Page 55 of Violet

“I—I have a really bad feeling about this.”

“Just trust me.” Liam stares at me intently. “And tell your blood mage to get his ass down here.”

My troll looks so determined that for a split second, I actually feel hope. Hope that I can stay in Silver Springs. Hope that everything will work out. Hope that I’ll live to see another day. And that’s when everything goes wrong.

Chapter 23

Violet

I barely have time to send Cash a private message with Liam’s phone number and our address when I hear several cars pull up outside. I pray that it’s something harmless—like a surprise pizza delivery, courtesy of one of Violet’s vampires—when a beam of the purplish-black light shoots into the room and smashes Hugh’s piano.

The vampire lets out a keening moan that melds with the sound of glass shattering as sun streams in through a giant, gaping hole in the thick velvet drapes.

Aldo lets out an enraged shriek, grabs Violet, and zooms out of the room. Bert follows, and Hugh gives his piano one final, longing look before disappearing after them.

One second, Violet and her vampires are there and the next, they’re gone.

“Oh, Violet... Come out, come out wherever you are,” a voice straight from my nightmares echoes from outside. I almost drop Liam’s phone. Almost.

The phone is our only means of getting help... and I still have a Screech chat open with Cash. I send him a quick SOS and wonder if he’ll even see it. I did log into my account, instead of messaging him as Liam, but he’s the creator of the damn app—he probably gets hundreds of messages a day, if not thousands.

I hand the phone to Liam next, and he quickly calls for backup while the man outside continues his taunting game. “Come out, mousy. Kitty wants to play,” he shouts, and I realize he’s using some sort of amplification spell to be heard inside the house.

“That the asshole who’s been after you?” Liam demands after hanging up with the station.

“It’s Raicus.” I shiver as I picture his face: thin nose, blond hair, and that scar.

Liam takes a menacing step forward.

“Don’t! He’s only after me. He won’t—” I mean to tell Liam that he won’t hesitate to hurt him, but the troll cuts me off.

“No one hurts my mate!” he booms, and I swear the walls shake.

“Oooh, goody. A challenge.” Raicus chuckles. “Come on out, Violet’s mate.”

I suddenly think I’m going to be sick. Now that Raicus knows who Liam is, he’ll use him to get to me. And if Liam goes out there, one shot from that orb and he’s dead.

I have to do something, and fast, so I do the only thing I can. I shift into Aldo and zoom out of the room at vampire speed.

I take the hall Liam and I came in through, throw open the front door, and race down the front steps. The sun burns my skin, and I hear an enraged Liam charging down the hall behind me, but all I can think about is distracting Raicus.

Then I finally spot him... and realize how badly I’ve miscalculated.

If he’d been alone, or maybe with just one other witch, we could have stood a chance. But I count six of them in all—two leaning against Liam’s squad car, one sitting on the hood, another on the roof, and one standing next to Raicus, who’s leaning casually against the hood of a red sports car.

“Well, that was so much easier than I thought,” he says when I shift back to my own body so my skin stops getting burned by the sun.

“I’m here to surrender,” I tell him. “Promise you won’t harm anyone else, and I’ll go without causing any trouble.”

“No, you won’t!” Liam shouts as he races out of the house and shoves me behind his back. “I won’t let you lay a finger on her!”

“You don’t say?” Raicus casually examines his fingernails. Like a troll and a chameleon don’t pose much of a threat... and honestly? We don’t.

Which is when the mansion’s front door crashes open, and three figures zoom out of the house, clad from head to toe in black. Bert, Aldo, and Hugh.

“You shouldn’t have come back,” I cry. Because now it’s not just Liam I have to worry about. Now Violet will lose all three of her mates before they even have a chance to turn her. Before she could get to know them. Before she could agree to spend eternity with them. Before she could have her happy ending.

“Looks like we have company.” Raicus chuckles. “Shall I wait on anyone else, or are we all here?”