Wild and Free (The Three #3)(173)

Yes.

Pure evil.

And also fury.

My body was locked, frozen, but I still felt the chill race up my spine as terror took hold of my heart.

“Tell them,” he hissed. “Tell them to give us The Three. Tell them there will be more of this,” he snarled as he swung out an arm, “if they do not capitulate.”

His chin came up an inch and he stared down his nose at me.

“We’re prepared to face a death of hunger and completely annihilate the weaker species, if they do not yield. We will lose our lives and they will lose theirs—an end to the earth as we know it, opening the chance for a new beginning. Tell them. Tell them we’re prepared to wipe the earth clean. Tell them to give us The Three.”

*

“Goddamn it, Lilah, baby, wake up!” Abel roared, and I jerked awake.

The instant I did, a sharp knock came at the door.

Abel, looming over me and looking freaked out, whipped his head that way.

“Downstairs!” a voice I didn’t recognize shouted. “Immediately! Library!”

“Fuck,” Abel snarled, rolling over me and taking me with him when he exited the bed.

I wasn’t exactly awake so he guided me to my clothes, bent, nabbed my panties, and handed them to me.

I had them on, and he had his jeans on, when I asked, “Was I dreaming?”

“Yep,” he replied, bending to snag my jeans.

“Do you know what’s going on?” I asked.

He handed me my jeans, and when I took them, he cupped my jaw in his hands, leaning in close.

“No clue, *cat. Now, do me a favor and dress. Quick.”

I nodded and did the best I could, shaking off sleep as I did it.

The minute I was dressed, though both of us were still barefoot, Abel grabbed my upper arm, pulled me into his hold, and whoosh, we were out of the room and in the library.

Gregor was there, his hand to his ear on the phone. Lucien and Leah were there. No one else had arrived yet.

They all had their eyes glued to one location in the room.

I looked that way as Abel put me to my feet and I saw that the media cabinet, which usually shut the large, flat-screen TV from sight, was open. It was playing the news, a newscaster reporting, a scrolling bulletin going across the bottom of the screen, pictures inset to the top left.

“…carnage today. Current reports state a small town in northeast Iowa, a village in the highlands of Scotland, another village just outside Sofia in Bulgaria, and a hamlet in eastern China were all decimated. In each instance, only one survivor, a witness, was left alive. The attacks were timed, occurring precisely across the globe. When the first reports came in of the slaughter, this video was sent to the press.”

The newscaster disappeared and the head of a handsome, clearly uppity, blond man came on. Just his head. A black background.

Etienne.

“Today, The True successfully carried out our first mission. It was important to do so to make our intentions clear. However, now, we wish no further bloodshed. Therefore, we urge the leaders of the world to submit their populations to us without delay. The True immortals, the vampires, werewolves, and golem amongst you, demand your capitulation.”

I felt Callum and Sonia join us, but I didn’t move my eyes from the screen as the blond vampire continued talking.

“We will no longer hide our supremacy. We will no longer live in the shadows. We will no longer tolerate the efforts of our brethren to protect our human slaves from their rightful bondage.”

His eyes went scary and I felt my throat get tight.

“We will not be denied,” he warned. “Yield. Or you will fall.”

After that, he bared his teeth, extended his fangs on a snap, and the screen went back to the newscaster, who wore a troubled look.

“I can imagine our viewers believe this is another hoax. It distresses me to report that it is not. The thousands of victims of this senseless slaughter have been reported to be torn apart and drained of blood. Not a one has been found to sustain an injury by any weapon. The witnesses, all of them, thousands of miles apart, report that men and women with extreme speed and strength, as well as a number of wolves and what they describe as ‘hairless giants,’ invaded their towns, their homes, and wrought their butchery, leaving nothing but death in their wake and thousands of losses.” He leaned slightly toward the camera and lowered his voice as he finished, “And these attacks lasted moments.”

“This can’t be happening,” Sonia whispered.

Lucien, holding the remote, lifted it and clicked.

The next channel was news of the slaughter.

He hit another button.

More news of the attacks.

And another.

Every channel had been taken over by the news.

He left it on one with a female newscaster who was stating, “The videos seen several days ago all over social media sites were apparently exactly what they seemed to be. There are vampires amongst us. With the most recent heinous attacks perpetrated by these creatures, we have yet to receive explanations as to why the media received false information to relay to our viewers.”

“Get off the f*cking phone,” Abel growled in a way my eyes went directly to him.

He was looking at Gregor.

“Off the f*cking phone!” he roared.

“Honey,” I whispered.

“Yes, good. I’ll phone you back,” Gregor said and dropped his phone from his ear.