Shadows Rising (Darkness Falls Book 2)

Chapter Thirty-Four

Leon sprang to his feet, slopping coffee down his front.

Riley froze, flinching at the sight of him, and Ethan placed himself protectively in front of her.

Tension charged the room, and I realised I'd instinctively assumed a fighting stance, my arms loose but ready, hands curled at my sides.

Tears filled Leon's eyes and I thought that, for the first time, he was really seeing the innocent teenage girl he'd kidnapped, and not the pawn in a larger game. "I'm sorry," he whispered. "I'm so, so sorry – I never – I just..."

Riley stepped around Ethan and carefully approached Leon, not taking her eyes off his face. Ethan watched her, his body as tense and ready to fight as mine.

Leon's arms hung at his sides, his fingers nervously twitching. The coffee-stain on his front looked like a bib.

Riley hesitated, taking quick, shallow breaths. Her eyes were huge.

"I'm sor –" Leon didn't get further than that. The rest of his sentence was cut off by Riley's fist meeting his face.

Leon staggered back and Riley reeled, clutching her hand. Ethan pulled her into a hug, resting his chin on her head and glaring at Leon.

Considering we were on the same side now, it might be inappropriate to praise Riley for punching Leon, but as soon as I had a private moment, I would tell her how proud I was of her.

"I know it won't make any difference to you now, but I really am sorry," Leon whispered.

"It does make a difference," Ethan told him. "But if you ever hurt my girlfriend or anyone else I care about again, I will kill you." The icy look in his eyes said he meant every word.

Leon swallowed and nodded.

Riley crossed the room and started making herself a coffee, apparently satisfied with hitting her kidnapper. Leon was lucky. If he'd kidnapped me, I'd have done a lot more than punch him.

"So," Samuel said, as if nothing had happened. "We need to decide what to do about Rachel."

"She's always two steps ahead of us," I said. "If we want any chance of stopping her, we need to draw her out."

Luke looked at me, frowned. "What do you mean?"

Steadily I met his gaze. "I think you know what I mean. We need bait."

Outright denial chased through his eyes, his jaw tightening. "And by that you mean you."

"Yes."

Luke jumped to his feet. "No way." The hardness in his voice was fear rather than anger.

"We don't have a lot of choice here. We're running out of time."

"You don't know that."

I folded my arms and stared him out. "Sooner or later, Rachel is going to get tired of playing games. Then she'll come after me and she'll take out anyone that gets in her way. We need to stop her before that happens. We need to go on the offensive for once, because this whole time she's been calling the shots and I'm sick of it. I'm not going to wait around for her to strike, Luke."

He took a ragged breath, his grey eyes swirling with pain. "But you can't turn yourself into bait."

"Yes, I can. Better to be bait and know what I'm doing than be a sitting duck for whatever her sick mind dreams up next."

"Um, excuse me?" Leon raised a hand.

The space between me and Luke was so charged with tension that I'd almost forgotten there was anyone else in the room.

"What?" I said.

"I could be the bait," Leon said.

That took me by surprise. Yes, he'd defended me against Rachel, but I still didn't expect him to offer to put his life on the line like this.

"I appreciate it, Leon," I said, and meant it, "but I need to do this."

"Why?" Luke demanded.

"Because I'm the one she wants."

"But Rachel obviously wants Leon dead too, otherwise she wouldn't have sent him rats."

I put my hand on Luke's chest. His heart thudded beneath my fingertips, fear and anger kicking up the beat. "Luke, I am the prize in this game. Rachel is all about vampire supremacy and I have completely undermined that by having a vampire fall in love with me."

He raised my hand to his face, pressing his lips against my knuckles. "I can't let you do this. It's too dangerous."

"And it's not your decision to make," I gently reminded him. If Luke had been the one offering to act as bait for a psychotic vampire, I'd be the first to jump in and refuse to let him do it, but I didn't mention that. At the end of the day, I wouldn't stop Luke if our roles were reversed, and he couldn't stop me.

The hurt in Luke's eyes tore at my heart. I wanted to kiss it away, to melt into his arms and promise him that everything was going to be alright, but nothing would be until Rachel was out of our lives.

"Kiara, I have to remind you how dangerous this is," Samuel said. His eyes were solemn, his forehead creased with worry. Elena pressed against his side, clutching his hand.

Everyone in this room knew that I'd gone up against Rachel more than once, and each time I'd come off worst. In a flat-out fight, I couldn't beat her. But I wasn't alone. I had my friends and family, and between us we were going to take this bitch down.

"I know," I said. "I'm not going to do anything rash or stupid, but I am going to draw Rachel out so we can get rid of her once and for all." I looked around the table at the people who surrounded me; the vampire couple who'd taken me in, my childhood friend and the girl who'd become my best friend, the vampire hunter that I'd saved from a life of shadows, and the vampire that I loved with every single piece of me. I wasn't losing these people. I wasn't letting anyone hurt them ever again.

"We're going to need all the help we can get," I said. "Ethan and Riley, I want you to go to the team's house and get Ava and Clara."

At the sound of Clara's name, Leon flinched and hunched into himself. I hadn't thought about the two of them being in the same room again, but no one could blame Leon for being nervous. Clara's fists were still imprinted on his face. But it couldn't be helped. We needed help, and we wouldn't get better than Clara. She wouldn't raise a finger against Leon now; she'd probably just ignore him.

Ethan nodded, and he and Riley climbed to their feet.

"Do we really need them?" Leon asked, a tremor running through his words. "I mean, Rachel's only one vampire, right?"

"Maybe," I said, thinking of Madeleine's escaped rogues, the one who'd told Rachel about me in the first place. There was no evidence that any of them had come back to Dalwick with their new mistress, hoping to finish what the old one started, which led me to believe that Clara was right and Rachel was working alone. Even so, she was more than a normal vampire. "But I'm through underestimating people. I underestimated Caleb, and Sophie died because of it." I pinned Leon with a hard look. "I underestimated you, and you kidnapped Riley."

Leon squirmed in his seat, looking deeply uncomfortable.

I looked around at everyone again. "I'm not taking any more chances. This ends tonight."