Page 67 of The Soulless Witch

“And my kind can?” I raised an eyebrow.

Roman gave me an exasperated look.

“No,” he said sharply, taking a step toward me. With that lean body and chiseled face, he looked like he’d be easy to take down. An illusion, I knew that, but still it made me stand a bit taller as I met his gaze. “But I trustyouare uniquely motivated to keep her alive until she tells you what you want to know. Including the whereabouts of your sister. Because if she dies, I can wait another hundred years for her to wake again, but can you? Can your sister?”

A low snarl escaped my lips before I could stop it. I wanted to punch him until he spilled all those precious secrets, but something told me he’d never break. So I had to do the next best thing… protect the person I had spent the last eighty years hating with all of my heart.

‘For Alice,’I reminded myself, clinging to the hope that my sister was alive. Because if this was just a ruse to use me and then tell me she had been dead all along, I was going to tear them both apart, even if it meant killing myself in the process.

“How weak is she right now?” I asked, and a muscle in Roman’s face twitched. “I need to know in order to protect her.”

Roman straightened up, running his hands over his perfectly straight jacket.

“It would be best if you stayed close to her…very close,” he said flatly, turning to leave. “And Isaac, if anything happens to her…”

I didn’t let him finish, already walking away.

“Just get her to me in one piece. She won’t die until I get my answers.”

There was no reply. I looked back just before I rounded the building, but the space was empty. Even the shadows around it looked lighter than before.

The others waited for me where we had parked our cars, glancing around as if expecting an attack. When I neared them, they quieted, all eyes settling on me. I made sure not to show any hesitation, holding each gaze before nodding.

“Let’s go. Our people are counting on us.”

Chapter 35

Isaac

Grindingmyteethinfrustration, I looked at my watch again. The call should have come twenty minutes ago, and so should have Celeste. Where the fuck was she? And what the hell was Roman doing? The longer we waited, the worse it was for him and his vampires because they were the ones that would burst into flames once the sun came up. Not that I cared, but…

A car turned the corner, and I looked at its tinted windows, its spotless windshield, its obviously expensive exterior. I wasn’t even surprised as the vehicle stopped and a person slipped from the driver’s seat. For a moment I thought it was Roman who was driving, but the man was too frail, too silver-haired, and too mortal. He didn’t look at where we were standing, his focus entirely taken by the opening of the back door.

I had seen Celeste in short, cut-out dresses, and I had seen her in jeans and sneakers. But Celeste, dressed in tight pants and a jacket that looked almost like it had armor woven into it, was a sight to behold. Her ponytail flicked left and right as she walked toward us, the look in her eyes so serious that I could feel the aura of lethal determination even before she reached us.

I hadn’t felt her magic touch me, and judging by her pale face and sunken eyes, I wasn’t sure she’d waste it on something trivial like a locating spell. Yet she walked with her head high and her eyes burning with the promise of death, just like they had the night she killed everyone I loved.

‘She is weak, kill her!’a voice in my head whispered as I watched her step onto the sidewalk, every beat of her heart making mine race faster. ‘This is your chance to get revenge for your people. This is what you have been waiting for! It might be too late after tonight. Roman will never let you go anywhere near her.’

‘No,’I told myself. Revenge would have to wait until we saved my pack—the people who were still alive and waiting for me to bring them home.

“Is it going to kill you to look less like you want to rip my head off?” Celeste’s voice pulled me out of my dark thoughts and I looked at her just as she stopped, propping a hand on her hip. My gaze slid to something attached to her leg, and for a second I thought she was carrying a sidearm, but then I saw it clearly.

“Is that a wand?” Allison scoffed. Feeling the weight of Celeste’s gaze shift off me, I collected myself enough while she smiled at my Beta with the softness of a hedgehog.

“In a manner of speaking.” She shrugged, running her fingers over the length of the thin wood. “Enchanted wood. It concentrates the flow of magic.”

“You are late,” I said, and her cold gaze switched to me again.

“I had to retrieve a bit of help.” She pulled her fingers away from the wand, looking up and down the street before adding, “I just texted Roman that I have arrived so he should be calling any…” The phone in my pocket rang and I slipped it out. “...second.”

I took the call, but before I could speak, the vampire’s voice came from the speaker.

“Get into position and wait for my signal,” he ordered, and I had to grit my teeth to stop a retort. I motioned for the two women to follow, stepping onto the street and giving the others a sign to get ready. We had surrounded one of the three headquarters from all sides; a small part of our forces was to remain behind, in case any hunters slipped out in search of help, but the bulk of us were going in.

The headquarters looked like a four-story residential building with a commercial first floor, but judging by the lack of light in the windows and the layers of graffiti out front, nobody had lived there in a while. Not on the surface, at least.

We stopped at the end of the street, just across from the main door. We had seen no signs of guards or alarms on the front, and not a single person had gone in and out for the last hour. They were either all inside, waiting for us, or they had no idea we were coming. I hoped for the latter, but I knew better.

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