Page 3 of Laid Bare

How can this be happening?

Axel and I were gliding across the floor as romantic music immersed us in our own little world and I decided I was finally ready to tell my mate—my vampire—that I love him. Now, though, I’m standing alone in the middle of a death circle as someone decrees my death. A death that is wholly unwarranted because I didn’t do anything wrong. But how do you tell that to someone who sees you as nothing but a threat?

You don’t, because they won’t listen anyway.

As the head councilman’s words repeat in my head, drowning out the mob of super pissed-off supernaturals, it hits me square in the chest that this is probably how every other of my kind felt when the rest of the world turned on them.

And it’s not a feeling I like.

But you know what? I won’t let them take me down that easily. I have two incredible mates to live for and a legacy to learn about.

It’s just… not my time. Not now. Not like this.

So, you know what? Fuck the head councilman’s decree and the dragon he rode in on. Pun intended.

I refuse to allow my life to be cut short because he’s afraid of someone who was born to hold more power than he was. Because that’s what this whole display boils down to.

Fear.

He’s not stronger than me, and he knows it. Just like all those that came before me.

Like my birth mother and father.

Hell, I don’t even know what kind of super he is under that robe, but it’s blatantly clear that he’s a weak little man with a superiority complex.

Steeling my resolve, my eyes dart around the amassed supernaturals, all calling for my head. Anger and rage unlike I’ve ever seen rests in their eyes as they stare me down like I’m the scum of the paranormal world. And I guess, in their minds, I am. But I can’t let that bother me. I can think about that when my life isn’t hanging in the balance. Right now, I need to focus on getting out of here before one of them decides to take the head councilman up on his words.

What’s that saying? Oh, right. I’m too young to die.

My life practically just started, and there’s still so much more to live for.

So, no. I won’t let this coward sentence me to death.

One problem, though. I have no clue how the heck to get out of here relatively unscathed.

My gaze scans in every direction, looking for someone—anyone—sympathetic to my plight. But there’s no one. Not Thaddeus nor Miss Izzicle. Heck, I don’t even know if Headmaster Stonewell is here. Even worse, though, I don’t even see my guys. A smidgen of fear races down my spine that they left me to the growing mob, but I squash it down. There’s no way they would do that. Not after everything we’ve been through.

Somethingmust be keeping them from getting to me.

“Titus, apprehend the curiomancer and bring her to the dais. Everyone here will bear witness to her law-sanctioned death.”

What the fuck?

How is it that every time the head councilman opens his mouth, things just keep getting worse for me.

This is some bullshit. What I wouldn’t give to be back in the human sectors with my parents again. Dammit. Tears gather in my eyes as my thoughts drift to them. I haven’t been fair to the people who raised me. The ones that loved me when my birth parents were unable to. The ones who opened their home to raise a baby as their own.

I never got to apologize for being a shit daughter there at the end.

Tremors overtake my body as the crowded supernaturals start to part, giving way for whoever the hell this Titus person is. But I don’t know what’s scarier. The anticipation of my first view of this person, or the fact that he’s going to drag me up there to die.

“Don’t fucking touch her, Titus!” My breath catches. Luka. I’d know his voice anywhere. My head snaps in the direction his voice projected from, and what I see makes me stumble. There, on the floor, five large men hold him down, with more waiting to help. My demi-god bucks and fights, but there’s just too many keeping him contained for him to help me.

“Luka!”

His eyes connect with mine, and the fire resting in those navy orbs tells me all I need to know.

He’ll save me.

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