King Cave (Forever Evermore, #2)(131)
I chuckled, lightly smacking his stomach. “Nice catch.” After almost four days of hard traveling, my die had led us to Las Vegas, Nevada. We had passed through it…only for the die to pull me back in this direction. Circling the city had the same effect. So, here we were, eating ice-cream after dinner on the outskirts of Sin City, waiting for tomorrow to come so I could begin the more thorough search alone.
“Thank you.” Ezra grinned, his smile satisfied. He tugged on one of my low pigtails, which I was beginning to enjoy wearing, staring at it as he twirled my hair around his fingers. His smile grew before glancing back at my face. Gradually, he lowered his head and purred softly at my ear, “Besides, I want you in a good mood later.”
My cheeks instantly flamed, eyes lowering to the table, knowing his parents could hear.
He chuckled quietly, gently pressing his lips to my ear as he whispered in an intimate tone, “That, too, but there’s something I want to ask you, and I want you in a good mood for it.”
My eyes narrowed. “What question would you ask that I need to be in a good mood for?”
“Nothing bad,” he murmured, kissing my temple softly. “But just try to stay happy.” His green gaze met mine behind our glasses, and I saw a touch of…vulnerability…there.
My eyebrows puckered, my eyes darting back and forth between his in instant concern, and that was right when Antonio jolted…and glowed bright gold, lighting up the entire parlor…his head flying back and a pain-filled shout soaring from his opened mouth.
“Jesus,” Ezra whispered, instantly jumping from his chair, facing the crowd of onlookers.
I felt Ezra’s power erupt throughout the room, so much unleashed that it rocked me, but my heart was still beating frantically as I dove for Antonio when he started convulsing. Cahal and I both caught him when he started to fall. I held his head tight to my chest, feeling time and spells, his power, rush through my system. I grunted, same as Cahal as he held Antonio’s body stationary while he continued convulsing, even as I drew my gun from the back of my pants, physically trembling from Antonio’s and Ezra’s powers whipping around me, and aimed my gun at the onlookers.
No one was watching us. In fact, they were all lined up like ants, filing out the door where Ezra stood, eyes glowing fiercely. I could see his mouth moving, but I couldn’t hear what he was saying, though he was definitely ordering them to leave. And they did, faces slack, their minds defenseless against his will.
“Go into the back rooms and get the tapes,” I shouted to Vivian over Antonio’s screams.
She still sat stunned, motionless, her eyes wide, as if she didn’t realize we needed to leave.
Cahal’s Vampire growled, ordering her, “Now, Vivian. Get the footage.”
She blinked. Nodded hastily, jumping from her chair and blurring into the back room.
Two things happened almost simultaneously.
The first was the sound of a gun firing in the back room.
The second was Cahal’s shout joining Antonio’s, right before his eyes closed, out cold.
The air choked out of me, Cahal falling on top of Antonio and making me take on both of their weight. Oh Jesus, no. My knees hit the ground, even as I trained my gun on the door Vivian had gone through, and I heard Ezra roar. As in, his Vampire actually f*cking roared, rocking the tiles under my knees. The next second he blurred, people still moving outside. I lost track of him, but I did see the back door fly open, then swing shut, where I had my gun aimed.
There could have been only one reason for someone as powerful as Cahal to have suddenly passed out in pain, the evidence dark. I breathed heavily through my nose, trying not to get emotional right now, concentrating on the task at hand, carefully lowering Antonio’s body, which was slowly beginning to stop convulsing, and Cahal’s slack form, to the ground. I barely had them there when I heard a man screaming from behind the door as if the hounds of hell were after him.
Ezra’s Vampire roared again.
My hands trembled on my gun, this being a first for me, hearing that terrifying sound from him. Or any other Vampire, for that matter. It wasn’t a sound I wanted to hear again, and I prayed that the man would scream just a little louder so the roar wasn’t so earth-shattering. I stumbled to my feet and quickly closed the door behind the last person to leave, all of them still under Ezra’s mind hold as they got into their cars and drove away. Slowly, I made my way into the back room, even as the man’s screams stopped, my ears ringing from Ezra’s Vampire and feeling like they would soon start to bleed from the pressure.
“Ezra!” I shouted loudly, scanning an area full of refrigerators but not a soul.
The roar stopped echoing, and a furious growl sounded to my right.
Alright, I think that was an answer.
Carefully, I moved in that direction. There was a door that was slightly ajar. Moving past a stainless steel table, I saw…my gun trembled even more…Vivian’s leg keeping the door open, stuck between the doorframe and the door. Slowly, it began gliding back into the other room while Ezra’s Vampire growled in a long soulful tune behind the door.
Oh, God.
Keep it together.
Keep it f*cking together.
I shook my head, catching the door as it began to close, the scents of Mystical blood, silver, and a shitload of Com blood filling my nostrils. “Ezra, baby. It’s me. I’m coming inside.” I bit my lip, blinking tears back when I heard his Vampire’s growl sputter on a whimper. “It’s only me, baby.”