“I won’t return the favor,” she said with a sneer. “I don’t take pride in cleaning up messes. Nor do I enjoy this little competition your fuck toy has created for us.”
“Afraid someone else will get to me before you do?” I teased.
She gave me a smile. “Too late.”
She pulled the knife back, but as she was about to bring it down on me, she was jerked away.
I scrambled up just in time to catch Vesper disarming her. The anger on her face was unlike anything I’d seen before. Pure, unrestrained anger. There was only one way to calm something like that.
I couldn’t help but admire how beautiful she looked.
“I should have killed you sooner,” Vesper growled. The girl jerked against her.
“Just get it over with,” she huffed.
“Not until you tell me who else is here. Three? Five?”
She let out a laugh. “You really don’t know, do you?”
I crossed the space between us and pointed the dagger at her stomach. Both their eyes flashed to me.
“What number are you?” I asked. This caused a playful look to pass over her face.
“Not dumb indeed,” she breathed. “I’m number thirteen.”
My gaze shot to Vesper.Thirteen? The look in her eyes told me she was just as surprised.
“Where are they?” Vesper asked and pushed her closer to my knife. The tip dug into her skin, breaking it and letting her bright red blood spill out. She let out a groan.
“Acting innocent in front of your girlfriend?” she asked with a laugh. “Tell her how you killed them. Tell her how you mutilated their bodies and dropped them off outside the property. My job wasn’t only to finish what you couldn’t do, it was to end you. They’re mad, Vesper, and they won’t stop until you are both dead.”
I knew Vesper hadn’t done it. She was a killer like them, but there was no way she would have been able to kill all of them.
I pushed the knife into her stomach to the hilt.
“You talk too much,” I growled. Pain flashed across her face as her mouth opened in a silent scream. Vesper covered both her mouth and nose, holding on tight until she slumped against us.
We stood there for a few moments in silence, both our minds reeling at not only what we had just done, but the threat that lay out there waiting for us.
It will never end.
“Who’s killing them?” I asked in a whisper.
Her expression hardened. “Only one person could.”
“It’s time to tell the fucking truth,” Vesper growled as she pushed Cedar against the wall.
The witch could have easily fought her off, but she let her hold the knife to her throat. She put her hands up, but unlike before, there was no smile on her face.
She was just as serious as we were.
The night air was cold, and I was forced to look over my shoulder at every rustle or sound for fear another one of Vesper’s colleagues would sneak up on us.
Cedar hadn’t been in her room when we first looked, but somehow we found her in the garden my mother once loved. The same one Vesper and I stayed in the night before my wedding.
I didn’t like the coincidence.
“Please tell me you dumped her body somewhere, so I don’t have to help you clean up,” she said with a sigh.