon. I think you’ll find it satisfactory.”
Cade accepted the scabbard and drew the sword, the blade producing a slithering hiss as it left its leather sheath. It was four feet long, with an elegantly simple hilt and cross guard, both in the same metal as the rest of the weapon. The blade glinted in the bright overhead lighting as he sighted down its length, examining it for flaws, measuring its weight. Val felt his pleasure in its superb balance, the way it seemed to float in his hands. “Very nice.”
Ridgemont inclined his head again and stepped back.
“Cade?” the attendant asked.
He sheathed the sword and traded it for the helmet the man held. It was shaped like the helm of a medieval knight, but the visor was made of transparent bullet-resistant polycarbonate. He noted the change with pleasure, knowing it would give a better field of view than the slitted faceplate of his old helm, which had cut peripheral vision down to almost nothing.
Dangling from the helmet’s conical point was a two-foot length of black horsehair that would reach halfway down his back when he donned it. “What’s with the tail?” Val asked.
“Ridgemont has a medieval man’s taste for the gaudy.”
He took the helm in his gauntleted hands and settled it on top of the arming cap he already wore. The cap’s thick padding would protect him -- at least in part -- if Ridgemont landed a blow on the helm.
His assistant handed him his shield, a kite-like affair made of a high-tech alloy. Painted on its smooth, silver surface was a wolf done in medieval style and trimmed in black and red. Last, the attendant handed over the sword.
“I can’t believe we’re supposed to fight in all this stuff,” Val thought, as he turned and moved back toward Ridgemont. She was surprised he didn’t clank.
“Just follow my lead. I’ll keep us alive.”
“You’d better. I’ve just broken you in.”
Ridgemont was dressed in black armor identical to Cade’s, except for the dragon that curled on his shield. Val was once again conscious of the waves of power and evil that rolled off him. Her anxiety spiraled.
“The power doesn’t matter,” Cade told her. “He can still die.”
But could they kill him? And what about that damn dream?
Hastily she suppressed that memory and concentrated on Cade, feeling what he felt as he followed Ridgemont to the center of the arena. He had very little fear for himself, and he refused to focus on his fear for her, both to avoid frightening her and to keep his mind on the job at hand. His entire being was focused on one goal: killing Ridgemont, even if he died doing it. Not for revenge or even for honor, but because it was the only way to keep Val safe.
“You listen to me, Cade McKinnon,” she told him, galvanized by his fatalism. “You are going to survive this. You just damn well make up your mind to that, because I need you, and I’m not giving you up.”
Ridgemont turned to face them in the center of the arena. His eyes flicked over Cade’s face through the transparent visor, and his lips twitched. “It does my heart good to see all that grim, manly determination,” he rumbled. “I didn’t spend fourteen decades torturing you for nothing. As for you, girl -- don’t disappoint me.”
“Oh, I won’t,” Val said in Cade’s voice.
Ridgemont raised his sword in a salute Cade echoed with a short, choppy gesture. Both men crouched, bringing their shields up.
Oh, God, Val thought, knowing that now they were all committed. It wouldn’t end until one of them was dead.
With a roar, the ancient exploded toward Cade, swinging his sword like a scythe in a blow calculated to slice through the helm and take off the top of his head. Cade retreated smoothly and took the blow on his shield. It jolted on his arms with a sound like a cannon shot, and the world pinwheeled.
He slammed into the arena floor with a teeth-jarring thud, but he tucked and rolled. Bouncing back to his feet, Cade saw the blow had knocked him several yards, and there was blood on his armor. Ridgemont’s sword had chopped through the shield and caught his shoulder.
That was like being hit by a car! Val thought, amazed and shaken.
“You can do better than that, gunslinger!” Ridgemont called mockingly -- and leaped for them, crossing the arena in one inhuman bound.
“Steady. Here he comes.” Cade braced himself, and she desperately worked to reinforce his strength, building the power with him. They held against the second blow, only rocking back on his heels. Val threw all her force into his answering swing, but she was late, and it wasn’t enough. The ancient caught the blow on his shield and returned it with an overhead stroke they barely blocked in time.
Ridgemont grinned at them, mocking. “Still not good enough, gunslinger. I’ve waited too long for this fight to be this easy. You’d better improve your concentration, or I’ll go after that tasty little sister when I’m done with you.”
Val mentally snarled and blasted more power into Cade’s sword swing. It landed on Ridgemont’s shield with a satisfying boom.
At last all that training came to the rescue, and she stopped thinking, fusing with her lover until she was no longer aware of her own separate existence. Instead, she fought to turn herself into pure, raw strength, taking everything he gave her and firing it back, adding her own strength and letting him do with it as he would.
The two men circled, feet scuffing in the thick sawdust, barely conscious of the creak of armor or the stink of sweat and steel.
At first, it was all Cade could do to keep Ridgemont from taking off his head, blocking with his sword or his shield barely in time. But the force and speed of his return swings increased steadily as he and Val fell into the rhythm of amplifying his power.
The taunting grin faded from Ridgemont’s face.
Cade blocked a blow to his ribs and spun, Val seizing his power and volleying it back. The sword slashed out. Ridgemont tried to block, too late. The edge cut across his breastplate. It was his turn to go flying.
Bloodlust surging, Cade leaped after him, sword raised. Ridgemont hit the ground flat on his back, saw him coming, and jerked up his shield, rolling into a ball under it. Cade landed on it with both feet and chopped down. But the ancient heaved the shield upward, tossing him airborne before the blow could land. Cade hit the ground in a roll and bounced up again to see Ridgemont sprinting toward him, his face set and grim behind his visor.
“It’s not so much goddamn fun now, is it, you son of a bitch?” Cade sneered.
The ancient’s answering sword stroke cut halfway into his shield. And stuck. The vampire’s eyes widened, and he fought to wrench the weapon free. Cade grinned and swung for his head, but Ridgemont blocked the blow and rammed his shield into Cade’s face so hard the bulletproof visor shattered.
Simultaneously, the ancient jerked at his embedded sword, dragging the shield from Cade’s grip. Blinded by blood and pain, Cade scuttled backward, wrenching off the ruined helm, though the visor’s jagged edges raked his skin. His armored boot heel caught the ground, and he tripped and crashed to the sawdust.
Cade blinked away blood to see Ridgemont’s freed blade swinging at his face. He threw up his sword in a desperate parry. Steel rang on steel. The ancient chopped down at him again, but he rammed a foot into his sire’s legs. Ridgemont went down, only to drive his blade into Cade’s thigh, punching right through the armor and into flesh and bone. Both men leapt up despite their wounds, retreating with that inhuman vampire speed.
Fucking armor makes it hard to move, Val growled, then shut up again, afraid to distract Cade. Blood streaming into his eyes from the cut across his brows, he retreated, turning in a wary circle. Ridgemont had vanished.
“Where’d he go?” Val demanded. “He was here a minute ago.”
“Bastard’s fast.” He scrubbed at his eyes, smearing blood on his gauntlet. Hearing a faint sound behind him, he whirled just as his sire’s sword sliced toward his chest.
Cade blocked, Val enhancing his speed, but Ridgemont reversed his stroke and chopped into his sword arm. The armor saved it from being hacked off, but the blade bit deep, shooting agony all the way up Cade’s shoulder. He ignored the pain and lunged, driving his sword at Ridgemont’s ribs, Val amplifying his strength with every ounce of her own. His sword punched into the black breastplate like a knife through tin foil.
Ridgemont howled and slammed a fist into Cade’s blade.
The weapon snapped in two.
A chill slid over Cade as he looked down at his broken sword. A third of its length protruded from his opponent’s black armor.
“Oh shit,” Val breathed in despair.
Ridgemont looked up at him and grinned tauntingly, a smile Cade knew well from decades of torture.
Snarling, he slammed his left fist into Ridgemont’s visor so hard the plastic spiderwebbed. The ancient reeled backward, swearing, and Cade followed him. Ridgemont had to drop his shield to pull off the ruined helm. Cade slammed home another Val-amplified fist to the side of his foe’s head that knocked him to the sawdust.
The ancient scrambled up and backed off fast, still dragging at his helm. Cade let him go. His injured arm wasn’t hurting anymore. He could feel the heat of blood streaming down it from forearm to knuckles, pouring into the sawdust. Looking down, he watched the broken sword slide from his nerveless fingers. A scan with his vampire senses told him Ridgemont had hit something vital. He was bleeding out.
“Oh Jesus,” Val thought, recognizing the moment. “It’s the dream! It’s happening! We’ve got to block off that artery!”
“It’s damaged too badly. I’d have to divert too much power, and you can’t do that in fight,” Cade thought, distant and chill. “Ridgemont’ll kill me on the next pass.”
“Then I’ll do it!”
“Get out, Val. It’s over. We lost. You know yourself he’s going to kill me just like he did in your vision.”
“No! No, I’ll figure it out. You are not dying on me, Cade McKinnon!”
Drawing on his knowledge, she reached for the wound and sealed it, then worked to throw his body into healing the severed artery.
Meanwhile Ridgemont was coiling to leap for him. Cade managed to scoop up his opponent’s fallen shield with his left hand. But without Val’s reinforcement, he couldn’t raise it up fast enough. The ancient’s sword chopped into his breastplate. Something cracked. He hit the ground on his back and skidded in the sawdust.
Desperately, he struggled to regain his feet, but his injured leg buckled under him, and the lights of the arena spun around his head. Cade fell back, fought to rise again, but he’d lost too much blood. Numbly, he watched Ridgemont circle him, sword dangling from the ancient’s hand. Blood smeared the side of the master vampire’s ribs; he too, was badly hurt. But not badly enough.
Cade had always known it would come to this. The son of a bitch was just too powerful. He’d sacrificed Val for nothing. He’d failed her, just as he’d failed his family. He was going to die, and it was no more than he deserved.
“No! Goddamn it, Cade…”
“Get out, Val. Go back to your body.”
“I’m not losing you. Damn you, I’m not going to lose you.”
Then she was gone.
For a moment, he couldn’t believe it. He felt empty, betrayed, but suppressed the thought. Still better than her sharing my death.
Ridgemont grinned into his eyes. “You gave me a good fight, gunslinger. Hurt me, rather badly. But it’s not enough to save you.” He tilted his head to one side and raised his sword. “I think perhaps I’ll cut out your heart and keep it to remember you by.”
“Sorry. I’ve already given it to somebody else.” Cade heaved the shield up and braced himself to fight as best he could.
“Get away from him, you son of a bitch!”
Ridgemont turned away from him as Val raced across the arena toward them, stopping just long enough to scoop up Cade’s broken sword.
Oh, hell. No.
She ran right up to Ridgemont, danced around him mockingly in her blue jeans and T-shirt, ignoring her lack of armor, ignoring the fact she’d never held a sword in her life and the one she had now was broken. Ignoring the ancient’s eight hundred years of power.
Ridgemont laughed in her face. “Go back, child. It’s not your time to die.”
“It’s not his time either, you bloodsucking bastard.”
Hell. Ridgemont’s going to kill her. Cade shut his eyes and threw himself along the link.
Then he was looking up at his sire through Val’s eyes, and the pain was gone. “What are you doing in here?” she demanded frantically. “You can’t leave your body. It’ll bleed out.”
“Let it. He’s not killing you.”
Ridgemont grinned and shook his head, bringing his sword up. “You’re a fool, girl. You don’t have the power.”
Cade lunged forward in her light, speedy little body as they threw all their combined energy into Val’s narrow arms. The broken sword arched upward.
Fear and realization burst across Ridgemont’s face in the instant before the shattered blade bit into his neck. Steel ripped flesh and grated through bone. As the head few from his shoulders, his mind roared a last outraged protest: “Not with a woman’s hand, Cade!”
Val ducked back as the vampire’s massive body swayed in a crimson fountain of its own blood. She didn’t even pause to watch him hit the ground. “Cade! You’ve got to get back!”
They rushed into his body just in time to pick up his stuttering heartbeat.