Page 99 of Incipient

A yelping howl grabbed my attention and held it as Ben’s wolf rolled onto its back and then jumped back to his feet. With his teeth barred, he pounced against the vampire, sinking his razor-sharp teeth into the vampires leg and knocking him down on his ass.

Seeing an opening, Pricilla, swung her leg up and knocked me off of her before pinning me down under her body. Her fist came down hard against my face, though I barely felt the pain through my adrenaline. Another blow smacked against my cheek as I reached up grabbed her throat, squeezing until I heard the sound of her windpipe shattering.

Her hands flew up to her neck as her eyes widened in horror, giving me time to throw her off me and scramble back up to my feet, though she was right there behind me, grabbing me by the collar of my shirt as she tried to yank me back down to the ground.

Pulling at the front of my shirt, I twisted out of her hold and spun on her as something cold and metallic slid off my neck and down my body. Panic seized my insides as I realized I’d accidently snapped the chain around my neck. The one that had kept the Amulet so close to my heart for all these months. Horror seeped into my eyes as I watched the Amulet tumble to the ground and then shatter into a hundred little unmendable pieces.

The Amulet—myAmulet was gone. The one thing that had kept me alive all these months, and it was gone. Ripped out of existence by a slip of the hand.

Trace froze, his horrified gaze bouncing between me and the shattered Amulet, allowing Dominic to regain the upper hand as he crashed his fist into Trace’s already swollen cheek.

I winced as blood splattered from his face, but I didn’t have any time to sit with it before Pricilla charged me again, knocking me back several feet onto the ground. My gaze darted to Gabriel who was rushing over to Tessa while his opponent lay lifelessly a messy pool of his own blood.

Pricilla’s face twisted with revenge and victory as though she already had this in the bag now that I no longer had my Amulet saving me from certain death. Visceral fear—the kind I had not felt in a long time—shot through my veins as she made the final leap toward me; her pupils dilated, fangs extracted and claws ready to tear through flesh and bone.

As if on instinct, my hand flew to the sheath under my skirt and withdraw the Sword of Angelus, spearing her through the chest as she landed on top of me and then stayed there, lifeless and unmoving. Warm liquid pooled against my own chest and I gagged, knowing it was her blood.

Rolling her off me, I scrambled up to my feet and then knelt down over her, pressing my knee against her stomach as I ripped the sword out of her heart and then swung it along the length of her neck. Her head separated from her body, as easy as cutting through butter, and then rolled unceremoniously toward the center of the room. Everyone came to a dead stop and watched as I slowly stood to my full height and faced Dominic, letting him know from the smirk on my face that that one was for him.

Fury darkened his eyes as he pushed Trace off him and scrambled forward to catch her rolling head. He picked it up and then cradled it against his chest, and I all but vomited in my mouth.

“You really shouldn’t have done that,” he said as he rose to his feet, grief skewing his face like a brand-new skin.

I pulled out my wooden stake in response as Trace moved up beside me.

Before either of us could make a move or say anything, Tessa rushed him from behind, throwing her arm around his neck and yanking him backward into a chokehold as she brought her dagger to his neck.

“Tessa, don’t!” I screamed, knowing what she was going to do—that she was going to curse him to the same fate as his Sire. A fate that there was no coming back from.

Tessa paused to meet my eyes as Dominic did nothing but stand there, still holding Pricilla’s head in his hands as he waited to join her. An apology flickered through her eyes as feral scream ripped out of my lungs.

She plunged the knife into his neck, though before she could drag it fully across Dominic’s neck, Trace appeared out of thin air and pulled the knife from her trembling hand. Tessa bucked and screamed against his hold as he hauled her backward and away from Dominic, whispering something into her ear to calm her.

My gaze bounced from him to the Trace standing beside me and then back to the Trace holding my sister. It took my brain a few tries to realize there were two Trace’s standing in the room with us.

One of which was an Alt who had just saved Dominic’s life.

What the fuck was going on?

Before I could vocalize as much, the Trace holding my sister evaporated into thin air, leaving me stunned and confused. Unwilling to allow my sister another chance at ending Dominic permanently, I gripped my stake with both hands and then plunged it into Dominic’s chest, grabbing his arms as he fell backwards and then nearly landing on top of him as we hit the ground together.

My heart splintered with agony as his face turned ashen and all sign of life left his eyes. I told myself he wasn’t dead, just sleeping temporarily, and with that I pushed the hurt away for the moment and focused on my sister and friends instead.

“Is everyone okay?” I asked as my gaze darted around the room to make sure everyone was in one piece before landing on Ben who had shifted back into human form and was tending to a bloodied shoulder. His opponent lay on the ground beside him with a bowl-sized hole in his chest.

“How bad is it?” I asked, gesturing to his wound.

“Nothing a little magic won’t fix.” He winked.

My gaze shifted to my sister. “Tess?”

“I’m fine,” she said, looking battered and shaken up, but alive.

My eyes jumped to Gabriel who was standing beside her, his arm around her waist as he held her up. He gave me a single nod, letting me know he was still in one piece. “I’ll take her home.”

I nodded and then turned toward Trace, afraid of what I would see when I finally looked him in the eye.

His eyes were swirling with so much emotion, it knocked the air clear out of my lungs. “Is it true?” he asked evenly.

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