Page 80 of Perfectly Perfect Pixie

“Sometimes, arrogance is warranted.” Or perhaps, deserved.

Freddie grinned, lips wide and twisted into sheer malevolence. “And sometimes, it means certain death.”

Something was in Freddie’s hand, something long and slender but not sharp. If it was a weapon, it was a blunt one. It—

“No!” Bree’s scream tore through the room. The sound barely reached my ears before her body flashed before mine, arms thrown wide. I didn’t have enough time to react, enough time to wonder what she was doing or why. Fresh screams pierced my ears as she threw her head back seconds before her body crumbled into dust and ash.

Shocked, I stared down at the pile. A sense of heat registered, a painful burn that started in my chest and worked its way out. I was hit from the side, taken to the ground, Leon’s body on top of mine.

Confusion wasn’t mine alone. Murmurs and shouts rang through the air, some of them panicked.

Leon’s anxious voice was layered on top, the closest one. “Lucroy? Are you okay? Talk to me,” Leon demanded.

“Lucroy?” Peaches’s smaller hands and fingers flitted over my skin, touching me everywhere. “What happened? Are you okay? Bree, she . . .” Peaches choked on the end.

From what I understood, Bree had tried to kill him, and yet, he seemed devastated by her death. “Goddess, Lucroy, say something,” Peaches begged.

“I’m fine.” I pushed Leon off, sitting up. My chest stung, but beyond that, I was whole. Before I could manage, Leon ripped my shirt apart. His black eyes widened as he stared at my skin. There was a red spot, a blister that had formed and already appeared to be on the mend.

“I can’t believe it.” Leon’s words were barely a whisper. “I . . . How? You should be dead. You should . . .”

Still confused, I asked, “What happened?”

Leon swallowed. “UV. Freddie brought an ultraviolet light.”

I sucked in a painful breath. Rage filled me. UV was a human creation. It was beyond despicable to use it. When those hateful lights first appeared, vampires had quickly agreed they were not allowed in any challenge—in any fight at all. Leon had a low-voltage one on hand when I’d first started drinking Peaches’s blood, but it was hardly deadly, and I’d ordered him to use it if necessary. Any vampire caught using an unauthorized one was quickly dispatched. They were an abomination, a curse upon our kind. High-power ones were akin to dropping an atomic bomb.

And yet, I’d been hit directly, and all I’d come away with was a healing burn and blister.

Peaches yelped, surprised by how quickly I stood.

Furious, I glared at Frederick. Terror radiated through my nestmates as they huddled against walls. Those closest to the doors had managed to get out. Others had turned tables over and were crouched behind them. The vampire council stood, their placidly blank expression gone, replaced by fury.

Frederick was surrounded by an island of emptiness. The glee filling his eyes faded when he saw me rise, little more than a red welt coloring my chest. Lips twisting, Frederick howled, “How?” He raised the light again, the beam hitting me square in the chest again, slightly above the previous mark.

Anticipating Leon’s reaction this time, I held my hand up, blocking his intervention. My skin burned and sizzled, but that was all, and it only affected the small location the beam hit.

Head bent, I stared down at my flesh. Leon was right. I should be a pile of ash. I wasn’t.

Frederick screamed. It was a crazed sound and shouted insanity. “I will kill them all! Every last member of this fucking nest.”

Raising his arm, Freddie lifted the light, ready to turn it on my nestmates. My muscles bunched, prepared to rend his flesh. Before I could move, Freddie’s eyes went impossibly wide as his head slid from his body. Blood briefly trickled down his neck before his body exploded in a shower of ash.

Nirgal caught the light as it fell from Freddie’s nonexistent hand. Glass shattered, the light mechanism destroyed.

Nirgal didn’t even look at his hand. Voice devoid of all emotion, he simply pronounced, “By order of the vampire council, Frederick has been eliminated.”

I highly doubted they’d had time to debate it. Regardless, no one questioned Nirgal. The use of UV light was damning, and there were enough witnesses that it would never be questioned.

“Fairy law supports your claim, Nirgal.” Ray inclined his head in complete agreement.

Slowly, my nestmates peeked over tables, rising from their crouched hiding places and peeling away from walls.

“Are you hurt?” Peaches flew in front of me, head bent and fingers gingerly touching the area the UV light had touched. A wounded noise worked its way up Peaches’s throat. “Oh, this looks like it stings. It—”

“It’s nothing.” My fingers slipped through Peaches’s hair, lavishing the silky feel.

“But—”

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