“You will be confined until a suitable punishment is agreed upon. ”
Juan Carlos nodded his smug agreement. No one had ever explained confinement to me, but I’d always gathered it was considered a fate worse than death. Daria was apparently among the group who believed this.
“No,” she screamed. “I won’t go. ”
“You don’t get to make those decisions anymore,” Juan Carlos taunted. There was something hauntingly sad in his countenance.
“Kill me,” she begged, her words directed to Juan Carlos, who turned away.
“No,” Sig said, his voice flat and emotionless.
She got to her feet, faltering on the grass in her heels, and continued to look imploringly at Juan Carlos, holding her hands out to him as if begging for something. When he showed her no sympathy, she swung back to me. There was nothing human about her face.
“This is all your fault. ”
“Okay,” I whispered, still leaning against Brigit, blood seeping out of me from the multitude of wounds covering my body.
My acceptance of her accusation enraged her more. With more speed than I would have thought she still possessed, she ripped me free of Brigit’s hold. My ward attempted to pull the feral vampire off me, but Daria was of a singular purpose now. She wanted to die and she was going to take me with her.
She tried to latch on to my neck, but I’d come to expect this as the first move for any blood-frenzied vampire. I smashed my elbow across her face, and her neck snapped to the side. She was still pushing on a forward course, and the momentum of my hit caused her to trip on her high heels.
This was why I’d learned to always wear flats to a fight.
Her feet tangled with mine, and she grabbed hold of me, taking me with her as she tumbled down the hill. When we stopped, my head was against Noriko’s thigh and the sword was still in my hand. Daria had already found her footing and was standing over me with a victorious leer.
“You want to die?” I asked.
She said nothing and darted in for the killing bite instead. I was anticipating it and was already swinging my arm upward before she dove. The two motions came together with the precision of a well-oiled machine. Her neck fell through the path of the sword, and when her body came down on top of me, her head was watching from a few feet away.
I lay gasping, unable to find the strength to push her dead weight off me.
“Help,” I croaked.
It was Nolan of all people who got to me first, pulling the headless corpse off me and lifting me from the ground as if I were weightless. He was joined by the three vampires, and Juan Carlos checked on Daria’s body to ensure she was dead. He seemed satisfied.
“Sorry,” I told him.
“Why?”
“You didn’t want her dead. ”
Juan Carlos smiled, and I wished he hadn’t. It reminded me of looking at a demented jack-o’-lantern. His joviality was more sinister than his seriousness. “It no longer matters. You’ve done the job we asked of you as a council, and I believe we can consider your warrant fulfilled. ”
Sig watched our exchange and tried to take me from Nolan, but the boy refused to hand me over.
“She promised to protect me,” Nolan explained. “The least I can do is the same for her now. ”
Sig looked surprised by the boy’s courage and didn’t argue. After this, I would have to stop thinking of Nolan as a boy. I sagged in his arms.
“Holden is safe now?” I asked to no one in particular.
“Yes,” Sig confirmed.
“Okay,” I said, smiling, and then the world slipped into darkness.
Chapter Thirty-One
Three weeks had passed since my trip to Rhinebeck, and August had come to New York City.