“I understand,” Brynleigh repeated.
Ryker fucking didn’t understand. How two women could discuss murder so casually was beyond him.
Jelisette hummed. “Yes, I believe you might.” A drawer opened. “Take this. I’ll call when I have something for you.”
Fabric rustled, and Ryker assumed Brynleigh was putting whatever her Maker had given her in her pocket.
Sensing the meeting was almost done, Ryker turned on the car. The engine purred to life like a quiet kitten, and he shifted the vehicle into gear. The sooner they got out of here, the better.
“Oh, and Brynleigh?” The coldness of Jelisette’s voice made Ryker’s breath catch in his throat. “If I find out you’re lying to me, Iwillkill you. Your death will be long and drawn out. It will make whatever you suffered in The Pit seem like child’s play. I will delight in drawing every last drop of your treacherous blood from your veins before driving a stake through your heart.”
Fucking hell.
Ryker’s heart twisted in on itself as the dark words hung in the air. This was his fault. He never should’ve made this deal. He’d assumed that Brynleigh had been exaggerating, that Jelisette wouldn’t actually kill her progeny, but now…
By the Holy Obsidian Sands, he had vastly underestimated the older vampire’s cruelty.
His heart was a galloping horse, and seconds moved like hours.
“I understand,” was Brynleigh’s murmured reply. “I knew what I was getting myself into when I came here.”
Another long moment passed during which Ryker clutched the steering wheel with white-knuckled hands before Jelisette said, “You may leave.”
Ryker closed his eyes, releasing a long breath.
“Thank you,” Brynleigh whispered.
A cold, tinkling laugh came from the older vampire. “Don’t thank me, daughter of my blood. Just do what you’re told, and this time, follow the rules to the letter.”
The unspoken threat hung in the air.Or else.
“Yes, ma’am.”
A door slammed moments later.
Ryker did not release the steering wheel, even as a hushed “I’m coming” came through the headphones.
Shadows pooled on the sidewalk beside the car a moment later, and then Brynleigh appeared. She stumbled as her feet landed on the concrete before righting herself.
Ryker took one look at her, and a growl rumbled through his chest.
He threw the car back into park and was on the sidewalk before he even registered that his feet were moving.
He didn’t need to ask who did this to Brynleigh because he already knew.
Jelisette de la Point had just signed her death warrant.
Brynleigh’s beautiful black wings dragged on the sidewalk. Bloody, they hung limply behind her.
A long laceration ran from below her left eye down her cheek. Her right eye was black and swollen. Her sweater was ripped, barely covering her skin. Crimson dripped from her split lip.
Fuck staying hidden.
Who did Jelisette think she was?
Ryker’s feet pounded the sidewalk as he ran toward the safe house. Red tinged his vision. Ice daggers were clutched in his palms. His blood roared in his ears.
Bitter anger coated his tongue, and his magic was a throbbing mass within him.