Page 30 of Clash of Sin and Secret

The asshole never saw it coming.

The other two vampires seem to have more fight in them. Link stumbles sideways, but quickly regains his balance, baring fangs as the motherfucker takes a swipe at his throat.

I don’t hesitate—I’m right behind Link and shove my fist through the guard’s midsection. He crumples over my elbow, and I shove him off my arm.

Dante’s lightning reflexes make quick work of the third guard, snapping his neck with a satisfying crack before launching him toward Link. “Present for you, buddy.”

“Asshole.” Link moves like lightning, dodging effortlessly as he grabs hold of the last guard’s neck and rips his head clean off. Without a pause, he chucks the bloody head at Dante and laughs as blood sprays across his shirt.

“That was just rude.”

The melee is short-lived, but every one of these fuckers we take down brings a fraction more control back to our lives.

“Link, you’ve got a knack for decapitation. You have the honors.” I point toward the other two bodies. “The rest of us are on intel gathering.”

The four of us spread out to search for something salvageable.

I step over debris—the blades of an old engine fan and a shattered glass bottle—working my way toward an ancient car with its hood propped open. The reek of gasoline mingles with rubber and oil.

It’s overpowering and familiar.

But as I pass it, a distinct scent—lurking beneath the others—prickles at my instincts. “Dante. Come smell this.”

Dante rolls his eyes. “Seriously? You’re a king now, Zane. Cropdusting is beneath you.”

I peg him with a look and Huntley barks a laugh over by the couches.

“Fuck off, both of you. No, seriously. What’s this smell?”

Dante strides over to stand by me and lifts his nose to the air, drawing in a long breath. He frowns and moves to sniff again at the air above the hood of the old car. His posture stiffens immediately—his whole demeanor shifts.

“Get back!” He whirls, panic in his wide gaze. Both of his arms thrust out, catching me squarely in the chest. It’s like being hit by a missile and I’m thrown backward into the air.

Before I can process anything, an earth-shattering blast erupts. A detonation wave of fire and metal hits and I’m caught in a tidal wave of flames and shrapnel.

Life-stealing pain explodes from everywhere at once and heat engulfs me. Screams blend with the roar of the inferno and, despite the brilliance of it all, darkness takes me…

Huntley

The air is thick with smoke and the acrid smell of burning rubber as the explosion rips through the garage. It’s horrifying—flames swirling up from the skeletal remains of cars, clinging to the walls, and raining down like fiery confetti from a nightmarish Hellscape.

When Dante screamed, I turned in time to see his body disintegrated behind the force of the initial blast—a five-hundred-year-old warrior reduced to nothing more than ash and shadow.

But even more terrifying was seeing Zane thrown backward like a rag doll and swallowed by a wall of flame.

Time froze.

For the most horrendous moment of my life, I face a world without Zane in it.

Then the thundering rush of my pulse whooshes loud inside my head and I snap the fuck out of it.

He can’t be dead.

“Zane!” His name tears from my throat as I break through the shock. Scrambling over shattered glass and twisted metal, I cough against the smoke that claws inside my lungs.

Fire scorches my skin, singeing my hair and bubbling the flesh on my palms as I crawl through the wreckage. The world feels surreal. I’m trapped in a twisted horror movie.

Zane can’t be gone. Not now. Never.

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