Page 105 of Cruel Destinies

Solomon stared down at the tip of the copper knife that had stabbed him through his heart, then brought his harrowed gaze back to me. He rolled onto his back, only shoving the knifedeeper through his ribcage. The gurgling stopped, and Solomon’s eyes went distant.

Coughing, I felt my body rejuvenate, healing from the damage Solomon had done. Quickly, I pushed the vampire to the side before the coppery point jutting from Solomon could touch me, too.

“Piper!” I said in surprise, finding her staring at the dead vampire on the floor of my apartment.

She looked at me with tearful eyes, then slowly melted to the floor and wept.

“You saved me,” I said, running to her side and throwing an arm around her.

“I had to,” she wailed. “You saved me a few days ago.”

I looked at her in confusion. Why was she crying? Had killing a vampire who’d threatened to do terrible things to her been too much for Piper?

“Hey, it’s going to be okay,” I comforted.

She shook her head slowly, sobbing heavily. “They’ll never let me become a vampire now.”

And that was it. By killing Solomon, she’d thrown out her opportunity. But that was only if Hadrian found out what happened.

“But you didn’t kill Solomon,” I said, and she gave me a questioning look. “Hunters have increased their scouting in Chicago, remember? They were the ones who killed him.”

“I’m a terrible liar,” she said, sniffling.

“But I’m not,” I replied, rubbing her towel-covered shoulder. “Where’d you get that knife from, anyway?”

Piper looked at her hands. “I'm a human living among vampires. After I saw the danger on the streets with the hunter, I realized I should take my mortality a little more seriously. So I stashed a knife...just in case.”

I nodded. It made sense, although it was a little disturbing that she’d chosen a copper knife, of all things.

She snorted.

“What?” I asked.

She looked at me. “You know what the funniest part about this is?”

“What’s that?” I said with a jut of my chin.

She cast her troubled gaze down to the floor. “After having gone through what I’ve been through the past two weeks, I don’t know if I want to become a vampire anymore.”

Music to my ears. But with Hadrian around, she’d never be free. If Arya could fulfill the prophecy, then maybe she’d have a shot.

“You’ve been through a lot,” I said. “And I know this Christmas has only gotten worse for you. But after saving me, you’ve made my Christmas pretty fantastic.”

She chuckled, and so did I.

Stomping feet sounded in the hallway through my doorless threshold, and I whipped my head in that direction, dreading what fresh hell this might be.

But nothing could’ve prepared me for what I saw.

“Julian, I’ve been calling—whoa, what the fuck happened here?”

Caesar stood in my doorway, a pale and unconscious Shea in his arms.

My world narrowed to her beautiful, gaunt face, and suddenly nothing else mattered. I no longer cared what Piper might overhear or what happened between me and Caesar. I didn’t care that there was a dead vampire on my floor and a dead cat in my kitchen.

The only thing I knew, lived and breathed, was pure, unbridled desperation to save my precious little witch.

Chapter 34

---