Page 25 of The Prince's Curse

“Paige, release her,” Lux said, cutting off Scarlett’s protests.

Eliza lunged at Scarlett, swiping wildly. Her scent was intense and familiar, with the same bitter bite of Carrigan Shea’s blood. Her fist connected with Scarlett’s shoulder, sending her reeling.

“I guess we’re doing this,” Scarlett muttered, neatly dodging the next blow.

The blonde woman was no fool. She lunged for the door, but Adrian stepped in front of it and shoved her back into the ring with Scarlett. She snarled, and he snarled back, baring his teeth at her.

“You go through her to get out,” Lux taunted.

Scarlett braced herself as the blonde vampire whirled on her. In a dizzying blur, the woman zig-zagged across the floor and tackled her. She threw up her arms in self-defense, but the woman nailed her in the face with one wild punch.

Scrambling to her feet, Scarlett danced around the circle. Pure instinct took over as she dodged and ducked. Blood streamed from her nose, but she didn’t dare slow, didn’t dare to turn away from her vampire opponent.

She darted in and scraped her stake across Eliza’s chest, prompting a shrill scream. The vampire kicked her in the belly and flung her across the gym. Gasping for air, Scarlett rolled aside and got to her feet.

The woman’s red eyes cut to the stake, then back to Scarlett. Her nostrils flared.

Scarlett feinted toward her, and the woman lunged. With a triumphant shout, she kicked the back of the woman’s leg out from under her in a sickening crunch of bone. As she toppled, Scarlett tackled her, grabbed a handful of her tangled blonde hair, and smacked her face into the rubber gym floor. The woman bucked wildly, but Scarlett drove the ice-cold stake into the back of her neck, where another vampire might have borne a Covenant mark.

Searing cold burst from the metal as the carved runes ignited in blinding silver-blue. The stake drove through bone and sinew like butter. Eliza convulsed violently and let out a clipped cry. With trembling hands, she tried to stand, but Lux’s voice rang out. “Stay down.” At the sound of her voice, the runes on the stake glowed.

“Holy shit,” Scarlett murmured.

But the vampire woman growled, an animal sound that set Scarlett’s nerves on edge. She managed to get one leg under her. Furious red eyes found Lux’s. Her lips were bloody, veins standing out on her temples.

“Eliza. Stay down,” Lux ordered.

“N– no,” the woman bit out. With trembling hands, she reached to the back of her neck, prying at the vicious stake.

“Stop her,” Lux said, raising a hand. Without a word, Paige lunged at the woman and stomped on her back, flattening her to the floor. “This is promising. Well done, Scarlett.”

Scarlett could only stare at the prone vampire in fascinated horror. This should have felt triumphant, but for some reason, she could only think of Kova lying there like a beaten dog.

“I thought you wanted to undo the vampire transformation,” Scarlett said.

For a split second, Lux’s face twisted in a look of confusion. “I do, but do you think they want that? I have to get them under control first.” Then she glanced at her watch. “Get her to my workshop. I’m on a timer.” As her silent vampire lackeys dragged the protesting woman out, Lux glanced at Scarlett. “Thanks for the help. Maybe clean up the blood before it stains.” Then she snapped her fingers at Marlee and said, “Come with me.”

Marlee’s arms folded across her chest. “Let’s be very clear. I don’t answer to you, and if you snap your fingers at me like that again, I’m going to break them. You can tell Ms. Voss that, too, or I’ll inform her myself.”

At that, Lux recoiled, eyes going wide. Then she huffed and strolled out of the gym with her two vampire lackeys and guest hunters on her tail.

Scarlett frowned at the blood on the floor. If the witch was going to keep vampires as pets, she could at least make them clean up. Her irritation gave way to anxiety as she mopped the floor, pushing around the mix of vampire and dhampir blood over the rubber mats.The wet pink swirl turned her stomach.

She couldn’t get squeamish now. And Lux was only doing what Armina taught her. They were trying to protect people from vampires. That had always been their goal.

So why did it feel so wrong? Why was her skin crawling? The blonde woman had probably been ripping out throats, and she was better off under control.

After scrubbing the floor clean, Scarlett spent the next hour on the treadmill with music blasting, running like Julian was on her heels. In her mind, she tried to imagine knocking him down, driving that cold stake through him so he couldn’t kill her like her mother.

But instead she saw that smile from her dreams, even smelled the clean, woody scent of the cozy cabin where they’d…

Absolutely not.

She turned up the speed on the treadmill until the only thoughts she could hold were don’t die, don’t fall, just breathe.

When she heard the first pained shout, she thought it was her music, a playlist Kova had wryly dubbed her Angry Danish Men Shouting About Dragonsplaylist. But when she lowered the volume and stopped the spinning belt of the treadmill, she listened and heard another low groan.

Heart pounding, she crept across the gym and opened the heavy door to listen. Muffled voices across the house, and a sharp male voice blurting, I don’t know!

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