Except the pale bastard just wouldn’t go down. Even as it weaved on its feet and couldn’t seem to lift its gun, the slayer refused to give up—
A body blow sent her airborne, and it was just before she hit the asphalt that she realized it was L.W.
And his left arm was swinging in a wide arc.
The silver dagger he wielded winked back at the storm that raged across the night sky, and then the weapon sliced thelesser’sneck so deeply the head lolled back on the spine.
At that, the slayer finally collapsed.
And L.W. was a positive demon as he took a second one out.
He jumped forward, landed on his prey, and lifted another dagger directly above his shoulder.
And then he just stayed where he was, poised to strike.
His head cranked in Beth’s direction. His eyes were the exact color of his father’s, and in them, the same stone-cold hate and aggression.
While holding her stare, he drove the steel blade right into the empty cavity where the heart had been.
“Are you insane!” he spat at her as thepop! rang out and a burst of light reflected up into his harsh face. “What thefuckwas that!”
She slowly let go of her gun, not caring where she left it. And then she rolled over onto her back, went for her phone and sent out a call for help. It was as the SOS went through that the shaking started.
“A-a-are you okay?” she said as she sloppily got to her feet.
When she weaved like she was in a stiff breeze, she wondered why her body was not listening to her. And since when had she put on seventeen thousand pounds—
“Who the fuck cares? What are you thinking?”
One by one, the Brotherhood began materializing around them, and even for war-hardened males, they seemed shocked at what they found.
No kidding. She didn’t want L.W. out here, either.
“Get me the surgical RV, right now,” V barked.
Suddenly, people were all over her, which made no sense. As she pushed them away, she stammered, “Check him—what are you doing? I’m fin…”
The word petered out, and she had the odd thought that she was having trouble breathing. Weird—
Without warning, her legs went loose, and as she started to fall, somebody caught her. After that, a strange suffocation took over, and she began gasping for air. None of that mattered, though. She had to get to L.W., and so she clawed at whatever was keeping her from moving around on her own.
L.W.
It was her son who was holding her, and as she sank her nails into the sleeve of the black leather jacket he was wearing, she realized…
“This is your father’s. You’re wearing your father’s…jacket.”
Her eyesight narrowed into a pinhole, and even though she struggled to control her body, she managed to wrench around and focus on L.W.’s face. Given the way he flushed, she knew it was true. He had taken some of his sire’s clothes from the closet back at the mansion. But his daggers had been silver. Where had he gotten them—
Why the hell was she even bothering with that right now.
“No,” she croaked as she began to tear up. “Fighting is not the part of the legacy you’re going to assume. The throne…you will be on the throne…”
“ETA three minutes,” someone said. “L.W., you got her, true?”
“Yeah.”
The world spun, and then she was being carried by her son, her tall, powerful son, his long strides taking her even farther into the alley, away from what little traffic there was out on Market.
