“I won’t stand by you,” Simon called out. “I won’t be your f**king puppet anymore.”
A muscle jerked in Grim’s jaw.
Simon turned his stare on the line of vamps. “Sure you’re on the right team?”
One of the vamps cut his eyes toward Grim. Hesitation there. And anger in the man’s eyes.
He hates that control, just as much as I did. “What did he make you do?” Simon demanded, aware of that shadow slipping ever closer. “Kill your lovers? Your family? How did you prove your loyalty to him?”
Because that was Grim’s way. Loyalty could only be shown in blood.
“And if you didn’t kill them, he did, right?” Like the bastard had taken out his family. “None of us signed on for this shit, but we can get out. He just has to die!”
Grim took a step back. His hand rose again to trace the side of his back. Always checking for the wounds he’d had so long ago. Now, Simon understood.
“I know what’s going to happen,” Dee said and she was so close to the flames. He wanted to haul her back, to force her behind him, but this time, this moment was hers. And he’d follow wherever she took him.
“You believe in your prophets.” She lifted her hands high. “I believe in my witch.”
Unease flickered over Grim’s face and the vampires began to move in closer. Not closer to the fire, but closer to Grim. For his protection? Or—
“She scryed to see how this fight would end.”
Uh, yeah, and that shit hadn’t been so positive. Simon swallowed and ignored the fierce throbbing in the back of his legs. The blisters would heal, eventually, if they survived this night.
“Catalina knew she would die in the fire. That’s why she was running when your men caught her.”
Grim’s eyes widened, just a bit.
“Grim!” Nina’s voice screeched. “Let’s just kill them, now, let’s—”
“She saw you die.” Dee’s finger lifted and pointed at the Ignitor.
“The hell you say! You die, you—”
The shadows seemed to grab her. Nina’s words choked off and a thin line of red appeared on her neck.
“Your throat gets cut,” Dee said, just as Nina’s body fell to the ground.
The flames sputtered away.
The shadow—it was Zane. Standing there, body trembling as he stared down at the woman.
“I saw death. Zane was surrounded by flames. I burned. Nina—her throat was cut.” Catalina’s sad voice drifted through his mind.
But no, after that, she’d said—
“You die, Dee.” The whisper of her words filled his head even as Dee sprang forward and said—
“You die, Grim. You. Die!”
Grim came at her with fury, meeting her armed with the stake she’d used on him.
He drove that stake right at her chest.
“No!”
But Dee was ready. She spun away from the vamp, and the stake grazed her side, not her heart.
Simon grabbed Grim and wrestled the bastard to the ground. He ignored the claws and teeth and fought to hold the Born when he buckled, struggling to keep him pinned as—
“You die,” Dee whispered again and she had a stake in her hands. The stake she’d taken from Simon when his arms were locked around her and no one could see. The stake had been hidden near his waist, just waiting for her.
Grim lurched up.
She shoved the stake into his chest.
Grim’s eyes flared wide and he sucked in a sharp breath.
Then he smiled. “True,” he whispered, and blood spilled from his lips. “Both…right…”
The bastard smiled, and died.
Grim’s vampires inched forward.
Simon glared at them. “Your choice. Die with him or get the hell out of here.”
They stared back at him.
“My mother…” One whispered. “He made me…”
“My wife…” From another.
“My son.” Grief. Fury. “I begged him, but I couldn’t stop him!”
Not born monsters. We are what we become.
Simon stared back down at Grim’s still face. Once, Grim had just been a man, too. A man betrayed who’d woken to the power of a near god.
Dee’s fingers slowly loosened their death grip on the stake. Her breath exhaled on a hard sigh. She trembled.
Grim’s lashes were closed. His lips unmoving. No heartbeat. No breath.
Death.
Simon took Dee’s shoulders and pulled her away from the vampire. Over. Finally.
“Dee?”
He caught a scent then. A wild, fierce scent in the night. Animal.
No, shifter. Jude had to be close. More of the cavalry, but coming too late this time.
The vampires stilled, and he saw their eyes dart to the shadows. They knew when they were being hunted. Fear trickled into their dark gazes.
Then they bolted.
Not as dumb as he’d thought. Just lost, like he’d been.
“Is he dead?” Zane wasn’t looking at them. His eyes stayed on Nina’s body and his shoulders hunched.
The stake was buried in Grim’s heart. The bastard wasn’t so much as twitching. Yep, looked dead.
He pulled Dee toward him. “Sonofabitch, woman, you scared me! Catalina didn’t tell us Grim would die, she said you—”
Her knees buckled and Simon saw her chest—saw the blood that covered her. “Dee?”
A stake. A f**king stake. She’d gotten the Born, but he’d taken his death blow.
Both…right.
Because they were both dying.
Her lashes fell closed. No, no, screw that. Simon grabbed the stake and yanked it from her chest. She was still breathing. Her heart still beating. The stake had missed its mark, it had missed! She wasn’t going to die, no, she wasn’t going to—
“Easy.” Zane’s hoarse voice ordered and Simon realized he’d been screaming. Begging.
“Live,” Simon whispered now.
Grim had missed her heart. He could hear Dee’s heart beating. She’d be all right. She just needed blood. She just needed—
Her lashes lifted. Such dark eyes. Weak, but, still Dee.
“I will,” she promised. “I will.”
He crushed his lips onto hers and kissed the woman as hard and deep as he could.
Surrounded by death, but she was alive.
He leaned his forehead against hers and just held her.
“Missed…heart…barely…” she breathed the words.
“You just scared the hell out of me,” Zane snapped.