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And I was counting on still having a pulse when this was all said and done

As for Peyton, I no longer cared what the Tribunal wanted He would die tonight

"You think you can kill me?" I said with a defiant sneer "I’d like to see you try"

"Insolent girl!" The hu to hirabbed a fistful of my hair and used it to pullon the ground for so long it took , and that’s when he went for my throat I ht one

Instead of escaping Peyton, I pulled the gun from the back of my pants and pointed it in the opposite direction As the vas punctured my artery, I started with a full clip and emptied half of it into Marcus Sullivan’s head I pivoted my eyes in time to see him fall dead at my mother’s feet, surprise still etched on his face

"Guess you’re not the queen now, bitch"

Chapter Thirty-Five

The istered with s happened at once Tooplace simultaneously for un to swirl

I turned the gun on s sank deeper into unfire As his teeth dove farther he must have severed a nerve because ainstme unarmed and helpless Peyton’s hands splayed across e, dipping me backwards in a way that would have looked roback I could see the empty antechamber and wondered, for the first tiuards The uard was still slumped on the floor, but none of the others reht become of olves who’d failed to protect their alpha and his vampire partner Before I had time to further ponder their absence, uished screaht across the roo and shifting with sickening crunch-pop noises I could hear over her shrieks Her nails elongated and becaes that she attempted to lash out at me from on top of Peyton’s back Those monstrous hands, I kneith perfect clarity, had been the saht at the Chaht us all crashing to the ground Peyton was locked on tofrenzy, like a shark maddened by the scent of blood, only he was attached toout rowling, slashing at whatever she could reach Peyton’s back was being torn to bloody ribbons, but he no longer seeht appeared in my vision, and they danced and shimmied all across the room One of my mother’s swipes hit me across the face, and her claws opened the skin oflost toomy face

"You killed hiether, repeated over and over until they no longer had anyimpotent, pained noises

I openedsound came from the base of ood I didn’t havea smartass, perhaps I wasn’t a lost cause just yet

Asbecame more tinny, I swore I heard someone shout my name

"Secret!" It sounded like Lucas

This had to be a sure sign tiood

"Secret!" This tinore, but with a three-hundred-year-old vampire latched ontoto look