Biting Cold: A Chicagoland Vampires Novel (CHICAGOLAND VAMPIRES SERIES)

spied something useful.
    Sword in front of me, I faked a limp and hobbled backward.
    Dominic, the gleam of success in his eyes, stalked me like prey. I called on my musical theater background and made some pretty convincing noises of pain.
    He grinned devilishly, then lifted his sword, and, when I faked a backward stumble, ran forward into the tangled skein of swing-set chains.
    That was my chance.
    Dominic may have been back in human form, but I wasn’t. I still had vampire speed and strength, and I was sure as shit going to use them now. I dropped my sword.
    With speed so quick my motion was blurred, I ripped the chains from their moorings. The links were still solid, but as I’d hoped, their connections to the swing set had rusted through. I ran around Dominic, and as he tried to stumble back to his feet, his wings caught in the side supports. I wove the chains around him until he was good and caught and roaring with the indignity of it all.
    He was really big on the roaring.
    I picked up my sword and stood in front of him, arms raised, sword pointed down, ready to finish this.
    “Then do it,” Dominic said. “Suffer your witch to live, and put an end to me.”
    “I don’t take joy in it,” I told him. “That’s the difference between us.”
    “Are we so different, Sentinel? You kill because you believe it’s right. As do I.”
    “I kill to save the lives of others. Unlike you, I have no illusions it makes me a better person.” My hands trembling, I prepared to strike.
    “No!”
    I froze and glanced back. Seth limped toward us, still holding his wounded arm, one wing dragging on the ground pathetically. “Stop, Merit. This is not your task.”
    Wincing, he held out his good hand. “I’ll do it,” Seth said. “I will end his life.”
    I looked back at him. “You’ve never killed before. Are you sure you want to start now?”
    “He was part of me for centuries. He is, for better or worse, my brother. His blood shouldn’t be on your hands, but mine.”
    I wasn’t sure how to argue with him. I wasn’t keen on the idea of killing a man already down, but there was no question he’d keep killing if the opportunity arose. On the other hand, Seth was already racked by grief, and I didn’t want to add to his burdens.
    “It would bring me peace,” he said, “to know that you weren’t forced to take another life at my expense. It would help me atone for the trouble I have already caused. For the pain. For the suffering.”
    There was no doubting the earnestness in his gaze. He was a grown man—well grown, as it turned out—so I handed over the sword.
    He nodded, and as he closed his fingers around the handle and his eyes slipped shut, I’d have sworn he shivered. “The blade was tempered with your blood.”
    I nodded.
    Seth bowed, his shoulders dipping forward over the gleaming steel of the blade. “I am honored, Merit of Cadogan, to use a blade you have so honorably prepared.”
    I blinked back surprise and, when Ethan slipped his fingers into mine, squeezed hard.
    Seth walked to Dominic, his wings still pinned, and stood over him. “Messenger, you have failed in your mission, and you have darkened the name of justice. You refused to leave this world when your name was called into the book. Tonight, justice shall be done.”
    Dominic swallowed hard, but then he nodded. “Justice shall be done.”
    Seth lifted the katana, held it horizontal to the ground. And with a single slice, ripped through Dominic’s chest. Dominic and Seth screamed simultaneously, and light burst forth from the wound Seth had made, angry and red, rays of it shooting across the night like furious lasers. The burst of light opened farther, and then Dominic’s entire body was engulfed in light. The light pulsed, then again, then faster and faster like a beating heart until it exploded into a trillion red sparks.
    They rushed across the sky, fading as they moved, and then the light was extinguished, and Dominic was gone. The only trace of him was the bit of blood that still stained my sword.
    Without a word, Seth wiped the sword upon his pants, then placed it carefully on the ground. “It is done.”
    It became D-Day all over again. The only things missing were soldiers and nurses locked in exuberant embraces. Instead, we had vampires and sorcerers.
    Jeff and Paige hugged each other. On their knees in the mud, Catcher hugged Mallory to him, his arms around her. “It’s over. It’s over.”
    I looked up at Ethan,