Page 47 of Blood Gift

16

Vanessa

“Don’t getany closer to them,” Holden warned, a hand on my arm.

I tried to shake him off, but he wasn’t having it.

Gentry nodded. “He’s right. Stay back. Stay as far away as you can. You shouldn’t have come.”

“No, no, she should have. I’m glad she’s here—her and her little pet,” Dominic sneered. “I can do what I wanted to do out in the street the other day. There are no witnesses here.”

“Don’t let him get to you,” I whispered.

It was bad enough he was close to getting to me. I couldn’t risk Holden losing control, as much as I would’ve loved to see him shred the bastard who laughed at us.

“Doesn’t it bother you, having to spend so much time with a creature who barely deserves your attention?” Dominic asked, shaking his head as though he pitied me. “You’re obviously a strong witch, or you wouldn’t have earned the position you now hold. Doesn’t your skin crawl when you stand as close to him as you do now?”

“Hold your tongue,” I ordered as Holden’s hand tightened enough for me to wince in pain.

“And you,” he continued, turning his attention to my vampire, “doesn’t it burn you up inside to know you’ll never be good enough for her? You’re not even fit to lick the soles of her shoes. You’ll never be anything more than a blood-sucking servant, a slave, someone to trail around in her shadow. She’ll never see you as anything more than a pathetic tool for her to use. And she’ll never love you.”

Holden shoved me aside then lunged at the sorcerer.

“No!” I screamed, throwing myself after him, but he was much too fast.

Not fast enough.

Dominic’s laugh was enough to freeze my blood as he held up his hand and fired a bolt of sizzling, white light into Holden’s chest. He seized up with an agonized shriek, his body freezing for a split second, before crumpling to the ground.

“No!” I screamed again as I landed beside him, rolling him over.

His eyes were wide open in unblinking, unseeing shock.

“No, no, no,” I whispered as I brushed his hair back and cradled his head in my lap. “Oh, Holden, I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.”

“See the way she kneels beside him in the dirt? See the way she debases herself for his sake even after I’ve ended his pathetic life? He’s lucky I didn’t prolong things as I wanted to.” Dominic laughed again.

I raised my head slowly, and the wind kicked up as I did. I got one foot under me, then another, and stood beside Holden’s body. My hands tingled and burned in anticipation of all I wanted to do to him.

Clouds rolled in from all sides, blocking the moon and stars. Thunder rumbled loud enough to shake the ground and lightning leaped from one cloud to the other, making the sky look as though it were on fire.

“Vanessa!” Gentry shouted over the storm. “Don’t do this! He wants you to do this!”

That wasn’t so. Gentry was right about a lot of things, but not about this.

His brother’s face was a mask of stone, but his eyes told another story. He was terrified. He had no idea what I was capable of.

I threw up a shield around myself in time to deflect one spell, then another, the bolts of white and blue light diverted easily before they could hit my body, shooting off in all directions.

I walked to him, one careful step after another, taking my time. Savoring the growing panic in the coward’s eyes the closer I moved.

He tried to put the marble sarcophagus between us.

I pointed one palm in its direction and cracked the monument in two.

“How dare you?” he shrieked. How could he look so much like Gentry but be so unlike him?

His features twisted in rage as he threw another spell, then another.

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