Liam released me and I sucked in gulps of air.
Waleron looked over to the right in the shadows. “Keir, get him out of here. Take Abby, too.”
Liam hissed. “Stupid. Do you know what Jasmine will do to her?”
Waleron nodded. “Yes.”
Kilter flinched and his eyes shot to mine. The devastation nearly broke me. Let me be strong. I have to be strong for him.
Keir came up beside Kilter. “Not the time,” Keir warned.
Kilter’s eyes remained on me, piercing and staring into me as if desperate to read my thoughts, to know if he walked away, I’d be okay. I raised my chin, half-smiled, and nodded.
“Babe.”
“Go,” I said.
He grunted then turned and walked away with Keir.
Waleron addressed Liam. “You will never have Abby.” His eyes narrowed and his fingers curled into fists. “And tell Jasmine I’m coming for her.”
Liam shoved me into the arms of one of his vampires. “You walk away now, you’ll never have your daughter back.”
“No. Tell Jasmine she can have me. Take me,” Delara cried stepping forward.
“We don’t negotiate,” Waleron stated and grabbed Delara’s forearm, pushing her toward the door. She tripped and fell to her knees. He didn’t seem to care as he roughly pulled her up and kept walking.
The door opened and slammed shut behind them.
Silence.
Then Delara’s haunted cry wrenched through the night air.
I stood in the library, frozen. Unable to do anything except fight all the emotions shifting through me. My Ink violently slithered around my neck, burning a path, desperate for escape. I’d taken three pills since we left the meeting and they’d done fuck all.
Nothing had prepared me for the news tonight. Nothing. I couldn’t even look at Delara. If I did, I was afraid of what I’d do to her.
A daughter? Mine and Delara’s.
That night replayed in my head for years, over and over like a broken record. A night I had tried desperately to forget, to numb out with the pills, and yet it always lingered, haunting me.
“Waleron?” Keir walked into the library. “Should we contact the Wraiths and Trinity?”
I’d lost the ability to fear anything a long time ago. But now it crept back into me at the thought of my daughter. A daughter I didn’t know existed. A daughter who’d been used for years as a science experiment. A daughter now being used as a pawn in a dangerous game I didn’t know if I could win.
And Delara. I knew she hurt. She hadn’t known about Rayne being alive, and yet I couldn’t be near her because what I feared more than anything was losing control. If that happened, no one would be safe.
Jasmine. All these years, she’d had Rayne. Waiting for the day she could use her against me. Lure me back into her prison and destroy Delara at the same time.
I turned my attention to Keir. “There’s no time to go to the realm and inform the Wraiths. We go in hard and fast.” Before Jasmine disappeared with Rayne.
Keir nodded. “I’ll call everyone to the library and—”
I held my hand up then quickly lowered it when I noticed it tremble. “No. Not yet. I need a minute.”
Keir hesitated before nodding and leaving the room, closing the door behind him.
I reached into my pocket, hand curling around what kept my control. Then I collapsed onto the couch, elbows on my knees, hands hanging between my legs, and head bowed.
I had a fuckin’ daughter who I may have just sent into hell.
WE DIDN’T RETURN TO Liam’s penthouse; instead, we went to his club—well, I assumed it was his club.
Liam led the entourage past the bar down a dark corridor with dim red lights that flickered. He stopped at a door at the end of the corridor and punched a code into a box. Shivers trickled through me. A reminder of the compound. Code boxes. Locked doors. Security everywhere.
Liam walked down the stairs. I hesitated and a hand shoved me forward. “Move.”
I held onto the handrail as I followed Liam down the stairs into complete darkness. A click sounded and my heart jumped, but it wasn’t the cock of a gun; instead, fluorescent lights flickered on.
I stood in a room with cement walls with several thick, wooden beams across the ceiling. A long, rustic, wooden table sat in the middle with twelve chairs. A chandelier hung from one of the beams above. The only warmth in the room was the worn-out red and black rug beneath the table.
Liam nodded to the vampire next to me and he snagged my elbow, guiding me to the far end of the room. I glanced over my shoulder at the stairs. At my only escape. Two vampires stood in front of them. Not that it was even a possibility I’d make it to the stairs, even if they hadn’t stood there.
He pulled me to the far wall, pushing me against it. “Stay.”
Coldness seeped into my body, but it wasn’t from the damp cement wall I leaned against, it was from fear. No matter how much I’d changed since Anton, I was still scared, but it didn’t mean I was giving up.
That was what was different. I could be scared, but I’d fight. I wouldn’t give in to them. I’d die before I did. And I had a feeling that might happen.
The door opened and shut at the top of the stairs. Then high heels clicked on the stairs. I bit the inside of my cheeks as I waited for her to appear. And I knew who it had to be—Jasmine.
The two vampires guarding the stairs stepped aside and she strolled into the room. Her eyes were narrowed, lips pursed and she looked seriously pissed off. My heart raced and I leaned back against the wall as my knees threatened to give out.