Chapter 216

A jumble of images, maybe memories, assaulted my mind one after another, until they settled into one setting, in which icy darkness pierced me.

My eyes flashed open; the movement caused pain behind my eyes. I tried to understand where I was, only to find that the air was too thin to breathe. My sight gradually adjusted to the blanket of black surrounding me. I was lying on something hard, and six inches above me was a long sheet of plywood smelling of earth and mold. My heart skipped a beat. I was inside a coffin buried who knew how deep.

I screamed a sound so horrific I barely recognized my own voice.

An explosion came next, drowning out my screams and shaking my coffin. The wooden lid in front of me ripped from its hinges and flew upward, taking with it chunks of earth and debris.

My mouth closed and I gazed upward at a gorgeous male who stared down at me, his sapphire eyes full of rage, longing, sorrow, regret, and pain that this world couldn’t carry.

I let out a whimper. “You came.”

I’d seen that icy beautiful face before. The Vampire God reached his hand toward me, but just before I could grab his fingertips, a dark storm swept in and swallowed him and his desperate roars.

Before I could cry out for him, the scene blurred into the next one.

My heartbeat pounded in my frozen ears, drowning out the rapid sound of my bare feet hitting ice.

I was being hunted. The sound of men shouting and hounds howling chased me. I sprang over an expanse of endless ice with inhuman speed.

A group of armed vehicles raced after me, bullets zipping by me...

 “Pip?” A voice reached me. “Pip? Wake up.”

More voices called me urgently.

I blinked open my eyes, my legs thrashing, and I bolted up. My head hit

the wall at my jerky movements.

“It’s us, Pip,” Danielle whispered.

I shook off the nightmares and fogginess in my head, peered at Danielle,

Paris, and Summer, and grinned. My friends had come to visit me.

Danielle stood outside the iron bars, Paris and Summer flanking her. They all wore T-shirts and slim-cut jeans. Summer and Paris also wore light

jackets.

Danielle had cleaned up and mostly healed, though she still had faint

bruises over her cheeks and split lip. Looking at her, I realized that my own eyes were still a bit swollen with how much pressure I felt behind them. I must look like shit. I doubted they’d called healers to tend to me after throwing me in here.

Even so, my mood improved greatly at seeing my tribe.

I swaggered to my feet and moved closer to the bars. “No uniforms today, girls?”

Danielle rolled her eyes. “That’s what you’re worried about?”

Paris smiled. “No one wears uniforms on the weekend.”

I groaned. “It’s the weekend already?”

Summer peered around carefully before she yanked out two bottles of

water and a few chocolate bars from inside her jacket. She shoved them to me quickly through the bars. “Hide these.”