As a gun was fired at them, Victoria yelped in terror. She feared for Vail’s life. If a bullet were to hit him, he would suffer. If a bullet were to hit him in his heart, however, he would die. If he were to be injured, he risked her life too by dropping her onto the floor and landing on top of her. Not to mention letting The Order take her back into their clutches, which would only happen over his dead body. 

“Don’t shoot you fools! You might hit her! If Spencer finds her damaged, he’ll have our heads!” Gerald scrambled after his subordinates and yelled at them with annoyance. As he caught up to one, he smacked the gun away, having come to a stop to take aim at Vail once more. “Stop! Use your brains! Tail him, we corner him. He’s got nowhere to run with her. He won’t find sanctuary anywhere in this city! He’ll run out of options soon enough. Then we flush him out like the rat he is...” The Saint nodded at his superior then took off after the vampire once more toward the gate. 

Gerald looked to his side as Ray came to a running holt to catch up. “Gerald, isn’t this going a bit too far? She’s already been compromised, we need to do damage control before Spencer comes back! Are you going to let him simply walk all over you, man!” Ray nearly spat in the man’s face as he grabbed at his shoulder. Gerald shrugged him off. “Of course not! But what else can I do to keep this city from being ransacked by those locust Wynters?” 

Victoria clung on best she could to Vail’s neck, but her shaking was growing worse. Her lips quivered together. She desperately needed warmth. But the city would be crawling with Saints. “Leave…me…save…yourself….” She was only slowing him down and she would be his demise. He couldn’t take her back to his family’s mansion obviously, no inn or tavern would be safe. She wasn’t going to take him down with her. There wasn’t much he could do to outrun them for long. She would soon turn hypothermic, her priorities had to change. 

She knew that Gerald knew she had discovered his secret. She only need rat him out to the other Saints, make them lose trust in him. This was her only way she could win against him. She would lay her reputation on the line. Call upon all the allies she could within The Order through Ray. Even join them if necessary and pretend to do away with her vampire lover or feign love for him – that she was taken under his ‘spell’, all the while continue their passionate affair behind closed doors. She found it crazy how easily she could seduce the otherwise cool headed Vail Hygrace.