Emily McKay: The Lair

I truly hate him. But does that mean I want him dead?

No. I don’t.

Unless . . . unless everything Roberto had said was true. Unless Sebastian was responsible for the Tick virus. Unless he was the one who had destroyed the world. Unless he was the one responsible for the end of my world as I’d known it. For the death of my mother. What happened to my sister.

Then, yes. Then, I want him dead.

Once I’m armed, I sneak out the front door and slip through the darkness to the square. I stash the stakes in the pockets of my cargo pants. Then I tuck the katana under my arm as I fasten the sheath of the dagger to my belt as I walk. Confident I can reach whatever I need, I grip the handle of the katana and scrape the pad of my thumb across the blade. It’s old but sharp enough. It will do what I need it to. Kimura may not have succeeded in killing Roberto, but then, he wasn’t sneaking up on him in the middle of an all-out battle. Still, I couldn’t help wondering if Kimura had failed because he’d underestimated Roberto. And if I was making the same mistake.

Sebastian and Roberto are still at it; I knew they would be. Roberto almost has Sebastian backed against the oak tree in the middle of the square. Sebastian sees me coming, his eyes flickering only briefly in my direction. Roberto hesitates on his next strike, and it’s the window Sebastian has been looking for. With one wickedly fast movement, he lunges in and the dagger catches the katana just so. The sword flies out of his hand and goes soaring through the air.

Roberto spins away before Sebastian can skewer him, and I think he’s going for the katana. But he doesn’t. He jumps, flipping in midair and lands beside me. I’m not fast enough. Not vampire enough, I guess. My reflexes aren’t as quick as either of theirs, because before my eyes can even process what has happened, Roberto has yanked out my dagger and has pressed it to the underside of my jaw.

His voice is hot and cloying in my ear. “Better drop the sword, love.”

I toss it aside, toward Sebastian. He still has his dagger, obviously, but I figure another sword won’t hurt his chances.

“I bet you’re wondering”—Roberto reaches up to tuck a strand of my hair back to bare my neck—“how I’m so much faster and smarter than you. Aren’t you?” He doesn’t wait for me to answer. Which is just as well, since I’m not sure I could talk past the bile in my mouth. “You’ve been living off Ticks and wild animals because Sebastian lives like some sort of cave person. Me, I’ve been dining on the smartest, most content humans in the country. My dear, you really should have higher standards when it comes to picking your boyfriends.”

“It’s not a question of standards,” I growl. “If one of you is repulsive.”

The tip of the dagger bites into the tender skin of my neck and I twitch away from it. I think I’ve pissed him off, but then he chuckles. “Too late now, anyway. If you’d come to me earlier, I could have shown you a good time. Of course I’d still kill you right about now anyway, so I don’t suppose it matters much.”

Sebastian just stands there, eyeing Roberto and me. He’s moved the dagger from palm to palm a couple of times. He’s trying to think it through, figure out how to get me out of this.

Roberto sees it, too, and presses the blade a little deeper. “Do you want her back?” he asks. “Drop the dagger or I’ll kill her. Let me end this now and I’ll let her walk.”

Sebastian eyes both of us, then he gives a little shrug and says, “I never intended for her to walk out of here, anyway. Go ahead and get her out of the way and you and I can keep at it. This time you won’t have the advantage of the longer blade. Good luck with that.”

I suck in a breath at Sebastian’s words. I try to meet his gaze, but he’s not even glancing at me. It’s like I’m not even here.

Like I don’t exist. I feel a wash of cold fury. I’ve spent too much of my life with people not seeing me as I really am. That’s not how I’m going to die.

Roberto pulls the dagger away from my neck long enough to glance down at the handle. “Hmm . . . You picked Bagnoli’s,” he says in an offhand voice. “Interesting choice. I would have gone with one of the Spanish blades myself.”

Before he can press the blade back to my throat, I drop down, spinning out of his grasp. I pull two wooden stakes out of my pockets as I kick out his legs. He goes down. I pounce before he even hits the ground. The stake goes all the way through his chest and sinks into the ground beneath him.

I leap back before he can move. Even staked through the heart, I know he’s still dangerous. I move quickly, using the other stakes to pin his hands to the ground as well. Only then do I stand. I grab the katana and stalk over to his body.

“You may be smarter and faster than I am. But I talk less.”

I raise the sword. I’m already swinging it down in a wide arc toward his neck when Sebastian grabs my arm.

There’s fury and battle rage in his eyes. Emotion like I’ve never seen from him before. Guess he got a dose of that vampire berserker rage, too.

He just shakes his head. “He’s mine.”

I snarl at Sebastian, driving my elbow back into his chest. The air goes out of his lungs in a whoosh, but he doesn’t release my arm. In fact, his grip tightens to the point that he’s crushing the bones of my wrist.

“I’ve hunted him for two thousand years. You don’t really think I’m going to let you kill him, do you?”

His fingertips dig the tendons in my wrist against the bone and the katana falls out of my hand. Again, I do the drop-and-kick maneuver, but Sebastian trained me and he’s ready for the move. He follows me to the ground and wrestles me beneath him. We’ve fought enough that I can tell he’s not really trying to bring me down. His heart isn’t in it—either that, or the fight with Roberto has worn him down. Even I can feel the strain of being so deep in Roberto’s territory. He braces one arm on the ground beside my head. His other forearm is pressed against my chest.

I look up into his eyes, trying to see past his bloodlust, but all I see is his need for revenge. There is nothing of the man I thought I knew. Nothing of the man I wanted him to be.

Maybe I just hoped that a person could still exist inside a bloodthirsty vampire.

I can’t imagine why I’d want to believe that.

“Tell me something, Sebastian. Would you really have let him kill me so you could have your revenge?”

Something flickers in his eyes. “You’re fully vampire now, Kit. Haven’t you figured that out? You’re not my responsibility anymore.”

“But you would have let him kill me?”

“I would do anything to stop him. Yes.”

“And Genexome? Is it really your company? Are you really responsible for the Tick virus?”

This time there’s not even a flicker of emotion in his gaze. “Yes. I’m responsible.”

“Why?”

“Why do you think?” he gasps.

It isn’t a hard question. Why has he done anything? Because he thought it would help him kill Roberto.

It’s all I need to hear.

I buck against him, rolling him under me. It’s a move that would never work if he was at his full strength. If he wasn’t already exhausted. It’s a low blow. But no lower than what he’s dealt me.

Once he’s under me, I pull my arm up over my head and plunge the stake into his heart.

I do it without thinking about it. Without looking at him. Because it’s the only way I can manage to do what needs to be done.

I hear him gasp in surprise, but I ignore it.

I hop up, adrenaline, vampire berserker rage, whatever it is, I’m shaking so badly I can barely hold the sword in my hand as I stalk over to where Roberto still lays, pinned to the ground. He stares up at me, shock writ clearly on his face. I swing the sword up, but I’m shaking too badly.