Page 132 of Madness Behind the Mask
I rise to my feet – well, foot, and hop around to face him fully. “Sau took it all when she killed everyone.”
His face blanches as he reaches me. “Everyone?”
“That is what I said.”
“Except for you?” There’s a clear accusation there, and it’s not exactly unwarranted. I did throw the tournament on the same day I sent her Jonathan as a beacon to bring her here. They were all my bait, and they played their part so damn well.
“They couldn’t phase. I had to hover for about fifteen minutes.”
“So that’s why you looklikeDeath came and shat all over you.”
I chuckle. That’s not unwarranted either.
“Why are you here?” I ask as he ducks under my arm, the same side as my missing foot.
“I saw the wards outside. Thought all the witches had come –”
“So you came in on your own?” My words are biting, chastising in every syllable. “I did not think you a fool.”
His jaw ticks, and I know he hoped Caden would be here. That his want for revenge made him stupid. If I had my strength, I’d slap him round the back of the head.
“If we both died here,” I say instead, “the Blood Fangs would be easy picking for another nest to move in.”
“We just lost over half our numbers. I highly doubt the Crypts are going to sit back and let us regain them.”
I tilt my head to the side in agreement. The Crypts is a gang in northern Louisiana, and they’ve been toeing our borders, testing the waters to see if they’ll burn, for years. “Let them come,” I say, my fangs extending. “I could use a feast.”
Calling me a fool, Vlad phases us home.
It’s been over a week, and I’ve not seen Sau.
More worryingly, I’ve not seen Caden.
No one has. He hasn’t left the street, their home, most like, since he got back from Raleigh, North Carolina. And he returned early, pissing off the Mattos twins. My spies say he didn’t even meet them, having left Vance toseethemon his own.
I assumed Caden came back as soon as he heard about Sau’s little rampage and is nursing her back to health.But what if she isn’t healing? What if he’s in mourning?
I shake my head.No…no, she’s stronger than that.
We will die together, our blades inside each other. That is how it is meant to be.
She’ll heal.
She has too.
So I sit on a rooftop, staring at the Shadows’ home, and wait to catch a glimpse of one of them.
Something is most definitely wrong.
It’s Ryo’s wedding day, and neither his mother nor his father are attending. Sau loves her children.She wouldn’t miss this unless she was dead.
But she can’t be.
She was healthy enough to leave the gym, and no one mentioned finding her body in the streets. She made it home,and she’s one of the strongest healers that has been born in generations.
She’s alive.
She has to be.
