Page 66 of Fangs for the Memories
One of them lands, ungainly, ten feet away from me on the ledge, its black, expressionless eyes fixed on my position. It stalks forward. I want to step back, but I don’t trust myself to balance, and it’s a long, long way down.
Whatever it wants, I’m powerless to resist.
Out of the snow, a huge black shape leaps over the roof and slams into the creature, the momentum carrying both of them over the gap between the buildings and onto the flatter roof of the one on the other side. The air is filled with shrieks and growls as two of the other creatures return to assist their colleague. It’s almost impossible to tell what’s happening, with so much movement, so much snow, and my eyes filled with tears from the freezing wind.
Until, as if there was never any sound in the air at all, the noises cease.
Nothing moves. Then the massive blackthinglands back on my side. I put a foot behind me and find there’s nothing. I flail my arms, knowing I’m going to fall and unable to do anything about it.
All the regrets I’ve had flash in front of me.
And there are two.
That I could have met Ferenc sooner, if only I’d been prepared to take a leap into the unknown.
And I should have told him about the baby.
Ferenc
Isnap at the front of Grace’s coat as she falls backward. The fabric gives for a second under my jaws, but it holds long enough I can jerk her forward and into my arms.
The Darasz are all dead. This time.
“Ferenc?” She holds onto me with a death grip.
“I’m here, kedves. Where did you think you were going?”
Her teeth chatter wildly, her eyes not focussing on me. I have to get her off this roof and back to pack headquarters where she will, temporarily, be safe.
But the fact the Darasz found her, regardless of whether these ones are dead, mean she is, as I thought, not safe in Budapest.
Grace is not safe because of me. Because I won’t give in to the rogue’s desire to open the vault, and until I can track him down and stake him, she will never be safe.
And staking him means the end of the uneasy truce with the Király vampires. Even if they don’t want to own the rogue, killing a vamp so powerful will send a message.
Perhaps it’s time. My father negotiated the truce, and he only ever wanted an easy life so he could drink palinka and fuck anything which moved.
So many pack matings in those days were not fated. My mother and father being one of them. As soon as I was of age, he left me to protect her, giving up any semblance of being pack alpha until I took the crown from him.
This will not be Grace’s fate. I will always, always protect her.
“Hold on.” I clutch her to me as I shift into were-form and easily clamber down from the rooftop.
In the street, Viktor is waiting with my car. I bundle Grace into it.
“Take her to the airport. I’ll call ahead to make sure the jet is ready,” I tell him.
“Where are you going?” he asks.
“I need to arrange for her passport and other items to be sent on. If the Darasz think they can attack in broad daylight, then she has to leave Budapest now.”
I expect Viktor to argue with me. Iwanthim to argue with me. I want him to tell me not to let her go.
Instead, he nods at my instructions and gets into the car. The door closes and it sweeps away from me.
I fight my wolf’s desire to go after her. It’s more important I deal with the atrocity of the attack on her, as well as arranging for her to return to her homeland.
What this means for me, for us, is anyone’s guess. For now, she has to be protected, and her protection lies outside of the borders of my land.
