Page 57 of Blood Bound (Blood Mafia 3)

Colt and Alissa rush over to where I’m standing.

When my mom sees me, she yells something, but the fabric shoved into her mouth garbles the words. Dad starts to jerk in place, eyes widening in panic and screaming at me like my mother is.

Nix is flanked by twelve vampires. The club is littered with bodies of fallen vampires. Severed heads, limbs, and things I’d rather not think about cover the floor. They ripped the vampires Mateo left behind to shreds.

I glance at the door to the feeder room. It’s wide open.

Correction.

They killed humans too.

“Shut up,” Nix says, slamming her fist against my dad’s temple. He falls over in a heap.

My mom is crying. She whimpers when Nix squats down in front of her.

“Shh.” The vampire runs her hand over my mom’s cheek. “Or I’ll drain you like I did to the little witch.”

Nodding, my mom closes her eyes and shies away from Nix’s touch.

Nix smiles at her. “Good girl.” She stands, placing her hands on her hips and facing us. “Welcome home, Mateo.”

Evelyn hisses at Nix who simply winks and blows her a kiss.

“Evelyn, love. How are you?”

“What are you doing here?” Mateo asks flashing onto the stage.

Grayson is two seconds from chasing after him so I move to his side, wrapping my hand around his forearm. There are too many vampires up there for him to make it out unharmed. Lacey is down, she won’t come to any more harm unless Grayson attacks.

Nix moves to meet Mateo, catching him around the throat and pressing her fingers into his skin. She’s his sire, meaning she is older and stronger than him.

“Is that any way to treat your sire?”

He growls at her and she laughs.

“Here I thought you’d be happy to see me after all this time. Color me surprised when I showed up a few weeks ago and found out you were bonded with a hunter.” Nix flits her blue eyes to me and sneers. “Do you know who she is?”

Mateo tries to break her hold, but Nix only hisses in response.

Releasing Grayson’s arm, I start to move toward them. Nix yanks out a knife from the small of her back with her free hand and plunges it into Mateo’s stomach. My heart leaps into my throat.

“Nix,” Mateo growls. “You’re going to regret this.”

She twists it when I take another step. “Not another step, hunter. I’ll kill him.”

So long as she doesn’t separate his head from his body and burn it, he’ll come back.

What are the chances I can stop her and her vampire minions before she manages that?

I glance at Colt, Grayson, Evelyn, and Alissa. Alissa’s healed and rested, but even with her and Evelyn helping me and my men, we’re outnumbered.

Grayson shakes his head, sayingyou stopped me from doing something rash so you don’t get to be a hero today eitherwith the gesture.

The rest of Mateo’s vampires are flying back via commercial airline and won’t arrive for a few more hours. There’s hope though, I’m standing with the best the Blood Mafia has to offer.

Nix cackles. “I love seeing that look on your face. Are you scared, little bitch?”

You know, there’s something really annoying about being referred to aslittle bitch. It implies I’m too small to worry about. Would I rather be called abig bitch? Not necessarily, but at least that name recognizes that I am someone capable of causing damage.

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