Page 95 of Mortal Blood
She lurched forward but Ezekiel snagged a fistful of her hair and she fell back with a cry of pain.
“Get off her, you asshole!”
“You willnotspeak to me that way!” he thundered, shaking my mother so that her cry of pain became a sob.
I took a step toward them but the look in his eye pulled me up short.
“Okay! Okay, I’m sorry,” I said, raising my hands and then remembering what he’d said last time we’d met and quickly dropping them, in case he got the wrong idea and took it out on my mom. “I was out of line. I’m sorry. Please don’t hurt her.”
“See?” he said, smiling darkly. “It’s much easier if you just remember your place.”
He released my mom and she collapsed to the floor, crying softly. I was going to kill him. Maybe not here, maybe not today, but Iwasgoing to kill him. Because I might run with monsters, Imight even be becoming one, but this guy? He was the devil, and he belonged in hell.
“What’s it going to take for you to let her go?” I asked, as calmly as I could.
“What you ought have done last time we met,” he said. “And then this whole untidiness could have been avoided. You will leave with me, and I will permit your mother to leave with your…friends.”
“No deal,” Jax said from behind me. “We’ll take option number two.”
I whirled on him.
“Jax, you don’t have to do this. This is my mess.”
“Pack is pack.”
I nodded, swallowing the lump in my throat, and notched my chin as I turned back to Ezekiel.
“It’ll be a cold day in hell before I make a deal with you.” I rolled out my shoulders, readying myself to fight. Because he might be older and stronger than us, but we had one thing in our favor. He needed me alive—for some reason—and that meant he’d be fighting with one hand behind his back. I, on the other hand, would have no trouble wiping his stain from existence.
He sighed. “As you will. Rest assured you will be punished for your defiance.”
“You’re pretty cocky for an aging vampire who’s outnumbered three to one.”
“A pup, a halfbreed, and a…what are you exactly?” he asked Ling, smiling a smile that was all teeth.
Her expression hardened, despite the fear in her eyes.“Ready to fight you.”
He laughed. “Fight is a strong word. It will be a slaughter.” He turned his cold eyes on me. “And when I have finished dispatching your friends, I shall allow you to watch as I drain the human. And then you and I shall leave. Together.”
“Over my dead body.”
“No, my dear, over everyone else’s. This is your last chance. Avoid all this unpleasantness and come with me willingly.”
“If you want her,” Jax said, stepped forward, “then you’re going to have to fight for her, leech.”
He pulled his shirt over his head, and tossed it aside. I guess he wasn’t planning to fight human. I wondered if… Would I be able to call onmywolf side, too? Because it sure as hell would be good be in a more durable form right now.
I reached inside myself, taking a slow and steady breath as I searched for that primal energy that lived somewhere deep inside. And then I stopped. Jax’s shift wouldn’t be seamless, and I didn’t think Ezekiel would be giving him time to change in peace. Someone needed to defend him while he did it—and if I was writhing on the floor with both my shoulders dislocated, the fight would be over in seconds. No. Him first, then me.
He gasped and staggered back, and I frowned. I’d never seen him start a shift that way before.
“Jax?”
“Shit, we need…”
Ling was at his side in a heartbeat.
“Need what?” she asked, and he ducked his head and then forced himself to straighten, glaring at Ezekiel. Then hestaggered back again, doubling at the waist like he’d been driven back by a gut punch. I wrenched my eyes back to Ezekiel.
