Davis had been in New York with the Marquis and Francesca to drag me back to the master. I had the chance to kill him after the fight in Flushing Park, but I didn’t take it. I liked Davis. He was good and honest, at least as far as vampires went. He owed me for sparing his life.

  “He’ll tell Phoenix,” Stu whispered. “What are you guys, nuts? I’m with Kaden on this one. Leave Phoenix and the family out of it. They already know and obviously don’t give a rat’s behind.”

  “He won’t tell Phoenix anything.” Sullivan spoke carefully, giving me direct eye contact. “He owes Kaden a favor.”

  “Yes. A favor I’d like to hang on to,” I shot back. “I have eons to find another use for it.”

  “Hey,” someone shouted from the street. The four of us were on our feet and spun around in time to see a female vampire with short purple hair jump onto the roof. She smiled with a malevolent glint in her eye. “Why don’t you come on down and play?”

  Chapter 9

  The vampire showed her white fangs from behind dark red lipstick and somersaulted back to the street. I hurried across the roof after her and peered down. Two dozen vampires were waiting for us in the dark alley.

  Each one of them was all smiles, staring up at us in great anticipation. Leering was more like it. They were the types of smiles you saw when someone thought, “I’ve got you.” Technically, they did. We were outnumbered, six-to-one. They weren’t exactly spring chickens, but we still had a handful of centuries on them. Combined together, however, we didn’t have a sure win. I would say our chances were seventy-thirty. We weren’t invincible—numbers could easily outweigh experience.

  “I don’t think we should go down there,” Stu said nervously. “What are our odds if we run?”

  The same.

  We didn’t know the streets as well as they did, and who knew if more waited around the corner? We could run to the apartment, the only place we had permission to enter that they didn’t, and then they would know where we were staying. That could prove to be even worse. It would have been nice to have Reece and Alex there to help out, but it wasn’t worth the risk. It only took one to escape and fill Abel in on our location.

  “How does your shoulder feel?” Sullivan asked.

  Stu moved it around in a circular motion. “Better, but I’d like it to stay that way,” he grumbled.

  “Make sure you’re on your toes then,” Flo told him. “We never run from a fight.”

  “Scared?” the girl with purple hair yelled to us. “We can come up, if you’d rather die there.”

  “That little …” Flo started for the edge of the roof.

  Sullivan stopped her. “Let’s not rush into it,” he said calmly. “It could mean the difference between living and dying.”

  “I’m going to live,” she spat. “They’re going to die. What’s the problem?”

  “Bawk, bawk, bawk!” the purple haired vampire called. A few others joined in, clucking like chickens. A few were even flapping their elbows up and down in the air.

  “Wow.” Stu’s eyebrows lowered and his top lip arched in disgust. “Can you say immature?”

  “We’re not the ones too afraid to fight,” she called up to him. Her eyes shifted over to me. “I thought I was about to face the infamous Kaden. Mr. Second-in-Command. The dark angel of the underworld. I guess I didn’t need all this backup after all. You’re nothing but a big coward.”

  Coward?

  My stomach clenched. I would show her who the coward was. I had been through hell and back. Nothing about my life had been easy. If I was a coward, I would have stayed next to Phoenix. I risked my life to get out of there. I risked my sanity changing my lifestyle—finding my humanity again after all those horrible things had literally almost destroyed me.

  I stepped up onto the ledge and off the side of the building without another thought. The wind whistled in my ears as I sped toward the ground. I landed on my feet, knees bent, on the hard cobblestone. A twinge of pain shot up my legs, but there wasn’t time to think about it. The vampires weren’t wasting any time with their advance.

  I leapt aside just in time to miss having a fist land in the middle of my face, and I threw my own punch into his abdomen. He doubled over just as one of his friends dug into my arm. Her nails were like needles, drawing my blood in thin strips.

  I pushed her backward into two of her comrades. I was surrounded. We were—I hoped. There wasn’t time to make sure that my allies had followed me down. I never would have thought so many vampires could fit into one small alleyway. They hung from terraces and leapt over each other like they were accustomed to small battlegrounds.

  Someone heavy slammed into my left side. I flew through the air, stopping only when my right shoulder met a brick wall. A vampire had me around the waist. He chomped into my lower back. Stars danced in front of my eyes. Blindly, I slammed my elbow down onto the side of his head. It only jarred his fangs inside me, worsening my pain.

  There was another vampire in front of me then. He was so close I couldn’t see a face. The rain poured down around us, making quick movement almost impossible to see. I clawed at his neck while trying to get a third vampire off my shoulders.

  I slammed my back into the brick building behind me. There was a loud crack, and the vampire’s grip on my waist loosened. I used my foot as leverage and pushed forward, trying to keep the vampire in front of me from biting into my artery. The fangs in my back ripped through my flesh as the vampire fell to the ground with a crushed skull.

  The vampire on my shoulders shoved his thumbs into my eyes. Immense pressure built up as I clawed at his arms. He wasn’t letting go. It was dark, and so many things were happening around me that I couldn’t concentrate. My ears couldn’t find single sounds. Everything sounded like one giant scuffle with grunts and screams thrown in. My sense of touch was numbed by the constant pounding of water falling from the sky. I couldn’t smell anything over the blood. And that was all I tasted.

  A fist, or maybe it was a kick, had hit me perfectly in the right cheek. The inside of my mouth was grazed open by my own fangs. Blood danced along my tongue. But I could see again. The jab had knocked my head from the vampires grip. My vision was blurred for a few moments, but I recognized the ash falling around me. The vampire pressing my eyes was dead, but there were more to take its place. Another vampire got me from behind. His arm looped around my neck and pulled me backward.

  The one in front of me snapped his jaw, finally landing in my shoulder. Pain shot through me. The blood ran down my arm in a thick strip and dripped to the ground.

  A wave of anger rushed over me, replacing the sting of the vampires fangs. I wasn’t going to lose to them. I was better than that. I have been in worse situations and survived. This was no different—only I was.

  In a fresh rush of energy, I pried the vampire’s fangs out of my shoulder. Then I snapped his bottom jaw with a defending crack and twisted it off. Blood was everywhere and awful gurgling sounds filled the air. His tongue dangled out in such a gory way that forced me to look away.

  I reached above my head and grabbed the vampire behind me by the shirt collar. I pulled him over my head, and his feet hit the now jawless vampire in front of me. They both landed on the ground in a pile.

  A sharp, high-pitched shriek from my left distracted me from finishing them off. Flo had four vampires attached to her in various places. She was face-first on the ground with no chance of pushing herself up.

  I ran to her and kicked the vampire holding her right arm. It was the female with purple hair. She turned her head to hiss at me, blood covering her mouth. It was what Flo needed. She broke free of the grip on her arm and elbowed the girl in the back of the head. That was all I saw.

  I was falling back. The rain pounded my face, and the streetlight shone in the distance. When I hit the ground, my head bounced off the cobblestones. It took long seconds to gather my wits about me. Long seconds I didn’t have to spare.

  The jawless vampire was kicking me with everything he had. The side of my face, my ribs, my chest—he didn’t care. His blood was still pouring out of him as the mandible slowly grew back into place. I reached out and grabbed his ankle in mid-motion before it could contact my face. At the same time, the vampire I had tossed at him lunged for my throat.

  And then my hand, which had a firm grip on the vampire’s joint, suddenly closed on air, and I was covered in ash.

  I leapt up and spun around. There were just the four of us left.

  Stu was automatically helping Flo to her feet, and Sullivan was wiping blood off his face. They looked just as stunned as I felt. It was almost surreal. I had only managed to kill one and wound another.

  What happened?

  Stu shrugged at me in bewilderment. We were all caked with blood, our own as well as the enemy’s. My clothes were ripped and stained. I was sore. My ribs were mending themselves beneath my skin. My veins were tingling despite our recent meal.

  But I was alive.

  “How do vampires suddenly burst into dust without us laying a finger on them?” Stu asked in a low, monotone voice.

  No one had an answer. For that many vampires to disintegrate at once, something had happened. If we hadn’t done it, someone had. Someone on our side, but it wasn’t clear who. Or, why.

  “Iustitia?” Stu asked under his breath. “They said they have people on foot, right?”

  Flo swatted at him without actually hitting him. It seemed like a lack of energy more than a show of kindness. She just wanted him to stop talking so she could think.

  So did I.

  “No.” Sullivan bent over and picked up a very thin, three-inch wooden sliver. It looked like a long toothpick, with one pointed end and one flat. He held it up in front of his face and turned to me. “The Enforcement Team.”

  Chapter 10

  Stu laughed. “They’re still using those things? Even the Iustitia have guns now.”

  His smile quickly faded as he realized the gravity of the situation. The Enforcement Team had come to clean up the city. Finally. But, chances were, we were going to get tangled up in it. We were going to take some of the blame, if not all of it. I had already pissed Phoenix off enough times. He would probably want me killed after this. If there was really a secret, there was a reason he hadn’t told me about it before. He definitely wouldn’t want me to know now that I wasn’t his faithful lapdog.

  Of course, the fact that the Team had saved us was a good sign. Not good enough to feel comfortable with their arrival, but good. They probably weren’t expecting us to be there. Before I killed Francesca, she made it clear Phoenix wanted me back at any cost. I hadn’t been replaced, so, as far as everyone was concerned, I was still the second highest ranking vampire. They would need to get special permission to dust me. A knot lodged itself in my stomach. I couldn’t imagine it was going to be that difficult to acquire.

  The rain was washing all of the ashes down the street. It ran between the cobblestones, weaving its way out of the alley, racing against the red streams of blood. That could have been us. It still could. Nothing was settled yet. The Enforcement Team could still be watching, hidden. They wouldn’t be seen unless they wanted to be. They were experts at what they did, and we were standing there in the open, ripe for the picking.

  “Let’s get back,” I said, still dazed.

  “We’re totally busted,” Stu whispered to Flo as we hurried out of the alley and back to the safety of our apartment building. “The Master is going to freak out.”

  “Of course he is,” she snapped. “But if you were expecting any other outcome, you’re more stupid than I thought.”

  He looked at her with his jaw hanging open. “That was harsh.”

  She was right, though. Even I had known Phoenix would somehow find out what we were doing eventually. It was just a matter of time, but we came anyway. I had come with the purpose of stopping whatever he doing. Now that I knew he wasn’t masterminding it, that he was only letting things continue, I wasn’t any less determined.

  The fact that he waited so long to send the Enforcement Team was enough for me. There had to be a reason he wanted vampires to stay out of Rome. Maybe Sullivan was right. There were secrets buried here that were big enough to keep hidden at any cost. I wondered, though, how Phoenix thought doing nothing was best.

  Abel had managed to get clued in. Now it was my turn. If I could find out what he was hiding, I would have power over him. And when I got it, it was quite possible I would use it.

  We were wet, bloody, aching, and miserable when we got back to our apartment. Our clothes were ruined, and our blood supply cut in half. It was bad enough that we couldn’t feed daily, and that the blood the Iustitia was supposed to be supplying us had fallen into the wrong hands, but to add fighting and blood loss to it made for a very dangerous combination. We were going to have to try under that bridge again. I had kept the address. Maybe Lombardi had arranged for the homeless men to be there every night.

  He was crooked. That much was obvious, so there had to be more to his help than met the eye. It wasn’t something that was church-approved or he wouldn’t have hidden it from Max. I wasn’t going to say anything yet. They wouldn’t believe me over one of their own, so I was going to have to get proof first.

  I opened the door to the lobby and let it slam shut in my face. I was frozen in place. My companions tensed up behind me in response to my reaction, but with no understanding why.

  “What’s wrong?” Flo asked.

  There was a long silence as I fought to find the words. I couldn’t deny being afraid. Any vampire would have been. “Two of them …” I trailed off.

  “They know where we’re staying,” Sullivan said quietly after a second-long pause. “We can’t stand out here forever.”

  “Oh, I think we can,” Stu squeaked.

  Sullivan was right. I took a deep breath and opened the door again. I walked inside with them behind me and tried my best to present an air of confidence. I tried not to let the two members of the Enforcement Team see my fear, but I wasn’t sure how well I managed to pull it off.

  “Hello,” Alonzo greeted.

  He was just as tall as I remembered, and just as intimidating. His eyes were a deep green, the same his twin brother, Vin. Alonzo had gotten a haircut up to his shoulders with bangs hanging in his eyes. Vin had the same short hair as before and still wore the tattoo on his forehead proudly. It was a small black circle in the exact center with two elongated triangles on the each side, pointing toward his temples.

  Vin smiled at us. “Long time, no see.”

  “Not quite long enough,” Flo grumbled from behind me.

  “How have you been?” I asked stiffly. I hadn’t always been afraid of them. We had been friends a long time ago. Before I became a deserter.

  “Busy,” Alonzo replied. “The world is going to pot. Vampires are turning any human they feel like these days.”

  Vin nodded. “It was better when we were selective. At least when we turned nobles, they already knew how to be discrete. And there are a lot more females now. No offense, Flo,” he added quickly. “You’re one of the few that we like.”

  As sexist as it sounded, it was the truth. Centuries ago, women weren’t viewed as equals. You could debate it all you wanted, but it wouldn’t change the past. I wasn’t saying it was right, but it was a hard fact that there were drastically fewer female vampires that had seen anymore than fifty years. They weren’t seen as good fighters back then, and their emotions were worn on their sleeves. Vampires couldn’t reproduce, so most of us didn’t see a purpose for them. There were the exceptions, of course, like Flo and Francesca. It just wasn’t a generally accepted practice.

  “To be a women in a man’s world,” Alonzo said, attempting a joke. It failed. “But, in all seriousness, we haven’t had a break. The Master has been too preoccupied lately to stop the vamps from making all these street-rat babies.”

  “Preoccupied with what?” I asked. The two of them exchanged a look but kept their mouths shut. “I didn’t think the Enforcement Team was doing anything about the situation here,” I continued. “Otherwise, we might have stayed home and saved ourselves a lot of trouble.”

  “We aren’t officially here,” Vin said. “The rest of the team is doing some work in Russia, so we snuck over here to see what was happening.”

  “Why chance it?” Stu asked. “Phoenix will send you straight to the Marquis when he finds out.”

  “He’s not going to find out.” Alonzo gave him a very stern look, rising up to his full height and towering over him. “And, believe it or not, we care what happens to our species. We don’t want to be outted to the humans anymore than you do.”

  “Plus,” Vin added. “Our mother used to live nearby.”

  I really didn’t care why they were there. I cared that they weren’t trying to kill us, and most importantly, that they weren’t going to report back to Phoenix that we were in Rome. Our secret was safe for the moment, but I felt a sudden urgency get everything over with before they could change their minds.

  “Does that mean you’ll help us out?” I asked.

  The twins looked at each other, shrugged, and made a few faces. It was fascinating to see them communicate without a single word. I had read a story once about twins having their own language. I wondered if it was true at the time but never got around to finding out. It looked to me like they didn’t need their own language. They just knew what the other was thinking. But, after a thousand years together, you wouldn’t need to be related to be on the same wavelength with one another.

  “Help you how?” Alonzo asked.

  “We need information,” I told them. “Anything.”

  “Like, how did Abel get out for starters,” Flo said, getting right to the point.

  “That’s a good question.” Alonzo scowled. “We were told to keep the boundaries, though. Phoenix doesn’t want us here.”

  “Phoenix knows that he’s here?” Sullivan asked.

  They nodded, but that seemed to be all they would do to confirm or deny on the subject.

 

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