Page 92 of Midnight Kiss

It was unnerving, but the rage that I felt toward him after what he’d done was muted. My concern for Emily had dulled my need for revenge. I still wanted him gone. I wanted him out of the world, but now, it was because Emily was a part of it, and I wanted to protect her no matter what.

“You are choosing a difficult path,” Karn said. “Emily is going to stay with Sanguine Nox. If you want to be with her, you should take my offer seriously and join us. Think about it, Alexander. Think about it. I will give you a half an hour to consider the offer, at which point I will return for the information regarding the bonding ritual. Do you?—?”

“No.”

Karn’s slash of a mouth tightened. “Alexander.”

“I said no. You will not change my mind. I will never bow down to you again.”

“Then you will die where you stand.”

“I would rather die standing than bow to you.”

“Fool.”

I stared through him, as if I could dismiss him with a thought. I couldn’t summon my vampire magic, so half the power I usually had was lacking. But I could still mindshield. I could still turn invisible.

Karn was too powerful to kill. He had proved that time and time again. The last time we had met, I had tried to beat him. I had cast every ounce of power I had at him, and he hadn’t buckled under the onslaught. He had laughed me off.

But an escape wasn’t off the cards. I merely had to find the opportunity.

“Very well. You have made your choice. Ezekiel.” Karn’s call for the other vampire was gentle. Almost sweet.

The dungeon door opened a second time, and Ezekiel swept into the darkened chamber. He summoned his own ball of red light and let it drift alongside him, just as Karn had done. “Yes, Master.”

“I require your assistance. I want you to overpower, dear Alexander. Try one last time to penetrate his thoughts, and then, if that fails, I would like you to kill him.”

“Yes, Master.”

“But,” Karn said, raising a finger, “do it in an exquisite fashion. I want you to despatch Alexander with extreme prejudice. Kill him slowly and violently. Bleed him if necessary. Do whatever you can to make his death the most painful it can possibly be.”

“I will do as you say, Master.”

Karn smiled, and then he swept from the room and shut the door behind him.

Ezekiel eyed me, warily. He’d heard what I was capable of, no doubt. I had once been a part of the elite team of vampires who had served beneath Karn and done his dirty work. My name had been struck from the coven’s history because of my escape and abandonment. My betrayal.

“Give me what I want,” Ezekiel said, “the information, and I will make your death swift.”

“You will die with that futile threat on your lips.”

Ezekiel smirked and came forward. He grabbed hold of my arm, and I let him. His vampire magic probed and poked at the barriers of my mindshield, desperately seeking a way in, but there was none.

My mind was impenetrable, and it was partly because of the way Karn had tortured me when he’d first turned me.

“Let me in.”

I smiled at the weaker vampire. Because he was weaker. Even with his magic unlocked and mine muted, he couldn’t break through.

Ezekiel gritted his teeth. He parted his lips, but whatever he had to say died on his tongue.

A scream broke out in the hallway outside, and a strange pulsing of power shuddered through the dungeon. Ezekiel turned to find where it had come from, and I turned invisible and stepped out of reach.

31

EMILY

The vampires couldn’t stop me.