She shook her head. “He’s made contact with them—invited them here—and he’s going to let them loose in the city.”

“He wouldn’t,” Eli said. “He wouldn’t kill his own people. He’s obsessed with sustaining his species.”

She shook her head again. “Cesare told Tate everything. Tate is the one who’s meant to open the gates at seven p.m.”

I glanced at the clock. It was six. My body was a mixture of both tense and relaxed—if that made any sense—and I didn’t know whether I believed her or not. She was pretty shaken up…

“Easy, tell Tate not to open the gates.”

“I can’t, he has to do it or Cesare is going to kill me. He’s gone crazy.” She sobbed, tears spilling over the rims of her eyes. “He’s going to kill everybody to maintain control—not even the other council members know. They’re going to die, too.”

Eli stood up and began to pace. “We have an hour to alert people.”

“You can’t alert people,” Faith told Eli, panicked. “Cesare will know Tate told me. He’ll kill my brother—please, please.”

“All right.” He paced the room for a few more minutes and the sudden fear of it being true began to seep into me. “I have to tell Mr. Aleksandrov and the rest of them, at least. They can keep Mila safe.”

I nodded. They were definitely a priority.

“Keep Faith here with you. I’ll meet you at the altar.”

I opened my mouth to protest, but he left before I could utter a single word. On the couch, Faith covered her face and began to cry.

“Why are you so scared?” I asked, walking closer. “Fighting vampires is what you do.”

“If you haven’t noticed, most of the time they keep us locked up in here. Only a handful of us have fought vampires.”

I sighed, lowering myself into the seat next to here. “I’m assuming you’ve never fought a vampire?”

“When I was eleven, my parents were killed. They were set on living a normal life, just like your mother was… it backfired on them, just like it did your mother.” She sniffled. “My brother was already an elite guard then and begged the council to take me in. I had nobody to look after me and I had no communities or schools close enough for me to attend. The council let him bring me here… they looked after me, became my family—Cesare especially. I don’t know what happened… over time he became more closed off, more paranoid. I tried to tell him it was because he locked himself away in the city, but he didn’t agree.” Faith shook her head and began to cry harder. “He was family… and now he wants to kill us all.”

I watched her shoulders shake as she sobbed. I had no idea what to do. Comforting her seemed so strange… Put your ego aside, you ass, I chastised myself. This is bigger than your pride. I breathed in deeply through my nose and expelled it slowly before placing my hand on her shoulder. She flinched and peered through her fingers at me. She seemed confused.

“Why aren’t you scared?”

I shrugged. “I’ve been through a lot, so not a lot can scare me anymore.”

“And you’ll fight?”

I nodded. “Yes. It’s never been in my nature to run or back down.”

There was a knock on the door the second I finished my sentence and I twisted in my seat as the door opened. An unknown woman stuck her head in. “Time to go.” She smiled, excitement dancing in her eyes.

I stood up and straightened my dress before turning to Faith. “You stay here. Lock the door and keep quiet. If all goes well, I’ll come back and get you.”

“Good luck,” she called, her voice shaking as I exited the room and the door was closed behind me.

***

Eli’s arm slipped around mine just as the music started. I glanced up at him and he smiled down at me like he had no care in the world. I was almost certain he wasn’t going to make it.

I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding. “I’m so glad you’re here. I thought you were going to miss it.”

“As much as I don’t want to be here,” he muttered. “I wouldn’t make you go through it alone.”

I looked forward and two large, wooden doors pulled open. “Cesare wants you to freak out and ruin this,” I whispered so passersby didn’t hear me.

“No matter what I do tonight, something is going to go wrong. If I stop this, God knows what will happen to Mila. If I don’t stop this… God knows what will happen to any of us, but we’ve fought before… we’ll do it again.”

A pointy finger stabbed into my back and I started forward. The room was filled with people that gasped at me. They smiled like they knew who I was and cared if I lived or died. I fought the urge to glare at them. They didn’t know me and they didn’t deserve to share this day with me. Where was my Aunt Jen? Where was Camilla or Sera and Aaron—where was anyone that I knew? There weren’t here. This wasn’t my day. This was Cesare’s. I looked down the aisle and at the very end stood Hunter. He was looking a lot less bruised today, barely noticeable. Makeup, I assumed. He stood smiling at me and I smiled back. I looked to his hands that twitched and clenched every now and again.

“Did you tell him?” I whispered.

Eli nodded his head again.

In the front row sat the council… everyone but Cesare. Behind me, I heard the two large doors shut and I was certain a lock snapped in place, too. I looked at Eli, who gave me a small gesture of reassurance with his head. In the front row on the other side sat Mr. Aleksandrov, Lyric, and Xavier. Not seeing Mila was a relief. I just hoped they put her somewhere safe.

As I approached the four small steps, I felt a cooler limb hook around my right arm.

“Well, this is awkward.” I snapped my head to the right and jolted backward. Hank. I yanked my arms free from Eli and Hank’s and almost stumbled over myself to get away from him.

I couldn’t believe it. The music cut off and the room exploded in curious chatter. Couldn’t they see the faint blue glow around his body? Why weren’t they running? Eli grabbed me, tucking me behind his body.

“Doesn’t the father give the daughter away?” He extended his hand to me with a wry smile. He looked the same… the same as he did the night I killed him.

“You’re not my father,” I growled at him, refusing to step out from behind Eli.

“Don’t bother, Hank,” another voice called from the stairs where Hunter stood and he stepped away, petrified. “Nothing can peel her away from Eli De Luca.”

My insides turned as cold as ice. My mouth was dry and my eyes began to water. Surely this was a dream. This couldn’t be happening… not tonight.

Lucian, in his crisp black suit, turned and smiled ruefully at Hunter. “I see you returned the gift I gave you.”

“Curse,” Hunter replied, taking another step back. “It was a curse.”

Lucian grabbed the priest and a sickening crack crepitated through the room as he snapped his neck and he crumpled to the ground. The guests began to scream. I heard the benches scuffle across the ground as everyone panicked. The council launched themselves to their feet in an attempt to calm everyone down but there was too much panic. Nobody listened. They banged on the door, but it was locked from the outside. I didn’t think it was ever going to open, but then I heard metal being scraped against the door and people backed up to make room for the doors to open. When they did, blood curdling screams tore through the room, almost bursting my ear drums. The people turned and rushed toward us, desperate to get out of the door behind the altar. As they rushed by, Eli shoved me into the fray and they carried me off.

“Eli!” I screamed. “No!”

My own screams were drowned out by everyone else’s.

I tried to fight against the insanely strong current of panicked people, but I couldn’t. I was no match for them. The all squeezed into the next room, filling up the halls and crushing people against walls. I cried out as my hip slammed into a metal desk. I tried to pull myself up onto it, but my dress was caught underneath others’ shoes. I reached down to my dress and tugged it. It didn’t rip. I pulled until my arms hurt and my lungs burned from holding my breath. Nothing. My chest heaved as I began to cry. I didn’t want to be stuck in here with these people. I wanted to be out there, helping the people I loved. I shook my head. Now was not the time to give up. They needed my help. I grabbed my dress and pulled one last time until the fabric tore ever so slightly. I crouched down, squeezing myself between the table and someone else’s body. I hooked my fingers in the hole and pulled, tearing a huge hole in the fabric. I kept tearing until my legs were free. Then, in my stupidly high heels, I climbed onto the table.

“Hey!” I shouted over the cries and pleas to God. No one heard me. “Hey!” Still nothing. “Shut up!” I tried one last time. The room and halls turned quiet. “Jesus Christ! Thank you.” I inhaled and exhaled, enjoying the silence for a few seconds. “Look at you, you’re all running scared!” I leaned against the window behind me and pulled off one of my heels. “Some of you are angels—the rest gods and goddesses.” I removed the other shoe and dropped them both onto the table. “Why are you so terrified? You have the ability to beat them. Sure, they’re faster, hungrier, and meaner than you, but we have powers. We outnumber them.”

“You brought this on us!” someone in the back shouted. An uproar of agreement ensued and quite frankly, it infuriated me.

“How dare you!” I snapped, demanding silence again. “I did not bring this down on you. Your leader did. Cesare is a selfish, power-hungry man. All of this is because of him and his inability to grow with his own society.” I paused and took a deep breath. “I love my guardian angel.” Everyone gasped and I rolled my eyes. Please, it’s not like it wasn’t obvious. “We’re meant to be together and we will, but first, answer this question; what is more evil, me being in love with a guardian angel or Cesare massacring a whole city just to stop it? I love someone and Cesare believes stopping that is worth all of your lives.”

“It’s the law!”

“But why is it the law? Who does it affect? Being with a guardian angel won’t birth new vampires. It won’t put anyone else’s lives in danger and the world won’t end. Give me a reason. If you can give me a good reason that I can’t be happy, then I’ll take the blame for this whole thing.”

No one said a word and I smirked.

“Your own leader is using the one thing they swore to protect you from against you. They don’t want us to be happy—think about it. We can use and manipulate the four elements of nature and yet, they don’t let us. They want you to be weak and defenseless, then they hire these guardians and keep them under their thumb. Our lives are carefully structured… and, most likely, so are our deaths. We need to go back out there and fight.”

As I expected, I was met with resistance, but with or without these guys, I was going back out there. I turned around and opened the window. A fat guy with a long, brown beard launched forward and grabbed my leg.

“Don’t be stupid!” He barked at me, but I kicked free.

“I am not weak,” I told him, baring my teeth. “I am not the kind of person that sits in a room and waits for my death.”

No one was on this side of the building, thank God, and I sat on the ledge of the window and pushed off. It was only a foot or two drop and I landed safely. If I were wearing heels, I’d have broken my neck six times. I had to find Eli, he was going to get a massive kick in the butt for trying to protect me. Surely he knew better by now. As I stepped around the corner to the front of the building, people were everywhere. Some dead. Some fighting. I stood still and watched the chaos. I watched throats being ripped from bodies by pointed teeth. I watched stakes and other random objects being shoved through chests and I watched fires rage violently. It was painful to see—and familiar. So many times I’d seen this exact scene and I was tired of it. A vampire zipped in front of me, startling me. Blood ran from his mouth and dripped onto his dirty, light blue shirt. His sandy blond hair had dried blood and mud all through it. He bared his fangs and lurched—I crouched, preparing my counter attack before the vampire was stopped. His black, soulless eyes widened before he glanced down to his chest. I followed his line of sight and saw a hand holding his un-beating heart. My rescuer pulled his hand back through the corpse and the vampire fell to the ground. I glanced up to the person that saved me and was shocked to see Lucian. I took a wary step back as he dropped the heart. It hit the ground like a rock. He wiped his hands over his jacket.

“Vampires are strange, aren’t they? Some turn to dust, some you have to cut into pieces, and some just die.”

I wasn’t in the mood to chat with him. I did that enough in my dreams. I launched forward, jumping on Lucian and wrapping my legs around his waist. He grabbed me, trying to throw me off, but I clenched my thighs. He was dead. He didn’t have the vampire strength anymore. The ground began to rumble and we both paused. Nothing happened for a few seconds… until tons of people exploded from the courthouse doors. I smiled quickly before wrapping an arm around Lucian’s neck and swinging around his body so I had his back. I squeezed as he clawed at my hands. Slowly, his movements became tired and slow. I squeezed harder and harder until we crumpled to the ground. I held onto him for a few minutes longer, just to be certain he was dead, and shortly after that, his body disappeared.

Adrenaline coursed through my system as I watched fireballs and water balls being tossed through the air. Trees were being ripped from the ground and used to impale vampires. We were winning now, that much was obvious.