Page 112 of An Oath at Midnight

I tried to speak again, to use the power of my blood to spell, but still no words would come out.

Ryan walked to a bag in the corner, took something out, and strode back. He held up a needle and thread. “We need to make sure you can’t talk when the drug starts to wear off. And, of course, use your sister’s calling card, right? Since she likes to sew people’s mouths closed.”

Then he pressed my lips together and started sewing.

I screamed, the sound exploded through my mind, but again nothing passed my lips. The pain was unbearable, but I couldn’t fight, couldn’t move. I thought about all the people he’d killed before me. How they must have suffered. Still conscious while he tortured them, while he removed organs and hacked off limbs.

Ryan was a monster, and the way he was breathing heavily, the excitement in his eyes—he got off on this. He was enjoying every moment.

Ryan wanted people to think it was Willow, but he couldn’t even replicate the spell she’d used during her trial with Elmer Eldridge when she sewed his mouth closed and the one the witches council was using as evidence of her guilt. It wasn’t a spell; it was a psycho with a needle and thread and no magic at all. The council was either somehow blinded to the truth or more interested in hurting Willow, hurting our coven, than finding the real killer.

I knew who was framing her, finally, but I didn’t know why, and unless I thought of a way to get the hell down from here, I’d never get the chance to tell anyone.

CHAPTER 28

Bram

My heart pounded, excitement filling me as I watched the life drain from the vampire’s bloodshot eyes. It wasn’t often we were hired to take out a vamp, but there were things going on among their leaders, things that put chasing a rogue deep in bloodlust low on their list of priorities.

This one had been snacking on humans in the basement of an abandoned theater for days. I tossed his limp body to the floor, then removed his head with my axe. I straightened and screwed up my nose. The stench of rotting corpses was strong as hell in the confined space. He’d been too lost to his thirst to be careful, and if anyone found these bodies full of fang marks, well, it might lead to questions. Questions we didn’t want the humans asking.

Removing a vamp’s head, then burning them was the best way to ensure they stayed dead, which meant there was only one thing to be done.

Rook poured gasoline over the bodies, dropped the can, and I flicked open my lighter and tossed it. Rook climbed out the window and I followed, the room going up in flames behind us.

“I’ll text Nero and tell him it’s done,” I said.

Rook dipped his chin, shifted and flew away.

I strode across the parking lot, smoke billowing from the building behind me, and pulled out my phone. I’d had it on silent while we’d hunted and froze when I got a look at the screen. I’d had multiple calls from Asher.

My gut fucking knotted, followed by an adrenaline spike as I hit her number.

Something was wrong.

Something had happened to Magnolia.

I fucking felt it, the dread in every part of my body.

“Where the hell have you been?” Ash hissed down the line.

“Where is she?”

“No fucking clue. I was supposed to meet her at a wine bar. Found her car but no sign of her.”

I swallowed down my roar. “Where are you?”

“Downtown, on Grant Street, outside The Crest apartments.”

I disconnected, yanked off my shirt, my wings bursting from my back, and exploded into the sky. That was Alway’s apartment building. She’d gone to talk to him on her own. Fuck.

An image of Calvin’s body after we’d found it in that garage slammed into my head, and fear like nothing I’d ever experienced gripped me by the throat. Ryan. He had her. It had to be him.

He’d just marked himself for death.

Ryan was going to die today, screaming.

* * *