Page 40 of Filthy Rich Vampires: For Eternity

Aurelia continued to hold her sword out, the blade only a few inches from Quinn’s dark face.

“Let her up,” I demanded.

“Your Majesty, are you...” Aurelia trailed off as I reached down and held my hand out to Quinn.

She grabbed it, and I hauled her up next to us.

“Thanks, Your Majesty.” Quinn grinned at me.

“Not you, too.” But I threw my arms around her, grateful to see one friend in the crowd.

“I missed you in Greece,” she said.

Before I could respond, a candelabra whizzed past my head.

“Can we catch up later?” Julian suggested. “We need to get out of here.”

“We need to stop all this fighting.”

“Good luck.” Quinn flexed her hands. “This is a tough crowd.”

Watching her work out the lingering aches of using magic, an idea occurred to me. “Wait, what about what you were doing? That was magic, right?”

“You want me to knock everyone over?” She blinked at me and then stared at her hands like she was trying to assess this possibility.

“Can we channel magic to get them to be quiet?” I suggested.

“If I knew how to make someone shut up with magic, I would be a significantly happier person,” she said dryly. “That’s a trick I’d like to learn.”

“You’re in luck,” Lysander’s voice boomed over the crowd as he joined us. His dark hair had fallen free of its tie and was now covered, like the rest of him, in blood.

A quick scan told me that it wasn’t his blood, but I frowned. Violence was bad enough, I wouldn’t allow more lives to be lost.

“We are?” I asked.

“Your new bodyguard has a special set of skills.” He raised an eyebrow at Aurelia. She glared at him. “She knows how to shut people up.”

“How do you...oh, never mind.” I definitely wanted to hear more about this later. For now, I just needed it to work. I whirled on her. “Can you do what he says?”

Her eyes never left his face. It looked like she was imagining the best way to murder him.

“Not with this many people. At least, not without help,” she said through gritted teeth.

“I’ll help.” Quinn stuck out her hand, but Aurelia only looked at it.

“There’s a lot of people here. Give us a boost,” Aurelia said to me.

I swallowed. “I don’t know how.”

“I’ll walk you through it, but you better have a plan—a real plan—this time,” she warned me. “This will only take away their voices. You have to get their attention before they panic.”

“Are we sure this is a good idea?” Lysander asked.

I have to agree with my brother.

It’s a terrible idea, I admitted silently to Julian, but I can’t stand by and do nothing. I need everyone to know that I’m not their enemy. But I’m not sure I’m the best one to speak to them.

Not with how much they hated me and how little they tried to hide it. Resorting to a magic trick to get their attention was one thing, but putting a stop to this...

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