Page 28 of Hitched to the Vampire King

“How?” I mumbled into her shoulder. “How could they do that to him?”

“We still don’t know all the details,” Josh admitted. “But we suspect they did it to send a message to us. To anyone who would dare oppose them.”

My anger bloomed into full-blown fury. “Then I’ll return the favor,” I bit out, my voice hardening. “If they think they can get away with this, that they can just discard people like they’re worthless…” I pulled back from Jaden. “I’ll kill them for this.” I pictured the council in my head, my thoughts going dark.

“No, Maddie,” Jaden said, her voice softening. “You can’t. They’re human. They fall under human jurisdiction. If you kill them, the police could arrest you and send you to jail. Then we’d loseyoutoo. If we’re going to take them down, we need to do it the right way.”

Frustration boiled within me. “What does that even mean? What’s the right way?”

“I don’t know yet,” she said. “Honestly, we haven’t had a lot of time to process this yet. But we’ll figure it out like we do everything else. Together.”

My anger quickly dissipated at the sight of her own tear-stained cheeks. Resolve settled like a stone in my stomach, and I nodded. “Together.”

Jaden drew another deep breath. “I hate to say this, but I don’t think we should return to Jackson yet. We aren’t ready to handle this. And unfortunately, we’re targets in Jackson.”

“Not to mention you’re running on empty, Maddie,” Josh added in. “You and Gabriel need to get your strength back.”

I sighed, then spared a glance back at my vampire. Gabriel would be fine after he had a little more blood. The joys of an undead life. I, however, needed more TLC than that. I hated the thought of waiting to get my revenge, but I refused to risk anyone else’s life. Plus, I’d promised Avery to help her kill Nash. I had a commitment to fulfill here first before we could head home.

“I understand,” I said. “If we went home tonight, the council would probably try to take us out again. But right now, they likely think Gabriel and I are dead, which will keep us off their radar for the time being. Adrian, however, is the bigger problem. He knows we escaped. He’s going to be looking for us, and likely expects us to be looking for him. He’s the more pressing concern right this second.”

I truly hated the next words that came out of my mouth. “The best course of action is for us to remain here, put an end to Adrian, then head home to handle the council.” My heart broke when I thought of Chris. He would want us to be smart and survive, but it was hard to ignore my overwhelming desire to rip the council to shreds. I owed them so much pain, and the vindictive side of me wanted to collect.

“Josh and I were thinking the same thing. I’m so glad you agree,” Jaden said.

“Where is he now?” I asked quietly. “Chris, I mean.”

Jaden sighed. “At the local morgue in Jackson. The police haven’t released his body since he’s part of an ongoing investigation. They’ve put out a call asking for anyone with information to contact them, but Josh and I were afraid to do so. We had no idea where you were, and we were worried the council would retaliate if we went to the local PD.” She squeezed me tightly. “When Sam called to say they’d found you…I was so relieved. We feared you and Gabriel were dead. We kept waiting for the phone call that someone had found your bodies too.”

I winced, the pain in her words shredding whatever remained of my fractured heart.

Jaden rested her head in the crook of my shoulder, clearly not caring about my stench. True friendship at its best.

“But you’re here now,” she continued. “And you’re alive. Both of you. Let’s keep it that way, okay? We’ll deal with Adrian, then go home and deal with the council. No one else is dying.”

I wished I could believe her. But considering the events of the past few days, it was hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Adrian wouldn’t quit until Gabriel and I were dead. And who knew where Elias stood on that matter. Then there was the council, and truly, they seemed even more formidable than Gabriel’s father. The Academy had an army of slayers at their disposal. If they named us traitors and ordered the others to kill us, we were screwed. There was no way we could survive an attack like that.

“Do you think you can tell us what happened?” Josh asked, his voice soft. “At the Academy, I mean. And afterward, if you’re able to.”

Exhaustion tugged at my eyelids. Sleep beckoned, and while I knew I would have to cave eventually, I wasn’t ready. They deserved to know everything that had happened. Especially if those were Chris’s final moments alive.

“We spoke to the council and laid everything out. We told them about the corruption, about the people within their ranks who were taking bribes for contracts against vampires. We told them that we suspected one council member was involved. They wanted more proof than we had to give, or so they claimed. Then Harold,” I growled his name, “called in Adrian and a small force of vampires.”

I paused and raked a hand down my filthy face. “They just strolled intoourAcademy like they belonged there. Gabriel recognized his father immediately. Adrian and Gabriel spoke, and Adrian revealed that the only reason we weren’t dead was because someoneelsewanted to see us first, who I later learned was Elias, Gabriel’s brother. Then Adrian injected Gabriel with holy water, and me with liquid silver, which took us both out. The last thing I saw was Chris, surrounded by?—”

Panic surged as the memory of Adrian’s vampires surrounding Chris assaulted me. My breath quickened and I dropped my head into my hands. “Vampires killed him, didn’t they?” I asked through my tears. “That’s how they did it?”

After a moment, Jaden murmured a quiet, “Yes.”

I started sobbing. Vampires had murdered Chris’s entire family years ago. It was why he’d become a slayer—to avenge them and to protect other families. To ensure no one went through what he had. To know that he’d shared the same fate as his family broke me.

“He must have been so scared,” I mumbled into my palms.

“Hey,” Josh said, rubbing my back. “Nothing scared Chris. You know that. He would have fought to his very last breath.”

“Chris was one of the bravest people we knew,” Jaden added.

It killed me that they spoke in the past tense.

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