Dark Solace by Tara Fox Hall Page A

in a flash. I went
still immediately, waiting in silence, my heart hammering.
    “Dalcon,” a voice called. “Get up.”
    Our accident had been an ambush. Who was out
there? Why the hell hadn’t Devlin said there was someone looking to
kill him? I would have insisted on guards if I’d known.
    Devlin made no reply.
    “Answer me, Dalcon, or I’ll shoot your lady.
When you start screaming, I’ll know your vocal abilities are still
there.”
    God. I felt frantically for my cell phone,
then remembered it was in my purse on the front seat of Lash’s
truck.
    “I’m here,” Devlin said spitefully. “Who are
you and what do you want with me?”
    A familiar figure walked into the light.
“It’s him,” Catherine said, rancor in each word as she stared at us
with red eyes. “That’s his Oathed One, Sar.”
    Devlin hissed, baring his fangs at her. She
gave him a cold look.
    A man stepped out beside Catherine. I didn’t
recognize his handsome features. He had brown hair to his
shoulders, and green eyes like mine. His body was similar to
Aran’s, tall and rangy, though his shoulders were narrower, and his
waist thicker. He looked to be in his twenties, but if he was
vampire like Catherine, he could have been far older.
    Devlin did recognize him. He hissed again,
baring his fangs. “Ulysses.”
    “How gratifying, Dalcon,” the man said. “I
thought you had forgotten me.”
    “I had, until now,” Devlin said easily.
    “Get up, both of you,” Ulysses said.
    He had no gun or weapon. Why wasn’t Devlin
kicking his ass? We’d lost our gun, sure, but still...
    Devlin got up and faced Ulysses, keeping me
behind him. “You’re a fool to ambush me. You’ve only brought
yourself more misery—”
    “I beg to differ,” Ulysses said in a charming
manner. “You owe me.”
    “I owe you nothing,” Devlin said
arrogantly.
    “You owe me,” Ulysses repeated with white-hot
anger. “Grab them!”
    Arms grabbed me from behind, pulling me away
from Devlin. I screamed, kicking and pushing, but the limbs were
immovable as steel bands. Devlin lunged for me, snarling, but four
men grasped him, restraining him as he thrashed.
    “Let us go!” I screamed. “You’ve signed your
own death warrant—”
    Ulysses strode up to Devlin, and shot him in
the heart, the brief flash illuminating Devlin’s explosive bullet’s
gun. Devlin convulsed with the impact, and went down hard.
    “Dev!” I screamed, struggling hard. The man
holding me laughed, then squeezed, making me choke.
    “Get up,” Ulysses said in contempt. “I know
that leather is more than it appears.”
    Devlin rolled over onto his side. I sagged
with relief, to see him moving. “What do you want?” he said, his
words coming with effort. “I can’t bring your sister back.”
    “You knew she was in love with you! You used
her! You turned her!”
    “She knew what she wanted, and I gave it to
her,” Devlin said contemptuously. “It’s not my fault she ran afoul
of some vampire hunters. If she hadn’t been dumb enough to leave
drained corpses lying around—”
    Ulysses shot Devlin again in the back. This
time, Devlin screamed.
    “Stop it, Please!” I screamed. “Please!”
    Ulysses shot him twice more, each bullet
booming in the quiet. Devlin screamed each time, his smoking form
writhing on the ground. I began sobbing, still pleading for Ulysses
to stop.
    Ulysses crouched down and held the gun to
Devlin’s head. Devlin looked up at him, his eyes red and hateful,
hissing in pain.
    “You think you’ll heal a gunshot wound to the
head, if the bullet’s explosive?” Ulysses said thoughtfully. “I’m
thinking not. There are all those stories about vampires being
decapitated and dying. But maybe it would just paralyze you. Unless
of course, I aimed for your throat, and it took your head clean
off—”
    This wasn’t about ransom. This man wanted
revenge. He was going to kill Devlin unless someone saved us. Tears
flooded my eyes and ran down my cheeks. No