Page 58 of The Vampire Kingpin
Grimclaw whitened. “I didn’t mean anything. I just wanted to see my cousin before I left.”
Meanwhile Troll sidled sideways, putting space between himself and his alpha, the coward. I ignored him, trusting Velma and Monster to secure him, and drove Grimclaw into a niche in the subway wall. Jacko backed me up.
“Wrong answer,” I told him. “I warned you to stay away from her, didn’t I?”
Lark made a small sound. “You did what?”
I whipped my head around. “Not another word, understand? Velma—gag her if you have to.”
Lark lifted her palms, easing backward. “Fine. I’ll be quiet, alright?”
Velma clamped a hand on her arm, and Monster had gotten a hold of Troll.
But when I turned back to Grimclaw, Monster cursed and I glanced around to see that Troll had taken off, Monster on his heels.
“Troll, dammit!” Grimclaw tried to follow Troll.
I poked his chest with my blade. “Stay.”
He froze. “Please, my lord. I just wanted to see my cousin. What’s so wrong about that?”
“It’s wrong because I say it is. I told you she was dead to you. What part of that meant you get to visit her whenever the fuck you feel like it?”
Velma frowned at her phone. “Troll went into the shadows. Monster says be careful.”
I jerked my head in acknowledgment. Nearby, I sensed Lark coming a step closer. A part of me would always know exactly where she was. “Spider, please. Just listen to me.”
Her pleading tones made me feel like the biggest fool in the world because I wanted to give in. Wanted to trust her. Wanted to believe she hadn’t been playing me all this time.
I snapped my head around. “Dammit, Velma. Keep her quiet.”
Velma folded her arms over her chest. “I think you should hear what she has to say.”
Lark’s pretty throat worked. The same throat I’d kissed just a few hours ago. “It’s not what you think,” she said before I could say anything else. “I’m on your side.”
“Are you? Because it didn’t sound like that to me. Sounds like you were all about getting what you could from me. How much were you gonna ask for this time? Fifty grand? A hundred? Because baby, you’re not that good.”
“Stop it!” A furious blue lit up around Lark’s green irises. She glared at me, hands clenched, a streak of red on each of her cheekbones. “We were just talking, you jerk. He’s my cousin, for Luna’s sake.”
“That’s what I told him,” Grimclaw muttered.
I silenced him with a look. To Lark, I said, “I heard you, you little hustler. You told him you could get the money, that you just needed a few days to work on me.”
She took a long breath. “Okay, I admit that looks bad. But I didn’t mean?—"
Lark gasped as Troll emerged out of the shadows behind Velma, a silver blade raised high. He slashed it down toward her nape, aiming for that spot beneath her skull that would severe her spine.
My heart lurched. Even a vampire can’t recover from a blow like that.
“Velma!” I shot forward. “Behind y?—!”
But I was too far away, and to get to Troll, I’d have to go through Velma first. The silver arced through the air and I realized sickly that I wasn’t going to be able to reach Troll in time. My only hope was to knock Velma to the tracks.
Lark was right beside Velma, though, and she moved at the same time, screaming Troll’s name as she gave him a hard shove, knocking him off-balance. He stumbled, his knife slicing into Velma’s right shoulder instead of her spine.
A split second later, I slammed into Velma, taking her down to the berm beside the subway tracks. I rolled with her, taking the brunt of the impact, then leapt to my feet to find Lark facing down Troll with the switchblade I’d allowed her to keep. It was only a matter of time before he got through her defenses.
My stomach dropped to my boots. I was dimly aware of Jacko pinning Grimclaw to the wall, but I was already in motion.
