Page 167 of Vampire's Choice
Jacob remained silent, standing at his lady’s back. The other four drew near to form a circle around them, a protective front. Mason stood near Grollner’s head. He wanted to take it, Jacob could tell. But his lady wouldn’t allow it.
This one was hers.
“My patience is at an end. You took my son, and my goddaughter. You hurt them.” That wind frosted the pine boughs closest to the campground with ice. “You orchestrated the murder of a vampire and his servant, people I considered dear friends. They sacrificed their lives to try and protect our offspring.”
The hand she’d clamped over Grollner’s shoulder started to morph. That sleek and deadly gargoyle showed itself as it became a powerful claw, with talons that seemed twice as long as her fingers. She stroked the corner of Grollner’s widened eye with one, leaving a trail of blood. When he strained to see her face, he saw the shadow of the one her half-Fae blood gave her. Tighter, more feral, a hint of the gray beast.
“You want me to act like a ‘Traditional’ vampire, savage, acting only on my desires and needs? I will grant your wish, Grollner. You will not live to see it, but I will dedicate myself to annihilating every Trad that exists in our world. Every. Single. Fucking. One.”
She tilted her head toward Daegan, who stood, expressionless, watching the exchange. “It will become his number one priority, sanctioned by Council.”
“What will that accomplish?” Grollner rasped it, blood bubbling at his lips. Jacob noted his foot twitch, knew his spine was starting to repair. He sent her the message, and received a brief acknowledgement.
Let him think he has a chance, Jacob. It will make crushing his soul even more satisfying.
His lady wasn’t feeling merciful. Jacob was fine with that.
“It will send a message that will take decades to forget,” she said. “It is far better to be my friend than my enemy. Go to hell, Grollner, and rot there.”
She twisted his head and wrenched it from his body, tossing it away and nimbly leaping back as the blood spurted.
In the same movement, her hand returned to its graceful manicured form. She didn’t watch the life die out of Grollner’s eyes, the body stop twitching. Instead, her gaze met Mason’s, to confirm they were both satisfied. Though his gaze was still lit with amber fire, his tone was one of acceptance and respect. “My lady,” he said formally.
She glanced at Maddock, Gideon and Daegan. “You have done well. Now comes the real fight.”
The one we will likely lose, Jacob.
Not if Kane and Farida are okay.
He wondered if that was how Mal had felt, relieved his children hadn’t been on the island. His heart tightened with grief he couldn’t yet afford to feel, for the male vampire he’d respected and liked, tremendously, and for Elisa, who had been impossible not to love. If they’d been there, Jacob had no doubt Ruth and Adan would have fought just as fiercely, refusing to back down even in the face of a sure death.
Vampires of “no consequence.” For those who sacrificed for and with others, there was no such thing.
We aren’t going to lose, my lady, he decided. Don’t be so negative.
Lyssa shot him a glance, then proceeded back across the clearing, two males in lockstep on either side of her. When she was a few paces from Pallas and the others, she stopped. “Thank you,” she said, with courtesy. “There was a great deal of satisfaction in that.”
Pallas’s gaze flickered toward the trees. “I didn’t know incubi had teleporting abilities. Lower magical creatures can surprise us.”
“There’s a bucket of things you don’t know. Otherwise you wouldn’t have done something this idiotic.”
Gideon of course, standing at Daegan’s side. Pallas ignored him, responding as if Lyssa had spoken.
“The Trad, and human sorcerers of unknown identity, will be blamed,” he reminded her. “No one will assume the High Fae would be involved in something as crude as this. You will die here, and be unable to tell Rhoswen, Tabor or your Council anything. We will hunt down your young and dispatch them. With the incubus.”
Lyssa bared her fangs. “Let’s see who’s right and who’s not.”
A few hundred yards from the clearing, concealed by Maddock’s anchored cloaking spell, Merc perched in the thick boughs of a pine. Farida was inside the circle of his arm and wing on one side, Kane on the other. Neither teenager had looked away as the queen ripped off Grollner’s head. They’d quivered with the desire to be at her side while she did it. Vampires didn’t shy from bloodshed.
“We need to join them,” Kane said for the twentieth time. Merc had had to restrain him forcibly during the fight with Grollner’s forces. “They need help standing against the Fae.”
Yeah, they did. But he knew what his charge was.
On their trek through the forest, Lyssa had asked it of him. “Ruth has spoken of your speed. Is it…greater than a vampire’s? One of my age, or Mason’s?”
“Yes. Exponentially.”
Lyssa nodded. “If you see an opportunity to free our children, take it. Get them out of harm’s way. You do not leave them until we have prevailed, or until you can deliver them to Council.”