Page 37 of Royal Protector

He does the same before speaking in a low murmur. “I can’t find Himari.”

“What do you mean?” I ask.

“She was here when we arrived, but the bond went silent about five minutes ago. It’s just . . . empty, right here. Not broken, so I know she’s still alive.” Fear crosses his expression. “Will you help me?”

“Let’s go,” says Buck, tipping the glass down with one swig. “Isabella, you stay here with Anna and Jack. I’ll be right back.”

“Not on your life,” I say. “I’m tired of staying behind. Himari is my friend too.”

Buck gives me a shrug as if to say, ‘suit yourself,’ and the two of us follow Bastien out of the ballroom.

The hallways in the event center are fairly mundane compared to the lavish decor of the ballroom. We peek our head in a few rooms, finding nothing, until a small thud catches our attention.

“This way,” says Bastien, speeding up his steps. We turn a corner, and Buck nearly trips over something in the hallway.

It’s a body—Maura’s body. Blood pools around her head.

“Oh, my God,” I say, dropping to the floor. I check her pulse. “She’s alive, just knocked out.” I check the nasty head wound where fresh blood is matted into her hair. “She’ll need to be looked at, though.”

“Who did this?” asks Buck, his eyes flashing with rage. As he says it, Bastien stills, his body stiffening.

“I can feel her,” he breathes out. “It’s faint, but I can feel Himari. This way.” He takes off in the opposite direction. I murmur an apology to Maura and stand, sprinting off after him, Buck on my heels.

Bastien skids to a stop outside of another large room, the kind that can be used for small parties or receptions. Before I can tell him to wait, he dashes inside, a manic look on his face.

Nothing can prepare me for the sight inside. Himari is tied to a chair, her head lolling to one side. Her eyes are closed, and her breaths come out in shallow puffs of air. Bastien runs to her, tugging at the ropes that bind her.

“Oh good,” says a cold, familiar voice from the other side of the room. “You’re finally here. We can begin.”

My stomach drops as Martina strides forward with a gun in her hand.

“Tell me, Isabella, how well were you trained in marksmanship?” she says with an eerie nonchalant.

“Very well,” I say, edging closer to Bastien and Himari.

“I know,” she says, clicking her tongue. “You were one of my best students. Still, I was always better, no matter how good you got. It was like that in everything, wasn’t it, Isabella? Even in your own duties, I still performed better than you.” She shakes her head, the gun in her hand trained on Bastien. “This gun is filled with silver bullets. I can hit your heart from hundreds of yards away. Tell them, Isabella.”

I swallow. “She can,” I say numbly. “She’s very good.”

“Thank you,” Martina says. For once, her hair is unruly, though she tries to smooth it with her free hand. “I want the three of you to line up against the wall. Quickly now, or I’ll just start shooting. Step away from the vampire, boy.”

Bastien reluctantly follows Buck and I to the wall, where we stand in an awkward line. Martina keeps the gun aimed at Bastien, while she finishes untying Himari’s ropes. When the last coil is undone, Himari falls to the side and onto the floor with a sickening thud.

“What’s wrong with her?” demands Bastien. “What did you give her?”

“One of my own favorite cocktails,” Martina says. “Chamomile and arsenic. It makes vampires incredibly tired and weakens their powers. In this state, they are easily manipulated. She doesn’t even know you’re here.”

Bastien’s claws pop out at her teasing, and I send him a warning look.

“Oh, please, by all means, shift right here,” she taunts. “I’m an even better shot when it comes to hunting animals.”

“Why are you doing this, Martina?” I plead, hoping to reach out to the woman I revered as an aunt. “This isn’t like you.”

She gives me a frenzied look full of disgust. “It is exactly like me. I molded you into the perfect werewolf, Isabella. At the time, all I needed was to train you to behave. No additional force was needed. You were part of a grand tradition, and you threw that away to climb in bed with a bastard.” She squares her shoulders. “Not that it matters. There’s more than one way to return to the way things were. In one week, vampires have attacked a political affair, and the Alpha’s second murdered a vampire in cold blood in his own home. Imagine the fallout when three werewolves are murdered by the vampire Untouchable herself.”

Himari mumbles something under her breath from where she lies on the floor, and her eyes open, revealing large pupils and an unfocused gaze.

“You hired the rogue vampires and framed Antoine?” I say, trembling with shock. “But why?”

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