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Clenching his teeth and letting out a pained cry, Cole curls into himself. And that’s when I see it. The ruby-red rivers of blood, leaking from a slash in his chest. It drips onto the rug beneath him as he sways, his skin mottled with sweat.

“Tyler!” Cole cries out, clutching ‌his chest. “I-It took him!”

Chapter Seventeen

Noah

The world freezes. I can’t get my lungs to work as a tsunami of terror flows through me. Xander tenses and Harlan gasps.

Cole is crazed as he paces back and forth through the living room, leaving behind small puddles of blood in his wake. The metallic smell of it fills my nose and has my head buzzing with dizziness. But despite the large gash across his chest, Cole couldn’t seem to care less about it; his focus directly on Tyler.

“How?” Cassius is the first to speak.

Cole momentarily pauses his pacing as he grasps his chest and hisses through the pain, “I took my eyes off him for one second. It was waiting for us at the coven.”

“Why Tyler?” Ambrose bites at his nails. For the first time, this immaculate marble statue of a vampire looks terribly destroyed. His fangs have descended as he mindlessly rips at the skin around his cuticles.

Cole growls, his eyes widening, “The wards. Those fucking wards you forced him to put up were marked with his scent!”

The air in the house grows thick as Cole diverts his gaze to where I sit. His sneer is deeper and far sharper than Richard’s as he strides towards the couch. Xander is between us in the blink of an eye, his own hiss rattling the windows.

“Come a step closer to my mate and I’ll give you another thing to worry about!” Xander’s voice bellows around me.

“It’s his fault!” Cole roars back. “That thing is after him! Tyler was doing it out of the goodness of his own heart, and now he’s been taken from me!”

My stomach plummets, and I drop my head. Cole is right. It is my fault. Tyler was only trying to help, and this is where it’s gotten him.

“Tyler offered. Ambrose paid with a decade of his life. We aren’t at fault for this,” Cassius steps closer. The three vampires tower over the rest of us like three hulking giants.

“Then kill the damn thing!” Cole screams, reaching up to tug at his short hair. “These goddamn vampires.”

“Mind your tone, witch,” Cassius grumbles as he meets Cole’s hardened gaze. They snarl at one another, sizing each other up.

For a moment, I prepare myself to find a safe spot before the three men share blows and fangs, but it’s a quiet voice from the corner of the room that has everyone pausing.

“We’ll save him.”

Milo lifts his hooded head, his gaze darting between each vampire and myself as he chews on his bottom lip.

Ambrose drops his fingers from his lips, leaving behind a trail of blood from his torn cuticles. “Yes. We’ll kill the Soultracker and save Tyler.”

Xander sighs and steps back, his hands reaching for me, and I take his in mine. My touch immediately has his shoulders dropping and his posture loosening. “I’ll stay here with Noah. He can’t be left alone.”

Cole snaps his attention to me. “No. He comes, too.”

Cassius growls, “And what purpose would it serve to have Noah in harm's way?”

I shiver as all eyes turn to where I sit. It’s a strange feeling to be torn between utter shame and complete support. My heart thunders, yet my body lights up with warmth as each vampire gives me a small look of strength. Even Milo manages a tiny smile and a nod.

“We will kill the Soultracker. But we must protect our own,” Cassius nods in my direction. “Noah will stay here with Xander.”

Cole snarls, “It’s after him! It’s taken Tyler to get to Noah! Why can’t you see that? All it wants is your human!”

Xander’s chrome eyes meet mine, and a flash of sadness merges across his features. “We can’t put Noah in danger.”

Xander’s words are gentle against the raging anxiety that grows in my chest, but I can’t hide from the fact that Tyler is in grave danger because of me. Nothing sits right as I listen to them bicker back and forth.

“He’s destined to die! Tyler has seen it! The only way to get Tyler back is to use Noah as bait,” Cole’s voice thunders through the house.