All Just Glass - Amelia Atwater-Rhodes [30]
Sarah took a few more steps forward. She trusted Robert and Michael more than she trusted Zachary, but Zachary was the one in charge.
“Robert, if you will walk Heather out to the street and untie her, I will go inside with Zachary and Michael.”
Robert looked from Zachary to Sarah as if begging someone to stop this madness.
I’m trying to, Sarah thought in response.
Michael shadowed Robert and Heather until they were even with Sarah on the front walk.
“I didn’t know,” Robert said to Sarah. His gaze held confusion, guilt, fear and indecision. She recognized it because it was the same tangle of emotions she had felt not long before. Whose side do I fight on?
“It’s okay,” she replied. The human couldn’t help her now, but he could be hurt if he tried. “Get Heather to safety. Don’t worry about me.”
She stepped back, giving them a clear path and keeping herself well away from any of the hunters. Once Robert was a fair distance away, she looked back at Zachary.
“Let’s do this inside, shall we?” she asked.
He nodded.
She heard Michael swallow thickly as he leaned down to retrieve her knife from the ground. As Zachary turned back toward the house, Michael whispered, “Sarah—”
She interrupted. “I can’t go on like this, Michael. I can’t stand to have innocent people in danger because of me.” She left him at her back as she ascended the front steps. “Dominique and Adianna aren’t here?”
“Why do you ask?” was Zachary’s response.
Maybe I just wanted to see if Dominique could look me in the eye and tell me I’m a monster, the way you can, Sarah thought.
Okay. She had done her duty. She had made sure Heather was safe. Robert was a good guy, in addition to his sister’s being one of Kaleo’s bloodbonds. He would make sure Heather was properly untied and knew which direction to go to get to safety.
The wards protecting the house from vampires seemed to scrape across her skin as she crossed the threshold.
“Hi, Sarah.”
She looked up at the unexpected greeting, which came from a hunter she only vaguely knew, as they all reached the living room. She had seen Jay at major events, when all the lines gathered, but she wasn’t certain they had been officially introduced.
“Hi,” she replied.
“This is awkward,” he said.
Michael giggled, the sound almost hysterical.
They were still all standing just out of striking distance from each other. She was pretty sure Michael and Jay had absolutely no intention of attacking her. Neither even looked inclined to draw a weapon. Zachary was probably waiting for a clear shot or a solid indication from her of whether she planned to fight.
She decided she was grateful that Zachary was the one there. She put her hands behind her back, clasping them together, sure that he wouldn’t hesitate. He would make it quick, and she would never see in his eyes the betrayal she imagined she would have seen in Adia’s.
The sound of shattering glass from the next room interrupted them an instant before she sensed Kristopher. Sarah instinctively fell back, unsure how to respond immediately. Michael’s eyes widened, and a look of betrayal crossed his face as he set Sarah’s knife down and drew his own. A hunter’s magic was twined to his primary blade; Michael would risk the low likelihood of Sarah’s retrieving the Vida knife, rather than try to fight with a weapon tied to someone else.
How dare Kristopher come here? Sarah thought. Doesn’t he know how hard this already is?
Zachary said to the other hunters, “Check on it.”
Jay and Michael obeyed instantly, any disagreement between the three men now forgotten in the face of a threat.
If Kristopher