Valiance’s power spiked around him, and the magic enhanced him. His muscles readied, his vision focused, and his fangs pressed down on his lower lip. “You do not talk about the Prima like that.”
“You can’t tell me you’ve actually gone native?”
“And if I have?”
“Going to make this harder than planned.”
A shadow swooped down and plowed into Valiance. He slammed against the pavement, the wind knocked from his lungs. The figure was gone as quickly as it attacked.
Valiance’s only thought was that Esme was exposed and defenseless against them as she stood frozen.
He sat up too quickly, and black spots swarmed in his vision. “Run.”
His hoarse voice must have made something click within her, because she ran off into the night.
When Mondrian didn’t blink, Valiance scoured the darkness around the parking lot, looking for others, waiting for the next attack. He didn’t have to wait long. The shadow swooped again, but this time he was ready. His hand reached behind his head and pulled out his sword. When the figure hit him, he rolled and grabbed the material on the man’s chest. He slammed him down to the gravel and had his sword to his throat in less than a breath.
“Finnegan?”
Valiance dropped the man’s shirt, and both were on their feet in the blink of an eye. His muscles rejoiced at the feeling of his sword in his hand, at the use of his speed again, but his heart sank at seeing another one of his brethren on what now had to be a mission from Andrin, the leader of his former Clade.
“Brothers don’t attack brothers in the darkness.”
Mondrian just smiled, and Valiance remembered everything the two of them had done together. Every war. Every city. Every woman. His stomach churned as he remembered the carousing, the drinking, and, most of all, the camaraderie he had desperately missed in the past six months.
Valiance’s gaze bounced between the men. Three. There were three ways out of this. None left him unscathed, but Esme would be safe. “You left me here, Mondrian. That’s not a very brotherly thing to do.”
“Andrin ordered us to leave. It wasn’t our fight.”
“Prima Jordan was fighting for all of us. Fighting to make sure we could still have something to fight for.”
Finnegan snickered. “He really did drink the Kool-Aid.”
Valiance heard the rumble of an engine, and Mondrian began to turn his head. Valiance flicked the tip of his sword and pressed it to Mondrian’s chest. “Andrin was a coward, running from the fight. I will not align with cowards or those who follow them.”
Mondrian looked down at the blade against his jacket and shook his head. “You shouldn’t have said that.”
“Why? You’re in the compromised position here.”
A yellow Volkswagen Bug revved its engine and flew out of the parking lot. A weight lifted off Valiance’s shoulders as he saw Esme’s features in the window, her knuckles glowing white on the steering wheel. But he also knew he was watching his last chance for any sort of normal relationship drive terrified into the night.
Mondrian brushed away the tip of Valiance’s sword and continued with his speech. “Andrin wants you back. He’s gotten us into trouble, and he needs his warrior prince.”
“Why aren’t you good enough?” Valiance tested the weight of his sword in his hand. She was perfect, had always been perfect.
He could hear Mondrian’s teeth grind across the space between them. “He wants you.”
“I’ve pledged my allegiance to Dallas and to the Prima. I will not break my word for a coward.”
“You sound like you’re still in the eighteen hundreds, Val. Back when you were still Thomas Valmont, son of an aristocrat. Your perspective needs to change. It’s not about honor and codes now. It’s about survival and us against them.”
“You never had honor and codes, Mondrian. You wouldn’t understand.”
Mondrian had always been faster. At least that part of him remained the same. Mondrian slammed Valiance against the brick wall so hard he was sure they’d shaken the foundation of the coffee shop. Mondrian’s breath was fresh with blood, but there was something else beneath the metallic scent.
“Are you drinking from Andrin?” The words themselves left a sour taste in Valiance’s mouth.
“He shares his power with us.”
Valiance strengthened his jaw against the fresh pain in his head. “It’s a way to control you. You know that, Mon. We’ve seen this frantic power grab before. Next, he’ll start trying to bond new vampires to the Clade.”
Mondrian’s face didn’t betray him, but his teal eyes did. The look told Valiance that his former leader had already started hunting for purebloods with the vampire potential. Once Andrin bit them, and their power had been solidified, they’d be his Clade Brothers forever. Like Emilio had bitten Valiance, and Valiance had bitten Mondrian.
Valiance dropped to the ground and swept Mondrian’s legs out from under him. The boy never could predict a leg sweep. The younger vampire bounced against the concrete like a child’s play ball and came at Valiance again, but Val’s sword was faster.
The iron blade pressed into the hollow of Mondrian’s throat. “I will not go.”
Something happened to Mondrian. He shivered, from top to toe.
“You will rejoin your Clade.” It wasn’t Mondrian’s voice. Mondrian had been born in the Americas, like Valiance. This voice was deeper and had the lilt of an Irishman in it. Full possession. It was worse than Valiance thought. Andrin’s energy coursed through Mondrian.
Valiance couldn’t believe what he saw. His best friend reduced to the point that another could possess him. It both fueled him and disgusted him.
“I will not live under the tyranny of a coward.”
“Then you will die under one.”
WHEN ESME REALIZED she could barely see where she was driving, she pulled into the parking lot of a brightly lit convenient store and tried to get her brain to stop yelling at her.
Of course, he’s a monster, and you were just about to be one of those girls in the movies who gets eaten. You are nothing. Why would a guy like him even notice you in the first place unless it was for dinner? How stupid could you be? Maybe there is a reason your parents gave up on you.
Her brain went a little numb after the last thought. The following tears were hot and thick, and she sobbed for a good ten minutes before her tear ducts ran dry.
But he saw her. She shuddered through a deep breath. He saw her, and he had told her to run when those other things showed up.
Esme looked over at the cell phone in her passenger seat. Why’d he given her the phone? Because he knew she didn’t have one. What kind of a monster gives you a phone so you can call for help?
Her hand still shaking, she reached out to take the phone. The simple flip model jumped to life when she opened it. Did she call 9–1–1? What could they do? These things moved faster than she could see. What were the cops supposed to do about that?
Did she call his family? She’d heard them say brothers. Maybe they were looking for his brother?
Not used to the phone’s buttons, she pressed a few and ended up opening his contacts list.
His extremely short contacts list. One. Jordan. She’d heard that name before. The coffee shop, as a whisper in the air. He’d said he knew the owner. Was that his only contact?
Taking in another breath, she made a decision. Call this person. Let them know Val was in trouble, then race home and never leave her abuelita’s couch ever again. That was all she owed him for the coffee.
The phone rang a few times before a woman answered. “Hey, Val. How’d the date go?”
Esme didn’t exactly know what to say, so she was honest. “Not good.”
“Who is this? Is this Esme?”
Her skin prickled. How did this woman know who she was? “Val was attacked at the coffee shop. He needs help.”
“My coffee shop. Nothing can get into the coffee shop.”
“Behind it. Look. I don’t know what those guys were, but he’s in trouble.”
“How many?”
“Two, that I saw. I hightailed it out of there pretty fast.”
The woman actually laughed. “Thank you, Esme. You may have just saved his life.”
Esme closed the phone. Did she want to save his life? Would he try to eat her now?
She didn’t know, but she started up her car and wished she’d just stayed hidden down in Housewares.
Chapter Three
MONDRIAN SLAMMED VALIANCE’S face against the car door and Val heard his jaw crack. That was going to hurt in the morning. If there was a morning.
Mondrian turned him around and buried his nose into Val’s shirt and inhaled deeply. “You’ve got a girl on you.”
“Leave her out of this.”
“Why you chasing dames the old-fashioned way?” Finnegan asked as he swung Valiance’s sword around. “Just sway them. It’s easier.”
Valiance ground his teeth together, and his vision was lost for a moment in the spinning pain of his broken jaw and his concussed brain.
“Oh, I think he likes this one.” Mondrian dropped Valiance’s shirt, and Val slid down the car, landing hard on his ass. He felt a rib shift like it really shouldn’t have shifted, and his sword arm, ripped from its socket, dangled loosely at his side.
“Is that why you won’t come back with us?” Mondrian asked. “Some girl. We can find her, you know. See if she’s right for the bleeding.”
“Never,” Valiance growled as he pushed himself up to his feet.
Mondrian let him. Valiance knew he was being played with. After the possession had faded, Mondrian was just enjoying kicking Valiance’s ass on principle for all the times he had had to rein Mondrian in, keep him from crossing a line Valiance knew didn’t even exist for him anymore.
“Is she pretty, at least? Tall, dark, and exotic. Like that Jolie woman?”
“She’s totally one of us,” Finnegan pitched in as he spun Valiance’s sword around like a parade rifle.
Valiance looked from one to the other. They didn’t see Esme. She’d been right there, and they hadn’t seen her. How could they not have seen her?
The sudden realization ripped a gasp from him. It wasn’t just her quaint manner. She might actually be invisible to some people.
Valiance chuckled at the sheer cosmic joke of it all. That he could see invisible girls. Next thing he would discover was that she was a ghost who had died in a tragic pillow avalanche. Sounded about par for this year.
“Going to share the joke?” Mondrian asked.
Finnegan was at his throat in a blink, the sharp edge of Val’s own blade pressed into his sensitive skin. “Yeah, Brother. We like a good joke.”
The smell of burnt magnolias filled the parking lot. “Then you’re going to think that I’m hilarious.”
Valiance had never been more relieved to smell Prima Jordan. He swore in that moment he would never make a long-tailed cat joke for the rest of his long life.
She sauntered through the parking lot. When she was within striking distance, she studied both men. “These those Clade Brothers you keep talking about?”
“Every family has its fights,” Mondrian said, leaving Valiance for a moment. “Stay out of this one.”
Violet shrugged. “Not impressed, Val.”
Mondrian was fast as he charged her, but Violet’s reactions were faster. Something like pride swelled within Valiance as he watched Violet throw Mondrian across the parking lot. Maybe he had taught her something in their sparring sessions.
She took a moment to recover Valiance from the ground. “So, night going well?”
Valiance took her offered hand and got to his feet. His ears were ringing courtesy of the last slam into the car. “I don’t think your phrase friggin’ peachy has ever really made sense until now.”
“Are you good?”
“No.”
Finnegan and Mondrian didn’t give them time to organize a proper strategy. Mondrian went for Valiance’s throat, teeth out and ready for blood.
Valiance was ready for him. He knew every move Mondrian would throw at him, every just-off-center punch and the way he favored his left claw to his right. Even after a harsh blow to the ribs, Val felt a smile cross his lips.
“Please share the joke, Brother.”
Mondrian landed a fast backhand across Valiance’s jaw but couldn’t shake the smile.
“You’re too predictable. Always have been.”
“Predictable?”
“Even down to your taste in clothes. Must everything be black?”
“Brings out my—”
Valiance landed a hard right hook on Mondrian’s jaw, reveling in the sound of the contact that echoed off the brick building.
Blood trickled out of the corner of Mondrian’s mouth, and he wiped it with the back of his hand. “So you’re really not going to consider coming back to us?”
“No.”
There was a shimmer in the air, and Violet’s panther made a black streak across the parking lot after Finnegan. The young vampire ran in panic, dropping Valiance’s sword as he fled.
The two vampires saw the sword at the same time, but Valiance was faster this time. They slid across the parking lot, but Valiance felt the familiar thrum in his fingertips as touched the metal.
He curled his fingers around his sword, and she felt amazing in his hand. Good girl.
“Are you forgetting I have one of those, too?” Mondrian pulled his own blade out from its sheath.
“Mine’s bigger.” Valiance winked before he swung the sword in the first of a dozen attacks. He wasn’t as strong with his left arm, but Mondrian hadn’t trained any more than what Valiance had put him through the past seventy years. Valiance had never stopped practicing. Even Violet had taken up swordplay and had the speed to be a challenge for Valiance. She had made him better.