The Crow’s Murder

Kit Davenport Book 5

Tate James

Contents

Acknowledgments

Keep In Touch?

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

About the Author

Also by Tate James

Co-Authored by Tate James and C.M. Stunich

TRIALS OF DECEPTION

Trials Of Deception

Title: The Crow’s Murder

Series: Kit Davenport Book 5

Copyright © 2018 Katrina Fischer

Cover design © 2017 Covers by Combs

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any manner without the express written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. If you have obtained this book via piracy, or suspect it has been duplicated illegally, please do the right thing. Advise the author and purchase your own copy. No one likes a pirate, unless he’s Jack Sparrow. 

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Created with Vellum Created with Vellum

Acknowledgments

Thank you Baby No Name for forcing me to take this one slowly, for forcing me to fall asleep on my keyboard and for wringing some feelz out of my cold, granite heart.

Thanks to Heather and Siobhan for holding my hand through the plotting of this!

As always, my awesome alpha and beta readers… you guys are great! xx

For Sara.

You pushed me into trying harder and now it’s all your fault.

Keep In Touch?

If you enjoy Kit’s stories and want to keep up to date on all things Tate James, please join my epic awesome newsletter! They don’t come out often, but when they do… they do.

Sign up here! www.tatejamesauthor.com

1

Our captors escorted Wesley and me down via the service elevators and through the curiously empty basement of the hotel before they shoved us up a narrow staircase and then out into the loading dock behind the tower.

Waiting was a white van with blacked out windows and a town car.

“Much as I’d love to rattle around in the back of this with you, Foxy,” Simon sneered at me, “I have a much more comfortable ride waiting for me.” The door of the town car opened then, seemingly of its own accord, but I didn’t miss the twitch in Simon’s dead lips. Someone was waiting for him in that car. Someone he feared.

I narrowed my eyes at my recently dead, former best friend, Simon. I’d never have guessed he’d be the one to betray me over and over. He’d been like a brother to me and my actual best friend, Lucy. We’d grown up together in the same abusive, illegal foster home. We’d suffered the same treatment and nursed each other back to health afterwards.

Now, though, Simon’s red hair seemed more brown as it lay limp and dirty. His skin, once fair and freckled, was an inhuman blueish-gray. His cheeks were sunken, and he smelled faintly of decay. The rank condition fit, I guessed. He had been killed in an avalanche... How he’d managed to come back to life was another puzzle on top of the Rubik’s cube that was my life.

I spared no words for my foster brother, and with Wesley still gagged, we were silent as Simon walked stiffly to the town car and got inside. As he slammed the door shut, the guards holding me began roughly manhandling me into the back of the panel van.

My magic was gone, thanks to the strange cuffs they’d forced on me. As was my strength, which I guessed made sense. It, too, was a form of magic, and the cuffs seemed to be blocking all of it from use. If we were getting out of this, it’d have to be with good old-fashioned skill.

Wesley met my gaze as one of his guards unlocked the doors and held them open. His eyes widened a fraction, then darted down to the waist of the guard with his back to us. Immediately, I followed his line of sight and saw what he was indicating to. A gun. More specifically, a gun that hadn’t been correctly secured in its holster. Meaning it could easily just slip out.

I gave Wes a small nod, indicating I’d seen what he had. It was just a matter of waiting for the right opportunity... but standing in a loading dock surrounded by six armed guards with Simon and his mystery friend in a car just a dozen feet away wasn’t the right moment.

They pushed Wes into the van first, and the stupid guard leaned over to secure his cuffs to the bench seat with a normal looking chain. As he leaned, his unsecured gun was right there, begging to be taken.

Not fighting my own guards as they hauled me up and into the van, I let them get me within range, then faked a stumble, fell against dumbass’s back, and slipped the gun free with my cuffed hands in a move I’d used a thousand times before. Admittedly, it had been wallets I’d taken before and I’d never done it with my hands cuffed before... but the principle was the same.

“Sorry,” I muttered, letting my guards roughly shove me down into my seat so that I was now sitting on my stolen weapon. It sounds implausible that I’d been able to take a gun and hide it under my black sweatpants, all while cuffed and guarded. But I was no amateur. Pick-pocketing had been the only thing that’d kept Lucy, Simon, and I fed for a number of years under Mother Suzette’s roof. I was as pro as they came with sleight of hand, so a trick like this was nothing.

Meekly I allowed the guards to secure my own cuffs to the standard-issue metal chain and then take their seats on either side of me, as Wesley’s had done. The remaining two took the front seats of the van after slamming the doors shut with a heavy thunk.

I had no real plan. It was just a wing-it sort of situation, and I’d make a move whenever it either seemed right... or necessary. Without windows, it was hard to tell where we were. Hard but not impossible, as I could lean around the goon beside me to see out the front windshield.

We were in the middle of downtown Los Angeles. So, did we want to make a break for it in the middle of the city? On the one hand, the location gave us the advantage of camouflage. With so many people, cars, and buildings, it’d be easy to disappear. But on the other hand, there was bound to be collateral damage.

The idea of innocent people being caught in the crossfire when we made our escape sent a sick feeling to my stomach, and I decided to wait until we were clear of the city. It was a guess, but I didn’t think Simon was transporting us to somewhere within LA, which meant we could wait until we were on less populated roads before using my stolen gun.

However we did it, this van was going to crash. So I’d try and wait until it was less likely to crash into people. Of course, with no magic I had no healing so if I could avoid killing myself in the process, that’d be a bonus.

“So,” I started, looking around at the black-clad guards. Not a single inch of flesh showed, from their blacked-out helmet visors to their leather-gloved fingers. “You guys do this kind of thing often? Kidnap people from their hotel rooms?”

No response came, but I hadn’t exactly expected one. I was just killing time, working through nerves, and deflecting attention. When I was talking, their concentration would split, hopefully away from the weapon half under my ass, and half under my leg.

“You know Simon is dead, right?” I continued. Maybe I could shock them? “Like, I mean he’s some sort of crazy zombie-type creature now. So what does that make all of you? Are you zombies too? Does whoever ordered this kidnapping have an army of zombies?” I leaned over and gave a dramatic sniff to the guard beside me. To my amusement, he shifted a little away from me on instinct. “Nope, you don’t smell dead.”

Wesley met my eyes and rolled his. He clearly didn’t understand what I was doing, other than being snarky. That was okay though; I knew he had the necessary skills to help without instruction when the time came.

“Is it a money thing? ’Cause if it is, I can totally pay you guys to let us go,” I offered, looking carefully from one guard to the next and then flicking my gaze out the front window. It was worth a try, right? Lord knows if Jonathan had cut off my bank accounts, Vali and River had enough cash to fund a small army or more.

Again, no response. Fuckers.

“You know we aren’t going to make this easy on you all, right?” I shrugged, sitting back and crossing my legs. “I’d just hate to see you all killed if it was only a money thing. I can happily double whatever Simon—or Simon’s boss—is paying you.”

Nothing. That was a shame. It was a little concerning how desensitized I was becoming to casual murder. Not that I considered any deaths that might occur here to be murder. This was them or me, and I was in no way soft-hearted enough to choose them over me.

But still. It wasn’t that long ago I’d killed my first person and gone into shock over it. That had been back at Blood Moon labs... the very first mission I’d done with my dianoch. Which reminded me, that was another loose thread that needed investigating. How had Blood Moon captured Bridget in the first place? It was a question for another day.

Leaning forward to scratch my leg, I peered out the front window to see where we were at. Not being all too familiar with Los Angeles, I really had no idea where we were, but we’d just turned onto a freeway of some sort. LA was made up of a lot of freeways. Hopefully it wouldn’t be long until we were away from the city.

I must have looked for too long because the guard beside me shot out a gloved hand and slammed me back into my seat. Gritting my teeth, I held back a bitchy remark. They needed to think I was docile. Non-threatening. Clearly they’d considered Wesley the bigger threat between us—hence why he was gagged but I wasn’t. Unless they just weren’t taking any chances with his magic seeing as literally no one seemed to know what he was.

Wes gave me a small headshake and flicked his eyes to the window to indicate he could see from where he sat. Hopefully we were in tune enough that he knew why I was waiting.

Keeping my attention on my bound guardian, I shifted my weight to move the gun closer to my hands.

“Are you sure no one can be tempted by money?” I asked casually, once again taking the guards’ concentration away from what my tiny movements were doing. “It would be such a shame to have to kill you all if it’s just a matter of commerce. I mean, I get it. Everyone has to pay the bills somehow, right? All I’m saying”—by now I’d wiggled the gun under my crotch, and it was just being hidden by my black sweatpants and the fact that my thighs were tight together—“is that I can make you all rich men—er, people”—because how the hell did I know if they were men, women, or... other? My life had had a whole hell of a lot of other recently—“if you just let us out on the side of the road.”

Without warning, one of the guards beside me snapped out a gloved fist and punched me clean across the face. My head snapped to the side, and I had to fight to keep my balance and not expose the stolen gun underneath me.

“You talk too much,” the man—definitely a man, this one—snarled from behind his anonymous helmet. That did it. Fuck them; no more Miss Nice Guy. Girl. Whatever.

Rolling my jaw, I met Wesley’s wide eyes, and he gave me a small nod. Combined with a flick of his gaze to the front window, I had to trust that we’d reached a location that would be suitable to make our escape. Or... try to anyway.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Blocking out the pain in my face, I shifted in my seat once more, this time bringing my hands up and grabbing the gun from between my legs. In rapid succession, I fired one shot at the chain holding my cuffs within a foot or so of the floor, one at Wesley’s chain, then fired off another shot at the still-armed guard beside Wesley before he could reach for his gun. With the two guards opposite me disabled, I then turned the gun on Captain Punchy and placed the barrel against his helmet visor.

Wesley had my back, throwing a vicious elbow into the face of the man I’d taken my gun from, then launching himself across the van at my other guard.

“What the fuck?” One of the guards from the front bellowed, turning in his seat. The driver didn’t stop or even slow down, though, which was a shame. It was going to hurt when this van crashed.

Wesley had looped his cuffs over the guard’s neck and was choking him while my friend, Happy Fists, considered how serious I was. He clearly made the wrong decision, though, as he ignored the gun to his head and reached for his own weapon.

The sound of my fourth gunshot cracked through the small space like a car backfiring, and blood splattered all over the white walls as the now lifeless guard crumpled to the floor.

“Stop the van,” I ordered the driver, training my gun on the back of his head.

Again, this one made a bad choice and ignored me. Instead, his buddy in the passenger seat fired back at me, missing by inches and hitting the side of the van instead.

“Shoot him,” Wesley panted, having yanked his gag off and procured his own gun from the unconscious guard at his feet. He was right, but I hesitated just a second.

That second was just long enough for the unarmed guard, the one Wesley had elbowed in the face, to launch himself at me and tackle me to the floor of the van on top of two bleeding bodies.

Another series of shots rang out, this time between Wesley and the guard in the front, but I couldn’t check to see if my guardian was okay—not while I was being smothered by two hundred pounds of anonymous guard who was trying to wrest control of my gun.

The van seemed to speed up before hitting something with a massively jarring impact and hurtling down a slope.

None of us were belted in, and we found ourselves bounced around like salad in the back of the van as it hit bump after bump for what felt like days before it finally came to jerking stop.

Somehow, miraculously, I didn’t seem to have broken anything in the crash. Perhaps it had been all the cushioning of dead guards that saved me? Whatever the reason, I wasn’t sticking around to question it.

“Wes,” I called out. “You okay?”

For a heart-stopping second, there was no reply. Then came the low moan from somewhere under a tangle of black-clad limbs.

Not one to be caught unawares, I scrambled to find a gun and had just grabbed one when Wesley popped out of the mess. A deep sigh of relief sagged my shoulders when I saw it was him and not one of these other assholes.

“Are you okay?” I asked again, scrambling closer to him to help move the dead weight that had pinned him down.

“I’m alive,” he groaned. “That’s good enough.”

“Quick,” I encouraged. “Let’s get out of here in case one of those two made it.” I nodded at the two guards in the front of the crumpled van.

“They wouldn’t have,” Wesley informed me, crawling free and joining me at the doors. “I think I shot them both. But we should go before anyone comes to help.”

Nodding, I tried the door and was pleased to find it opened easily. I guessed they didn’t really expect their prisoners to get this far. It got stuck about six inches open, so I kicked it a couple of times before it swung fully open.

“Fuck, that explains all the rolling,” I muttered, looking up the rocky incline to where our van had crashed through the guard rail. “We probably should have waited for a flatter area.” Giving Wes a small smile so he’d know I was teasing, I clambered out of the wreckage and got out of the way.

“Yeah, well,” he huffed, climbing out himself but favoring his left leg. “I couldn’t see this side. The other side looked like a nice place to crash, though.”

I snorted a laugh, and he grabbed me by the cuffed hand.

“That was scary as shit, sweetheart,” he murmured, then kissed me fast and hard. “Let’s get the fuck out of here.”

Together, we helped one another climb the rocky incline back to the road, praying we wouldn’t find Simon waiting for us at the top. That’d be some seriously shitty luck. Their car had left before our van though, so I’d banked on the fact that they wouldn’t notice we were gone until it was too late.

“Now we just need to work out how the hell to get these cuffs off,” I called back to Wes as I dragged myself up and over the lip of the last huge boulder, “I seriously doubt my lock-picking skills are going to come in handy this time.”

“Agreed,” he puffed, joining me and collapsing on the ground to catch his breath. After the impressive display he’d put on in the van, I’d almost forgot he wasn’t really used to active duty.

Thankfully, the road was clear. No one had seen us crash and stuck around to help, but most importantly, no Simon. Yet.

2

Wes and I only needed to walk about twenty minutes down the road before we came across a gas station/diner combo.

“Perfect,” Wesley grinned when it came into view. “They’ll have a payphone for sure. We can call the guys to get picked up.”

“How? We don’t have a credit card or coins.” I arched an eyebrow at him, glancing to his bare feet. “Or shoes.”

“It’s a basic payphone, sweetheart,” he replied with a grin. “If I can’t handle that, I’m a pretty shitty tech guy, right?”

“Okay but payphones are a bit twenty years ago, don’t you think?” I wrinkled my nose and glanced over at the diner in question. “Didn’t they die out with the old Nokia brick phones?”

“Uh, technically yes. But there is a sign that says ‘payphone available inside’ right there in the window. See?” He gave me a shy grin and pointed to the window and the sign itself.

“Thank God for that,” I groaned. “I was not looking forward to explaining these to a truck driver if we decided to hitchhike.” I held my cuffs up and waggled them at him. “In fact, how are we going to get to the payphone without anyone questioning us? I didn’t want to mention it earlier, but you kind of look like shit, Wes.”

He really did. Blood had been running from a cut on his head and was soaking the collar of his baby blue T-shirt. Fortunately the weather in California was positively balmy versus what it had been in Canada, or he’d have frozen half to death by now. Not that I was one to talk, in a dark gray tank top and sweatpants.

“Um.” He hesitated a moment as we crouched behind some bushes. “I have no idea. Just... do it and hope the guys get here before the cops get called?”

“Sounds good to me,” I shrugged, standing up from behind the bush with him.

Just as we were about to cross the road, a cherry-red mustang GT came to a screeching halt in front of us and Caleb flew out of the passenger side, almost knocking me to the ground with his hug.

“Uh, Cal?” I grunted, trying to wriggle free from his anaconda-like grip. “Can’t breathe here.”

“Oh, sorry, Kitty Kat.” He loosened up his grip a little and pulled back to look at me. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, we’re fine. How the hell did you find us?” I frowned past him to Austin, who’d just gotten out of the driver’s side and was hovering behind his twin.

“You okay, baby girl?” Austin asked in his deep, quiet voice, and I gave him a smile of reassurance.

“I’m fine,” I reiterated. “But how did you find us?”

“I’m fine too, you guys!” Wesley added, lightly punching Caleb in the shoulder.

“You,” I corrected, “are actually not fine, Wesley. You’ve been bleeding from the head and are limping badly.”

Caleb released me to look over at Wesley and then seemed to notice our handcuffs.

“Uh, yeah.” I held up my linked wrists. “Magic cuffs. No keyhole and they block our magic.”

“Shit,” Caleb murmured, and Austin just scowled, holding out a hand to me.

Placing my hand in his, I shivered at the contact between us. Damn it if these guys couldn’t just make me feel safe with only a touch. It was... incredible. And worrying. Was I becoming too dependant on them?

Frowning down at the cuffs, Austin patted his pockets—probably looking for a marker pen—before clicking his tongue in vexation.

“Cal, it’s on you. I don’t have any ink handy, and I don’t think we really want to do a full mage ritual to break these the normal way.” He arched an eyebrow at his brother, then met my eyes again. “And I think we all know Princess will just end up in more trouble the longer she’s left tied up.”

“Ha-ha, very funny.” I narrowed my eyes at his weak attempt at ribbing me. “But you actually have a point.”

Caleb nodded, flicking his fancy switchblade out of his pocket and stabbing his fingertip with it. His jaw clenched, and I saw the tips of his fangs descend as he dropped several droplets of blood onto each of my cuffs, then Wesley’s.

Like magic—ha-ha—the seamless cuffs popped open and fell off our wrists, clattering to the ground in a clink of metal. Austin scooped them up and tossed them into the back of his car before giving us a tight nod and pulling a marker from his back pocket.

“Oh look, I did have ink after all. We’ll look into those cuffs later.” With a firm grip he took my hand and inked a little design onto the back of it, then did the same to Wes. “An illusion, to make you two look less like you just in case anyone is looking for you. Shall we go into the diner and you can tell us what the fuck happened?” His gaze was locked hard on me, and I immediately felt my hackles rise.

“Don’t look at me like that,” I snapped, narrowing my eyes at him. “This wasn’t my fault. Besides, you never told us how the fuck you found us so fast.”

“Come on,” Caleb interjected before Austin and I could really get into a proper argument. “Let’s get you something cheesy and some coffee. Wesley could do with a cleanup too.”

Austin was lucky his twin had just uttered the magic words because I was more than ready to fight with him. He gave me a glare back, then slipped back into his car to pull it into a parking space in front of the diner.

It wasn’t exactly a highly populated road—not a single other car had passed since we’d been standing there, but there were a couple parked at the diner, so we definitely weren’t alone.

Caleb placed a hand on the small of my back and nudged me in the direction of the diner entrance where Austin already stood waiting, flipping his keys in his hand. I really was pretty hungry, given Simon and his goons had shown up right before we were going to eat lunch. I’d no idea how much time had passed since then either, but it was at least a couple of hours.

We didn’t speak again until we’d slipped into a booth at the back of the diner and Wes had gone to clean himself up in the bathroom.

“So,” I prompted the magical twins. “How did you find us? How did you even know we were in trouble?”

“Vali,” Caleb responded, taking my hand in his under the table and linking our fingers together. “His Romani sixth sense told him you were in trouble, but he and Cole couldn’t work out where you were.” At this, his gaze flicked across the table to his twin, who met my gaze unflinchingly.

“Austin,” I growled. “What makes me think you’ve done something I won’t like?”

He shrugged. “Because I often do things you don’t like?” He paused. “But this time it was a little bit of a tracking spell worked into your ink.”

My eyebrows shot up, but I couldn’t find the energy to be mad. His typical Austin do-what-I-want actions had actually been really beneficial. If we hadn’t managed to free ourselves, then that tracking spell could have led the guys straight to us... wherever Simon had been transporting us to.

“I see,” I murmured, narrowing my eyes at the Ink Mage in a promise of a scolding later. His own green eyes sparkled back at me, and I got the distinct impression he was looking forward to it. Sick fuck.

Wesley returned from the bathroom then, his blond hair wet and pushed back like he’d run his fingers through it about a hundred times on the way from the bathroom back to our booth. There wasn’t much to be done about the blood stain on his shirt, but Austin tossed him a jacket to put on, which hid most of it.

“What did I miss?” he asked, looking around at the three of us.

Caleb snorted a small laugh. “Just Austin fessing up to a sneaky tracking spell in Kit’s ink.”

“Huh,” Wesley cocked his head at the Ink Mage. “That was really smart. Why didn’t I think of that?”

“Oh my god.” I rolled my eyes and picked up my menu. Clearly I should know better than to expect the guys to see that tracking spell as an invasion of my privacy or anything like that. Not that I was really going anywhere I needed to hide from them... but that wasn’t the point, was it?

Ugh, whatever. I was exhausted, and starving. This diner served a good selection of burgers too, which would help.

“Don’t stress, Princess,” Austin teased. “It wasn’t a permanent one. I’m actually surprised it even lasted this long. I thought it had worn off already.”

Wesley started quickly running the twins through what had happened while I debated my burger choices, eventually deciding on a double beef and bacon burger with extra cheese.

“Wait, how come the other guys aren’t here with you? I asked when Wes finished telling them about how we’d crashed the van.

“Dickhead here wouldn’t tell them where you were,” Caleb responded, throwing his twin under the bus.

Austin rolled his eyes and sighed. “For the thousandth time, I couldn’t tell them. It’s not like I have a mental set of GPS coordinates for where Christina is. I just followed the magic to her. Besides, those overgrown lizards would have shifted to get here quicker and that’s not really what we need, now is it?”

“That’s a good point,” I agreed. “You’ve at least texted them to say we’re okay though, right?”

“Yup,” Caleb confirmed, then our conversation paused as we placed our orders with the waitress.

“I want to go and check out the crash site when we’re finished here,” Austin said when the bored-looking older woman walked away to place our orders with the kitchen.

“Why?” I frowned but didn’t move away when his ankle pressed against mine under the table. Snarky or not, we’d already established I was in love with the asshole.

“Because those cuffs were made by mages. And if mages are involved, then Caleb and I have some work to do within our community.”

Their community. Sometimes I forgot that two of my lovers were supposed to be the leaders of an entire magical race. Okay, so I forgot all the time. It was going to be a bit weird having them ruling over mages... but I supposed they needed to step up some time soon, right?

If they didn’t, someone else surely would. Maybe had? What other reason could there be for mages involving themselves in my kidnapping?

* * *

Picking our way down the rocky incline once more as we headed back to the crashed van, I somehow managed to trip on something and ended up flying head first into Austin. Luckily, he turned just in time to catch me, instead of me plowing into his back and sending us both flying.

“Really, Princess?” he murmured in my ear as his hands groped way more of my body than was necessary just to set me back on my feet. “I already know you’ve fallen for me. No need to get so literal.”

“I tripped, asshole,” I growled back, swatting him on the arm and brushing past him to the crumpled wreckage of the van. It seemed amazing that no one had seen it and called the cops yet, but from the street it was impossible to see. The only evidence was the broken guard rail.

“What the fuck?” Wesley exclaimed, having ducked inside the back of the van. I rushed over and peered past him to see what he was looking at.

The inside of the van was still splattered with blood from all the shots we’d fired into the guards, but in place of bodies... were just empty clothes. What the fuck, indeed?

“Huh,” Caleb climbed inside the van and kicked at the empty kevlar armour. “Golems.”

“Like the little dude on Lord of the Rings?” I squeaked in shock, and confusion. What the hell did a little, ring-obsessed troll-thing have to do with the missing bodies?

Austin snickered a laugh. “No, Princess. Golems are creatures, people in this case, made from clay and earth, animated using a necromancer’s magic. They’re often a replica of one person, but judging by this mess, I’d say the original wasn’t one of these.”

“But...” I gaped at the contents of the van wreckage. “But they were bleeding.”

Caleb swiped a finger through the redness splattered on the van wall. “Not blood, babe. Clay. See?” He held out his fingers to me to inspect. Now that he mentioned it... it was still way too red after this amount of time to be real blood.

Holy shit, though. Golems. That meant...

“Necromancer?” I repeated, wrinkling my nose and moving out of the way to let Caleb out of the van. “That explains why Simon is alive-ish, right?”

“It sure does,” Austin confirmed. “And it means that this falls under Mage business. Cal, we’re going to need to call a town hall.”

Caleb groaned and ran a hand through his hair. “Dammit. Yeah, you’re right. We’ve probably left the mages alone too long already and this is the result.”

“Let’s get back,” I suggested, heading back to the climb to the road. “I want to shower before you start this town hall.”

Austin snorted a laugh as he followed me. “Sorry, Princess. This one is mages only, and you’re not a mage.”

Turning to him with a grin, I held out my hand to conjure a fireball. “Aren’t I?” I challenged, then frowned. There was no fire in my palm.

Confused, I tried again. Nothing. I tried something else—levitating myself. Nothing.

“What the hell?” I panicked, and Austin took me by the wrist with a gentle grip.

“Calm down, baby girl,” he soothed. “It’s probably just a lingering effect of the mage cuffs. It should wear off in a day or so. In the meantime, you’re right. You technically are part mage now, so I can’t see why we need to exclude you.”

“Okay. Cool.” I nodded, but chewed my lip. He was being nice, and that made me worry even more. Something was wrong with my magic, and I wasn’t totally buying the “lingering effect” excuse.

Caleb bounded up past us and grinned back down. “Come on, Kitty Kat. We’ve got some mages to whip into shape! Also, the guys are probably tearing their scales out with worry...”

“True,” I nodded again, but kept Austin’s hand in mine as we climbed back up the hill. Magic or not, simply being in physical contact with my bonded guardian made me feel grounded and calm. Was that magic? Or just... love?

3

Warmth surrounded me, and I breathed in the smoldering-campfire smell of Cole. My face was pressed into his broad, inked chest, and I could feel more than one set of hands resting on my body.

River, for sure. Other than the suggested twin sandwich from Caleb and Austin, which hadn’t actually happened... yet... River and Cole were the only two who’d truly shared a bed with me.

“Hey,” I murmured sleepily as I felt Cole’s breathing shift from asleep to awake. “What time is it?”

Cole shifted in the bed, reaching for his phone on the bedside table, then relaxing once more. “You still have a few hours before this little mage meeting.”

“Cool,” I mumbled, nuzzling my face back into his chest and reaching down to pull River’s hands further around me.

We hadn’t risked returning to the same hotel, seeing as Simon clearly knew how to find us there. Instead, Cole, River, and Vali had packed up our things and we’d met at a beautiful little seaside hotel just north of Santa Maria. River had made contact with this dreamwalker guy in Ireland and gained us a couple more days, but that was all we could get.

The town hall for the mages would be held in San Francisco, but with the twins ability to teleport themselves, it wasn’t really an issue to get there in time.

“Are you sure you’re okay, Vixen?” Cole rumbled, stroking my long hair back from my face and trailing his fingertips down my shoulder. They’d only asked me if I was okay about seventeen thousand times before I’d gone to sleep the night before. It was seriously getting old.

Yes, I’d technically been kidnapped again, but Wes and I had also managed to get ourselves out without needing to be rescued. So that was an improvement in my book.

“Cole. I am fine. Stop asking.” I pushed up a little bit to glare at him. “Or I will go and sleep in Vali’s bed instead.”

Cole narrowed his eyes back at me and stroked a thumb over my lower lip. “Who said anything about sleeping?”

“Mmm,” River mumbled, his voice thick with sleep as he shifted closer to us both. “Sleep is overrated anyway, don’t you think?”

A shiver of excitement ran through me, and suddenly sleep was the furthest thing from my mind. River’s hands slid lower on my waist and pushed my tank top up a few inches to expose my midsection, and I hummed my approval.

“Very overrated,” I agreed, tilting my head up to meet Cole’s lips in a searing kiss that left us both a bit short of breath and very turned on. River was clearly feeling the same way, as his hard length was pressed tight against my thigh. For my part, I’d been sleeping halfway on top of Cole, with River draped over me like a big spoon, so we are already close.

“Seeing as you’re going to the mage’s meeting later and then leaving for Ireland tomorrow with Wesley, would you mind terribly if we stole the next few hours?” River murmured, brushing my hair aside and kissing his way up my back.

“Hours?” I repeated, pondering this. “I’ll give you one hour... and then I should spend some time with Vali.”

“We can work with that,” Cole agreed, hooking his fingers into the edges of my underwear and making me shoot up from my comfortable position.

“No!” I scolded him, scrambling off the end of the bed and out of his reach. “I’m running dangerously low on panties right now, and there’s no time to go lingerie shopping before Ireland.”

River chuckled, a content sound I only ever heard from him in the bedroom, and Cole rolled his eyes.

“I wasn’t going to tear them, Vixen,” Cole lied. The wicked grin over his lips betrayed him. “Come back here, and I’ll show you how careful I can be.”

“Not a chance in hell, Cutie,” I grinned back.

River shifted himself to lie beside Cole, his head on the pillow as he stroked a hand down his chiseled torso. “Better take them off there, then, Kitten love. Just in case.”

“You first,” I replied, propping my hands on my hips and drinking in the sight of these two muscular, dominant men in bed together. It was the stuff of dreams... and this was just a third of my guardians.

Holy shit, I really am lucky.

River and Cole never did need to be told twice when the suggestion was that they get naked. In a flurry of sheets and boxer shorts, the two of them stripped down and reclined back on their pillows with looks that clearly told me, “Your turn.”

“Well, that was quick,” I muttered with a teasing tone as I hooked my thumbs into the hem of my tank and dragged it up over my head. I hadn’t been sleeping in a bra because that was akin to sleeping wrapped in barbed wire, so when I dropped my top to the ground, I was in nothing but my dark green panties.

Slipping my hands under the sides, I paused. “Wait, was I supposed to be like... dancing or something while I did this?”

Cole gave a growling laugh, sounding very dragonesque, while River smirked at me with an easy grin.

“Just take your damn knickers off and get over here, love,” our Alpha leader ordered with amusement, and I complied. Stepping out of the fabric, I placed my knees on the foot of the bed and crawled up toward them in what I sincerely hoped was a sexy way.

When I reached them, Cole wrapped a huge hand around the back of my neck and dragged my lips to his for another long, languid kiss that had sparks shooting through me and my nipples tightening to hard points.

River shifted, and I slipped my body into the space between the two men, relishing the feeling of being surrounded by so much hard muscle. Despite being such a strong, independent woman in my own right, there was something intrinsically primal about being surrounded by these men.

Cole released my neck, shifting to slide further down the bed while River turned my face to his with a firm hand on my face.

“Kitten,” he whispered, meeting my gaze with his liquid gold gaze while Cole kissed his way south across my stomach. “This kidnapping business has got to stop. Do you have any idea how worried we were for you?”

“I have an idea, yes,” I whispered back to him, placing a gentle kiss against his lips. “But it wasn’t like we asked to be kidnapped... again. And we did manage to get ourselves out of it pretty easily.”

River’s eyes narrowed, and he grunted a noise that sounded a lot like, “Yeah sure, this time. You also rolled a van down a bloody hill and could have broken your necks in the process.” But maybe I was reading too much into his noises.

The time for idle chat was over though, as Cole parted my legs and settled himself between them. His cool fingers grasped my inner thighs, pushing them wider apart, and then his tongue delivered a long, ice-cold lick down the length of my pussy. Damn, he was getting really precise with that dragon magic...

Whimpering a little, I bucked my hips, but he had me pinned down tight with his firm grip on my thighs. Instead, River claimed my mouth, his lips caressing mine, parting them, and his tongue met mine in a dance of passion and desire.

With a sigh, I melted into their touches. One of my hands clasped the back of River’s neck, holding him close while we kissed. The other hand held Cole’s head in an iron grip, urging him for more... just, more.

River’s hands roamed my body, rolling my hardened nipples between his fingers firmly enough to make me moan into his mouth. Breaking from his lips, I tipped my head back to the pillow with a sigh of sheer pleasure as Cole’s lips found my clit and he sucked it lightly.

Electricity coursed through my body, lighting up all my nerve endings like Christmas lights. I writhed under their dual ministrations while River kissed and sucked at my neck, nipping me lightly with his teeth and trailing his fingertips over my belly, causing me to shiver.

“Guys...” I started, but really didn’t know what I was planning on saying. Maybe, “Guys, what the hell? You’re killing me!” Or maybe just, “Guys, keep going. Seriously. Don’t stop.” Whatever, it just faded into another breathy moan as River’s hand stroked over my thigh, and past Cole’s face to slip a finger inside me.

Oh, shit yes. Having River’s fingers inside me while Cole’s mouth was on my clit... pure, heavenly torture. River’s teeth closed over one of my hyper-sensitive nipples, tweaking at it and biting ever so lightly. Just enough to make me nearly scream.

“Okay, nope,” I announced, wriggling out of their combined grips right when I felt like I was about to come. And come hard. Not that I was one of those masochists who enjoyed denying herself an orgasm; I knew full well how capable I was of doubling down on them. Also, with six exceptionally generous lovers, it was never really a concern. But I wanted to come with one of them in me. Maybe both?

Cole shifted back up the bed without me needing to give him any instructions and reclined back against the pillows while licking his lips. Holy crap. That should be a bit ick, but in reality it was seriously sexy as fuck.

Flooded with desire, I threw my leg over his waist so that I was straddling his hips. His long, hard length pushed against my cunt and I wiggled in delight.

“I love this view,” Cole murmured, his large hands bracing my hips and his tongue wetting his lower lip as he gazed up at me. “You look like some sort of angel or goddess.”

I gave a small, self-conscious snort and swept my long hair back over one shoulder so it wasn’t obscuring my view. I, too, loved this view.

River was on the bed beside us, leaning over the edge and rifling around in a bag, and I gave his naked butt an appreciative glance as I rose up on my knees to bring Cole to my core. No doubt River was looking for something awesome to contribute here, and the anticipation sent a spike of excitement through me.

“Vixen,” Cole groaned as his tip breached my tight entrance.

“Here,” River offered, reaching between us with a hand slick with lube. Slowly, deliberately, and with a wicked look in his eyes, he wrapped his lubricated palm around Cole’s cock, stroking it down his length until it glistened in the half light of the room.

“Shit,” I hissed, watching the simple action with my breath in my throat and my eyes as wide as damn dinner plates. “That was...”

“Shh, Vixen,” Cole chuckled, pressing his now lubed up dick back to my opening and pulling me down hard onto him.

The exquisite sharpness of pleasure-pain made me scream. His cock slid in with ease, but it was an instant feeling of fullness, or stretching, that made me cry out. But holy-fucking-wow it was good...

After just a moment to adjust, Cole’s hands on my hips encouraged me into movement, and I began to ride him slowly. My hands braced on his chest as I moved up and down his shaft, and his panting groans spurred me faster. He was so damn sexy in the throws of passion, his lower lip snared by his teeth and his eyelids so heavy they were almost shut.

River shifted out of my sight, but I felt him move behind me. His erection brushed my lower back as he got comfortable kneeling over Cole’s legs.

“River,” I moaned, arching my back and tilting my head back to kiss him.

“Yes, love?” he replied in a husky whisper when our lips parted. He had one hand on my breast, tweaking my nipple between his fingers, while the fingers of his other hand smeared lube over my backdoor. I didn’t reply for a long time, just rested my head back on his chest while he applied the slippery substance and my pussy clenched around Cole’s shaft.

“You had something to say?” River prompted me while inserting one finger into my tight hole and making me moan. So much sensation was flying through me I was having a hard time finding words, and feeling River’s hard cock pressed between us was driving me insane. I wanted more.

“River,” I panted again as he inserted another finger to my asshole, and I almost screamed. “I want your dick in me. Now... sir.”

Cole chuckled a laugh, still bucking his hips but with a much shallower depth. Like he was holding as still as he possibly could for River to do his thing.

“Well when you asked so nicely,” River replied with an edge of amusement to his mostly lust-filled voice. His fingers withdrew, and I felt the warm tip of his cock against my ass.

Fuck. Yes. This was so happening.

Until a sharp, frantic knock sounded at the door, and we all froze.

“Seriously?” I blurted out, and River let out an almost inhuman growl.

“What?” our Alpha barked at the door when the knock happened again, and it cracked open and inch.

“So sorry to interrupt,” Caleb’s voice came through sounding a bit muffled from the door between us. “But if Kitty Kat’s coming to the town hall, we need to leave now.”

“You said not until eleven,” Cole snarled back, “Fuck off until then.”

I tended to agree with him, unable to stop myself as I rolled my hips and made him groan. River was still pressed against my ass, but hadn’t gone any farther. Yet.

“Sorry, guys.” Caleb really did sound sorry... sort of. “There’s been developments. We need to go now.”

“Five minutes,” River snapped back, his fingers tight enough on my waist to bruise.

“Now!” Austin could be heard shouting from farther away. “Or we go without the Princess.”

I groaned, but this time it was with frustration not pleasure. “Fuck. I need to go to that meeting,” I told the guys on either side of me. “Raincheck?”

“Vixen,” Cole growled in what sounded like disbelief, but River just sighed and flopped down onto the bed beside us.

“Go, love,” he told me. “We can wait.”

Cole grunted, and his hands tightened as he bucked his hips to meet mine again. “Speak for yourself, sir.”

“Now, Princess!” Austin yelled from outside the room, and I sighed.

“Sorry, Cutie,” I whispered, sliding his rock hard erection out of me and scooting off the bed to find my clothes. “Make it up to you both later, I promise.”

Leaning over to kiss them both, I took a quick moment to appreciate the godlike creatures before me, then regretfully left them there to go learn about mage politics. Yay for good decisions, right?

Kit... what the fuck.

My brain yelled at me to go back and finish what was promising to be my first experience with that particular configuration. But something in me was pushing me to attend this meeting. For some reason, it was vital I went.

Now, to figure out why the fuck that was. Hopefully it was worth leaving for.

4

The mages’ town hall was held in an underground cavern, accessed by a hidden staircase within a touristy Wicca shop in Union Square. Not that we used the front door, I just found this out from the dreadlocked girl who greeted us when we portaled into the antechamber.

Yeah. There was an antechamber.

“So this is like... the real deal, secret society kind of business, huh?” I muttered to Caleb as he helped me into the sapphire-blue, velvet robe that the girl had presented me with.

“Yep.” He waggled his eyebrows at me. “Be glad mages have evolved past the need to be naked at these gatherings.”

He had a point. Not that I was any stranger to nudity, but I preferred not to be naked in front of strangers.

“So what was the huge rush to get here? I thought it wasn’t starting until closer to midnight.” I glanced over at Austin, who had been in a surly mood since we’d left the hotel by the beach. Admittedly, that was only about twenty minutes ago since we’d used magic to get here.

“It’s not,” Caleb responded. “But we got word that someone is going to try and petition we abdicate our positions as the leaders of mage-kind. We wanted to get here before anyone else in order to get the upper hand and prevent them chattering amongst themselves.”

I wrinkled my nose at this idea. “Won’t they just do it elsewhere?”

“No.” Austin snorted. “Mages are a bit like... stray cats. Or lions. They don’t really play well with others of their own species, so they rarely intermingle. Meetings like this are the only time so many of us gather in one place. Aside from that...” He trailed off with a shrug. “This clown is likely relying on getting to this meeting early to garner support for his cause since traditionally Yoshi and Jackson would turn up late.”

“When Jackson bothered to turn up at all,” Caleb muttered, shrugging into his own blood-red robe.

Austin was dressed in an inky black robe, and they both looked stunning. Also, they looked every part the mystical leaders of a magical race. It was crazy to think how much our lives had changed since I met these two back at Cascade Falls Academy. Back when they were still human and I still thought I was human.

“So you know who it is that’s stirring up shit?” I asked the twins, perching on the edge of a marble-topped table to wait for them to be ready. “Why not deal with him privately?”

Austin gave a sharp shake of his head. “We don’t. The tip came from a young seer who’d caught it in a vision. She didn’t know who the guy was, so couldn’t tell us.”

“Wait.” My jaw dropped. “A seer? Like someone who sees the future? That’s so cool.”

Caleb grimaced. “Not really, Kitty Kat. Seers tend to be a bit kooky. It’s a result of seeing so many possible futures they tend to lose track of the present.”

“Oh.” I nodded, considering this. “I guess that would be tough.”

“Come on,” Caleb said, lifting me down from the table I was perched on. “Let’s go take a seat and greet our loyal subjects as they arrive. It’s way past time that Aus and I made a formal appearance like this anyway.”

Caleb led the way out of the antichamber and into the huge cavern that would host the town hall. It was set up with hundreds of those black folding chairs used at conferences and things, so I guess they’d progressed past everyone needing to stand.

As we made our way to the front of the room, where two insanely ornate chairs were set on a raised stage, Austin linked his finger with mine. Between the thrones—because that was exactly what they were—sat another folding chair that must have been put there for me.

“Aw, look guys, they gave me the space between you!” I grinned as we approached the little dais, and Austin used our linked fingers to tug me close.

“As you should be,” he murmured in my ear, and I was under no illusions we were still discussing seating. A shiver of excitement ran through me. His innuendo coupled with my aborted threesome not half an hour ago had me so wired up it was insane.

I’m going to have to sit through a meeting like this? Ugh, goddamn sexy guardians.

The three of us took our seats and settled in to wait for the mages to arrive.

So far, the only one I’d met was the dreadlocked chick who’d greeted us, exchanged a few pleasantries, and then left to come and set up all these chairs. If I was being totally honest, I was actually really nervous to meet more mages.

For so long, I hadn’t even known magic existed, let alone that there were entire communities and species hiding right under the humans’ noses. Not that I was one to talk, being not human myself. But other than the guys—whom I’d turned—I hadn’t really had very much interaction with other magical beings. The wolves in Harrow were definitely not a good example either, given they’d tried to have me killed.

Soon, the first few mages in forest-green robes began arriving. Some eyed us warily; some came up and greeted the twins politely, shaking their hands and giving me a cautious nod. None spoke to me, though, which was my first tip-off that we were breaking some major mage etiquette by having me on stage.

Sitting in my hard-as-hell folding chair between the twins, I grew increasingly uncomfortable as the room filled with more and more mages and ever more people to eye me like I was a dangerous animal or a pile of moldy food.

“Guys,” I muttered under my breath after I caught one older woman curling her lip at me in disgust. “I get the feeling I shouldn’t be here.”

“You shouldn’t,” Austin replied just as quietly, and I gave him a sharp look. “According to Mage law, you shouldn’t.”

“So then why am I here?” I hissed back at him, feeling my face flaming with embarrassment.

“Because you insisted,” he countered, raising one eyebrow at me teasingly. Bastard.

“What he means,” Caleb interjected quietly, pulling my attention from his dickhead twin, “is that we are Mage law now. If we want to change shit, then that’s our prerogative. Besides, I think it’s maybe important that you’re involved in meetings like this since this will be our job for the next five hundred years.”

“Five hundred years.” I sucked in a breath as I processed this information again. Fucking hell, that was a long time; I could scarcely comprehend being alive that long.

Further whispering between us was cut off as the room quieted down and the dread-locked girl strolled out onto the dais beside us. It seemed the meeting was beginning.

“Friends,” she greeted the crowd, her voice carrying through the chamber as easily as any microphone could have projected it. “We are gathered tonight at the bequest of our new leaders. Ink Mage Austin and Blood Mage Caleb have come into their fated powers and relieved our former leaders of their stations, but we thank Mage Yoshi and Mage Jackson for their continued service, long past their intended tenure was up.” She dipped her head gracefully then, as if in a moment of respect.

The room clapped politely, but it was clear from some of the murmurings that they hadn’t thought very highly of Jackson, at least. Personally, if I ever got my hands on Yoshi, I intended to choke the fucking life out of him for what he’d done to Austin. But that was my own issue.

“About damn time!” someone yelled from within the sea of forest-green robes, and the room fell deathly silent.

Both twins stilled, and I just knew this meeting wasn’t going to be as simple as, “Oh, hi. Yeah, we’re your new leaders. Can you all stop assisting the bad guys in trying to kidnap Kit? Great, thanks. See ya!”

“Who said that?” Austin demanded in a voice that brokered no arguments. He rose from his seat, and the power seemed to roll off him in waves. These mages were fucking morons if they couldn’t sense how dangerous he could be.

The green-robes mages shuffled and whispered, but no one stuck their hand up to claim responsibility for heckling their new leaders so soon. Typical. Everyone was a goddamn hero when they didn’t have to own up to their actions.

Caleb smoothly rose to his feet as well and laid a hand on Austin’s shoulder. They were obscuring my view of the crowd now, and I fought the urge to push them out of my way so I could see.

“Perhaps we misheard a sneeze,” he suggested sarcastically, and the room tittered with laughter. “Welcome, friends. It’s our honor to meet you all officially. I am your Blood Mage, Caleb, and this is my twin brother and your Ink Mage, Austin.”

A rush of murmuring swept through the room, but this time I understood the sentiment. The twins had previously told me that it was rare for the Blood and Ink Mages to even get along with one another, so for them to be twins was probably something to talk about. I didn’t know; I was just making assumptions.

“As you all know,” Caleb continued in a smooth voice, friendly and hypnotizing. Dare I say he was lulling the crowd like a snake charmer? “You are all required to swear fealty to us as your new ruling Mages. In addition to this ritual tonight, we have a concern to raise.” He paused, seemingly for dramatic effect, and it worked. Even I was on the edge of my seat with anticipation, and I already knew what the concern was.

Necromancers. Or more specifically, necromancers working with whoever just tried to kidnap me. Again.

This ritual had me curious, though. The boys had mentioned it briefly but more in a casual kind of “Oh, yeah, all the mages in attendance need to acknowledge us as their leaders,” way, whereas now it was sounding somewhat more ominous and permanent.

“Let’s begin with the ritual,” Austin commanded, and sure enough the dreadlocked girl popped back out of nowhere carrying an intricately designed silver bowl and a... paintbrush? Whatever, I would find out soon enough.

My boys took the bowl from their helper, who scurried back into the shadows once more, and then they stepped down from the dais and into the open space before the chairs began. It was badly lit in the chamber, and I wasn’t sure if that was because we were underground or because it added to the magical atmosphere. Either way, I hadn’t noticed the mosaic design in the floor tiles when we had entered the room.

Squinting at them now, I could make out the rough outline of a pentagram hidden within all sorts of other runes and symbols that made up the full design. Some of them I recognised from my lessons with Austin, but some were totally foreign to me.

Gripping tight to my seat, I watched with nervousness as first Austin, then Caleb sliced their palms and bled into the silver bowl. Gasps rose from the gathered mages, and I guessed that Caleb’s fangs were showing. Understandable, though. He’d said that the more powerful the blood, the harder it was to control. Next to mine, I could imagine Austin’s packed a heavy punch.

“A lot of these mages have never seen a Blood Mage in the flesh before,” the dreadlocked girl whispered in my ear, making my jump slightly. I hadn’t even seen her approach, but of all the mages in attendance, she seemed like the only one willing to even speak to me. So I kind of liked her.

“How come?” I whispered back, but my gaze stayed locked on the guys as Austin mixed a bottle of black ink into their blood and then used the little paint brush to highlight certain runes on the mosaic.

“Because Jackson abandoned his duties hundreds of years ago. A lot of these mages hadn’t even been born then, so they had only ever met Yoshi. Even then, it would have been once only for their fealty oath and after that, only if they had a specific reason to meet with him. This is a really big deal.” Her words were thick with undisguised awe as she watched whatever the twins were doing in preparation for their ritual.

“And you?” I asked, turning slightly to look at her with curiosity. She was young, or at least seemed young. But so had Yoshi.

She smiled mischievously at me. “You don’t become Keeper of the Inner Sanctum overnight, hon. I’m older than you think.”

Smiling back at her, I nodded in acknowledgement, then turned my attention back to the twins. Austin had finished highlighting his chosen runes with the bloody ink mix, and they were both now speaking some words in their language.

“So what happens now?” I asked the informative mage, unable to curb my curiosity any longer.

“Now each and every mage in attendance needs to step into the circle, speak their oath, and then be anointed with the blood ink. It forges an unbreakable bond between the Mages and their subjects.” She spoke with reverence, and I understood this was a sacred ritual I was witnessing.

“What sort of bond?” I pressed. “What does it do?”

The girl—woman—wrinkled her nose. “I’m not totally sure, but from stories it is supposed to prevent anyone from lying to the Blood and Ink Mages. It’s how they’re able to settle disputes fairly within our community. When they can sense the truth of any situation, there can never be any unfair judgements.”

“Makes sense.” I nodded, and we fell silent as mages began lining up to take their turns swearing fealty to my lovers.

After some time, I needed to stifle a yawn, and my new friend snickered.

“Yeah,” she laughed quietly. “It’s a long process. Be glad this is only family heads and not every mage in existence. Excuse me, I need to jump in for my turn.”

I nodded to her, and she slipped back into the shadows only to reappear in the line of waiting mages. As she approached my boys, she threw me a wink and then sank to her knees before them in the rune circle.

They repeated the same ritual with her. Words exchanged, a dot of blood ink pressed to her forehead, then a flare of light as the ink absorbed into her skin, and it was done.

Returning to me, she was beaming with excitement and practically glowing. Actually... on closer inspection, she really was glowing a little bit.

“That was incredible,” she breathed. “Totally, totally unlike Yoshi and Jackson’s power. There is something different about these Mages.” She narrowed her eyes at me in playful suspicion. “I think I have a fair idea what that might be too.”

“Hmm?” I cocked my head at her in the picture of innocence. Neither twin had offered up any information about me this far, so I was keeping my mouth shut. As much as I liked this girl, I didn’t even know her name. Besides, I wasn’t really turning out to be the best judge of character when one looked at how my adoptive father was turning out.

She smiled at me for a moment longer, then changed the subject. “Can I get you tea or coffee? This is going to probably take an hour or longer.”

“Coffee would be amazing,” I gushed, suddenly realising I hadn’t had any since waking up from my daytime nap with Cole and River.

“You got it,” she enthused. “I’m Emerald, by the way.”

I grinned, glancing at her green hair. “Fitting.”

Emerald snickered and left to get my coffee. I stifled another yawn and shifted in my seat again. If I’d known how tedious this ritual was, maybe I wouldn’t have insisted on coming.

Nah, I still would have.

* * *

It was some time later, when a solid three-quarters of the room was glowing with that same faint shimmer Emerald wore, that things got interesting.

A large man with a silver-shot beard had reached the front of the line, but instead of stepping into the circle and kneeling as hundreds had before him, he just stood there with his arms folded over his chest.

“Is there a problem, mage?” Austin snapped, and I could hear exhaustion in his voice. I wondered if that had been this guy’s intention. Wait until they’d used their magic on several hundred mages before stirring up shit? They were bound to be tired as hell by now, but if this guy thought it’d make them any weaker, then he was in for a shock.

“Yeah, there’s a problem,” the guy snapped back, and a few mages behind him nodded their support. “It’s been seven hundred-odd years since new Blood and Ink Mages came into power. How the hell are we supposed to believe you are what you say you are? Or even if you are, that you’re anywhere near strong enough to lead us. From what I hear, you two were nothing more than human just a few weeks ago.”

A range of gasps and murmurs rose from the gathered mages, and Austin’s jaw clenched.

“If we weren’t your rightful leaders,” Caleb informed the man in a deathly quiet voice. “Then the fealty spell wouldn’t work.” The crowd nodded, and the general feeling was that they agreed with him. “As for your other concerns. Yes, we were human. But we’re not now, as you can plainly see.”

Caleb’s back was to me, but I assumed his fangs were still on display. It had been a long time since he and Austin had bled into the bowl though, so it must be a conscious choice on his part.

“So what?” the older man sneered. “You’re still probably watered-down at best. How can we be expected to swear fealty to you when you were raised human.” He spat the word human like it was a venereal disease or something. What a cocksucker.

Around him, the same group of men cheered their support, and it became pretty clear that he had primed them for this. God forbid someone take a stand without a gang of supporters at their back.

“No, I say we don’t need you two children in charge of us,” the man continued, puffing himself up more as he heard his supporters’ approval. “We need someone strong to lead us.”

“Oh yeah?” Austin challenged in his menacing voice, “Like who? You, Necromancer?”

My eyes widened, and I sucked in a sharp breath. This must have been the guy we’d been warned about. I carefully set my coffee cup beneath my chair, just in case I needed to intervene. Somehow. My magic was still on the fritz, so I had no idea, really, how I could be of any help, but just in case.

The man smirked, full of confidence. “Yeah. Like me.” His arms unfolded from across his chest, and in his left hand he conjured a ball of glittering light. “Consider this an official challenge for your titles.”

Around him, his cronies all conjured their own magics, and I knew from lessons with Austin what a punch they could pack when thrown at someone. Hell, if there was enough power and intent behind it, those balls of energy could kill.

My guys weren’t putting up with that sort of shit, though. My fingernails gripped tight to the edges of my seat as I watched their familiars unravel from the ink on their forearms and materialize beside them both.

A hush fell across the room as Tyson stretched his massive jaws in a growl and Sam reared up to flicker his tongue at the challenging mage. The two magical creatures glowed with power and were significantly larger than I’d ever seen them before.

“You...” the man gasped, and I noticed several members of his backup let their magic fade as they melted back into the crowd. “You’ve got...” He trailed off again as he swallowed audibly.

“Familiars,” Austin finished for him. “We do. But you didn’t come here today to chat, did you? Or have you changed your mind about challenging us?”

The bearded mage flickered his gaze at both Tyson and Sam, then back to Austin and Caleb, then finally over his shoulder to see if he still had any supporters. He did, though not as many as he’d started out with.

Stupid man that he was, took a deep breath and narrowed his eyes. He was clearly going to follow through because the only thing worse for a man like that was to look weak by backing down.

Without any other indication of his next move, he launched his ball of power at Austin. Quickly, his supporters did the same, but they all evaporated before ever reaching the twins. Meanwhile, Tyson bounded forward, knocking the bearded mage clean on his ass and locking his massive jaws around his neck. Sam had darted between the other mages who’d participated, sinking his fangs into each and every one of them before returning to Caleb with blood dripping from his mouth.

“Now, what were you saying?” Austin asked in a cool tone of voice as he stepped closer to the man and peered down on him. By this stage, I was out of my seat and standing at the edge of the dais so I could see. All right, I had also been ready to jump into the fray if things had gotten out of hand. Magic or not, I threw a mean right hook.

“I’m pretty sure he was apologizing.” Caleb smirked.

Austin had his back to me now, so I couldn’t see the expression on his face. The set of his shoulders, though... it suggested he burned with anger. Tyson growled low, and his teeth closed a fraction more on the man’s neck, spilling blood.

“Austin,” I said quietly, clambering down off the dais and laying a hand on his arm. “Tell Tyson to back off. You’ve proved your point.”

His eyes narrowed, but he didn’t take his gaze from the mage at his mercy. “Have I?”

My gaze flicked to the would-be usurper’s friends, urging them to speak up. They all babbled their agreement, that yes the point had been proven. Each of them clutched tightly at their bleeding snake bites and all looked on the edge of panic.

“Kit’s right,” Caleb said quietly, giving a barely noticeable shudder as Sam draped himself over Caleb’s shoulders. “Let him up. We win nothing by killing this asshole tonight.”

He had a faint lisp on “asshole,” and I bit back a smile. Must be hard, talking with fangs. It was also kind of sexy... okay fine, it was really sexy, in a dirty vampire romance book kind of way.

Austin said nothing for a long, tense moment before Tyson eased his jaws off at an unspoken command between them.

“Get up,” Austin ordered the bleeding mage. “Kneel in the circle.”

The beaten mage glared death at Austin but reluctantly did as he was told. What choice did he really have here? He’d made a bold move in challenging the new Mages, and he’d lost. His options were clear. Swear his fealty or die.

A year ago, it would have seemed barbaric to me that a man I was sleeping with could so casually end someone’s life for daring to challenge him. But this was a new reality, and not one we could afford to trust anyone in. This guy had already shown his true colors, so if he didn’t take the oath, he couldn’t be left alive.

“Speak the oath, mage,” Caleb ordered the man, and earned a death glare for his efforts. Some people just didn’t understand when their life was on the line. Then again, perhaps he did, as he slowly growled out the magical words and accepted the dot of blood ink to his forehead.

One by one, the bitten mages did the same, many pausing before returning to their seats and glanced nervously at Sam and Caleb.

“It won’t kill you,” Caleb answered their unspoken question. I didn’t blame them for wanting to know... If I’d just been bitten by a huge-ass magical viper, I’d be pretty damn worried myself. “It will just give you a nasty sting if you ever try to collude with this prick again.” Caleb jerked his head at the sulking mage.

“Return to your seats,” Austin ordered them all. “And don’t forget that you’re on our radar now.”

They filed off, and I gave Austin’s hand a quick squeeze before returning to my own seat. They still needed to finish the rest of the mages’ oaths before they could get down to why we really came here. Then again, I had a fairly good idea of who the necromancer involved might be.

It didn’t take long for the guys to finish the remainder of the mages, and the room was considerably quieter during the oaths. Perhaps because Tyson and Sam stayed visible? Whatever it was, I was as tense as a damn violin string by the time Caleb and Austin returned to their seats on either side of me.

“We have one last order of business to raise.” Caleb glared across the room at the mage who’d challenged them. The one Austin had called Necromancer. “We have reason to believe one of our own has become involved in matters that they’d be wise not to be involved in. The remains of six golems were found at the scene of an attempted kidnapping, and we have it on good authority that there was a revenant present too.” He paused for this information to sink in around the room.

“Several groups are currently attempting to expose supernatural-kind to the human world,” Austin continued, taking over for his brother. “They are working to bring a war to our world, and we will not stand for it. Let us make this very clear. Mages are not to become involved. You are not to expose your magic to humans, and most of all...” He, too, glared at the browbeaten necromancer. “Most of all, you are never to be found involved in Ban Dia business.”

Gasps rose from the crowd, and someone was bold enough to speak up in a shocked voice. “But Ban Dia aren’t real! They’re... stories. Extinct.”

“You’d do best to continue believing that,” Caleb responded sternly. “If we find any mages have defied these orders, the punishments will be swift and merciless. Is that clear?” Again, his gaze turned to the necromancer, whose face was so red with anger it was almost purple.

As one, the whole room responded. “Understood, Your Graces.”

The twins stared down on their subjects for a long moment, the chamber so quiet that you could have heard a pin drop, before rising from their seats.

“Dismissed,” Austin barked.

Caleb held a hand out to me, helping me to my feet as I rubbed feeling back into my numb ass and then followed them to the little antechamber where we’d arrived.

“So, that was, um, interesting,” I offered once we were safely inside the room with the door closed behind us.

“That was mind-numbing,” Austin snickered. “But now you’ve had a glimpse into Mage politics.”

“And we found our little troublemaker pretty easily too,” Caleb commented, stripping his blood-red robe off and grabbing his shirt from where he’d left it earlier.

“Uh yeah, shouldn’t we like... question him or something?” I asked, frowning. Surely he had important information for us.

“We will,” Austin glanced at his twin, and something unspoken passed between them. “But not while he expects it. Sam nipped him too, while he was distracted by Tyson’s fangs in his neck.”

“Okay,” I eyed up the huge diamond-backed viper, who flicked his tongue at me in a decidedly snakeish laugh. “How does that help?”

“His venom acts as a tracker, this time,” Caleb explained, then paused to listen to what his familiar was saying inside his head. I could tell when Sam was talking because Caleb’s gaze would go a bit unfocused and his head tilted to the side.

“What’s the little dickhead got to say this time?” I asked in a dry voice. What? Sam had a serious attitude on him.

“Um,” Caleb grimaced. “Never mind. The point is that we can track that guy down and pay him a visit at a later time, when he least expects it.”

“Or he might just lead us right to whoever was pulling his strings,” Austin added. “Because there is no way he was acting alone in your kidnapping. Not with Simon being involved.”

“No, you’re right,” I murmured, frowning. “He seems more like the hired muscle.”

“Exactly.” Caleb nodded. “Now let’s get back to the hotel. It’s already almost dawn, and don’t you have a flight to catch tomorrow?”

I nodded, chewing my lip. Wes and I still needed to get to Ireland to meet with this dream dude. He didn’t give a shit that we’d been sort of kidnapped and wasn’t willing to reschedule or bend his rules on allowing the others to join us.

5

The alluring scent of fresh coffee was the only thing saving Vali’s life when he woke me a full hour and a half before my alarm was set to go off. Smart man had come armed with fresh java and offered it as a sacrifice before I could lash out.

“Come on, Regina mea,” he coaxed in that sexy, velvet voice of his while I made grabby hands at the steaming mug. “You can have it when you sit up. You’ll just spill it everywhere if you try to drink lying down.”

Grumbling obscenities about logic, I pushed myself upright and tried not to snatch as I took the mug from Vali’s huge hands.

“Why am I awake, Vali?” I yawned after a long sip. “Don’t you know how late we got back last night? Or... this morning?”

“I do.” He smiled, stroking his fingertips through my hair and brushing it over my shoulder. “But Austin has come up with an idea that we think will help to keep you safe in Ireland. So you need to be awake early.”

“We?” I repeated, arching a brow at him. “That sounds suspiciously like you’re all getting along. What gives?”

“When it comes to your safety, Regina, we will always get along. Now, are you coming?” His hand was resting on the curve of my waist, and I had to bite back a dirty joke about whether I was coming or not. Damn sexy guardians got me way too riled up for my own good sometimes.

“Uh-huh.” I nodded. “Let’s go see what this plan that we have all agreed on is.”

Vali, ever the gentleman, offered me a hand up, and I followed him through to the little sitting area between bedrooms where the rest of the guys were gathered. We’d rented a “family suite,” which was really just three bedrooms interconnected by an area for couches, a TV, and some tea and coffee facilities.

I hadn’t bothered to get dressed before leaving the bedroom, and as I entered the sitting area, I could feel more than one set of eyes raking over my exposed skin. I’d been sleeping in just a tank top and panties but saw no reason to be modest around my guardians.

“You’re all getting along,” I commented with suspicion. “What’s going on? This isn’t normal for you six.”

“Here, I made you a sandwich,” Austin said quietly, handing me a plate before sitting down on the couch.

“I helped,” Caleb added, “It’s a regular King Twin Sandwich.” He threw me a saucy wink and my cheeks heated with the dirty innuendo. I took a big old bite of that sandwich though, and moaned my appreciation.

“Kitten, take a seat,” River instructed, his voice firm, and I found myself doing as I was told without complaint. Damn him and that tone of voice. I climbed over Cole’s outstretched legs and took the free space of couch between him and Austin before looking back up at River expectantly.

“We’re not comfortable with you travelling to Ireland without backup, in light of this most recent attempt on your freedom,” River explained.

“The whole Undead-Simon thing doesn’t help either,” Caleb added, shuddering.

“Uh-huh,” I replied, narrowing my eyes. “So what’s your point? I’m not canceling, if that’s what you’re getting at. Wes needs this trip.”

Cole made a noise low in his throat. “Wes does. You don’t.”

“Okay,” River interjected as I opened my mouth to argue back at Cole. “That’s not what we are suggesting.” He speared Cole with a glare that suggested they’d already discussed that and dismissed the idea. “But we do think you need more security.”

“None of you can come. The old dude made that super clear on the phone,” I reminded them, as if they needed reminding.

“We can’t, but he didn’t say anything about magical back up.” Caleb grinned at me, and I got the distinct impression this idea was partly his. He looked too proud for it not to have been.

I arched an eyebrow at him. “You mean...”

He nodded. “Familiars.”

Confused, I flicked my gaze to Austin beside me and then belatedly noticed the tattoo equipment set up on the coffee table. I wasn’t usually so blind, but in my defense I was still half-asleep. Austin looked relaxed, which told me he was in agreement on this plan.

“Uh, newsflash, guys. They’re not exactly inconspicuous, and I seriously doubt I can pass them both off as support animals on a commercial airline, you know?” Although the mental image of me trying to get on board a flight with a tiger and a viper was amusing.

“I don’t know about that,” Cole snickered. “I think Sam would look dashing in a harness and leash like a guide dog.”

Caleb grimaced. “Sam says he will bite you in the ballsack while you sleep. Except, you know, with more swearing.”

“Ouch,” Cole cringed, but the small smile on his lips said he was still amused. It was understandable. Sam’s attitude was amusing to all of us except Caleb, who was the one who actually had to hear it all.

“How would this even work? And won’t you guys need them here with you?” I directed this question to Austin, seeing as he clearly had his tattoo gun out for a reason.

“Should be a simple case of giving you anchor points for both Sam and Tyson. I don’t imagine it would work on anyone else, but seeing as we’re bonded...” He trailed off with a shrug. “Worst case scenario—it doesn’t work and you just have another cool tattoo.”

“Another one, huh?” I teased. “That would imply I had a cool tattoo to start with.”

Austin glared at me, then slid off the couch and onto the floor. “Left arm, Princess,” he commanded. His long fingers tapped the coffee table beside him, and I obliged, handing my empty coffee cup to Cole and sliding off the couch to join him on the floor.

I’d noticed a few days earlier that both twins wore their familiar tattoos on their left arms, and when I’d queried Caleb about this, he’d told me it was a magic thing. Closer to the heart or... something. I hadn’t really listened all too well as I’d been in a sleepy, post-sex haze at the time.

Austin started his equipment up, and I yawned, leaning my head back against Cole’s lap. One cup of coffee just wasn’t cutting it for me today. Thankfully, though, my boys knew how to treat me right, and a fresh cup appeared under my nose courtesy of Wesley.

The buzzing sting of the needle started up on my forearm, and I yawned again. It hadn’t been any sort of stretch to trust Austin with this task. His tattoos were gorgeous, magical or not, so I didn’t see any reasons why we shouldn’t give it a try. Even if it was only for their peace of mind.

“Regina, shouldn’t you take that bracelet off for this?” Vali asked as he watched Austin outlining the tiger on my fair skin.

Blinking a couple of times, I looked down at my naked wrist. “What bracelet?”

Vali frowned at me, pointing to my left wrist. “That one. Where did it even come from? I’ve never seen you wear it before.”

Austin had paused in his design and looked up at me with a confused expression, then turned back to Vali. “There’s nothing there, lizard-man. Are you seeing things?”

Oh God, was he seeing things? Like, having a stroke? Or was that when you smell things?

“I’m not,” Vali snapped back. “How can you not see this?” He reached across the coffee table and touched a finger to my wrist.

Sure enough, right there across the pad of his finger rested a thin, gold chain bracelet. It had a small fox charm attached to it, and it seemed oddly familiar, though I couldn’t place why.

I certainly had no recollection of putting it on or where the hell it had come from in the first place. Shit, this wasn’t good.

Ice cold dread pooled in my belly as the guys all crowded around to look at the offending item of jewelry, but I just wanted it off. Nothing that appeared with no explanation could be good. Right?

“Get it off me?” I asked Austin, when my own fingers failed at the clasp a third time.

He placed his ink gun down and took the thin chain in his fingers, fiddling with the little clasp to try and get it undone for me but having no success.

“I think the clasp is stuck,” he told me. “Do you want me to break it?”

“Please,” I agreed, nodding. Panic was starting to flare up in me, and I just wanted it off.

Austin slipped his fingers under the chain and gripped it tight, yanking hard enough to break any normal piece of jewelry. Unfortunately, it was quickly becoming clear that this was no ordinary piece of jewelry. It shrank down so fast Austin barely pulled his fingers free before it closed around my wrist tight enough to draw blood.

“Guys?” I gasped, feeling the sharp bite of metal in my flesh for a moment before it eased off a fraction. Not enough to get it off, but enough to stop cutting my skin. As it settled on a firm grip, the chain, which had once looked delicate and flimsy, solidified into one seamless band of gold metal. Like a delicate handcuff.

Shit.

“Kit, do you have any idea where this came from?” River asked me, snapping my attention to him as he crouched opposite me, across the table.

I shook my head. “None. It looked sort of familiar though. But I don’t know why.”

“It looked familiar to me too,” Austin agreed, and Caleb murmured his own agreement. “So that leads me to think we do know where it came from, but it’s been tampering with our memory.” He seemed lost in thought for a long time while he stared down at the band of metal encircling my wrist. Then, he simply picked up his tattoo gun and continued with my new ink.

“Aus,” I gasped in shock, but was not stupid enough to yank my arm away. “What are you doing? This is sort of a really big thing right now.”

“I agree,” he muttered, not stopping for a second. “Which is why it’s even more important that you get an anchor point for our familiars. I don’t want you left unprotected, baby girl. Not ever.” He said this last part so quietly I knew it was intended for my ears only.

“Austin’s right,” River agreed, standing back up with his face set in his customary blank expression. I could see tension in his golden eyes though, which made me panic even more. “You need to have Tyson and Sam as back up. Meanwhile, we all have our task. We’ll find out what the bleeding hell is going on with this bracelet.”

“Would you try magic to remove it?” Wesley asked the twins quietly, and Caleb was the one to respond.

“No.” He shook his head. “You saw what just happened when Aus tried to break it using his bare hands. I wouldn’t want to risk hitting it with magic until we know more about what it is... and where it came from.”

“Must be something bad,” Vali commented. “Else, why bother with the illusions? None of you could see it, so we don’t even know how long Regina has worn it.”

“How come you could, though?” I asked the big Romanian. “Is that a dragon-sight thing?”

Vali gave me a small smile. “I doubt it. Probably my Romani blood. My mother’s people always claimed they could see through any illusion.”

“Huh,” I nodded. “That’s handy.”

My casual attitude was fooling no one. I was freaking the hell out about this magical, nefarious bracelet that seemed impossible to remove. Cole’s hands rubbed soothing circles on my scalp while Austin worked, and I was able to calm down a fraction by the time he was done.

“Shall we test it out?” my broody Ink Mage suggested, packing up his equipment while I inspected the design. He’d woven the tiger and viper together so it looked like they were playing... or fighting. Most incredible, he’d managed to still make it look elegant and watercolor to match my fox and lily tattoos.

“May as well,” I murmured, all too aware of the ticking clock. Wes and I needed to be getting our asses to the airport any moment now.

The twins both summoned their familiars out in a sparkle of magic, and the second they were corporeal, I could feel them connected to me. Not in the same way the guys all were; this was something different.

Tyson, the big lug, clambered over Austin to lick my face, and I could sense his affection and greeting as clearly as any words. It was so cool. This must be the way he and Austin communicated with each other.

“Hey buddy.” I returned his greeting with a scratch behind his big, soft ears. “You feel like coming on vacation with me?”

The big cat rumbled a purr that was a resounding yes through our new link, and I smiled at him. I was actually really relieved to have him and Sam coming with me, especially with the added concern of this mystery bracelet.

“Try and convey to him that you want him to rest,” Austin coached me.

Meeting Tyson’s feline eyes, I pushed the suggestion to him, and his fur rippled down his back. He stretched his jaws at me and disappeared with a cloud of sparkles. The feeling he left me with was that I’d pushed that suggestion way too hard and I really only needed to ask nicely.

I knew he’d settled in my new ink and not back in Austin’s when he sent a vibration of purrs tingling through my body, starting at my arm and fanning out from there.

“It worked!” I beamed at Austin, running a finger lightly over the inked tiger and feeling my skin shiver in response.

“It sure did,” he murmured, looking thoughtful. “Caleb, Sam’s turn!”

Hushed whispers drew our attention to where Caleb was involved in what looked like a heated argument with his giant viper. Only this time, I could hear both sides.

“Everything okay?” River asked politely, interrupting them, and Sam flashed his fangs in River’s direction.

“Yes,” Caleb replied at the same time as Sam said, “Fuck no.”

My jaw dropped, hearing the snake actually speak for the first time. Not that I hadn’t believed Caleb that his familiar could, it was just a whole different thing to hear it with my own ears.

“Sam,” Caleb snapped, turning back to the viper, who flickered his tongue at his Mage. “We discussed this earlier, and you were totally fine with the plan. You said it was the best solution for Kitty Kat’s safety.”

“Yessss, but that wasss before I knew she wass sssuch a fucking moron. I refussse to be bonded to sssomeone that sssssssstupid.” Sam cast a glance over at me that was nothing less than derisive before slithering to a vacant arm chair and curling up in a ball. “Sssso jussst, fuck off.”

“Um, Sam, I can hear you,” I pointed out, feeling a bit taken aback. We all knew he was a bit of an ass but it was somewhat different hearing the insults for myself.

“Good, at leassst your earsss work, even if your brain doesssn’t.” He flicked his tongue at me, which was seriously starting to feel like his version of flipping me off. Little fucker.

“Um, okay... Do you want to explain why I’m suddenly such a moron?” I challenged the reptile, while feeling just a fraction embarrassed.

“Because,” he huffed. I could still hear the extension of his Ss but was growing used to it the more he spoke and noticing it less. “You put on that stupid bracelet from your creepy biological mother and then had the audacity to look shocked when you couldn’t get it off. Moron.”

“Wait what?” Caleb and I exclaimed this at almost the same time.

“How do you know the bracelet was from Bridget?” Caleb demanded of the snake.

“You mean I put it on myself?” I gasped, feeling like the fucking snake had just dropped a bomb on me. Around us, the other guys, who weren’t privy to Sam’s chatter firsthand, were all on the edges of their seats, ready to demand answers.

“Christ,” Sam groaned, shifting his coils as though getting comfortable. “And you have the nerve to be offended when I call you a moron. Which you are. A moron, that is. Bridget gave the bracelet to Caleb, Caleb and Austin gave it to you when your magic went all screwy after the bonding, and then you all seemed to just forget it ever happened.”

“Wait, how the hell do you know all of this?” I demanded. Rubbing at my forehead, I noticed the offensive bracelet and growled.

“Because I am clearly superior to you all, so the confusion and illusion didn’t affect me.” He paused. “Heh, that rhymed. Confusion and illusion.”

“Sam,” Caleb snapped. “Stay on topic, please.”

“What else do you want to know? I told you the important factors. The bracelet came from Bridget, you put it on her willingly, and now she’s fucked. ’Cause she’s a moron.” Sam flicked his tongue at me again, so this time I flipped him off. Shithead.

“Okay, is Sam giving any useful information?” River interjected. “Because if not, Kit and Wesley need to be going. I highly doubt this bloke in Ireland will let us reschedule again.”

“Sam?” I prompted. “Do you have anything more to tell us on the subject?”

“No,” he replied without hesitation. “Except that you need a shower; I can smell you from here.”

My face flushed with embarrassment, and I automatically sniffed at my pit. I smelled just fine. Infuriating little reptile.

“Okay, Sam are you coming with us or not? Because I have Tyson, I don’t necessarily need you as well.” I pushed myself up from the floor and started toward the bedroom to find clothes.

“Oh, please,” the snake hissed as he slid from the chair and crossed the room to me. “As if that overgrown pussycat will be able to keep a moron like you safe.”

I paused and leant down to put my arm closer to the ground. Still muttering obscenities too quietly for me to hear, Sam coiled the first foot or so of his body around my forearm and then disappeared with a sparkle of magic, settling into my new ink.

It was a strange sensation, carrying both Tyson and Sam with me. But no more strange than feeling the bonds with my guardians when I allowed those walls down. I just hoped Sam wasn’t going to call me a moron for this entire trip.

“If you stopped doing moronic things, like getting kidnapped or taking jewelry from strangers, I wouldn’t need to.” His snarky voice sounded inside my head, and I groaned. No wonder Caleb had been a bit less cheery lately. I could only imagine how shitty I was going to be with Sam’s sassiness in my head twenty-four seven.

I dressed quickly, then dragged my suitcase back to the sitting area where the guys were all deep in discussion.

“Ready,” I announced with a false smile. Wesley needed this trip, needed to get a handle on his magic and hopefully work out exactly what he was. I couldn’t let my own fears interrupt that, but I also couldn’t let him go without me. Something told me that I had to take this trip with him, and I was really trying to trust my instincts a little more.

6

COLE

My mind still reeled as the fight commentator called out my name. I made my way out of the makeshift dressing room. The events of the day had my head in a spin, and I knew I needed to shake it off to focus on this fight.

But what the fuck? Bridget had somehow convinced Vixen to put on a magical bracelet, and none of us even knew? It couldn’t have been for any good reason either, or else why cloak it and erase the memories?

No, I had a pretty strong feeling it had something to do with Vixen’s powers being iced. Hopefully Caleb could track that slippery bitch down and work out what the fuck we did next because if I got my hands on her...

“You ready, brother?” Vali asked quietly, clapping me on the shoulder as he walked with me through the noisy crowd to reach the octagon.

I gave him a snarl, and he smirked back at me. He knew I was telling him not to fucking call me “brother;” we weren’t there yet. Not by a long shot.

“Just remember,” Vali continued, brushing off my unspoken warning. “We’re here to gain their trust, not to kill them all.”

“I remember,” I mutter under my breath. “I’m not a fucking moron. But it also needs to be believable.”

Vali gusted out a long breath, but we’d almost reached the octagon and he had no time to give me a lecture on acceptable levels of bodily harm. Besides, he’d already gone over it about a million times on our way to this fight, so it just wasn’t necessary to hear it again.

“Fine,” he clapped me on the shoulder. “Just keep them alive long enough to talk later, all right?”

I gave him a short head bob of acknowledgement, then ducked through the low cage door and into the fight ring. Vali disappeared back into the crowd, but I knew he’d be watching closely while maintaining his image.

It had been his money and connections that had gotten us an introduction to this club, and an easy matter of showing off an eye shift to gain admission into this secret circle. The fighting event was what we’d begun tracking in Mexico—an underground shifter fight club, and by the looks of the crowd... they weren’t too concerned with keeping their existence quiet anymore.

My opponent was already in the ring, whooping and hollering to whip the crowd up into a frenzy. I didn’t get it. Who gave a shit what the crowd thought, so long as you won? Seemed like a big waste of energy as far as I was concerned.

Whatever. I shrugged to myself. Just makes it easier for me to kick this poser’s ass.

Prowling a little closer to the excited fool, I took a sniff of his odor to get a handle on what I was up against. Not that it mattered, seeing as I could probably beat him without my dragon strength, but he had that wet cat kind of smell about him which indicated some form of feline. It was a smell I’d grown well accustomed to, having Tyson around so much.

My lip curled, and I let out a rumbling snarl at the kitty shifter who was to be my opponent. Dragons weren’t overly fond of cats in general, or so I’d found. Like chalk and cheese. The only reason Vali and I tolerated Tyson was because Vixen liked him so much. Otherwise... Bengal tiger shish kebabs would have been on the menu weeks ago.

“What the fuck are you?” the bouncy feline demanded with all the arrogance I couldn’t wait to knock clean out of him. He took a sniff in my direction and only looked more confused. Guess he’d never encountered a dragon before.

“A bunny rabbit,” I replied with a snicker. “You scared now, pussycat?”

The guy narrowed his eyes at me in confusion, and I just shrugged. Fuck him, I won’t even need to shift for this crap, so no sense in showing my cards, right?

The commentator started rattling off shit that I wasn’t listening to. Instead I eyed up the little punk I was brought here to fight. He was all movement, bouncing up and down on his toes to the point he was starting to look a little twitchy.

I heard the bell chime, and that was all the encouragement I needed to begin the fight. Vali had asked me to make it at least seem like an entertaining match, so I really had to pull my first punch in order to not knock this kid’s head off with that first hit.

Still, it sent him flying, and his back smashed into the cage wall while the crowd went mental. Bloodthirsty motherfuckers, they made me sick. Every last one of them. How anyone could enjoy watching two people beat the shit out of one another, I would never understand.

Regardless of having fought professionally for several years, I’d never done it for love of the sport. It was simply all I had known then.

My opponent recovered quickly and shifted forms as he pushed off the cage and flew at me with claws extended. Judging by the flash of sandy-colored fur, I’d say he was a cougar or some sort of mountain cat. Whatever he was, he took my fist across the snout all the same.

Drool flew in an arc across the space as the big cat’s head snapped to the side, and I snarled at the little nick his tooth had opened across my knuckles. Rookie error on my part; I should have scaled my fists before hitting a shifter cat in the mouth, but I’ll blame that on the lack of a How to Dragon handbook.

I shot a quick glance into the crowd and found Vali. He gave me a hand signal that clearly told me to keep it going for a little longer, to which I groaned. This was straight up boring. I’d had more challenging fights from humans, for fuck’s sake.

The cat leapt back at me, and I let him connect, dropping me to the ground. Then I flipped him over and grabbed him in a choke hold. Big animals really weren’t that different from humans, so long as you kept watch for claws and teeth.

He thrashed in my grip, but I tightened my arm across his throat. Soon his huge form sagged into dead weight on top of me as he passed out. Oops.

I heaved him off me and stood up casually as the stunned commentator announced me the winner of the fight. The crowd was still going wild, but I barely stayed long enough to give them a quick nod before exiting the ring and making my way back to the dressing rooms where a furious looking Vali was waiting for me.

“What?” I demanded, seeing his scowl.

“This,” he said, repeating the hand gesture he’d given me, “means keep going. Not end it, you fucking idiot.”

“I know,” I snapped, dragging off my tank top and pulling on a clean black T-shirt.

Vali made an exasperated noise. “If you know, then why did you choke the cat out all of two seconds later?”

“Because you said not to kill anyone,” I reminded him. “Besides, it was boring as shit and probably a waste of our time. We should just snatch up whoever is in charge and beat the info out of him... or her.” I wasn’t one to discriminate. Dupree had proven all too well that women could be just as evil and despicable as men.

“And if this method doesn’t work soon, we will do that. But I’m interested to see if we can get further by infiltrating their operation first.” Vali rubbed a tired hand over his face. “At least there can’t be any doubts about you being a shifter after how easily you took a cougar down.”

“Ah,” I nodded. “I guessed cougar. Cats all look alike, don’t they?”

My older brother snickered. “Don’t let Tyson hear you say that; he’s not all cuddles and playfulness.”

I cracked a grin, agreeing. “He is Austin’s familiar after all. Moody bastard. Have to admit, though, since Austin and Vixen worked their shit out, he’s been a hell of a lot easier to be around.”

“Wesley told me he was pretty bad when you all first met Kit?” Vali quirked an eyebrow at me. “Something about his ex?”

“Yep,” I grunted. “Nasty piece of work that girl is. I still don’t know what the fuck she was doing at the gala—whether she was involved with Gray or if that was just a weird coincidence.”

“The twins have enough to worry about,” Vali pondered aloud while pacing the changing room. I had changed back into black jeans and was doing up my boots. “Maybe we can look into it if this fight club shit doesn’t take too long.”

“Agreed,” I said, standing up and buckling my heavy belt. “And if it turns out she was involved with Vixen being tortured...” I trailed off with a growl.

“We’ll rip her fucking head off,” Vali finished for me. “Let’s get back out there and see who wants to tell us anything interesting.”

Smiling at the thought of ripping Peyton’s head off, I found myself in a considerably better mood as I followed my brother. I liked to feel like I was helping, even if it was just going to make Austin’s life easier to know that bitch had been dealt with.

“Nice game face, bro,” Vali snickered as he pushed the door open and waited for me to precede him. This time I let the name slide. I just wanted to get the info we came here for, which was where the next level of this insane shifter club was being held—then get the fuck out. Vixen would be landing in Ireland soon, and I was anxious to know she was okay.

7

KIT

By the time our plane touched down in Dublin, I was exhausted. I hadn’t slept a single moment the whole flight, unable to shut my brain off as theories about the purpose the bracelet served and why my mother had given it to me marched through my head. It also didn’t help that Sam made crude jokes inside my head at every given opportunity.

“Any word from the guys?” I asked Wesley, rubbing at my tired eyes while we waited for our luggage. We’d flown because the twins had never tried teleporting anyone quite so far before and didn’t want to lose us into space or something—a fair enough concern.

“Nothing yet.” He shook his head and shifted his shoulder strap higher. His bag was loaded with his laptop, headphones, chargers, and more. It weighed an absolute ton. “I’m sure they’ll be in touch as soon as they know something, though.”

Caleb and Austin were chasing down Bridget in the hopes of squeezing some answers out of her, while Cole, Vali, and River were focusing on both Jonathan and the underground movement to publicize supernaturals.

As for Wes and I, we just needed to get our asses down to Glenganen. It was a five hour drive from Dublin and we were expected there in exactly five hours, so we needed to get a move on. This guy, who still hadn’t given us a name, didn’t sound like the sort of man who enjoyed being kept waiting.

We retrieved our bags and made our way through customs to the car rental desks. We were both travelling on fake passports, just in case Omega was watching. They had been made by Vali’s contacts, and I really could not have picked them out as anything less than real, save for the different names.

“Are you nervous?” I asked Wes while we stood in line at the Hertz counter. I snaked my hand into his free one, linking our fingers together and earning a small, tired smile from him.

He, too, hadn’t slept on the flight, but I suspected that had more to do with him not wanting to deal with his dreamtime visitor than anything else.

“Yeah, a bit,” he admitted with a shy smile. “Hopefully this guy can actually help us, though, and doesn’t turn out to be a massive waste of time.”

“If he does, we will just find someone else,” I reassured him, squeezing his fingers and pressing a kiss to his shoulder. “Now, are you sure you’re okay to drive?”

He gave me an appreciative smile. “I’ll be fine. But we can take turns if I get tired, right?”

“You bet,” I confirmed, grinning at his response. I loved that Wesley treated me as an equal, someone totally capable of driving a car despite my vagina.

Vali had made our reservations, so within a few minutes we were hauling our luggage out to a midnight-blue Range Rover.

Once we were inside with the heat blasting—because it was still cold despite being springtime—I plugged the address into the inbuilt GPS system, then sat back with a heavy sigh.

“You okay?” Wes asked me, resting his hand on the gear shift but not making any moves to start the car. “That frown has me worried, sweetheart.”

“Yeah.” I gave him a weak smile. “Just exhausted. Worried about this.” I held up my wrist encircled by the tight gold band. “Worried about what this trip is going to tell us... Did that creeper fucking with your dreams, Gaelin, give you anything useful in your nightly meetings?”

Wes shook his head. “Nothing. But I haven’t told him I was coming here, either. I get the feeling he’s on some sort of revenge-fueled power trip, and I’m collateral damage. Who knows what he’d do if I told him someone else might be able to help?”

“Makes sense.” I nodded. “I’m pissed that this douche is being such a...” I trailed off with a frustrated hand wave.

“Such a douche?” Wesley laughed. “Yeah, you and me both.” He leaned over, cupping my face gently with a cold hand and kissing me. “Let’s get on the road, and you can psychoanalyze everything he’s told me, again.”

“You say that like I’ve already done it a million times,” I grumbled as he followed the signs to get out of the airport parking lot and onto the freeway.

Wesley coughed a laugh. “Oh, you haven’t?”

“Whatever.” I grinned, whacking him lightly with the back of my hand as I got comfy in my seat. “Okay so, the first time he appeared in your dream he made a comment about you being the ‘first of your kind in hundreds of years’ or something like that, right?”

“Right.” Wes nodded, not taking his eyes off the road. He was such a safe driver.

“And that he was assigned to teach you how to control your powers?” I was repeating information he’s already given me, but wanted to double-check.

“Yup,” he confirmed.

I pursed my lips while I thought about this from a different angle. Wes was right that I’d already gone over this with him a hundred times. But I was convinced there must be more clues hiding somewhere.

“So obviously Gaelin isn’t in charge,” I murmured, and Wesley nodded.

“He sounds pissed as hell at being given the task of teaching me and is deliberately fucking around out of stubbornness.” He glanced over at me as we waited at a traffic light. “So hopefully this guy here can teach me how to block him out or something.”

“Or,” I pondered aloud, “teach you how to bypass Gaelin.”

“How do you mean?” He frowned.

“Well, if Gaelin was assigned to you, then there is someone else pulling the strings. I figure if you can get past Gaelin to whoever is actually in charge, then maybe you’ll have more luck?” I was feeling a bit proud of my theory, but the small smile fading the frown from Wesley’s face said he’d already thought of this and was humoring me. Dammit.

“I know, sweetheart,” he chuckled. “I just haven’t figured out how.”

“Okay, well”—I yawned heavily—“then in that case—”

“Kit,” he interrupted me. “Take a nap. You’re exhausted, and we still have hours of driving ahead of us.”

“Yes, but,” I protested in a sleepy voice, “we still need to come up with a plan!”

Wesley chuckled. “You might come up with one in your sleep, you never know. Besides, I need you fresh in case we need to switch driving.”

Thwarted by logic once again. He had a point; if we were going to make it in time, then I might need to drive so Wes could sleep—which wouldn’t be easy if I was dead on my feet.

“Fine,” I muttered, snuggling into my seat and using my coat as a pillow. “But wake me up as soon as you need to rest, okay?”

“You got it, sweetheart,” he assured me, and I drifted off to the sound of the rumbling engine.

* * *

When I woke again, we were pulling up outside a little rustic farmhouse in the middle of damn nowhere, judging by what I could see out the windows.

“Where are we?” I asked Wesley, rubbing my eyes.

“We’re here,” he replied, blinking at me sleepily. He looked like shit, his blond hair all mussed up and big, dark circles under his eyes. “I didn’t want to wake you up; you looked so peaceful for once.”

I gave him a stern look. “Thank you, but you should have woken me up hours ago so you could sleep. But you’re right, no nightmares this time. Maybe the crisp, Irish air is clearing them out?”

“Well in that case, I vote we all move here.” Wesley grinned, but I could tell he was only half-joking. “Come on, let’s go see if this guy is for real or not.”

Unclipping my safety belt, I opened my door and slid down to the ground where I stretched the kinks out of my back. Wesley came around the car and took my hand in his before approaching the little cottage.

He hesitated only a second before knocking on the wooden door, but his hand was clenched tightly around mine, betraying how nervous he was. I squeezed his hand back, trying to convey my support, but jumped when the door swung open with a bang.

The man squinting at us on the other side of the threshold was elderly, and that was my first let down. One thing I had learned so far in dealing with supernatural creatures—they all aged very slowly, if at all. So either this guy was ancient... or he was human.

“You must be Wesley,” he said in a gruff, thick Irish accent. “Expected you two days ago.”

“Yes, and as discussed via phone, Kit and I were in the midst of a kidnapping attempt.” Wesley’s jaw clenched, and he narrowed his eyes at the old man. Not an amazing start, so far.

The man stared back at us for a long moment, then grunted and held out his hand. “Name’s Seamus. Come in; all the heat’s getting out.”

Wesley shook his hand, then moved aside so I could do the same. We both followed Seamus into his cottage, and he shut the door behind us with a heavy sound.

“So,” our host muttered, limping past us to lead the way into the little sitting room in front of an open fire, “you want to learn more about Druid-lore.”

“Uh, do we?” Wesley asked, taking a seat on the couch when offered. “We understood you had some experience with, ah, dreamweaving.”

Wes flicked a glance at me, and I gave him an encouraging smile. It couldn’t be easy talking to a total stranger about magic. It made me glad that I had the guys and that they’d never once made me feel like a crazy person for what I could do.

Seamus leaned forward in his seat, his beady eyes locked on Wesley so hard that even I squirmed a little. “If you came here looking for some crackpot fraud who will put you through a meditation and speak a bunch of mumbo jumbo, then charge you for the privilege... well you’re barking up the wrong bloody tree, kid.” He paused, and his intelligent eyes darted over me and back to Wesley. “But I get the feeling you kids are more than what you seem. So why don’t you start from the beginning, and then I’ll see how I can help. Hmm?”

Wesley sucked in a deep breath and raised a brow at me, like he was asking my permission or something. But this was what we’d come for, so I gave him an encouraging nod and squeezed his fingers.

He smiled back and then turned to Seamus to start retelling his history, starting way back before he met me, when he started seeing me in his dreams.

While he spoke, he kept a tight grip on my hand, and I noticed Seamus giving me several curious looks throughout Wesley’s story. When Wes finished telling Seamus about his encounter with Gaelin inside his dreams, the old man narrowed his eyes at me, and I squirmed uncomfortably.

“What?” I asked when he didn’t speak for a long time. “Why are you staring at me?”

“Lemme see that ring of yours, girl,” he ordered me, and I glanced down at my hand, still entwined with Wesley’s. I still wore my bloodstone Ban Dia ring, of course. It physically couldn’t come off now that I’d begun my bonds.

“Why?” Wesley asked for me. “That has nothing to do with what I am.”

Seamus barked a laugh. “Bullshit, boy. You wanna tell me I ain’t gonna find a Ban Dia bloodstone on that there finger?” Wesley opened his mouth to respond, but no words came out. I simply cocked an eyebrow in curiosity at the old man. “That’s what I thought.” His Irish accent made it sound like he was dropping all his h’s from th- words, and I fought a smile. Something about him was just... non-threatening.

“What do you know about Ban Dia, then?” I asked him, tilting my head to the side. “So far as I’m aware, they’re not a well-known race of people.”

He chuckled, scratching his chin. “Nor are the badbh, and yet here the two of you sit on my very couch.”

“That’s... is that what I am, then?” Wesley puzzled, “Badh-uv?” He sounded it out awkwardly, so Seamus helpfully spelled it for him.

“Badbh. Yes, I’d say so, if this story you’ve told me is true. There’s always a chance you’re here to pull me leg and get a good laugh from messing with old, crazy Seamus, but I have a feeling you wouldne brought a Ban Dia with you for that.” He gave me a shrewd look, and I simply met his stare with curiosity, neither confirming nor denying the accusation.

“So you can help me then?” Wesley queried. “You can teach me whatever I need to learn to control my magic? We can pay, of course.”

“Nope,” Seamus replied without even a second’s hesitation.

“What? Why not?” Wesley demanded, and I tightened my fingers around his. I got it, though. After all this, it was yet another dead end.

Seamus let out a weary sigh and leaned in closer to us. “Boy, you already know why. Gaelin told you himself in your dream.” He reached out a gnarled finger and tapped the side of Wesley’s head. “Think. What did he tell you when he first showed up claiming to be your teacher, hmm?”

A deep frown marred Wesley’s forehead, but I knew he already knew the answer. “‘You’re the first of our kind to surface in the human realm for a very long time.’ The first to surface... meaning...”

“Meaning I’m not like you.” Seamus nodded. “Ain’t nobody on this whole planet like you, unless your girlfriend has been flinging that magic of hers around and restoring more unsuspecting fools to their birthrights?”

I scowled and gave a little head shake.

“So, why do you know so much?” Wesley’s voice was dripping with disappointment, and I wanted nothing more than to hug him in that moment. I knew better than most how lonely it felt to be the only one of your kind.

“Ah, well now, I didn’t say I couldne help you at all, now did I?” The old guy’s face creased up in a smile. “Wait here; back in a jiff.” He groaned as he stood from his seat, and then he shuffled his way to a narrow staircase leading up to a mezzanine level.

“Kit...” Wesley whispered under his breath, but I shushed him.

“This is more than we have gotten so far. Let’s just see where it goes.” I pressed a quick kiss to his cheek. “No harm in seeing what he has to tell us.”

“I’m nothing but human, myself,” Seamus called down from the loft to us, confirming my suspicion. “But once upon a time, my people were badbh themselves. When the plague hit some four hundred-odd years ago, all the full-blooded ones cleared out back to their own realm, leaving any mostly human offspring to fend for themselves here. My ancestral grandmother many, many times over was one of them left behind, but her mam was an optimist, see?”

A series of grunting noises came from the loft, and then he reappeared to make a slow descent down the stairs carrying a heavy-looking book.

“See, back then, a wee mage girl made a prediction that all would be righted in the magical world one day. No one believed her on account of her being so young. No one but my ancestor, that is. She believed, and she didn’t want her descendants left out in the cold when that day came. So she broke all the rules and left this.” He dropped the book on the coffee table and it landed with a heavy sound, sending clouds of dust flying up from it.

“And what is this?” I asked, letting curiosity get the better of me.

Seamus gave us a sly grin. “A bible, of sorts. Or... an encyclopaedia. Except this one outlines all magical species. Their appearances, origins, powers... weaknesses.” As he stressed this last word, he raised a brow at me, and ice formed in my gut. Suddenly he seemed considerably less non-threatening.

“Holy shit,” Wesley breathed, stretching out a hand toward the book. “This is... do you have any idea what this information could mean?”

“No, I just kept it all these years for shits and giggles,” Seamus responded to Wesley with heavy sarcasm, and I stifled a giggle. “I’m letting you read this on one condition, and mind I am not giving it to you, simply letting you study it here to learn what you need to know.”

“What’s your condition?” I asked him quietly, as Wes was thoroughly engrossed in the pages before him already. “You want your magic healed?”

Seamus snorted a laugh. “That’d be assuming I even have any in my diluted bloodline. Ain’t no one know for sure until they try, eh? No, not me. I’ve lived a damn long life already and got no desire to keep on keeping on.”

“If not you, then who?” It was pretty clear that this favor he wanted was from me, if his curious glances had been any indication.

“My great-niece, Siobhan. She’s only seven, but she’s sick.” He pursed his lips and sucked a breath through his nose. “Real sick. Cancer.”

“I’m so sorry to hear that,” I whispered, seeing how much this upset him. That poor kid, to be so young... “And she’s... I mean, is it not something that can be cured through human means?”

“She’s dying, so no. Doctors only gave her six months, and that was four months ago.” Seamus dashed a tear off his cheek. “So, this is the deal. You two can come here and study my family book for as long as you want if in return you”—he nodded at me— “agree to heal wee Bonnie.”

It seemed like a no-brainer, but still I hesitated. “It could change her; you understand that, don’t you?” He gave a short, sharp nod. “Do her parents?”

“I’ll explain it to them. They’ll be fine with it, though. If it gives her a chance to live, they won’t object. For all we know, she could be pure-as-snow human.” He gave me an imploring look, and I sighed.

“Of course I’ll try, but only if she and her parents understand the risks. If she changes... well, then her and Wes will be the only badbh in existence.” I chewed my lip, watching Wesley from the corner of my eye. He’d stopped reading to listen to us, but his fingers unconsciously stroked the words on the page open in front of him.

“I’m aware. But something tells me it won’t stay that way for long.” Seamus straightened his shoulders and stuck out his gnarled hand for me to shake. “Do we have a deal, girl?”

I glanced to Wes, and he gave me a small smile of encouragement. If this little girl really did change, I knew he would be there to help her.

“As much as I want to take your deal just to get access to this book, it wouldn’t be right. I’m having some issues with my magic right now.” I paused, chewing my lip. “As in, I don’t have access to it. So until I get that little problem sorted, I can’t heal anyone.”

Seamus narrowed his eyes at me, clearly thinking this over.

“I appreciate your honesty, lass. And you don’t look like the type to sit on your hands for long, so if you can promise to heal my girl as soon as you can, well, then I will still let you read my book now.” He held his hand back out again.

“Deal,” I agreed, taking Seamus’s hand.

“Perfect,” he crowed, clapping his hands together. “I’d better get over to Siobhan’s mama’s house and get started explaining all of this. She’s a non-believer, so it’s going to take a bit of effort.” He grimaced and rapped his cane on the floor before heaving up to his feet. “You two help yourselves to tea or whatever. When I’m back, we can sort you out somewhere to stay.”

“Sounds good,” I murmured as he hurried out of the door. Nervousness was pooling in my gut, though. Was I doing the right thing in agreeing to this?

“Kit, you’ve got to read some of this,” Wesley gushed, drawing my attention back to him and the huge book open on his lap. “It’s got information on everything. Mages, shifters, Ban Dia, vampires! Sweetheart... vampires are real!”

I snorted a laugh. “Yeah, Caleb told me that they’re, like, some sort of demon or something? And people got them mixed up with Blood Mages at some point in history.”

Wesley bobbed his head in agreement. “Uh-huh, yup, I can see how that happened.” He paused, flipping a few more pages. “This is so cool. I wonder if he’d let us scan it or something.”

“I highly doubt it.” I grinned. “Let’s not test the friendship so early in the game. Flip to Badbh first so you can learn about you. Once you’ve done that, we can go back and learn about everyone else. Who knows when this info might come in handy, huh?”

“You’ve got that right,” Wes agreed. “Okay fine, start with me, then we learn about Ban Dia, and then everyone else. Yes?”

“Perfect. Get started, and I’ll make us more tea. Something tells me Seamus isn’t a coffee drinker, which sucks...” I moved to the small kitchen as I spoke, but I’d already lost Wesley’s attention as his nose disappeared behind parchment once more.

He was beyond excited about the secrets that book held, and I didn’t blame him. I was utterly dying to read what it said about Ban Dia, but the whole reason we made the trip to Ireland was for Wesley, so his information needed to take precedence.

Now if only he would read faster, dammit.

8

Several days passed, and each day seemed a step closer to Wes managing his powers. The section of Seamus’s bible dedicated to badbh was the longest—which made sense, considering they were the ones who authored it. But that meant it didn’t just contain rough information on appearance, skills, heritage, and weaknesses, like some of the other lesser-known creatures. Instead it was like a full training manual on how-to-badbh.

Presumably it had been written with the intent of teaching any surviving descendants, which was exactly the purpose it now served. Wes had already managed to control his own dreamscape in such a way as to block Gaelin from harassing him at night, and he’d managed to develop his skill with crows in such a way that he could direct where he wanted them to go. The other day he’d even accompanied me to the local store... inside a crow’s mind.

According to the book, he should be able to fully shift his form into a crow one day. But that required a talisman much like my bloodstone ring, one gifted by another badbh, which wasn’t exactly looking likely.

We’d been in touch with the team daily, but most of the time it just wound up with me chatting to one of the guys for over an hour like we were school kids. It reminded me of when Vali and I had started talking, so I was enjoying it immensly.

It wasn’t even daybreak when Wesley hauled me out of bed one day to head back to Seamus’s house. We’d been staying in a little bed and breakfast on the outskirts of the town, seeing as there hadn’t been room for us to stay with Seamus, but I had been glad of the space.

“No,” I groaned as Wesley tried to shake me awake. “It’s too early. Go back to sleep.”

“Come on, sweetheart,” he coaxed, moving my hair out of the way and pressing little kisses to my naked back. “I was on the verge of nailing a new skill yesterday, and I have a good feeling about today.”

“You said that yesterday,” I grumbled, turning over to snake my arms around his neck. He was fresh from the shower without a shirt on yet and his jeans still open at the waist. “Come back to bed until it’s light, and then we can go.”

In an attempt to tempt him, I wove my fingers into his wet hair and pulled him down to kiss me. He gave a frustrated groan, kissing me back as I pulled him closer and slipped my hands down to his jeans. I’d not bothered putting any clothes back on before falling asleep, so I was still naked under the sheet. The only things standing in my way were a pair of jeans and boxers...

“Sweetheart,” Wes groaned. “Come on. Please? I’ll get you coffee while you shower.”

I paused. What did I want more, coffee or sex? Ugh, why were all of life’s decisions so damn hard? Speaking of hard...

“Kit,” Wesley scolded as my hands continued their quest.

“Fine,” I sighed, pouting up at him even as he gave me puppy eyes himself. “You’re going to need to make up for it later, though.”

Wes chuckled, kissing me hard and grinding his erection against me, the big tease. “Absolutely. Now get up. It’s going to be a big day today, sweetheart. I can feel it.”

“I wish you’d feel something else,” I grumbled, wiggling over to the side of the bed and stumbling sleepily into the bathroom. “Big coffee, please.”

Wes laughed. “Obviously. Back in five, and don’t go back to sleep!”

“I won’t! Geez.” I rolled my eyes as I turned on the shower and checked the temperature. It wasn’t like I often went back to sleep when he thought I was getting up. Just... sometimes.

The warm water did help to wake me up, but it was the giant cup of coffee Wes left on the vanity that really did the trick for me. When I stepped out of the water, I hurried to wrap a towel around myself before taking a long sip and not even caring that it burned my tongue.

“Oh fuck yes,” I moaned, rolling the delicious liquid over my tongue. “That’s the shit. Right there.”

“Better than sex, huh?” Wesley teased me, leaning on the bathroom doorframe fully dressed this time. I grinned back at him, grabbing him by the shirt and pulling him down for a kiss.

“Not always,” I admitted. “But fuck, it comes close.”

He laughed at me then, his baby-blue eyes sparkling with delight. The transformation in him since we’d arrived was noticeable, like a heavy weight had been lifted from his shoulders and he could see light at the end of the tunnel. It was totally worth the trip just to see him like this.

“I love you, Wes,” I confessed, finding myself lost in his gaze for a moment.

“You don’t mean you love coffee?” He quirked a mocking brow at me, and I scowled.

“No, asshole. Although I love coffee too. But this time, I mean you. I love you, Wesley.”

He grinned down at me. “Well, in that case, I love you too, sweetheart.” He punctuated this sentiment with a lingering kiss that seriously made me regret accepting coffee over sex.

“Come on,” he reminded me, breaking away. “Get dressed. I’m excited for today.”

“I can see that,” I murmured, but I couldn’t stop smiling at him. Damn adorable nerd that he was. I relinquished my coffee just long enough to dress, then took it back while Wes drove us out to Seamus’s little cottage.

We let ourselves in, as Seamus had advised we do if we came over early. He was not a morning person himself, so it was better for everyone if we didn’t wake him. Not that I blamed him. I’d have loved to stay asleep too, but Wes seemed to think he focused better when I was nearby, so here I was.

“I wonder if he has any of those potato-scone things left,” I mumbled to myself, heading into the kitchen while Wesley set himself up at the table where he’d left the book and all his notes the night before.

To my disappointment, it looked like there were none left and not much of anything else either. I groaned and checked the time. The store wouldn’t be open for a couple of hours yet.

“Wes, I’m going to bake something, okay?” I called out to him and saw his pen pause on the notebook he’d been writing in.

“Uh... are you sure that’s a good idea?” he asked gently, giving me a somewhat scared look.

I scowled back at him. “Ha-ha, very funny. I’ll have you know I am not a terrible cook when I actually try. It’s not my fault you guys are all so willing to cook for me, you know.”

“Fair enough,” he admitted. “What are you going to make?”

“Cheese and bacon muffins,” I announced, fishing out the ingredients that I could see in the fridge. “And I’ll go restock Seamus’s kitchen when the store opens... seeing as it’s so fucking early nothing’s open yet.”

“Uh-huh,” Wes murmured, already turning back to his notes. “Just don’t burn the house down or anything.”

“Asshole,” I muttered but was still smiling. Humming around the kitchen while I made my breakfast muffins, I briefly considered getting Tyson out for some company.

“I wouldn’t,” Sam’s voice hissed through my mind. “His fat ass will trip your clumsy feet up and the next thing you know... chaos.”

“Thanks for your input, Sam,” I whispered, rolling my eyes. For the most part, the two of them stayed quiet and just... did whatever familiars did when they weren’t in physical forms. Slept, I guess? Every now and then, though, Sam felt the need to comment on a situation or Tyson would offer his approval on something I was doing. It had started out weird. Intrusive. But I’d kind of grown to like having them with me.

He had a point about Tyson, though. The kitchen wasn’t that big, and Tyson was not a small kitty. Sighing, I continued baking in silence while Wes worked. He was approaching the whole thing in a very analytical manner—very academic—which I wasn’t totally sure was the best way to approach magic.

Then again, what the heck did I know? Not a whole lot, apparently, or I wouldn’t have somehow ended up wearing a bracelet that was blocking my magic gifted by my oh-so-loving biological mother.

Bitch.

The oven timer dinged, and I grinned with satisfaction as I pulled out my perfectly golden, savory muffins. Hell yeah, nailed it.

“Voila!” I announced, laying one down in front of Wesley on a plate. “And you doubted me.”

Wesley’s eyebrows shot up in surprise as he eyed the freshly baked creation. “Color me impressed, sweetheart. This looks really good!”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” I teased, rolling my eyes. “I figure if I no longer have my magic, then I might need to find another skill for you guys to keep me around.”

“Kit,” he scolded, grabbing my hand and yanking me to sit on his lap. “Firstly, you will get your magic back. And secondly, you don’t think loving you is enough reason for us to keep you?”

I shrugged. “These are sort of unusual circumstances, and the last thing I ever want to be is dead weight on this team.”

“Sweetheart,” he groaned. “You are so far from dead weight. Even without magic... you’re the glue that’s holding us all together in the middle of all this supernatural madness. Don’t ever, ever consider leaving us. Okay?”

Pursing my lips, I nodded my understanding. “Okay. But I still need to contribute.”

“You do,” he assured me. “In more ways than you know.”

“Thanks, Wes.” I smiled. “Now, I’m going to stop distracting you and go for a quick walk. It’s looking like a really nice sunrise, so I’m going to call the guys while I walk into town for supplies, okay?”

“Yep, good plan,” he agreed, taking a bite of his breakfast and making a noise of approval. “These are actually tasty, Kit.”

“No shit.” I scowled at him and hung up my apron in the kitchen. “I’ll be back in an hour or so. Learn lots while I’m gone.” I dropped a quick kiss on his cheek, then headed for the door, where I pulled on my coat and boots.

Just as I was opening the door, a muffled grumble announced Seamus surfacing from his bedroom.

“Breakfast is on the bench,” I called out to him. “I’m going to the store.”

“Get more whiskey,” he replied, scrubbing his hand over his face as he peered at my muffins.

“You got it,” I acknowledged, then headed out into the dawning day.

After pulling my phone from my pocket, I tried Caleb first, but when it went straight to voicemail, I dialed River. He answered on the first ring, and his rich British accent purring my nickname gave me butterflies.

“Hey,” I replied, grinning like a lunatic as I wandered down the little country lane.

“I miss you, Kitten,” he murmured, and those damn butterflies went crazy inside me.

I bit my lip and tried to get control of my hormones so as not to sound like a thirteen-year-old talking to her crush. “I miss you too, Alpha. How’s everything going there?”

“Good,” he said firmly, and I wasn’t totally sure if he was saying good to me missing him or that things were going good. “I bought us a house.”

“Wait, what?” I exclaimed, sure I must have just heard him wrong. “You did what now?”

“I bought us a house. You being away made me realize we didn’t have a base. We didn’t have a home...” He trailed off with a sigh.

“But I thought you all had houses? Caleb and Austin have a place in San Fran, and Cole has his horse ranch in Texas.” I racked my brain for where the other guys had said they owned houses. Vali had more than I could keep up with, but I was pretty sure Wesley had bought a house for his mom and little brother, Grant, and River had his family estate.

“We do. But you didn’t.” River was so damn matter-of-fact with these things it was leaving me stunned. “And I for one fucking hate my family estate. So I bought all of us a house that we could call home. If you like it, that is.” Suddenly he sounded less sure of himself. “If you don’t like it, it’ll be no big deal to sell it and find something else. I just thought...”

“I’m sure I’ll love it,” I assured him when he trailed off. “Wherever you guys are, that’s where my home is.”

River cleared his throat, and I heard a deep voice mutter something in the background.

“Is that Cole with you?” I asked.

“Mmm, and Vali. The twins are off dealing with that necromancer twat who was helping Simon.” River paused when one of the brothers said something more in the background. “No, mate. Fuck off. You talked to her last time she called.”

A grin spread over my face, and I stifled a laugh. “Tell them to be careful in those cage fights,” I ordered him. “I swear to coffee, if they end up maimed or dead, there will be trouble.”

River snorted a laugh. “I’ll pass that on.”

“All right, I’d better go; I’m almost at the store, and then I need to get back to Wes. He seems confident he will make some big breakthrough today, so I want to be there to see what it is.” I paused outside the store where the shopkeeper was just opening up for the day.

“I can’t wait to hear all about it,” River replied, his voice warm with affection. “Call me first next time.”

“I will,” I promised, smiling. “Love you guys.”

“We love you too, Kitten,” he said quietly, then hung up.

My stomach still fluttering with butterflies, I tucked my phone back in my pocket and wandered the store with a bounce in my step. Things finally felt like they were starting to look up for us all. Despite the facts that my magic was blocked and Caleb couldn’t find Bridget for an explanation, our team had never felt stronger or more cohesive.

After I paid for the groceries, I began the walk back to Seamus’s cottage while admiring the sunrise. It was a really pretty one, the whole sky stained with red as the sun rose lazily. Seamus had told me days ago that red sky in the morning was a bad omen, but I was pretty sure it just meant that it would rain that day. Or that’s what the shepherd’s tales said.

The solitary cottage came into view as I turned the corner at a pretty moss-covered rock fence, and I stopped to pat the friendly donkey that resided in that paddock.

“Good morning, buddy,” I greeted the long-eared animal. “Brought you a treat.”

Digging into one of my shopping bags, I pulled out a carrot and offered it up to the funny little guy, who took it happily between his huge teeth.

Watching him munch down the carrot, I gave his ears an affectionate scratch before turning back to the path.

I’d barely taken two steps in the direction of the cottage, when the whole damn thing exploded in a giant fireball. The boom of the explosion knocked me back into the fence, and my donkey friend took off across his paddock in a panic. Not that I blamed him.

What the fuck just happened?

Gathering my scattered wits, I dropped my shopping and took off at a run toward the burning wreckage of Seamus’s cottage. I had to have just imagined that explosion. The cottage couldn’t have just blown up because Wesley was inside the cottage... and if it had blown up, then...

“Wesley!” I screamed as I sprinted towards the burning mess that had once been a cute little house made of stone and thatching. The closer I got, the more I was forced to accept what I was seeing was real and not just a weird, hateful delusion.

As much as I wanted, needed for it to be a twisted, fucking joke... there was no denying the heat of the fire as I skidded to a halt in the driveway. Our rental car had its side completely caved in with a heavy block of stone planted in its middle—a piece that had once formed part of the exterior wall.

“Wesley!” I screamed again. Maybe he and Seamus had been outside when it happened? “Wes! Where are you?” My voice came out choked, and my gaze scanned the fields around the cottage, looking for any sign of movement.

They had to have been outside. They had to have been. Because if they’d been inside when that explosion happened....

“Wesley!” I cried out again, this time in anguish as tears streamed down my face. I ran around the burning building to search the backyard, but found no one waiting there for me. They must have been inside.

“I’m coming!” I sobbed. “I’m coming for you!” Because I had to. If he was in there and hurt, then I needed to get him out. Maybe I could heal him. Maybe my magic would work again, and I could just... fucking heal him!

Using the flat sole of my boot, I kicked what was left of the back door open, then cowered from the flames billowing out at me. As I watched, a beam crashed down from the loft space, blocking any access from that point.

“Shit!” I screamed in frustration, running back around to the front of the house. All the windows had exploded out, and my boots crunched over glass as I approached. I tried a window first, but the flames were too strong, so I kicked in the front door.

It swung in, then snapped off its hinges, already on fire. But I could see the kitchen... and I could see what remained of the table I’d last seen Wesley sitting at.

My heart clenched painfully, and a desperate sob caught in my throat. Where was he?

There.

From behind the broken table, I could see an arm poking out. He must be hurt, unconscious even. I needed to get him out.

Pulling my sweater up over my nose and mouth, I sucked in one last breath of air then held it tight as I dove into the destroyed cottage. Or attempted to. A strong arm grabbed me around the waist, hauling me back from the flames and away from Wesley.

“Stop it!” I screeched. “Let me go! I need to help!” I clawed at the arms holding me, but I was frantic, panicked, and totally lacking my superstrength. I may as well have been fighting a robot for all the impact I was having.

“Stop fighting me, woman,” the man grunted, hauling me off my feet as he dragged me back from the fire. “Ye go in there, and yer as good as dead.”

“No,” I moaned, “please, let me go. You don’t understand, I need to get him out! He’s still alive; I can feel it. Please, please let me go!”

“Fecking crazy bitch,” the guy muttered, totally ignoring me as he dragged me away from Seamus’s cottage.

Fighting him, I screamed, looking around me for something to help. It was then that I realized the town’s little fire truck had arrived and was hooking up their hoses, ready to fight the flames. They weren’t going fast enough though! Why were they going so damn slow?

This couldn’t be how it ended for Wes; he was counting on me. I wasn’t getting anywhere like this though, so I stopped fighting the man holding me. My body went limp, and as expected, his grip on me loosened just enough for me to break free and sprint back head first into the fire.

“Wesley!” I screamed over the roaring flames, taking a lungful of smoke and coughing violently. The path to the kitchen had become obstructed by falling beams, but I could still see that hand poking out from behind the table. If only I could get to him.

It meant climbing over a burning beam, but if I moved fast enough then maybe... Not bothering with another second of indecision, I tensed and leapt.

9

The sheer whiteness of my surroundings when I blinked open my eyes smacked me in the face like a brick. Where the fuck was I? How did I get here? The last thing I remembered was... shit! The fire! Wesley!

“Wesley?” I croaked, but my voice barely made a sound before I began coughing violently. Struggling to breathe, I pushed myself up in the sterile, white bed and gasped for air.

Hospital. I was clearly in a hospital. Shit, this was bad.

Frantically, I looked around me, trying to see where Wesley was. The curtain was drawn between my bed and the next, so I stabbed at the Call-Nurse button.

“Oh, you’re awake, dear.” The gray-haired woman smiled as she entered my bed area. “You must be feeling a bit worse for wear, no?” She tsked-tsked, shaking her head at me. “That was a silly thing you did, running into that fire. You’re lucky to be alive, so you are.”

“What?” I coughed, frowning at her. “Please, where is my friend? Wesley? He was”—I paused to swallow the lump of emotion in my throat—“he was in the cottage.”

“Wesley, you say?” She cocked her head at me like a confused cocker spaniel. “No, dear. You must be confused. That was crazy old Seamus’s cottage.”

“No.” I shook my head, feeling fuzzy. “I mean yes, it was, but my friend was in there with him. Wesley. Like, six-foot tall, sandy-blond hair, blue eyes... he must be here too?” My voice was hoarse and dry and it burned my throat to speak, but this was too important.

“Oh, honey.” The nurse gave me a pitying look and squeezed my fingers. “After they pulled you out, they only found Seamus. No one else.”

“What?” I shook my head, sagging back against my pillows. “How... what?”

“Well, you took off into that fire like the devil himself were chasing you, but you got smacked in the head by a falling rock. Father Flaherty ran after you and dragged you back out before you got burned, but I dare say you took in a bit of smoke—that’ll be why your voice is so rough.” The nurse handed me a cup of water, which I sipped gratefully. It wasn’t until the cool water had soothed my throat that I realized how much it hurt.

“But, Wesley,” I insisted. “They must have found him too. Unless he got out himself?”

“No, dear.” She shook her head again, looking sympathetic. “If he was in there, hon, he won’t have made it out. They’re still to check the wreckage, but there’s just no way.”

“No,” I denied her words, even as sobs clawed at my throat. “No, you’re wrong; he must have gotten out somehow.”

The woman handed me a box of tissues before I’d even noticed the tears pouring down my cheeks. I was full on crying now, sobbing and hiccupping as she just stared at me in pity. She was wrong though. She didn’t know him; she didn’t know us. There was simply no way something as mundane as an explosion could have taken down one of my dianoch. It wasn’t possible! Was it?

“They’re saying it was arson, dear,” the nurse said gently after I’d sat there bawling for several minutes. “Although that don’t surprise me. Crazy old Seamus had plenty of enemies, so he did. The garda will be wanting to speak with you, though, so don’t you go anywhere, okay?” She chuckled like she’d made a joke, but I was too far gone to even listen.

I didn’t respond, and eventually she left my cubicle. I slunk back into my bed to sob. Over and over in my mind, I replayed the events. My brain examined every damn detail of that memory, hunting for something, anything, just some small sign of hope to show Wesley might have made it out alive.

But... if he had, where was he?

Anguish wracked through me as another violent coughing fit shook my body. It was all too much. Wesley couldn’t be dead... he just couldn’t. How would I wake up tomorrow morning and not hear his voice? How would I drink coffee and not think of him? Of all the times he’d bribed me with it or tried to switch me to decaf, hoping I wouldn’t notice? Fuck, how would the sun continue to shine and the wind continue to blow… if Wesley was dead?

* * *

When I woke again, there were two uniformed policemen standing at the curtain of my cubicle talking to a different nurse in hushed tones. Seeing them, I sat up abruptly. Maybe they had found Wesley?

“Miss Greene?” one of the officers inquired, using the fake name I’d given at our accommodation. I nodded, and he stepped further into the space around my bed. “I’m Garda O’Neil, and this here is Garda Douglas. We’re investigating the fire at Seamus Connolley’s house.”

“Explosion,” I corrected him in my scratchy voice, and he raised his eyebrows. “It was an explosion, not just a fire. Like a bomb going off.” Speaking of it brought the vivid picture back to my mind, and I felt the wetness of tears on my cheeks again.

Something scratched at my mind, like someone trying to tell me something, but I shoved it aside. Now wasn’t the time to be distracted.

The man made a note on his little pad, then gave me a tight smile. “Good to know. Can you tell us how you and Mister Connolley were acquainted?”

“No,” I snapped. “Can you tell me if you found Wesley?”

“And Wesley is...” He poised his pencil over the pad and raised a brow at me.

“My friend,” I whispered, then corrected myself. “My boyfriend. Did you find him?”

The two policemen exchanged a look, then the first one, O’Neil, sighed and rubbed at the bridge of his nose. “Look, miss... there was another body found in the wreckage, aside from Mr. Connolley, but the damage was too extensive to be able to identify who it was. Not without dental records. And here’s the thing, it would appear both you and your boyfriend were travelling under false IDs. Can you tell us anything about that?”

I didn’t reply. I couldn’t reply. He continued speaking, but his words were drowned out in a high-pitched buzzing in my ears. All I could focus on was what he’d just said. They’d found a body. Not a victim or a survivor. A body.

I’d faced a lot of shit in my life. Gray never broke me. Jonathon’s betrayal hadn’t. My bitch of a mother—just another day in my life. But Wesley?

No.

I wouldn’t accept it.

Body.

Another body was found in the wreckage.

Wesley... was dead.

I broke.

10

VALI

Austin had given us the go-ahead to track that bitch Peyton down and see what involvement she’d had in Gray’s abduction and torture of Kit in Toronto. He’d said it was something he was meaning to do, but Mage business had to come first—which he was absolutely right about. I sure as shit didn’t envy the responsibility that had been dumped on the twins’ shoulders.

“There she is,” my brother muttered, nodding through the windshield of our car to the petite, redheaded woman leaving the house we’d been watching. “Alone, too.”

“Good,” I murmured. “Let’s tail her until we get to a quieter area.”

“On it,” Cole agreed, smoothly pulling out into traffic and tailing Peyton’s car with the professionalism of a trained espionage agent. Sometimes I envied him that he’d gotten out from our father’s toxic presence and made the best use of his killer side.

He’d made a good life for himself with Omega and then with Kit and the other guys. Every damn day I was thankful that some incredible twist of fate, a bullet to the back, had tied my fortunes to theirs.

“You’re pretty good at this shit,” I commented as he kept a safe, three-car distance between us and Peyton’s Volvo but never lost sight of her.

“No shit,” he snorted, giving me a glance out of the corner of his eye. “Hey, I was thinking...”

“Uh-oh,” I joked, and he whacked me on the arm. Like we were kids. That small moment made my gut clench and my mouth tighten. It was just another reminder of everything we’d lost out on because of that psychopath that sired us both.

“I was thinking,” Cole repeated with a growl, “that there might be other dragons still in Romania.”

This wasn’t what I’d expected him to say, and I was momentarily stunned. I mean, sure, I’d wondered the same thing... but never really thought about it past that.

“Maybe,” I offered. “Would you want to find them?”

Cole shrugged. “Wouldn’t you?”

I pondered on whether I would. As much as I had considered the idea that there may be more dragons, I sort of liked the idea that it was just us. Was that a bit fucked up of me? That I liked being the only other one who understood what my brother was going through? That understood him?

“I guess,” I murmured because what the fuck else was I meant to say?

Cole gave me a small, half smile. “I wouldn’t have a clue where to start looking though, and I’m sure as shit not asking the old man.”

I coughed a laugh. “Ah, yeah. No. Maybe when all this shit is over we could take a trip to the home country. Show Kit where our family comes from.”

Cole gave me another glance, this time looking surprised. “Yeah,” he said softly. “I’d like that. It’s a fuckload better plan than going through the old fucker anyway.”

I snickered with him, but it reminded me that I had yet to tell him what I’d been up to on my many disappearances from the group lately. Yes, I’d spent a lot of that time getting Lucy and Elena set up legally as the owners of my corporation. But I’d also worked on a little personal project. As of last week, dear old Dad had been committed to a maximum security psychological hospital. For life. I’d given myself and Cole power of attorney to discharge, but I didn’t see that happening any time soon.

It sounded vindictive, but it was just practical. He was still a fucking dangerous man, and I straight up couldn’t risk him ever harming Kit. Because he would.

If he ever found out both Cole and I were involved with the same girl, our father would have her murdered—or worse—just to punish us. Because he was fucked up like that.

No, he was much better off under lock and key. I could have just killed him, like I had so many of his loyal men, so really I was becoming a nicer person for having met Kit.

“Perfect,” Cole commented, his gaze locked on Peyton’s car. She’d turned off the main street and was heading toward an industrial area with considerably fewer bystanders to freak out and think we were assaulting some innocent woman.

I mean, we would be assaulting her. But she was no innocent woman, that much we’d already ascertained.

We waited until we were the only two cars around, then I hit the button on my little remote to blow out her tires thanks to the little explosive devices we had already planted. The two back ones exploded with a bang, sending her skidding to a halt halfway up the sidewalk while Cole and I cruised casually to a stop behind her.

It was dark, which worked to our advantage. Fewer people out and likely to see us, and more for Peyton to fear.

“Let’s do it,” Cole muttered, unbuckling his seat belt and pushing his door open. I followed him out of our car and approached Peyton’s disabled Volvo.

I strode to her driver’s side, and my brother stood behind me, both watching my back and looking intimidating as fuck. Using my gloved knuckles, I rapped on her window and suppressed a smile when she jumped and screamed. She looked up at me with panic in her eyes, so I smiled as friendly as I could manage and indicated for her to roll down her window.

She hesitated a moment, then wound the window down about an inch or two. Maybe she wasn’t as stupid as she looked.

“Looks like you’re having some car trouble there, miss,” I commented and heard Cole scoff quietly behind me. “Perhaps my brother and I can offer you a lift home?”

The pretty redhead glanced nervously at Cole, then gave me a tight, polite smile. “No, thank you. I’ll just call a tow.” She held up her phone, and I raised my brows at it. Of course, I knew full well that she wouldn’t have any signal thanks to the cell jammer on the dash of our car.

“All right,” I replied, smiling. “Well, we might just wait until they arrive. It’s a dangerous area for a woman to find herself stranded, you know?”

She gave me another tight nod and tapped at her phone to look up a tow truck contact number. Through the window I saw the recognizable “error” page showing her the lack of signal, and I bit my lip to stop the laugh threatening. This was way too easy; it almost made me miss the badasses of the mob scene.

“Problem?” I inquired, and she held up her phone with a grimace.

“No signal,” she admitted.

“Yikes.” I pretended to sympathize, then pulled out my own phone. “Yeah, me too. Are you sure we can’t give you a ride somewhere? It’s not really a great idea for you to walk at this time of night.”

She hesitated again, but really what other options did she have? Sit in her car all night? We already knew she was running late for an important meeting and would be eager to get there. Eager enough to risk a ride with two strangers? We were playing on the typical horror scenario of every B-grade slasher flick, but that was part of the point here. To scare the bitch.

“I’m not a murderer or anything, I promise,” I assured her, lying through my teeth.

That seemed to convince her, though, as she laughed nervously and grabbed her bag from the passenger seat, clicking open her door and stepping out from the protection of her vehicle.

The second she was out, I let my friendly mask fall and pushed her car door shut behind her. I saw the moment she regretted her decision, fear flickering across her face as she glanced between Cole and myself nervously.

“Silly girl,” I scolded her, wrapping my gloved hand around her upper arm tight enough to bruise. “Didn’t anyone ever teach you not to accept lifts from strangers, Peyton?”

She sucked in a sharp breath and tried to jerk out of my grip. “How do you know my name?” she asked in what was really a bit of a cliched line. “What do you want from me?”

“Does it really matter?” I squinted at her. “I think you’re smart enough to work out that you’re in big trouble right now, Peyton.”

Stupid woman that she was, she tried to jerk out of my grip again, this time throwing her weight into it and getting... nowhere. Obviously. A human woman was no match against a dragon shifter.

Rapidly changing tactics, she turned back to me with huge eyes and a tremble to her lip. “Please, don’t hurt me. I have a daughter; she can’t grow up without her mother!”

This infuriated me more than I had been prepared for, and Cole must have seconded my opinion as a low dragon growl echoed through the darkness.

“Funny you should say that,” I sneered, “considering you gave your precious daughter up for adoption the second your inheritance was threatened. Believe me, dear, that little girl will grow up just fine with her new mother. Giving her up was possibly the only good thing you’ve ever done with your evil existence.”

This information hadn’t been hard for us to find. Turned out her lover—Bella’s real father—had caught her cheating and left her high and dry. After that, Peyton’s well-to-do parents had told her they would cut her out of their will unless she gave Bella up for adoption. Unsurprising, given everything we’d learned of Austin’s ex, she chose money over her own daughter.

Thankfully, Bella had gone to an incredible family and was being raised the way she deserved. With love.

“Truthfully, you did us a favor,” I continued, using my tight grip on her arm to march her over to our car. “It would have been much harder working out what to do with you if you were a good mom.”

“So what are you going to do with me?” she demanded, dropping the damsel-in-distress act and glaring daggers at me. “I’m late for a meeting with some very dangerous men. They’ll be looking for me soon.”

“Oh, we know you are. That’s part of what sealed your fate.” I gave her another smile, letting my teeth sharpen ever so slightly. Just enough to scare her.

“You’ve been messing with things that are none of your business, Peyton,” Cole added, his voice soft and dark, carrying the promise of pain. “Working with a vigilante group to expose freaks to the world?” He tsk-tsked, clicking his tongue. “Bet you didn’t realize that those men you’re colluding with are the freaks?”

“W-what?” Her eyes widened, and she darted a panicked look between Cole and myself. “That’s not possible. They said—”

“We’re not really here to chitchat, Peyton dear,” I cut off her protests, rolling my eyes. “We’re here because of the part you played at the Toronto Gala. You remember the one? When you conveniently distracted your ex-lover and let a woman be abducted?” There was a flash of understanding in her fearful eyes, followed by dread. “Ah, I see you do remember. Excellent.”

“What are you going to do to me?” she asked again, sounding considerably less sure of herself this time. Still, I had to admire her for not sobbing and carrying on.

“In the interest of becoming more upstanding citizens, we aren’t going to kill you. We aren’t even going to torture you. We are going to stuff you in the trunk of our car and drive you down to the local police department where you will confess to planting the bomb at the Full Moon club last week.” I gave her a smile that said this was the most generous offer I was prepared to make.

The look she gave me suggested she wasn’t pleased. “You must be joking,” she spat. “I’m not doing that. They’ll give me life in prison.”

“That’s the point,” I informed her in a dry tone. The bomb at Full Moon had been intended to elicit a response from the shifters, there was no doubt about it. Luckily, they seemed to have found out about it in advance and mostly all evacuated the building. Only two were killed, rather than the two hundred that could have been.

The little redhead glared daggers at me, her chin set stubbornly and my Romani senses warned me this wasn’t going to end well. For her, anyway.

“Like hell,” she snarled, dropping an elbow hard into my gut. If I’d been human, it would have been enough to make me drop my grip on her arm, but as it was, I just tightened my grip and winced.

She wasn’t trying to get free though; it was a distraction. I saw just a second too late that her other hand had dipped into her handbag and pulled out a pistol, pointing it at my chest.

In almost comical slow motion, her finger began squeezing the trigger. .

Before her gun could fire, both she and her weapon went up in a flare of blue fire, then disintegrated to the pavement in a pile of smoking ash.

For a moment, I just stared down at the remains of Austin’s ex-girlfriend at my feet, then arched an eyebrow at my little brother. He looked back at me with an impassive expression on his face, like he hadn’t just incinerated a woman in the middle of the street.

“Really?” I sighed, and he just shrugged.

“She was going to shoot you,” he explained, and I rolled my eyes.

“I’m a dragon shifter. It wouldn’t have killed me, idiot.”

“Better safe than sorry,” Cole deadpanned, scuffing his shoe through what remained of Peyton. “At least now she’s been taken care of.”

“True,” I muttered, heading back to our car. “Not like she didn’t deserve it for being mixed up with Gray anyway.”

Cole snickered a dark sound as he slid back into the driver’s seat. “This is probably not what Vixen’s had in mind when she told us to spend bonding time together.”

I grinned across at him. “I bet she wouldn’t object though.”

“Too true,” he murmured, driving out of the warehouse area and leaving Peyton’s car with its blown-out tires. “Our girl is one vicious chick.”

My heart constricted, and I said nothing. Words couldn’t do justice to how it felt hearing Cole say “our girl.” Instead I just leaned forward and turned on the radio. Appropriately, it was playing “Highway to Hell,” so I cranked it up loud. If there was ever a life anthem for two estranged brothers who could shift into dragons, were dating the same girl, and considered killing people to be bonding time… it had to be that.

11

RIVER

Caleb and I landed in the middle of the street in Harrow, Alaska, without bothering to hide our arrival. It was a town full of werewolves, so not exactly somewhere we needed to hide magic… not that I had any. Yet.

“You again?” a teenage boy commented as he stepped out of the grocery store wearing an apron and wiping his hands.

“Have we met?” I asked him, narrowing my eyes and trying to place his face.

The kid shook his head. “Not really. You guys saved my little sister, though, when those dickheads tried to take all the pups. What are you doing back here?”

“We came to see Vic. Is he around?” I glanced down the street farther to where Vic’s house was located.

The kid shrugged and shook his head again. “Nope, not that I know of. Haven’t seen him for a while anyway. Granny will want to know you’re here, though…”

He looked almost regretful as he pulled his phone from the apron pocket and unlocked it to call Granny Winter, presumably.

“All good, kid,” Caleb replied with a smile. “Save yourself the call; we will head straight over and see her. She’s Vic’s mom anyway, isn’t she?”

“Uh,” the boy stuttered, “she’s, uh…”

“Don’t worry about it.” Caleb brushed his panic off. “We’ll go see her.”

Turning back to me, Caleb gave a little nod toward the house where we’d been held captive last time we were in town. When Granny Winter—who was clearly the one in charge around here—had tried to kill Kit in a death match with a psychotic she-wolf.

After knocking on the old wolf’s door, we were greeted by a mean-faced little punk who also seemed like he recognized us and wasn’t too fond of the memory. We weren’t in Harrow to start fights, though. We wanted information.

“I thought we made it clear you lot weren’t welcome back here,” the old female Alpha snapped as she limped into the sitting room using her cane heavily.

“You did,” I replied in a terse tone. Our last encounter had not endeared this old bitch to me in the least, but I would attempt to play nice for the sake of information. “We came to speak with Vic but understand he is no longer in town.”

“No, thanks to you lot,” she spat, then propped her cane against a chair before lowering herself into it with an elderly groan. “So what do you want with my boy, hmm? Maybe I can answer your questions and save him the pain of dealing with you.”

“Hopefully,” Caleb muttered, and I tapped his knee to shut him up.

Turning back to Granny Winter, I have her a tight smile. “We came to ask him more about his past with Bridget. Nothing specific, as such, just anything he knows about her that might be useful.”

“Why the sudden interest in that whore?” the old woman sneered. “Don’t tell me her little look-alike wants to get to know Mommy better?”

“Hardly,” I replied, before taking a deep breath to keep from throttling the old woman. “We just need to know a little more about her. Maybe you can tell us why you dislike her so much. Something big must have happened. After all, wasn’t your son in love with her at some point?”

She grunted a noise of disgust, and her lips twisted. “Fool boy. Sure, I’ll tell you what she did. It’s no great secret around these parts anyway.”

Conversation paused as a girl came in carrying a tea tray, which she placed down on the coffee table. I couldn’t help but notice the look of interest she gave me or the way she brushed a little too close as she passed me, and it made me tense with the memory of the last time we were in Harrow. That crazy bitch, Chesca, had said I was one of them.

She was wrong, though… I was something else.

“All right, I’ll make this short and sweet because I have bingo this afternoon at the town hall. Yes, my fool boy was once in love with that harlot, but it didn’t last long. He had hero worship for her. They’d met inside that lab, Blood Moon. Bridget had healed him from near death and brought out his fox—which was a surprise, let me tell you.” She huffed a short laugh, and I raised my brows in a question.

“How so?”

She narrowed her eyes at me like I was a moron. “Because I’m a wolf, dumbass. Our bloodline, or his daddy’s, must have had some fox in it somewhere though, and that was what appeared when Bridget healed him. Anyway, he and those other two fools—N and L—they were totally enamoured by her. None of them saw her for the vile witch she really was… not until she took things too far, that is.”

Granny Winter paused to pick up a teacup and stir in some sugar. Both Caleb and I left ours untouched.

“How did she take things too far?” Caleb prompted.

“She got greedy, didn’t she? Power hungry. Wanted stronger dianoch than lowly foxes like N and my boy Vic. But despite her best efforts, she couldn’t bind a fourth guardian to her. Rules said Ban Dia could only have three, and when she failed to bind a fourth over and over again, she decided to cheat the system. If she could only have three, then she wanted the strongest three.” Her wrinkled lips tightened with anger, even after all these years. “So she decided to get rid of her weakest guardian and create a space for the new one she’d found. A dragon. One of the last.”

“She tried to have Vic murdered?” I asked, just to clarify what I was hearing.

Granny Winter nodded sharply. “Nothing can heal from dragon fire, not even with shifter magic. She underestimated my Vic, though, and Lachlan. The two of them together fought back and won, killing the dragon, but not without great cost.”

“Vic’s scars,” Caleb murmured in understanding. “That’s what broke them all apart? What happened to Lachlan, and how come Nicholai stayed with her?”

“She quickly saw what was happening, that conniving bitch. She saw her loyal dianoch turning their backs on her in disgust, and she backpedaled, throwing geas at them to try and bind them to her. It worked the strongest on N, that poor boy. He does his best to control her now, but for the most part, he is powerless to leave her. On Vic, as he was already so injured, just the silencing stuck. He couldn’t ever share her secrets, but he sure as shit never needed to see her hateful face again.”

“And Lachlan?” I prompted, and she gave a sly smile.

“We’re not sure. He seemed to escape untouched, but he knew she’d be tracking him down. Ain’t no way she was letting him—out of all of them—leave her. Not her strongest. It’s no surprise he’s in hiding, really.” She sniffed and pursed her lips again. “But that is why I feel the way I do. She is a selfish, murderous, two-faced harlot who deserves to rot in hell for what she did to my boy.”

“Thank you for telling us,” I responded politely, seeing she was clearly done with us as she picked up her cane and levered herself from the seat. “We appreciate the insight.”

Granny Winter huffed a noise and scowled down at us both.

“See that you make her pay whenever you catch up to her.”

“We will,” Caleb confirmed, and we made our way out of the house.

We’d come to Harrow to find some answers, and although they weren’t exactly what we’d hoped for, I had no doubt the answers we’d received would come in useful sooner or later.

“Let’s get back,” I told Caleb as we walked back out into the street. “We’ve probably already missed Kit’s call, but just in case…”

“You got it, Alpha,” he replied and opened the portal to take us home.

Home.

I couldn’t wait to see what our girl thought of our new home…

12

KIT

Nurses came and went over the next day, checking my vitals and providing me with oxygen, but it was all a hazy blur. It was pretty clear to me that my healing was on the fritz, just the same as my magic, but I couldn’t bring myself to give a shit.

Wesley was dead. What else even mattered?

“Hon,” a young nurse said softly, laying a gentle hand on my arm. “How are you feeling? Your throat is probably going to be sore for a couple of days as the doctors needed to intubate your trachea when you came in, but your airways weren’t compromised. You’re okay to go home now. The doctors have given you the all clear.”

I blinked up at her, hearing her words but just not comprehending what they meant for me. What would I do now? Where would I go? I couldn’t just… go home. It felt wrong on so many levels.

I touched a hand to my throat. It didn’t feel sore, but who the hell cared? My whole damn body was so numb it wouldn’t make a difference.

“Is there someone we can call for you?” the nurse offered, and I nodded automatically.

“Yes,” I croaked, my voice husky from the smoke I’d inhaled. “My…” I trailed off. In this age of mobile phones, I just never really bothered memorizing numbers any more. I had no idea where my own phone had ended up, but without it I didn’t have contact details for any of the guys.

There were only two numbers I knew by heart.

“Can I use a phone?” I asked, hoping to make the calls myself, just in case the first one didn’t pan out.

The nurse chewed her lip, then nodded. She disappeared back out of my curtained cubicle, then returned moments later with a cordless landline.

“Just dial 0 to get out and don’t forget the country code,” she whispered to me, looking like she was doing something illegal. “I can give you a couple of minutes, okay?”

“Sure,” I murmured. “Thanks.”

Giving me a short nod, she left and pulled the curtain closed behind her, leaving me wondering why it was such a big deal for me to make my own calls. Weird.

Quickly I tapped in the first number I’d ever memorized and placed it to my ear. It rang a few times as I picked at my scratchy blanket, then sadly went to voicemail.

“Hey Luce,” I croaked after the beep. “I...” I had no idea what to say next. This was our emergency line which we hadn’t used in years and she might not check it for weeks, so there was no point asking her to come get me. I couldn’t bring myself to tell her about Wesley either, so instead I just sucked in a breath and started again. “I just wanted to call and see how you were doing. Anyway, I’ll try your cell when I get back from Ireland.” My voice cracked with tears as I said this, knowing I’d be returning alone. Instead of sitting there crying down the phone to my best friend’s voicemail, I disconnected the call and wiped my face on the blanket.

There was one other number I knew I could call, but for a moment I debated if I might be better off just going it alone. Somehow my wallet and phone had disappeared into the fire, and my fake passport had been in the now destroyed rental car... but I still might be better off alone.

I drummed my fingertips against the phone a couple of times while I thought. In the end, I dialed the damn number and held it to my ear while holding my breath. It rang three times before I lost my nerve and went to disconnect the call, but just as my thumb brushed the end-call button, he answered.

“Kit? What’s wrong?” The sound of my adoptive father’s voice made me freeze, and I felt the steady track of silent tears rolling down my cheeks. I couldn’t speak. Hearing his voice brought back the memories of our last meeting, which had ended in a high-speed chase through Los Angeles while being shot at. Of course, he already knew it was me, despite calling from an unknown hospital in Ireland. I was the only one with that number.

“Kit, hon,” Jonathan sucked in a breath, then released it in a sigh. “I promise you I had nothing to do with those agents chasing you in LA. They weren’t Omega.”

It was what I’d suspected, but hearing him confirm it for me was like massive weight lifted from my shoulders. Especially now.

“You still tried to blow us up,” I said in a croaky whisper, but he heard me anyway.

“Well, yeah. But I can explain if you’ll let me.” His voice was pleading, and I said nothing. I wanted him to have a good explanation. The idea that my adoptive father had betrayed me was almost too much to accept, and I needed some sort of closure from him. Hopefully he’d have a really great reason why he tried to blow us up, then crashed our car.

“Hon, you called the emergency line. Are you okay? You don’t sound like yourself.” His question was gentle and full of concern, which sent more tears rolling down my face. I needed him to ruffle my hair and tell me to keep my chin up. He was the closest thing I had to a parent... and I really needed him.

“No,” I sniffed. “I need help.”

“Anything, little fox. What do you need?” It was the perfect response, and my cold heart warmed just a fraction.

“I just...” I paused to clear my throat. “I need you to get a message to River for me. I don’t have my phone or my wallet or...” I trailed off as my throat thickened with tears again. “Can you do that?”

“Kit,” Jonathan sounded pained, “I can try and send an encrypted message for Wesley to intercept again—”

“No,” I cut him off. “That won’t... I mean, he c-can’t...” Words failed me, and I needed to move the phone away from my face while I sobbed for a moment.

“Okay, something is really wrong. I’m coming to get you, okay?” My adoptive dad had his no-nonsense voice on, but really, I didn’t want to argue with him.

“Okay,” I squeaked back, sniffing. “They’re discharging me today, so I’ll go back to the guest house to get my—our—things.” The nurse twitched the curtain aside and gave me a clear hurry-up look, so I quickly rattled off the name and address of where Wes and I had been staying.

“Got it,” Jonathan confirmed. “I’ll take the jet and be there in twelve hours. Just hang tight, hon. I’m coming.”

When the call disconnected, the most dreadful sense of hope invaded me. Despite the fact that my soul was dying inside and every mention or thought of Wesley felt like a hot knife slicing through my flesh, my dad might not be the asshole I thought he was.

“Thanks,” I whispered, handing the phone back to the nurse. “Is it possible to get a ride back to where I’m staying? The cops said my purse was lost in the fire, so I’m a bit stuck.”

She gave me a pitying smile and nodded. “My shift ends in twenty minutes; I can drop you off on my way home.”

“No.” I shook my head. “You don’t need to do that. I just meant if I could get a taxi or something and then pay when we get there.” I was pretty sure I still had some euros sitting on the bedside table that had been pulled out of my pocket at some point.

“It’s no bother.” She smiled with warmth. “I live in the next village anyway. How about you get dressed and I’ll come back and get you when I’m done?”

She didn’t wait for me to answer before disappearing again and leaving me to change into my smoke-heavy clothes once more. I cringed a bit pulling on my soot-crusted jeans, but was fully clothed and sitting on the edge of the bed when she returned for me.

On the drive back to the village, she made a few attempts at polite conversation, but when I barely responded, she gave up and we drove in silence. Pulling up in front of the guesthouse where I’d been staying, I murmured thanks and opened my door to get out.

“Wait.” She laid a hand on my arm. “I just wanted to say I’m really sorry about your friend.” She paused, chewing her lip. “But you might want to get out of Ireland pretty quick. I overheard those gardaí talking earlier about finding a reason to hold you for questioning. This area, it’s not exactly known for the most honest law enforcement, if you catch my drift?”

Nodding my understanding, I gave her a bitter smile. “I know all too well. Thank you for telling me.”

Closing the car door firmly behind me, I needed to swallow the huge lump in my throat before I could bring myself to step foot back into the guest house. Was I really ready to re-enter into the room I’d shared with Wes for the past week? Where we had left the sheets still rumpled yesterday morning when we left... when he was so excited to learn more about his magic.

The answer was a resounding no. But I couldn’t just stand outside all night, so I pulled up my metaphorical big girl panties and took a deep breath before knocking on the owner’s door. I needed a spare key to get back into our room. After that... well I’d deal with it when I got there.

13

I barely remembered much past that point. Not Jonathan arriving or him scooping me up from the puddle of emotion I had collapsed into upon entering the room full of memories. Everything reminded me of Wesley. His clothes crumpled on the chair. The pillows smelled of his shampoo. It was all too much.

The flight back to Seattle was a blur. Either I was asleep or I was staring blankly out the window. Every now and then I felt Tyson and Sam trying to communicate with me, but I was so far lost inside my own head their message just wasn’t getting through, and eventually they gave up.

“Kit?” Jonathan crouched in front of me, his brow creased with worry. “Can I get you something to eat or drink? You’ve been sitting here for hours.”

The fuzz in my brain made it hard for his words to sink in, but I gave him a small headshake. I wasn’t hungry; I was just in pain. We’d gotten back to Jonathan’s house sometime before. Ever since we’d arrived, I had been sitting in the egg chair on the balcony and staring out at the pond in the backyard.

He crouched there, frowning at me for a while before sighing and leaving. He didn’t press me to talk, for which I loved him. Chances were, someone had filled him in on what had happened. Probably the guest house owner.

Eventually it got dark, so I shuffled back inside and lay down on the bed. I’d never been to this house of Jonathan’s before but wasn’t exactly in the mood to explore. I just... wanted to sleep.

This continued for several days, until one morning Jonathan came in and threw open the curtains of my room, waking me from the weird half sleep I’d been in for fuck only knew how long.

“Get up,” he ordered. “I’ve given you time; now I want to show you something.”

“Leave me alone,” I muttered, dragging the pillow over my face. “I need sleep.”

“Bullshit,” he snorted, yanking the blankets off me. “You’ve had more sleep than a hibernating bear. Now, get up. Come as you are if you want. Doesn’t bother me.”

I glared up at him, then glanced down to check what I was wearing. Sweatpants and one of Wesley’s hoodies. No way I was taking that off, so it’d have to do.

“Fine,” I muttered, pushing my ratty hair out of my face and swinging my legs over the side of the bed. Several days without eating had left me lightheaded, so it took a moment for me to get my balance before standing up. “What do you want to show me?”

“Through here,” he said, holding a door open to what looked like an office-type setup, except with multiple screens displayed on one wall. They were all off, but as we entered the room, Jonathan hit a button, turning them all on.

“What’s this?” I asked, stepping a little closer to see what was on the screens. They were security cameras or spy cameras by the look of things. Each one showed a different scene. Some were empty rooms, some had people in them... none of them made sense to me.

“I’ll show you,” my legal guardian said, pulling out a chair for me to sit in, and then he placed a large mug of coffee down in front of me.

I glanced at it for a moment, then pushed it aside to focus on what Jonathan was doing.

He frowned at me and at the rejected mug, then used a remote to bring up an older recording on one of the screens. When it played, it was a scene I was a little familiar with. A cage fight. Except...

“Are those shifters?” I exclaimed as one of the fighters swiped at his opponent with clawed hands. While I watched, his face began morphing too, until he was half man, half wolf.

“Unfortunately, yes.” Jonathan paused the footage on the horrified face of the wolf-man’s opponent. “Worse still. This guy was human.”

“Was?” I repeated, blinking up at him in horror. I’d known about shifter fight rings; Vali and Cole had been researching them. But I had no idea they’d been fighting against unsuspecting humans.

“Was,” Jonathan confirmed. “He loses this match, and it seems these fights are to the death. There were three hundred people in attendance at that particular fight, and most of them had their phones out to film the action. This particular recording had already hit four million views on YouTube before being taken down for questionable content.”

“No shit,” I breathed, still horrified. “Cole and Vali are looking into these fight rings, but they never mentioned humans being killed.”

Jonathan shrugged. “They might not know. There are a few different organizations running these things, and they all do it differently. Their goal is being achieved though.”

Rubbing the bridge of my nose, I stared at the paused footage. “Which is?”

“Panic,” Jonathan replied. “They’re outing supernaturals, and the humans are responding exactly as expected—they’re panicking.”

“To what end?” I puzzled. “What good can possibly come from causing widespread hysteria that the boogeyman is real?”

Jonathan sighed and sat down on the bench under the window, facing me. “There is a war coming, Kit. Whether you like it or not. Those supernaturals that survived the plague, they’re bitter and angry. They’re sick of hiding in the shadows and curbing their instincts. So when someone offers them an alternative—power—it was an all too easy choice for them to take.”

“So.” I frowned, screwing my eyes shut and trying to clear my head of the fuzz of depression and misery. “So someone wants to take over the world, and they’re riling up the shifters to what? Become an army? Enslave the humans?”

“Something like that.” Dad grimaced. “A lot of supernaturals truly believe they are a superior species and that the humans have had this world long enough.”

“And you? Is that what you believe, too? You must be something other than human, or else why do you know all this? Why were you trying to manipulate me into healing people’s magic?” I chewed my lip, not really wanting to hear his answer yet also anxious for the truth.

“No.” He said the word firmly and with direct eye contact. “No, it’s not. And I am still human, of sorts. But I know that if you, Kit, have any hope of saving this world, you need your own army to fight what’s coming. That means creating one.”

“So that’s what you’re doing? Creating an army for me? Why? What if I don’t want to save the world? I couldn’t even s-save Wesley.” Tears were rolling again, but this wasn’t the time or the place, so I dashed them away with the sleeve of Wesley’s hoodie.

“You have to, hon.” Jonathan said it gently, but there was no room for compromise in his tone. “You’re the only one who can.”

Clenching my jaw, I swallowed the fear and desperation and sheer hopelessness down. Here I was being told that I needed to save the fucking world, like I was some sort of Chosen One. As much as it hurt, my grief wasn’t going anywhere. I’d simply tuck it into a little box inside my mind, and later, when all was safe and I was alone, I could take it out and cry again.

“So what are you?” I changed the subject to a question that had been burning for an answer ever since River and I overheard Jonathan discussing my magic.

“Human,” he shrugged with a half smile. “Or, I was. Now I’m just... a relic. I should have died a long time ago, but my sister couldn’t bear to lose me so she did a spell. Trouble was, she always had great intentions but terrible execution, so instead of simply healing my tuberculosis, she made it so I couldn’t die. Not of natural causes anyway.”

“You’re immortal, too?” I gaped, not totally sure what I’d been expecting, but it hadn’t been that.

“No,” he chuckled. “Not like you. I don’t heal, and I have no magic. I’m totally human, except unaffected by illness, including those of aging.”

“So your sister...” I raised my eyebrows at him in question, and he nodded.

“Wasn’t human. Story for another day, though.” He gave me a tight smile, then nodded to the screens on his wall. “For now, you need to understand what you’re up against. Those agents who chased you in LA were employed by a man named Doctor Gunther Florsheim. He works for a less-than-legal branch of the government and has been creating some sort of serum to try and enhance their soldiers.”

I grimaced. “That must be the weasel who took a vial of my blood in Toronto. So he’s the one behind these videos hitting the internet, too?”

“No. Unfortunately, that’s someone else. There are three factions at play here, kiddo. The humans like this Dr. Florsheim, the remaining supernaturals, and you. Please believe me when I say you need help. I started Omega Group after a friend of mine developed a way to test for dormant supernatural DNA in humans. All of my recruits have a high percentage of that gene within them and so stand the highest chances of turning when healed.”

“And what about them? Do they have any say in this, or is it just forced on them like guinea pigs? Do you have any comprehension of what it could do to them? To suddenly not be human anymore? You have no clue how hard it’s been for my guardians to adjust, and they were your best damn recruits.” I was getting fired up now, but he needed to answer for his actions.

“Everyone you healed at Omega base was a willing recruit. They knew what was going to happen and volunteered for it. They want to fight for you, Kit. For the good of this world.” He spoke with such passion I knew there had to be more that he wasn’t telling me. What made him so confident that the world was doomed without my intervention?

“I think I need a minute,” I muttered, rubbing my gritty eyes. “I’m going to take a shower or something.”

“Probably a good idea,” Jonathan nodded. “You stink pretty bad. I’ll order some pizzas, too, so you can eat when you’re done.”

The information he’d just hit me with weighed on me like a ton of bricks, so I just waved my hand in understanding and started toward the door before pausing. Not giving myself another moment to dwell on indecision, I grabbed the mug of coffee from the desk and made my way back to the room I’d been holed up in for the past few days.

My pain and grief were safely stuffed into a little mental box, and my walls were all still firmly in place around my mind. Not that I didn’t want the guys to feel me... but I couldn’t face the idea of not feeling Wesley there. It was just better to keep the walls up for now.

After a long shower, I dressed in clean clothes, then hunted out another one of Wesley’s pullovers. I might have been compartmentalizing my grief, but I still wanted to feel him close.

“Pepperoni with extra cheese!” Jonathan announced as I padded into the kitchen on socked feet. Not that it needed announcing; the smell alone was making my starved stomach weep with joy.

“Thanks,” I murmured, taking the plate loaded with slices from him and sitting down on a kitchen stool. “I’ll try and get in touch with the guys tomorrow... somehow. They need to know what’s going on, too.”

“Agreed.” He took a bite of his own slice as he sat across the counter from me. “Then maybe you would consider speaking with some of the Omega recruits who have volunteered to be changed.”

“Maybe.” I shrugged. “But it won’t do much good right now. I have no magic thanks to this.” I held up my wrist to show him the gold band responsible for my loss of magic. “Gift from my bio-mom.”

“Bridget,” Jonathan spat, inspecting the band with disgust then releasing my wrist. “That bitch. I knew she’d find you sooner or later.”

My eyebrows shot up. “You know her?”

“We’ve met.” His mouth twisted in disgust. “Don’t fall for her bullshit, kiddo. I can just bet she pulled some sob story to have you think she was the victim, that she gave you up for your own good.” I gaped at him, nodding. “Load of shit. You want the truth, find Lachlan. He’s the only one of her guardians that escaped her binding spell when things went south between the four of them.”

“You can’t tell me?” I frowned. “It sounds like you know.”

He shook his head. “Not enough. It’s another story for another day anyway. You’ve had enough dumped on your plate for one night. Just don’t trust her any further than you can throw her.”

“Noted,” I agreed. “This little gem that she gave me sort of decided that already, you know?”

“Yeah, I can imagine. No magic, huh?” He crinkled his nose. “Want to tell me that story?”

“Story for another day,” I teased, repeating his own crap back at him, and he grinned.

“Touché,” he chuckled. “All right, will you be okay if I head out for a bit? International secret operative organization to run, and all that.”

“Uh-huh.” I rolled my eyes at him. “I’ll be fine. I’m going to go to bed now anyway.”

“All right.” He wiped his hands off on a dish towel, then dropped a quick kiss on my head. “Call if you need me.” He pulled a mobile phone from one of the drawers and placed it on the counter in front of me before he left.

Alone in the silence, I finished up my pizza, then wandered through the house. I wasn’t actually tired yet, so instead of going to bed, I parked myself on the couch to watch TV for a bit. As I sat there mindlessly watching a rom-com chick flick that Wes would have loved, my fingers stroked my newest tattoo.

The little depiction of Sam and Tyson tussling together was so lifelike, almost like they were glaring at me from my skin.

“We are, dipshit,” Sam’s hiss reached the surface of my brain, and I startled. I’d been so lost in my own head that I’d completely forgotten they could talk to me even while “sleeping.”

“Let us the fuck out so we can save your sorry ass, you mopey twit,” Sam snapped at me, his s’s elongated even more in his foul mood.

“I don’t see how you’re going to manage that, but suit yourself.” I traced my forefinger over the tattoo, activating the spell within it and allowing both familiars to materialize. Sam just hissed at me and went to curl up on the other end of the couch while Tyson was much happier to see me and said as much in licks all over my face.

“Hey buddy,” I chuckled, pushing him off to save myself from drowning in tiger spit. “Let’s go check the kitchen for some steaks or something.”

Tyson eagerly bounded off the couch to follow me as Sam yelled after us, “I would also like a snack if you see a mouse on your way!”

“Gross.” I shuddered, leading Tyson into the kitchen, then rifling through the fridge for steak. “No steak, buddy, but there are some sausages. Will that do?”

The big cat bobbed his head and conveyed a resounding yes through our bond, so I grabbed the plate and headed back to the TV room to place it on the coffee table. As I sat back down, Sam gave a loud, fake cough, which just sounded straight-up odd coming from a giant snake.

“What?” I asked him, and he flickered his tongue at me.

“Mouse?” he prompted, and I narrowed my eyes at him.

“Hunt your own mouse, you lazy ass,” I snapped back. “Why did you want out so badly anyway?”

“Because the not-so-stupid Ink Mage added a tracking device into your familiar tattoo,” Sam explained. “But it only works if we’re active. By letting us out to watch TV with you, you’ve alerted the rest of your fools that you’re no longer in Ireland. They’ll be worried that you haven’t been answering your phone and, ergo, will come to investigate.” He paused, glaring at me with his slitted eyes. “Am I honestly the only one who uses my brain anymore? I’m not even a real snake, for fuck’s sake.”

“Oh,” I said, feeling sufficiently stupid. That was actually a smart idea of Austin to do that. It was only my own self-pity that had stopped it from working sooner.

“‘Oh’ is right, you moron,” Sam grunted, slithering off his seat. “I’m going to find my own snacks. Yell for me when the Mages turn up.”

“Asshole,” I murmured, watching his green-and-black tail disappear out the door. Tyson huffed his agreement as he munched happily on his sausages.

He’d barely finished licking his plate when my ears popped with the unmistakable pressure of a portal opening nearby. I didn’t move from the couch as I heard Caleb calling out my name from the back garden, then the heavy tread of men’s footsteps coming inside.

“Kitty Kat!” he exclaimed, coming into the media room with Austin close behind, and rushing towards me. “Thank fuck you’re okay! We’ve been looking for you for freaking days; do you know how worried you had us?”

His arms wrapped tight around me, and he shifted to lift me into his lap so he could hug me tighter. For my part... I did nothing. I couldn’t hug him back; it just felt wrong. The last person I’d hugged was Wes. And now he was dead.

“Kitty Kat?” Caleb asked, his voice full of concern as he pulled back to look at my face with a frown. “Are you okay?”

My lips pulled up in a tight smile, almost like they were making an independent action, but I couldn’t bring myself to say the words he wanted to hear—that yes, I was okay because I was here and not a burned out skeleton in some morgue in Ireland. Because I wasn’t okay. My soul felt like it had been smashed into a million little pieces, then swept up into a shoebox.

“Give her to me,” Austin ordered his twin, placing his strong hands on my waist and lifting me from Caleb’s lap to stand in front of him. Once my feet were on the ground, he tilted my chin up so that he could peer into my eyes. Whatever he saw there made him grunt and tighten his lips.

“Come on,” Austin said to his brother. He then snapped his fingers to Tyson, who rubbed his big head against his hand affectionately. “Let’s get her back to the house and call the others.”

“No,” I said in a small voice, shaking my head. “I can’t just disappear on Jonathan.”

Austin’s jaw tightened and his nostrils flared with anger, so I knew I needed to explain quickly. “He didn’t set us up in LA. That was someone else. He really is trying to do the right thing; he’s just been going about it the wrong way.”

Caleb trailed a gentle hand down my hair, even as Austin narrowed his eyes at me suspiciously, but neither of them spoke to contradict me.

“Kitty Kat, you’re... acting a bit odd,” Caleb said after a tense silence. “I mean, given the circumstances...” He trailed off, and I turned to look at him closer. His eyes were bloodshot, and there were dark circles under them, same as Austin’s. Both of them were scruffy, like they hadn’t bothered to shave in a few days, and their clothes were rumpled.

“You know about—” I broke off as a lump blocked my throat, and I swallowed past it. Avoiding my emotions or not, I wasn’t ready to say Wesley’s name. “You know what happened, then,” I whispered, and he gave me a tiny nod.

“She’s compartmentalized,” Sam explained for me, slithering back into the room with a noticeable bulge in his... neck? Did snakes even have necks? “She’s shoved all those nasty feelings under the rug so she doesn’t have to feel them. Nifty trick, I reckon. Even if she is still a dipshit for taking this long to activate the tracker.”

I scowled at Sam. “You never told me about the tracker, you shithead, and what the fuck did you just eat? That is not a mouse.”

“Trash panda,” he replied with a happy tongue flicker. “Found him in the garbage cans, all juicy and fat. Delicious.” The way he stressed the s sound in “delicious” was equal parts revolting and amusing, so I just settled for bopping him lightly on the head.

“Raccoons are cute, Sam. Don’t eat any more of them.” I gave him a stern look to convey that I wasn’t teasing, and he flickered his tongue in that distinctive, middle-finger sort of way he had.

“Come on, we need to get back. Can we leave Jonathan a note?” Austin asked me as Caleb held out his arm for Sam to return into his familiar tattoo. How he fit back into the ink while still digesting a fucking racoon, I had no idea. Magic, I guess.

“I’ll call him,” I murmured, wandering back into the kitchen to grab the phone my adoptive father had left out for me. Propping my butt on a barstool, I pressed his contact and waited for him to pick up.

“Kiddo!” he answered on the third ring. “Are you okay?”

“Yup, all good. Just, the twins are here and want me to leave with them. I didn’t want to up and disappear on you.” I picked up a pen and idly started doodling on the back on an envelope. “You said you wanted to show me what you’ve been doing...”

“Hon,” Jonathan replied, and I could hear the warmth in his voice. “Go with the boys. You need to be with them right now. This can all wait a few days. Goddess knows it’s waited four centuries already, so yeah a few days won’t matter.”

It wasn’t the first time Jonathan had referred to the Goddess, but it was the first time it triggered a little curiosity in me. Was that a carry-over from whatever time he was born into? Or some other knowledge he had of this world that I wasn’t privy to?

“I don’t know,” I murmured, my voice uncertain and just... not me. “Maybe I should stay. You said there is a war coming, so surely I need to know everything you do.”

“Kit,” he sighed. “Avoiding your bonded guardians won’t make the pain go away. They’re the only ones who can help you through this tough time. Go with them; let them take care of you. The world won’t end tomorrow just because you took some time to grieve.”

I said nothing for a long time as everything I tried to say got stuck in my throat. Eventually I just landed on, “Okay.”

“Okay,” he repeated softly. “Take that phone with you so we can stay it touch, all right, kiddo? I’ve missed you.”

“All right,” I repeated, not really sure what else to say.

Voices sounded in the background, and Jonathan murmured something back to them. “Hey kiddo, I have to go. Take the phone, but go with the twins. I’ll call you tomorrow, okay?”

“Uh-huh,” I whispered, feeling a fat tear roll down my face, and quickly disconnected before he could say anything else. My little emotion compartment was weak at best and couldn’t have withstood much more.

I sat there for a moment longer, picking at the edges of the phone with my fingernail, before Austin cleared his throat and made me jump.

“Shit,” I breathed, feeling my heart gallop. “I didn’t notice you there.”

He narrowed his eyes at me. “Evidently not. Cal’s gone to grab your bag. Are you ready to go?”

“Yeah,” I nodded, sliding off my stool and shoving the phone into my pocket. “Yeah, let’s go.”

As I moved to pass him in the doorway, he slipped a hand onto my lower back and left it there as we headed through the house to the backyard. Don’t ask me why we always went outside to portal. It wasn’t like we couldn’t do it inside. It just felt... rude, I guess.

Caleb was already waiting on the grass, holding my suitcase, but my step faltered as I tried to walk toward him. It was taking all the frayed self-control I possessed just to keep it together around the twins. What was it going to be like with Cole, Vali, and River as well?

“You got this, baby girl,” Austin murmured softly in my ear, his hand warm on my back. “One step at a time. I’m here to catch you.”

My teeth clenched my lower lip hard enough to draw blood, but I took that next step and the one after that, and soon I was touching distance from Caleb. He didn’t waste time asking stupid questions; instead he flicked out the droplet of blood that called up his rune circle.

Light flared, and when it faded, we were on the grass outside a beautiful, colonial-style, two-story house. It had ivy creeping up the walls and seemed to be completely surrounded by trees, at least as far as I could see.

“Where are we?” I asked the twins, and it was Caleb who answered as he led the way to the duck egg–blue front door.

“Home,” he said simply, turning to give me a sad smile and holding the door open. “Welcome home, Kitty Kat.”

Vaguely I remembered River mentioning to me that he’d bought us a house. Us. As in all of us. I couldn’t reply to Caleb, not without turning into a blubbering mess, so I just nodded and entered the house.

It was gorgeous, exactly what I would have dreamed of if I’d ever thought that far into my future. It made me realize how little I really did think about the future. Maybe because I’d spent so many years as a thief? I’d always just figured I’d die before ever getting things like a house... and pets—not that I ever imagined I would get a snake and a tiger before a puppy.

Now, though, I was staring down eternity. Without Wes.

In a room off the entry hall, I could hear men’s voices and assumed the other guys were home. I wasn’t ready to see them. Not yet. “I think I might take a shower,” I said quietly, glancing up the grand staircase. “Can you show me where to go?”

The twins exchanged seriously unsubtle glances with one another before Caleb nodded and led the way upstairs, carrying my suitcase. He took me to a set of doubles doors at the end of the hall, which he opened for me, revealing a huge bedroom. The bed was enormous and tastefully decorated in soft purples and blues, as was the rest of the room.

“This is your room,” he told me, placing my suitcase down near the bed. “There’s an ensuite bathroom through that door”—he pointed to one of the doors leading off the bedroom—“and it’s all stocked up with towels and products and stuff. I’ll let the guys know you’ll be down when you’re ready, okay?” I nodded and resisted the urge to lean into him as he hugged me tight, kissing the top of my hair. “I love you, Kitty Kat. I’m glad you’re home.”

I didn’t reply, but he didn’t seem to need one. Instead he placed a soft kiss on my cheek, then left the room, closing the door behind him.

Wandering through to the bathroom, I stripped off my clothes and placed my new phone on the vanity. Maybe after my shower I could try Lucy again. It had been way too long since we’d spoken, and I was way overdue for some girl time.

In the meantime, I needed to get a fucking grip on myself. The pain of Wesley’s death was too raw to deal with, and if what Jonathan had told me was true, then I needed all my wits about me. Crying, moping, grieving... these things weren’t going to help me save the freaking world. If, in fact, that was the task I had been born to do. I was still having a hard time wrapping my head around that idea, but considering everything else that had happened lately, it really wasn’t that much of a stretch.

“Compartmentalize,” I muttered to myself as I turned on the water and stepped under the spray. “There will be a time and a place for grief, but not until we are all safe.”

It was hard, but I also needed to remember the guys who were waiting downstairs for me. I’d dragged them into this mess. I couldn’t just abandon them now to wallow in self-pity.

No, I needed a plan. Jonathan thought I needed an army, which meant that whoever was on the other side already had one of their own. Clearly someone was working with the few supernaturals who had survived the plague four hundred years ago, and then there was that crazy fucking doctor working on enhancing humans. What a shit show.

First thing, I needed my damn magic back!

Resolute, I turned off the shower and stepped out to dry off. Emotions were a burden I couldn’t afford to carry, so they could take a backseat for now. I had a Ban Dia to hunt down, and a bracelet to get removed.

“Kitten,” River’s voice made me pause in the doorway as I toweled my hair dry. He was sitting on the end of my bed and looking rough.

“River,” I replied in a voice that almost startled even myself. It was cold... detached. But exactly what I needed it to be. “I have some information regarding those shifter fights Cole and Vali were checking out. I’ll just get dressed, and we can discuss it with everyone.”

His dark blond brows rose in surprise, and he stared at me for a long time before speaking. “Kit... that’s the first bloody thing you say to me? We thought you were, well maybe not dead because it’s you, but...” He trailed off and scrubbed his hands over his face. “We were worried as shit, and then we find out that Wes—”

“Sorry,” I quickly cut him off before he could say any more. “I apologize that you were worried, but I’m here now and we have a lot more to deal with.”

Meeting his golden eyes with a direct gaze, I tried to convey that the conversation was over. Rehashing the details of Wesley’s death wouldn’t help any of us now, so why bother?

“I will be down in a few minutes. You can go.” Clutching my towel tight around my body, I looked pointedly to the door.

River, usually so stoic and expressionless, looked almost shocked, but it was for the best. The fate of the freaking world was at stake, and so fucking help me, I would do everything within my power to help.

He gave me a tight nod and left the room with a crispness to his walk, radiating how pissed off he was. Dimly I wondered when I had started being able to read his body language so clearly. It hadn’t been all that long ago that he’d been a total closed book to me. So what had changed? Him or me?

“Irrelevant train of thought, Kit,” I muttered to myself as I checked the closet. Someone had already stocked it up on clothes for me, so it didn’t take long to find some jeans and a plain black tank top.

I dressed quickly, then threw Wesley’s hoody back over the top before wandering downstairs in the direction I could hear voices coming from. Normally, I’d have paused in the hall and listened to what they were saying before entering, but I didn’t care.

“Good, you’re all here, then,” I said by way of announcing my presence in the room. “That makes things easier.”

“Vixen,” Cole greeted me, pushing back from the table they’d been sitting at and stalking toward me like a hungry dragon spotting a chest of gold. When he reached me, he swept me up in a crushing hug that took my feet clean off the ground. A hug I didn’t reciprocate.

“Let her down,” Vali told his brother from close behind him. “Can’t you see she doesn’t want to be touched right now?”

“That’s fucking stupid,” Cole growled, but did set me back down on my feet to peer into my face. “Are you okay, Vixen?”

“Fine, Cole,” I replied with a tight smile. Whatever he saw in my face had him backing off reluctantly, and I accepted the cup of coffee Vali held out to me. “So, I wanted to fill you in on what I learned from Jonathan.”

“Straight into it then, huh?” Caleb muttered, stirring his own coffee. “Fair enough. Have a seat and tell us what you know.”

Sucking in a deep breath, I did as he suggested and perched on the edge of a vacant seat at the huge circular table. Whoever had decorated the house had a real eye for details; a round table ensured everyone could easily see one another. Sort of perfect when a girl was dating six—five—guys at the same time.

Coffee helped, and soon I was laying down the facts of our situation as I now knew them.

It was important they knew. Important they understood what was at stake, and what we needed to do about it all... starting with getting my magic back. Without that, I was worse than useless. I was a liability.

14

My teeth ground together so hard I could hear them, and I resisted the urge to strangle someone. I wasn’t totally sure who might be my victim, but someone was going to wind up with my hands around his neck if the guys didn’t stop giving me excuses.

“What do you mean, you can’t find her?” I demanded, “You’re supposed to be the strongest Mages in the entire freaking world, yet you can’t find one woman?”

“If it were just a woman, we wouldn’t be having these issues,” Austin replied with a snap in his tone, suggesting he, too, was thinking about strangling someone. Probably me. “But she’s not. She’s a Ban Dia who has had several centuries of perfecting her magic. So it’s really not all that surprising she’s managing to hide from us.”

“Tell me what the message said again,” I ordered. Not that I didn’t already have it memorized, since we’d received it several days ago.

“Why?” Sam hissed, slithering into the room. “Did you lose your memory as well as your magic? Sounds like something a moron would manage to do.”

“Sam, I swear to magic, if you call me a moron one more time, I will take up taxidermy and mount your scaly ass on the wall. Is that what you want?” I glared at him, and the fucker held my gaze without blinking. Not that snakes really needed to...

“Sam, quit it,” Caleb snapped. “Go hunting for mice in the forest or something.”

Sam hissed a fuck you in my direction but did as Caleb told him, slithering his way out the back door and into the grass. Our “backyard” was massive; he was probably going to end up in a food coma from all the wildlife he’d find out there.

“Look, I’ll head back to the hotel and see what they have to say,” Caleb offered, rubbing his tired eyes. “Again.”

He followed Sam outside and had disappeared in a rune portal before I could call him on his snarky tone, which just left me to yell at Austin instead. The other guys were all out on various missions I had selected for them because I just couldn’t handle the lack of progress we were making on finding Bridget. She was the only one who could get the fucking bracelet off me, and until that happened, I was dead weight.

Without my magic, I couldn’t heal anyone else. I couldn’t create this army that Jonathan was so sure I needed; I couldn’t even heal myself. It was because of this that River had put his foot down about me participating in active missions with the rest of them.

If it had just been River, I could have won that argument. But it was a clear five against one, and without my strength or healing, I didn’t have a leg to stand on.

“How long is this going to last for, Princess?” Austin asked me in a quiet voice, his gaze locked on the black-ink pen in his hands.

“How long is what going to last?” I snapped back, feeling fired up and bitchy. It was pretty much the only thing I was capable of feeling these days. It was either bitchy or numb.

“This,” he repeated, looking up from his pen to give me a disgusted look. “All you’ve done since we found you at Jonathan’s is shut us out and refuse to discuss anything that isn’t directly related to ‘the mission.’ The only time we see any feeling from you, it’s this snide, snappy little Princess. So I’ll ask it again, how long is this going to last? Because I’ve just about had enough of it.”

My jaw dropped, and I gaped at him while searching for the right comeback. He was right, obviously. But none of them had called me on my shit so far. They’d just let me ignore the problem and pretend it hadn’t happened. That Wesley wasn’t...

“All right, let me know when you decide. In the meantime, I’ll steer clear.” Austin shrugged and stood from the stool he’d been perched on. Still I found no words to snap back with as he left the kitchen, and I heard his heavy footsteps heading up the stairs to his room.

From what little I had bothered to explore in the house, it had been clear that the guys had totally moved in. Their bedrooms were decorated in styles that perfectly fitted their personalities, and all their belongings seemed to be here too. Not that I’d snooped much. When it had become clear that there were bedrooms for everyone... I’d stopped. I couldn’t bear the thought of accidentally stepping into Wesley’s bedroom, even if he’d never been in there himself.

Right now, though, I heard Austin slam the door to his room, and seconds later, thumping music started up.

Fuck him. I was doing the best I damn well could! How dare he make me feel like I was being some sort of... petulant child? So maybe I wasn’t acting in the way he expected me to, but I was dealing as best as I damn well could!

Feeling fired up again, I stormed up the stairs after him and slammed open his bedroom door, only to hesitate when I saw him standing there in just his boxers with a T-shirt in his hands.

“See something you like, Princess?” he challenged me, and my mouth went dry. “Or is that a silly question, seeing as you haven’t so much as touched anyone in over a week?” He tossed his T-shirt onto the dresser and stalked closer to me.

“I just...” I needed to stop and lick my lips, which were suddenly like the damn Sahara desert. “I came to tell you that you have no right speaking to me like you did downstairs.”

Austin snorted a laugh, reaching past me and pushing the door closed. Trapping me.

“You know, not so long ago you wouldn’t have put up with that at all. You wouldn’t have let me finish my sentence without a fight, even if it meant you needed to punch me in the face. Yet here you are, trembling and confused. Sure, you’re saying the right things—deep down you know what you should be saying. But you don’t feel it anymore, do you, Princess?” He edged closer, and I backed up a step to maintain some space between us.

“Feel what?” I replied, frowning and really trying to keep my gaze on his face. He was right. I hadn’t let them touch me, and I sure as shit hadn’t initiated any contact myself. It still seemed wrong. Maybe I was just scared that it would break my glass house of pain.

“Feel anything,” he answered, stepping closer still so that he was towering over me. “Even this angry bitch act you’ve got going is just that. An act. So when are you going to let the real Kit back out? Huh? What is it going to take to break through those walls you’ve put up?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I whispered. “I’m fine.”

Austin laughed a bitter sound. “Oh yeah? Prove it. Kiss me.”

“I’m not...” I scowled, looking for a way out but finding none. He had me pinned to his bedroom door and was calling me on my bullshit.

“Fine,” I growled. Rising up on my toes, I smacked a quick, lifeless kiss against his lips, then huffed. “Happy? I’m fine.”

“That was pathetic,” he sneered at me. “Why don’t you kiss me like you mean it, Princess? Or are you still pretending?”

Grinding my teeth, I narrowed my eyes at him to see if he was just pushing my buttons for the sheer fun of it. I used to be able to tell, it used to be so obvious when he just wanted a rise out of me. Now, though... it was impossible.

“Fine,” I snarled again, clenching my jaw even as I rose back up on my toes. This time, I pulled his face down to me as I pressed my lips against his, but still... fuck, he was right. I was still pretending.

“I can’t,” I admitted with a small sob, breaking away from his lips but leaving my hands on the back of his neck. “I can’t. It’s wrong.”

“Why?” he whispered back to me, his arms encircling my waist and pulling me tighter to his body. “Because of Wesley? Why do you think he would have a problem with you kissing me, Princess? He didn’t when he was alive.”

Austin’s voice cracked over that last word, and it was like a knife through my heart.

“He loved you so much, Baby Girl. Do you really think he would want to see you like this? Shoving all your pain and grief down and locking it away? Avoiding us? We love you too, and we loved him. He was a brother to us all. Did it ever cross your mind how we might be feeling?” His words were whispered in a harsh voice, thick with pain, and it was almost too much to bear.

“I can’t do this, Austin,” I replied in a small voice. “I need to get my magic back so—”

“So what? So you can save the fucking world?” His reply was bitter, and his hands clutched me tighter. “You can’t even save yourself right now, Princess. How do you expect to save the world?”

“I don’t know what else to do,” I admitted, feeling my walls start to crack. “I can’t afford to feel what I did before. People are dying out there. I can’t just curl up in a ball and cry.”

Austin made a noise of frustration, dropping his head so that our foreheads pressed together. “Maybe not forever, but can’t you just let me in for today? I promise the second you leave this room you can go back to this... robo-Kit. But just show me you’re still in there? That there is still hope of pulling my Baby Girl out of that hole?” His voice was anguished, but it was what came next that killed me. “I can’t lose you too.”

Releasing my breath in a rush, I leaned up and kissed him again. Really kissed him this time, letting him feel all the pain that Wesley’s death was causing me. More than that, there was the fear. Fear that I’d lose one of them next, and then where would I be? I couldn’t recover from that. Hell, I could barely recover from this.

“You won’t lose me, Aus,” I whispered, breaking our kiss but not moving more than a quarter inch from his lips. “I promise I’m still here.”

This time when our lips met, it wasn’t with that same bittersweet pain. This time it was burning heat and passion built off our heartbreak, a heat that I was sure would burn me before all was said and done, but I welcomed it. Anything to help me feel something other than despair.

Austin crushed me against the door, his mouth dominating mine as his hands held me tight to his body. His kiss was desperate and demanding, and I wanted nothing more than to melt in his hands and let him do whatever he wanted.

We were so far past the point of words, but we communicated flawlessly as he hoisted me up, carrying me across the room as my fingers tore at my own clothing. He was already in nothing but his boxer shorts, so I was way overdressed. That was something that I rectified fast.

By the time he’d thrown me backward onto his bed, I had already stripped off my T-shirt and bra, and it took him all of three seconds to grab hold of my sweatpants and yank them off along with my panties. Another two seconds saw his underwear join mine on the floor and my hand wrap firmly around his hardened length.

“Shit,” he moaned as I pumped him with my fingers. Shifting his weight, he returned the favor, sinking two fingers deep inside me, then withdrawing them to slick over my clit. The sensations set my whole body on fire, and I sucked in a sharp breath to keep from crying out as he sank those torturous fingers back in again.

“Austin,” I breathed, tightening my grip on him and bucking my hips against his hand. “Quit fucking around and fuck me already.”

He huffed a short laugh, nipping my neck sharply with his teeth before withdrawing his fingers and replacing them with the head of his pierced cock. “Yes, your highness,” he teased, but any response I might have given was cut short by his powerful thrust inside me.

The abrupt entry made me scream, and my fingernails dug into his powerful back hard enough to probably leave marks. Still, I wanted more.

“Shit, yes,” I hissed, wrapping my legs around his waist like an anaconda and pulling him in deeper. “Fuck me hard, Aus,” I encouraged him. “Make me hurt tomorrow.”

He grunted a sound that must have been agreement as he braced his weight and did exactly as I wanted, pounding into me so hard his headboard smacked into the wall. Waves upon waves of pleasure rolled through me. Exquisitely toe-curling, it was shattering all the walls I had built around my emotions, and I felt tears begin to slip from my eyes.

“Princess,” Austin panted, swiping a tear from my cheek and then palming one of my breasts. “Stay with me. Stay here with me. It’s just us now.”

Biting my cheek hard enough to draw blood, I nodded and swallowed down the tears. “Keep me here then, Aus,” I begged him, desperate to be in the moment with him, but unable to keep my mind from picking at those exposed wounds.

He met my eyes with his blazing green gaze, checking that I meant what I said, before giving me a short nod and pulling out of me completely.

My whimper of protest was cut short as he used his strong grip to flip me onto my belly, then haul my ass into the air so I was positioned on my knees with my face in his pillow. He didn’t immediately reenter me, but I was okay with the anticipation as he leaned over and grabbed something from his bedside table, then disappeared from view again.

Cool air breezed across my exposed cunt, and I shivered with desire, waiting for what was coming next.

“Make you feel this tomorrow, huh, Baby Girl?” he murmured in his deep, husky voice that made my nipples tighten against the comforter. “I can do that.”

Yes, yes, yes. My brain chanted encouragements, as all my mouth was capable of when I felt the warm metal of his cock piercing brush against my slick pussy was incoherent moans. Slowly, ever so slowly, he pushed back inside me, and I felt the scrape of his metal the whole way. One of his strong hands gripped my hip, pulling me back as he pushed in, setting a rhythm that was both torturous and mind-blowing at the same time.

“Austin...” I groaned, pushing back onto him harder.

“Shhh,” he whispered, and I heard the distinctive click of a bottle cap flicking open. Seconds later, cool, wet lube dripped down my crack and onto my asshole. “You said you wanted to feel it tomorrow,” he murmured, tossing the bottle of lube onto the bed and smoothing the slippery substance over my tight hole.

“Yes,” I panted, pushing back to keep his dick moving in me but also desperate for more.

His thumb massaged the lube around and then pushed inside, making me whimper with excitement. He’d teased with this before—so had Cole and River. But I had yet to take anything more than the two fingers Austin had just replaced his thumb with. Something told me that was about to change though.

“I think I need to hear you say it, Baby Girl,” he groaned, pumping his dick in time with his fingers as they stretched and lubed me in preparation. It was uncomfortable, but in the best possible way. My nerve endings were all lit up, and it was taking all the willpower I possessed not to spiral into uncontrollable orgasms right then.

I huffed a short laugh, as though my feelings on this weren’t already abundantly clear. “Austin,” I started, licking my lips to wet them as I turned my head a little to look back at him. “Please, Austin... fuck my ass.”

His lips twitched into a small smile, but his eyes flared with excitement. I knew full well that the guys didn’t keep secrets between one another; it was one of the first things River had told me, well before I became sexually involved with them. So there was a pretty good chance Austin knew he would be the first to hit this particular milestone.

Alpha-male asshole that he was, that was probably half the fun for him. Not that I fucking cared. I’d been thinking about what it would feel like ever since Cole first breached that private place with his thumb. And I’d be lying if I wasn’t dying to know what it’d feel like to have both holes filled at the same time...

“For once, Princess,” he chuckled, withdrawing his rock hard cock from my pussy and positioning the wet, pierced tip against my ass, “I’m not arguing with you.” He began to push inside, and I tensed on instinct. “Relax, Baby Girl,” he growled, tightening his grip on my ass cheek. “Let me in.”

Those simple words were so heavily weighted, meaning so much more than the literal interpretation. But he was right, and I did as instructed, forcing my body to relax and allowing him to push his way deeper inside me. At first I almost changed my mind. It hurt, but more in an uncomfortable way than anything else. Within moments, though, when my body stretched to allow this much, much bigger intruder, that pain changed to something indescribable.

“Jesus fucking Christ, Princess,” Austin panted, adjusting his grip on my cheeks and shifting his weight behind me. “Are you okay?”

“Uh-huh,” I groaned, arching my back a little to make him move. “Now fuck me, dammit.”

He snorted a laugh, but did as he was told. Starting slowly, he gave me a few, almost warning thrusts, which I met with enthusiasm, pushing back onto him and moaning like some sort of professional. Anal wasn’t something I’d ever thought I’d be into before, but this was next level.

“Something tells me you like this,” Austin murmured as he thrust in and out of me with the assistance of all the lube he’d prepped me with. One of his hands left my butt and slipped down between my legs, pumping into my pussy a couple of times and then circling my clit with teasing strokes. Close, but not quite touching.

“Austin,” I begged, grabbing handfuls of the quilt and trying not to lose my freaking mind. “I’m so fucking close.”

“I know,” he replied, pumping his fingers back inside my pussy and making me scream as he stroked over my G-spot.

That was it, I was done.

My orgasm crashed through my body with a force that left my knees shaking and my throat raw from screaming.

“Baby...” Austin groaned as my body trembled with the aftershocks. “I can’t hold out much longer.”

“So don’t,” I replied. “Come for me, Aus.”

“Fuck,” he cursed, grabbing hold of my hips once more and increasing his pace to something I knew I’d be feeling tomorrow. Shit, as if I could ever forget this.

When he came, it was violent and passionate, ending with him collapsed on top of me and both of us a sweaty, gasping mess.

We lay there like that for what felt like an eternity. Austin’s tattooed arms curled around me in a tight, possessive hug that made me feel completely safe.

Loved.

I knew my behavior had been driving everyone away; I wasn’t totally oblivious to the fact that it was tearing the team apart just as much as losing Wesley was. But I simply didn’t know any other way.

Austin had changed that though. He may not be amazing with words, but he’d told me exactly what I needed to hear in the way we’d just come together.

I wasn’t in this alone.

We needed each other more now than we ever had before. I was an idiot to think otherwise. Alone, we were each strong people. But together, we were indestructible.

15

We stayed in Austin’s room for the rest of the afternoon, moving from the bed only to shower and then return. Most of the time, we just lay there in silence, wrapped up in a bundle like we were hiding from a blizzard or something.

In a way, I guessed we were.

We’d agreed that it simply wasn’t practical to experience the “normal” grieving process, and that when we emerged from the room, then it had to be game faces on. Austin had an entire species of magical beings to co-manage, my bio-mom—who was starting to look decidedly evil—to track down, and a sect of rogue necromancers to deal with.

Me? I just had to get my magic back, create an army of newly minted supernatural beings, and then, oh yeah, save the freaking world.

So that might explain why we lingered as long as we did.

Eventually, though, the sounds of the guys arriving home filtered up to us, and we knew it was time to leave our nest.

“Hey,” I said in a quiet voice as I entered the kitchen and found Caleb helping Vali prepare dinner. Both of them looked up sharply at the sound of my voice, looking like they’d just spotted a unicorn in the wild. I could tell neither of them wanted to move or speak in case they startled me back to not talking. Or worse, being a psychotic bitch.

“Okay, I can clearly tell by the looks on your faces that I haven’t been the easiest to deal with lately,” I joked, or... tried to. It fell a bit flat, and I sighed. “Look, I just wanted to apologize. I don’t mean to shut you all out. I’m just...”

“We get it, regina,” Vali said, filling what could have turned into a seriously awkward silence. “You’re just dealing with things your way.”

Caleb put down the knife he’d been chopping vegetables with and came to wrap me in a tight, but quick, hug. “Nothing to apologise for, Kitty Kat. We’re all hurting; we just have different ways of handling it.”

Their understanding was almost too much for me to swallow. It would have been easier if they had gotten mad at me and thrown things, but that really was more my style than theirs.

“Well, anyway. I’ll try to tone down the bitchy,” I assured them, sliding onto a bar stool and peering at what they were preparing. “Looks good. What are we having?”

“Burritos,” Vali responded, throwing me a wink as he stirred the aromatic meat in his frying pan. “I love Mexican food.”

“Huh.” I cocked my head, watching him cook. “I don’t think I knew that before.”

Caleb looked past me and gave a little head nod, which told me Austin had just joined us. Sure enough, seconds later he slid onto the bar stool beside me and lay a casual hand on my leg. Like it was no big thing. Like I hadn’t been refusing everyone’s touch for a week or like he used to do affectionate things like that...

Whatever. It gave me warm fuzzies inside, even despite my little glass house of emotions being securely padlocked closed again. So I allowed it.

“Where are Cole and River?” I asked, and it was Caleb who answered me.

“Last I saw, they were out back working on the gun range.” He jerked his head to the backyard where light was rapidly falling. “They should be back in soon though. Power hasn’t been connected out there yet.”

“They’ll probably use Cole’s fire for a bit until River gets annoyed with the shadows or something,” Vali chuckled, and I cracked a small smile at that image. He glanced over at me, then put down his spoon to grab a glass out of the cupboard.

“Here,” he murmured, pouring me a small glass of red wine. “I know you’re not really a wine drinker, but I just got a shipment in from one of my wineries in Romania. Maybe you can see what you think?”

Vali owned wineries in Romania? Fuck, I really didn’t know him well at all.

“Thanks,” I said quietly, picking up the glass and smelling the wine. It smelled fruity and sweet, but when I took a sip, it was pleasantly tart. “Um, I like it,” I told him, and he beamed. “It tastes like... uh... wine.” I cringed when I heard what I’d just said. Clearly I had a long ass way to go before I became any kind of wine connoisseur. The guys all laughed though, so I shrugged and left it at that.

Cole and River came back inside just as Caleb and Vali were transporting all the food to the enormous round table. They both gave me cautious greetings but relaxed noticeably when they saw I wasn’t being a nutcase. I had to hand it to them all; if I had been bad enough that even Cole was cautious around me, I was amazed no one had lost their shit sooner.

It was as I pulled out a seat to sit at the table that my phone rang. At first I didn’t even register that it was my phone—seeing as I’d owned it for all of a week and wasn’t used to the ring tone—but Cole picked it up from where I’d left it on the kitchen bench and handed it to me.

The screen said it was Jonathan video calling—which was a little odd, given we weren’t really video-chat kind of people—but I answered anyway.

“Hey, Jonathan.” I smiled as the screen brought up the little box with my face and the bigger one with his. “Can I call you back? We’re just about to have dinner.”

“Uh, no. Sorry, kiddo,” he replied, his smile tight and sad. “Unfortunately that won’t be possible.” He glanced away from the screen, and his image bounced like he was walking briskly... or running.

“Jonathan? What’s going on?” A sick feeling pooled in my gut as the image showed him looking over his shoulder, then ducking into a room, which I recognized as his office in Omega.

“Kiddo, I know you’re going through a really tough time at the moment with Wesley gone, and I’m afraid it’s only going to get worse before it gets better.” He placed the phone down on his desk, presumably in the little fox phone holder I had bought him for his birthday a few years ago. At least that was what the angle suggested.

He started typing on his computer while I processed what he’d said. “What do you mean it’s getting worse? What haven’t you told me?”

Glancing back at the camera, he gave a regretful sigh, but his fingers continued to fly at a million miles an hour across his keyboard. “I’m wiping all the evidence of what Omega has been doing. You don’t need our data anyway, not to do what needs to be done. This information is just too dangerous in the wrong hands.”

“What? Jonathan, I’m not following. Are you in trouble there? I can be there in a few minutes if you need me; Caleb can portal me there.” I wasn’t totally sure what the hell was going on, but he seemed frazzled.

“No, no, absolutely not,” he exclaimed, shaking his head at the camera. “I’m probably just being paranoid is all. Old age will do that to a person. Look, I just wanted to give you a quick call to tell you that I have total faith in your abilities. You will win this fight, kiddo. Never stop believing that you will, okay?”

“Jonathan,” I croaked. “It sounds like you’re saying goodbye to me. Why would you be saying goodbye?” Was he planning on going somewhere? Leaving me now when things were getting desperate? Where would he be going?

“Never goodbye, kiddo,” he whispered, hitting one final button on his computer, then giving me his full attention. “Never goodbye. Just... make sure those boys take damn good care of you, and don’t ever forget how much I loved you.”

“What? No!” I snapped my gaze to Caleb. “Omega HQ, Jonathan’s office. Something’s wrong.”

“Kit, no!” Jonathan bellowed down the phone at me. “Do not come here!”

It was too late though. Caleb was already gone, taking Cole and River with him and leaving me behind, that motherfucker!

“Jonathan, something is wrong. Please just tell me!” I was sobbing now, clutching my phone in my hands like I could climb through the screen based on sheer will alone.

He leaned in closer to the camera, giving me a smile. “You’re needed for bigger and better things, hon. This is one battle you’ll have to fight another day, when you’re stronger.” He paused then while I sniffled and tears obscured my vision. “I never told you how we really came to Suzette’s that night. I have a lot of regrets in this long life of mine, kiddo, but none more so than how long it took me to find you. If I had just found you a few years earlier, before Suzette... before Gray. I can never apologize enough for everything you went through at that bastard’s hands, hon. Not a day goes by that I don’t curse myself for not finding you sooner.” He sucked in a shuddering breath, then smiled sadly. “You look so much like her, you know.”

“Who?” I asked bitterly. “Bridget? That bitch that took my magic away? I could be there with you right now. Whatever you think is about to happen, I could stop it!”

He shook his head, glancing offscreen like he’d heard something. “No, not her. Your grandmother, Tasha. You have her heart, kiddo. She would have been so proud of the woman you’ve become, but to me you’ll always be that spunky little girl who cracked my safe at age thirteen. I love you, kiddo.”

“What?” my exclamation was cut short by the distinctive, sickening sound of a gunshot.

On my screen, Jonathan’s head snapped back, and his phone must have been jostled out of the little holder because the next thing I saw was the ceiling fan rotating slowly above his desk. What made me physically ill, though, were the red flecks of blood across the screen.

Dropping my phone to the floor, I dashed over to the kitchen sink and dry heaved for a moment until I heard the one sound worse than that gunshot.

“Oh Foxy,” Simon’s voice sang down the phone, and my blood ran cold. “I know you’re there. Caller ID says the call is still connected. Hope you don’t mind, but I’m going to end call now. But I do hope you saw me shoot your dad in the head.” I was still at the sink, frozen. I couldn’t move to pick up my phone, and I sure as shit didn’t want to see whatever the video might be displaying.

“Let’s catch up soon, Foxy Girl.” Simon chuckled. “Life doesn’t seem nearly painful enough for you yet.” There was a muffled sound, like he was picking the phone up, and just before he disconnected the call, I heard him say, “Search everything; Boss wants those files.”

The little chime of the call ending rang out through the silent house, and my knees turned to jelly. I crashed to the kitchen floor and began sobbing. First Wesley, now Jonathan? No... surely this was some cruel joke.

“Go; I’ve got this,” Vali murmured in a quiet voice, but my distraught brain didn’t compute what he was saying until the air pressure shifted with the distinctive shift of portal magic. Austin must have gone to join the guys. And left me behind again.

I wanted to yell and scream, demand that they come back and take me to Omega, but I couldn’t even move. My body had stopped obeying any commands I gave it.

Instead, I just lay there on the cold kitchen floor, crying more tears than the human body should ever be able to produce. All the while, Vali sat with me, stroking my hair and murmuring to me in Romanian.

16

CALEB

Director Pierre had really stepped up the security at Omega since we’d left. Either that or there were mages on site who were blocking our portals. I really hoped it was the former, or we were going to need to take disciplinary steps against our people.

As it was, my portal dropped us on the perimeter of the grounds, and the three of us needed to sprint across the expansive lawns to reach the administration building where the director’s office was.

About a hundred yards from the front steps, I stopped abruptly and waved at the boys to stop too.

“What is it?” River asked, his eyes glued on our destination.

“Something is wrong here. Since when has Omega been totally unguarded? We just appeared out of thin air, then sprinted across the lawn under spotlights, but no one has come out to detain us or even check our IDs.” I looked around us, peering at the spots where I knew there were security points. Or where there were usually security points.

“You’re right,” River murmured, looking around more cautiously.

“Vixen was right; something bad is going down here.” Cole jerked his head toward the administration building. “Let’s get in there and find Director Pierre.”

“Stay alert,” River cautioned, and the three of us continued across the grass. It was just as we started up the steps that the unmistakable sound of a gunshot rang out through the silence.

“Quick,” Cole barked, yanking the doors open and halfway off their hinges. Dragons.

We’d made it maybe fifty feet down the hallway when we hit a wall. Literally hit a wall and bounced off it, sprawling on the ground.

“Caleb?” River demanded, and I stepped closer to the barrier, testing the invisible obstruction with my fingertips.

“Whoever is here, they have mages working for them.” I scowled, feeling the threads of magic that made up the wall.

“I thought you had that shit locked down?” Cole muttered, standing beside me and glaring through the invisible barrier. “Didn’t you and Austin do some voodoo ritual that made them all do what you say?”

“I thought we had too,” I admitted. “That was only a fraction of the mages of the world, though. They were supposed to be all the coven heads so the magic would transfer down from them. If a coven didn’t attend...” I trailed off and shrugged, still examining the wall. “We were sort of rushing things and didn’t do any kind of roll-call. I’d planned on following up later. As for this, I can break it; it’s not very strong. Stand back.”

Waving them back a few feet, I flicked my pocket knife out and cut a small slice through my inner arm. So often in movies it showed people cutting their palms for blood magic, but that just made no sense to me. Unless you could heal like Kit, then you’ve just disabled your hand. Seemed stupid, so I only went for inner arm, or in a hurry—and for dramatic flair—thumb pads.

With deft movements, I smeared my blood on the invisible wall in the pattern of a couple of runes that would explode the magic. It wasn’t the most subtle way to do it, but it was effective and would leave the original caster with a nasty headache.

When I completed the third rune, the wall shattered, sending glowing, whip-like tendrils snapping through the hallway that narrowly missed River’s head.

“Let’s go,” I urged them, stepping through the fading mess of magic and hurrying along to Jonathan’s office.

The door was ajar when we arrived, and River took the lead, drawing his gun and indicating for Cole to take the other side of the door. It was an easy transition for us to slip into business mode, and when River kicked the door open further, we were all inside in a matter of seconds.

Cole and River still had their guns on them, as they’d been fine-tuning the target range at home, but I was weaponless. Except for my magic, that was.

As soon as I could see the contents of the room, I threw out a web of magic that ensnared every occupant as sure as if they’d been dipped in cement. Cole and River trained their guns on the one person we knew was responsible.

“Simon,” I spat with disgust, glaring at the dirty, decaying man standing over the director’s corpse. He sneered back at me, but was trapped in my web just as surely as his men were. One of them was curled in a ball, clutching at his head in pain, which meant he was probably the mage responsible for the barrier.

“Shit,” Cole cursed, moving closer to check the director’s lifeless body, then over to Simon’s frozen form. “What are we going to do with this piece of crap?”

“Kill him, once and for all,” I suggested. “I’m sick of this asshole slipping away like a damn cockroach. I say we kill him properly this time. I’ll need to dispose of these three as well.” I nodded to three of the five men who had been assisting Simon in his mission. It appeared as if they were searching for something... perhaps whatever Pierre had been deleting from his hard drive while he talked to Kit.

The three mages, obvious for the light shimmer of magic around them, were not men I recognized. But given we’d been in charge for all of a hot second, that didn’t surprise me.

Footsteps rang out down the corridor, and both Cole and River swung their guns to the door.

“Woah.” Austin skidded to a halt as he rounded the corner and gave their guns a pointed look. “Ah shit.” He spotted the director at Simon’s feet and rushed over to check his vitals. The bullet hole in the middle of his forehead and the pool of blood beneath him sort of spelled things out though.

“We need to take Simon back to Kit for judgement,” River said quietly, scowling at the walking dead-man. “This is her kill; we can’t take that away from her.”

“Bullshit,” Cole snarled. “I’m not letting this garbage heap anywhere near her.”

“Sorry, mate,” River sighed. “In this case you don’t have a say. Kit will need the closure of seeing him die with her own eyes.”

“We should check the rest of the building for any more of these fuckers,” I suggested, kicking one of the frozen mages in the leg.

Cole nodded and looked to Austin. “We’ll go? That way you can do you’re magic thing if we find anyone.”

“Sure,” Austin agreed. “Not like you couldn’t just dragon blast them, but whatever. Let’s be quick; I don’t want Kit left for too long.”

River made a noise in his throat. “How was she when you left?”

“After seeing her dad get shot in the head by someone she used to trust?” Austin grimaced. “How do you think she was?”

River nodded a few times, and my guts churned. My poor Kitty Kat, she must be a mess. We owed it to her to clean this shit up fast and get back to her. Killing Simon wouldn’t bring Director Pierre back, but it would provide a little closure. If that was the best we could offer her, then so be it.

“Can you keep this lot secure while I grab supplies?” River asked me, and I nodded. Keeping this lot trapped in my web was no strain, but I wouldn’t be able to transport them like this. They needed to be restrained.

While I waited for River to come back, I ignored the stares of my prisoners and carefully stepped around the director’s desk, avoiding his blood. I clicked his mouse a couple of times to bring up the display, but it was on a lock screen requiring a password.

Chewing my lip, I debated taking the hard drive, but remembered he’d said something to Kit about wiping all the files. Besides, without Wesley we had no way of hacking into it anyway.

“Got them!” River announced, returning to the office with a handful of zipties. “Is it safe to touch them?”

Nodding, I waved a hand at the incapacitated men. “Go for it. I’m thinking they must have cast a few more spells on their way in here. Otherwise, where the hell are all the agents?”

“I was thinking the same thing,” he agreed. “The electronic locks on all the doors were open too.”

He handed me some zip ties, and I helped him secure our prisoners, moving their limbs like they were made of clay. “I think we should deal with this lot, then come back to sweep for stray spells,” I suggested.

“Probably best.” River finished securing Simon, then sighed, crouching down to look at the body of Kit’s dad. “This could crush her.”

“It could,” I murmured. “But it won’t. She’s stronger than we give her credit for.”

River said nothing in response, just reached out and closed Jonathan’s eyes so they weren’t staring lifelessly at us.

“Aus and I need to deal with these three,” I said quietly, indicating to the three mages. “They’ve violated the orders we laid out. Even if their coven head didn’t attend our town hall, they’re still in violation. We have to deal justice accordingly.”

“Understood,” River replied in a clipped tone. “Cole and I can take care of things here if it will be a quick thing.”

I checked my watch for the time, then ran through what we needed to do. Austin was better prepared for this shit than I was, and once again I found myself cursing my lack of interest in Yoshi’s teachings.

“Yeah, should only be an hour at most. I think.” I shrugged. “I can bind Simon and the other two tighter so it’ll last until we get back, and we can block the office door.”

“Good. Do that then. We can deal with things here and be back to Kit ASAP.” River gave Simon’s frozen form a look of disgust. “At least we arrived in time to catch this bastard.”

Austin and Cole appeared back in the doorway, and Cole shook his head.

“All clear throughout the admin building,” he informed us.

“We’re assuming this snake’s hired help has spelled this building and the security only. Why would they bother with the residences? And it’s too late for anyone else to be on base.” Austin rubbed at his eyes, then grabbed one of the bound mages by his wrists. “Let’s go and sort these three out, Cal. The sooner the better.”

He was absolutely fucking right. I may not have listened all that much in Yoshi’s lessons all those years ago, but a few things stood out clearly in my mind. The first of which was a mage must never disobey the ruling Mages. Secondly, the punishment for disobedience was ritualistic death.

It was a law we both hoped to relax on, but an indiscretion as serious as this so soon after our meeting? It was a direct challenge to our authority and not one we could afford to let slide. Not with an impending war on the horizon.

Earlier in the week Austin and I had briefly discussed the possibility that some of our people were involved with the shifters, so we knew we had no choice here. We’d gather the necessary witnesses and cut these bastards’ hearts out.

I was just thankful Kitty Kat wouldn’t witness it.

* * *

“You’ve got your thinking face on,” Austin commented as we portaled in to the ceremonial chambers below Yoshi’s old tattoo shop. It had been years since I’d stepped foot inside that room, but it was the most appropriate place for what we needed to do.

“You’re not flaking out on me, are you?” my twin needled, hauling one of our captive mages up by the arm and depositing him in the middle of the room with the other two. “You kind of have a pretty important role in this ritual.”

“I know, and I’m not flaking.” I headed over to the ceremonial altar and opened the hidden compartment that contained all the standard tools of our trade. From it, I pulled out a chalice and three lumps of crystal. “I’m just…” I sighed, rubbing my face. “This whole thing, Bridget and then the bracelet taking Kit’s magic, it’s my fault.”

Austin huffed a noise as he filled the chalice with water from the natural spring in the corner, then quickly ran through the ritual to summon our required witnesses—the Mage Council.

“Kinda, yeah,” he responded when the spell was done.

“Gee, thanks,” I muttered, feeling even more guilty than I already was.

He rolled his eyes. “Yes, you were instrumental, but do you honestly think she wouldn’t have found another way? If she really wanted to block Christina’s powers, she would have found a way with or without you. Don’t forget I checked that bracelet over too and saw nothing wrong with it.”

“Good point. So you’re equally to blame here,” I teased, and he scowled at me.

“Not equally. Not even close. But dwelling on the past doesn’t help now. Let’s get this shit over and done with so we can get back and help the boys with Simon.” Austin dug in one of the concealed drawers and pulled out a hand-carved, metal-tipped quill pen that had belonged to Yoshi and the last Ink Mage before him and so on and so forth.

Any further discussion was cut short as the council started appearing within portals of their own, each looking grim. The spell Austin had used to summon them would have clued them in to what was going on.

“An execution so early in your tenure,” Emerald, one of the oldest council members, commented as she arrived, tossing her green dreads over her shoulder. “Where’s your girl?”

“Not here,” Austin snapped, and Emerald raised her pierced brows at me.

“It’s been a rough few weeks,” I explained, giving her a little headshake to tell her to drop it.

She gave a small shrug. “That’s cool. I liked her, though. It’d be nice to see her again. Have you given these three their last right of appeal?”

“Not yet,” I replied. “You can do it if you want. We’re in a bit of a hurry.”

She nodded, walked over to the three zip-tied mages, and tore the duct tape from their mouths one at a time. The brutal sting was the least of what they deserved. “Speak.”

Laden with so much magic, that one word made the chalice in front of me tremble. I fought down a smirk when the three prisoners each visibly lost the air of cocky arrogance they’d been maintaining the whole time we’d held them captive.

“Anton,” one of the men blurted. “Everything we did was under his orders. He’s the head of our coven, and we had no choice but to obey.”

“Well, that was easy. Of course, it’s also a big old steaming pile of bullshit considering if you’d come to your Mages and confessed, they would have protected you.” Emerald turned back to us with a broad grin. “I’ll go pick Anton up. I can’t tell you how glad I am to hear hard evidence against that worm once and for all.”

She flickered out in a portal, was gone barely long enough for the remaining four council members to arrive, and then was back with her hand wrapped around the slimy, duplicitous necromancer’s neck—that very same piece of shit who had supplied golems to Simon and challenged us during our initiation.

I rolled my eyes internally. Somehow, I’d known he would be involved.

“Thank you for coming,” I greeted the council with Austin at my side. “I hope you don’t mind, but we will make this quick; we still have more to deal with tonight.”

“Please verify guilt for youselves,” Austin invited, waving a hand to our now four prisoners, and the council did as asked. Each one of them approached the men and repeated the same spell, one which caused any party guilty of crimes against the ruling Mages to glow green.

When each council member was satisfied, we made quick work of the ritual. Austin used his quill to draw a simple line of ink down each man’s chest. The spelled ink made a messy task easier, slicing through flesh and bone to expose the still beating heart while the guilty mage screamed soundlessly.

Grinding his teeth loud enough for me to hear, Austin reached inside each open chest cavity, removing their hearts with his bare hand and placing them on a silver platter… which he then presented to me.

My stomach twisted, but not with disgust. With hunger. These men—especially Anton, the necromancer—they were not weak in magic. I could smell it in their blood, and my fangs descended with ease.

Tension thrummed through my body as I raised the first heart to my lips and bit into it. I wasn’t a cannibal; that was just revolting. Nor did I eat flesh. But touching my fangs directly to the heart blood was akin to sending a mass email to all mages under our command. They would know of each one of these deaths and understand that when we made a law, we stood by it. Anyone who disobeyed would be punished.

It took all of my self-control not to actually consume the magic-laden blood, and by the time I was done with all four hearts, I wanted to vomit or scream or… something.

But it was a small price to pay if it meant no other mages would try and harm my Kitty Kat.

17

WES

“Hello?” My voice echoed through the heavy fog as I looked all around me. Wherever I was, it looked similar to my unrefined dreamscape, but still somehow different. More substantial somehow.

Shadowy figures appeared somewhere in the distance, and my heart pumped a little faster. Definitely not my dreamscape, then.

“Hello?” I called out to the figures. “Can you hear me?”

“Of course we can hear you,” a middle-aged woman scolded as she came into clearer view with the fog parting around her and her young companion. “You’re bellowing out here loud enough for the heavens to hear you.”

“Sorry,” I replied with a sheepish smile, feeling my cheeks heat with embarrassment. “I was just a bit… confused. Can you tell me where we are?”

The woman’s brows shot up, and the young girl beside her giggled into her hand.

“You mean to tell me you don’t know you’re in Caora? Just where exactly have you come from, then?” She seemed half bewildered and half amused. Like I had lost my sanity or something…

Oh shit, don’t tell me I’m in a mental institution and this is all inside my head.

“Uh.” I started, running a hand through my hair nervously. “I don’t really know how I got here; the details are a bit fuzzy…” In fact, when I tried to think about anything past Kit leaving to go to the grocery store, it was all just black. “But I’m from America.” The look the woman gave me was totally blank, as if I had just spoken in tongues. “Uh… Earth?”

Her eyes widened, and I swear her face paled a little even as the young girl grinned broadly. “You… you want to tell me you’re from the human realm?” she spluttered, and her wording triggered a memory of what I’d been studying.

“Human realm, yes! That must mean I’m in the badbh realm?” I grinned, and she continued to watch me like I was an escaped mental patient.

It was the little girl who responded first. “You sure are!” she enthused. “Welcome to Caora, human. I’m Briana; it’s a pleasure to meet you.”

She stuck her hand out for me to shake, but the woman slapped it down before I could return the gesture.

“I think you’d better come with me,” she told me in a shaking voice. “This is… unexpected, to say the least.”

* * *

My face slammed into the ground, and I tasted the bitter copper of blood and defeat in my mouth.

I’d failed.

My first attempt to pass the graduation trials and gain both my Badbh ring and my freedom, and I’d failed. The rules stated I wasn’t permitted to try again for another six months, and it was this that had me punch the dirt in frustrated anger before pushing myself back to my feet.

Across the small arena, my nemisis and tormenter, Gaelin, smirked back at me.

“Wesley Reed,” the ancient leader of Caora intoned, commanding the attention of everyone present and breaking my glare away from Gaelin, “you have failed. Return to the place of learning and continue to seek higher knowledge.”

I wanted to shout and argue, but I already knew it wouldn’t do me any good. Not with the Badbh. Instead, I ground my teeth together and gave a respectful dip of my head before slinking out of the ceremonial chambers, feeling very much like my tail was between my legs.

How could I have failed?

Actually, the answer to that question was obvious. Gaelin. I hadn’t anticipated seeing him. Not since my first arrival here, when he’d been severely reprimanded for interferring with my learning, and certainly not as my challenger in the graduation trial.

Knowing why I failed didn’t really make it any easier to swallow though. Before the trial, I’d stood outside that chamber so totally sure I would be going home today. There hadn’t been a single question in my head about whether I’d be seeing Kit by the end of the day, and now? Now I was staring down another six months inside the walls of Caora.

“Boy!” My tutor, Glen, yelled after me as I kicked the dirt. I wanted to ignore him and continue on to the little hut I’d been assigned to, but I knew he wouldn’t let me go.

“What?” I snapped when he caught up to me, and I dodged his eye contact.

“You let him get inside your head,” Glen pointed out, unnecessarily.

I snorted a humorless laugh. “No shit, that was the point of the exercise.”

Glen scowled. “You know full well what I mean, so you can save that sass for someone else. You let him use that woman against you, didn’t you?” His ancient eyes pinned me like a butterfly to a board, and I ground my teeth in anger. My silence was all the answer Glen needed, and he cursed, closing his eyes and taking a few deep breaths as if actively seeking patience with me.

“Kit is not a weakness,” I replied, repeating the same words for what felt like the millionth time. “I just wasn’t expecting him.”

Glen sighed and gave me a pitying look. “She is your weakness, boy, and until you let go of her, you’re never getting out of Caora. The sooner you accept that, the sooner you can graduate, but when you’re clinging to the memory of this girl…” He shook his head at me. “Kid, you could be here for a hundred more years if you stay so distracted.”

Logically, I understood what he was saying. The whole basis for our magic was born out of rational thinking, not emotions. We were like Vulcans that way… if aliens were real. So yeah, I understood why Glen was telling me this. But it didn’t mean he was right.

“Glen, I respect you, and I don’t mean for this to come off the wrong way.” I ran a hand through my hair and met his eyes. “But go fuck yourself. Nothing and no one can ever make me forget Kit, so you are wasting your breath trying.”

My mentor glared back at me for a long moment, then shook his head again. “You’re a damn fool, kid.” He didn’t bother saying anything else, just gave me a disappointed look and walked back toward the Elder’s Chambers. No doubt he would have to answer for my failure too, as he had endorsed me to attempt the graduation trial.

Heading back to my hut, I rubbed the bridge of my nose. How strange it was not to need my glasses or contact lenses. Not long after arriving in Caora, one of the medics had applied a balm to my eyelids. That next day, and every day since then, my vision has been perfect. The wonders of magic.

* * *

I ran my fingers through my hair again in a nervous gesture I’d had since I was a kid. My hair was longer now and in bad need of a cut. Not that anyone in this realm understood that. They all had long hair, even the men. I guess I should have been thankful they didn’t all have beards, too, because my face itched something awful after any more than a few days of growth.

“Are you ready?” the young girl beside me asked, and I glanced over at her with a grin.

“Is anyone ever ready for one of these?” I replied with half amusement, half nervous anticipation. This was it. This was the day I’d been waiting for, the day I could return to my world. To Kit...

Not that I hadn’t stood in the exact same spot before, thinking the exact same thing. But this time I truly believed I’d succeed. This time, I’d earn my ring and be free to leave the place of learning.

“No, I guess not,” she answered my rhetorical question. “I know I’m not.”

She was chewing nervously on the edge of her thumbnail, and I tapped it out of her mouth. She was young, the badbh equivalent of a twelve-year-old human—about the same age as my brother, Grant. Regardless of the gap in our ages, we’d been paired together in the learning space based on ability, and now hopefully we’d be graduating together.

“Don’t chew your nails, Briana,” I scolded her. “It’s a bad habit.”

“Sorry, Wes,” she sighed, twisting her plain dress between her fingers instead. “I don’t know why they have to keep us waiting so damn long.”

I chuckled. “Yes, you do. They’re building suspense. It’s a psychological game to put you on edge and make it harder to concentrate when you get in there. Just... don’t let them into your head. You got this.”

Briana sucked in a deep breath, but before she could say any more, the door creaked open and an ancient-looking man poked his head out.

“Briana Lightbearer, you’re first.” He didn’t bother to wait for her reply, simply disappeared back inside and expected her to follow.

“You got this,” I repeated again, and she gave me a nervous smile as she scurried after the man.

Once the door had closed again, I was left alone with nothing but my thoughts for company. Again, I ran my hand through my hair nervously and tugged at the bits that brushed my collar. First thing I needed to do when I got back to the human world... get a damn haircut.

Scratch that. There were plenty of more important things, and all of them involved Kit. The majority of them involved nudity in some form, too. Ugh. It had been a long damn time since that last morning in Ireland. I couldn’t count the number of times I’d gone over it all in my head and cursed myself for being so eager to get to Seamus’s house and study his book, when I should have accepted her damn offer of staying in bed.

Kit... she was on my mind constantly. Not a minute passed where I wasn’t thinking about her, something my tutor claimed was holding me back from progressing. The Badbh had been gone from the human realm for so long that most of them had lost their humanity completely. They were a cold, calculating, and unemotional race of beings. When I’d first arrived, they hadn’t known what the hell to do with me and all my feelings.

It hadn’t been all too hard to fit in though. These people appealed to my analytical mind, and I appreciated their logic in everything they did. Or... mostly everything. They weren’t totally incapable of emotion, as I’d come to learn about Gaelin.

Fucking Gaelin. He’d been assigned to teach me but had let his own petty issues with the council cloud his judgement. In my time here, I’d learned that Gaelin had been one of the few badbh who had been on Earth before the plague and had been petitioning to be allowed to return ever since. His requests were always denied, but it explained why he was so damn sour with me.

“Wesley Reed.” The same elderly man stuck his head out, and I looked up in surprise. “You’re next.”

“Where’s Briana?” I asked as I followed him through the door. “That was really fast. Is she okay?”

“She failed. Good luck.” That was all he said as he opened another door and gestured for me to enter. I knew the drill already; I’d attempted and failed this myself many times. That was Bri’s first fail, though, and she must be heartbroken. The worst part was if I succeeded here, I wouldn’t see her again to comfort her.

Stepping into the testing chamber, I sucked in a deep breath and prepared myself for what was to come. The fear, the pain... all of it. I would not fail this time.

Kit, sweetheart... I’m coming home. Please be okay when I get there.

18

KIT

I lay on that kitchen floor for an indeterminate amount of time. All I knew was that when Vali finally lifted me into his arms, my limbs were numb and cold and my joints felt stiff.

“Where are you taking me?” I whispered into his chest, not really caring but feeling like I needed to say something.

“To bed,” he replied in a soft rumble. “It’s getting late, and that hard floor was making my ass fall asleep.”

Sighing, I turned my face into his chest and squeezed my eyes tight shut. I just wanted to go to sleep. Maybe when I woke up, this would all have been a horrible nightmare.

Vali placed me gently down on my huge, pastel purple bed and then tugged the blankets over me. My hands clutched at his shirt desperately, and I tugged him back down when he made to get up.

“Please don’t leave me,” I begged, my voice cracking into a sob.

Vali shushed me softly, peeling my fingers off of his clothing. “I’m not leaving, regina mea. Just taking my shoes off. I hate when people put shoes on the bed, don’t you?”

It didn’t seem like the sort of question that needed a response, so I just sucked in a shaking breath and watched through slitted eyelids as he removed his boots, then slid back under the blankets with me.

Once inside with me, he wrapped his huge arms around me and pulled me in close. There was something stupidly primal about how it felt to be encased in his arms at that moment. When my whole world was falling to shit around me, when I was more vulnerable than I’d ever been. Simply being wrapped in Vali’s huge hug brought me a certain sense of peace and safety.

We lay like that for ages. I had no tears left, but couldn’t force myself to sleep, no matter how badly I wished for it. Eventually, I knew I would need to talk about what had just happened.

“Regina?” Vali said in a soft voice while his fingers stroked through my hair, “I know how you must be feeling right now. To lose a parent, it’s unlike any other pain.” I sniffled into his chest but said nothing. He did know what it felt like, more so than anyone. “And I don’t know what you discussed with Austin today that had you coming back out of that shell you’d retreated into, but I need to say this now before things become worse. Before you let this break you.”

He paused again, his fingers trailing through my hair and down my back, then repeating. “So, I may not be the fluffy blanket you want right now, but maybe I’m what you need. You’ve had a rough run lately, Regina; I’m not disputing that at all. It fucking sucks. It sucks about Wesley. I might have only known the kid a few months, but fuck if I wasn’t already attached to that little nerd. More than that, it sucks about Jonathan. No one is ever going to try and tell you otherwise.” Fresh tears that I didn’t realize I was capable of pooled in my eyes and spilled down my face onto Vali’s shirt. “But here’s the hardest, shittiest part of all of it. You aren’t allowed the time to grieve like a normal person might. You don’t have the luxury to hide under your blankets and cry yourself to sleep for weeks on end, praying for the pain to go away. Not when you have people depending on you. Not when you have a world to save.”

No, it was what I needed to hear. Pain sucked balls—and not even in a nice way. I’d spent years being grateful to Jonathon. Then months bewildered and almost hating him. No, fuck that. I had hated him. Not telling me the truth was the worst damn decision he’d made.

“He made mistakes. He is a man,” Vali continued even when I said nothing in response. “I don’t forgive him for causing you any pain, regina mea; that is not for me. He was a man. He made his own decisions.”

And then some. He owned his shit. Tasha. The name tickled the back of my mind, the way he’d said it. I was like her. Well, that was better than being like Bridget, right?

Vali rubbed his chin against my hair. “Are you asleep?”

“No,” I answered, and it took real effort to push the word out. “Talk to me some more.” Then, even if I didn’t need to, I said, “Please.”

“Then I shall not lie to you and tell you this pain will ever be easy to bear; it will be a scar.”

I had scars.

“Scars are the tale of the road we have traveled.”

And the loves we’d lost. Yeah, not where I wanted to go, but I made myself listen. Safe in his arms, I let myself feel.

Even if it sucked.

* * *

I splashed ice cold water onto my face again, and the sounds of the guys returning filtered up from downstairs. Quickly I grabbed a hand towel to dry off my face. I’d splashed cold water over my face about ten times already in an attempt to wake my brain up and reduce the blotchy puffiness of crying.

Not that I cared if the guys saw me looking less than my best; I think I’d earned the right. But simply because it helped me to feel more human if I didn’t look like such a mess.

Eager to hear what had happened on Omega base, I yanked on a clean T-shirt and hurried through my bedroom. It was vacant already, so Vali must have heard them and headed downstairs too.

“Kitten.” River met me halfway up the stairs, and I froze, noticing the smear of blood on his white shirt. “Come with me; we have something to show you.”

His voice was grim, and my breathing sped up with anticipation. What could he possibly have to show me, unless they’d arrived in time to deliver Simon’s head on a platter? A girl could hope, huh?

Following River out onto our back porch, I saw my ex-friend zip-tied and looking revolting. Way more so than last time I’d seen him, it looked like the flesh was almost peeling off his face in patches. Not to mention the smell. “Simon!” I exclaimed.

“We wanted to finish him off when we found him,” Cole told me, scowling at the reanimated corpse of Simon like he was a giant pile of steaming shit. “But River suggested you should get final say on his fate.”

I glanced sharply between my guys and noted the resolute agreement on all of their faces. It was actually weirdly touching that they’d thought to allow me this act of closure.

“What am I supposed to do?” I asked quietly, at a loss for what to say. “Just... declare he should die and then, what? Shoot him in the head? He’s already survived an avalanche; how do we know he won’t survive that?”

“Whatever you decide,” River told me in a calm voice, “we will ensure is done properly.”

Done properly sounded so ominous coming from him, but I knew what he meant. There would be no space for doubt if I chose to end Simon’s existence right then and there.

“Can’t we just... lock him up somewhere? Surely there must be some sort of prison designed for supernaturals?” And holy crap, shouldn’t that be the sort of thing I should know? Every day my lack of knowledge about the world I lived in was becoming more and more apparent.

“There is,” Austin nodded. “But there is one more problem.”

I raised my brows at him, but it was Caleb who replied.

“We needed to dispose of the mages who had been working with Simon,” he informed me, looking a bit pale. “You remember the necromancer who spoke out at the town hall?” I nodded. “He was fronting a group that was assisting Simon, providing golems for extra backup and magical assistance as required. We disabled some fifteen-odd spells from Omega HQ tonight.”

“Shit,” I breathed, eyeing up my former foster brother, who had yet to speak. “So how does that complicate this?” I waved my hand at Simon. “And where is his usual poisonous snark?”

“Well, that’s all part of the same thing. When we, er, dealt with the mages involved, we killed the necro who had reanimated Simon in the first place. Without that tether to a life magic, Simon physically can’t continue. He will slowly, as you can see, decompose. His ability to speak is already gone.” Caleb shrugged and didn’t look all that upset about it. “So, yeah. Locking him up is totally an option, but he will be dead by the end of the week anyway.”

“Huh.” I chewed my lip and pondered on this. “Do you think it would be particularly painful? Being trapped inside a rotting corpse?”

Yeah, Vali’s pep talk had really helped me. I mean, really fucking helped. But shit if this whole thing wasn’t going to leave me just a little messed up. The fact that I was actively seeking the worst punishment for Simon was a testament to how much I’d changed.

Cole snorted a little laugh; of course he would get where I was coming from. “Probably not as much as you’d hope, Vixen.”

“Hmm,” I hummed, staring back at Simon as he glared daggers at me.

“Would you like me to take care of this, regina mea?” Vali offered in a quiet but deadly voice. He was standing beside me, slightly closer to Simon, and I could already see his fingertips curling into dragon claws.

“Perhaps you might just tear him into little pieces, then let me eat him?” Sam suggested, slithering out of fuck only knew where. “That will guarantee he can’t come back again.”

“Gross, Sam,” I muttered in disgust. “He’s all decaying and shit.”

Sam rose up on his coils to flicker his tongue at Simon. “So? I’m a magical snake. I don’t care so long as it’s meat.”

Sucking in a breath to think this over, I gagged a little on the smell of decay. “Vali, he’s all yours. Just... do it on the lawn. So you don’t get zombie juice all over the outdoor furniture.”

My own callous tone shocked even me, but it was what it was. Simon—the Simon I’d known—was long gone. He certainly wasn’t this decaying thing standing on the porch.

“You sure?” Caleb asked, and I gave him a tight nod. Simon was long dead, and this was the most humane thing to do. Besides, he fucking deserved to die for killing Jonathan.

Swallowing back tears, I held my head high as Cole escorted what was left of Simon down onto the lawn and Vali quickly stripped to turn dragon. I’d made my choice, and I sure as shit wasn’t going to hide inside like a scared little girl while my men did the dirty work.

No, I’d chosen Simon’s fate, and I needed to see it through.

So I stood there on the veranda and didn’t so much as blink when Vali closed his huge jaws over Simon’s decaying head and tore it clean from his shoulders. I didn’t look away as the muscle and sinew shredded at an odd angle, sending one of his arms flying, even as the rest of his corpse dropped into a heap.

Vali then proceeded to torch the body with dragon fire, burning it until there was nothing left but ash on the scorched grass. Once that was done, he looked around and located the head, which he’d spat out, and repeated the procedure.

After there was a second pile of ash on the lawn, he swung his head around as though looking for something else, and I frowned.

“Uh... don’t tell me that Simon’s arm just got up and walked off on its own,” Caleb muttered, looking a bit green.

“Not on its own,” I replied, glaring at Sam who was slithering away from the scene of the crime with a distinctive looking bulge in his throat.

Caleb groaned as Sam joined us back on the veranda.

“What?” Sam hissed at us. “It tastes like chicken.”

It was that one, stupid statement from an asshole snake that finally cracked me. Hysterical laughter started bubbling out of me, and I couldn’t control it. I just kept laughing... until I wasn’t anymore. I couldn’t say at exactly what point my laughs turned to sobs, but the next thing I knew, River was carrying me inside while I bawled my eyes out onto his neck.

Who knew I had so many damn tears left inside me after all?

It was just as River started up the grand staircase with me in his arms that I felt it, that distinctive pop and shift of air pressure. But both twins were here, and they hadn’t said anything about leaving.

“Holy fucking dick cheese,” Caleb breathed from somewhere behind us, and River paused mid-step.

“Wesley?” Cole exclaimed, and I scrambled out of River’s arms to see what they were talking about.

Sure enough, standing in the middle of the foyer as though he’d just entered through the front door was a shaggy-haired older version of Wesley Reed.

“Wes?” I squeaked, hardly believing my own eyes. Was this some sort of fucked up grief delusion? But then the guys wouldn’t be seeing it too... would they?

River’s arm snaked around my waist, holding me back from getting any closer, and his muscles vibrated with tension.

“You’re dead, mate,” he said quietly, his tone laced with suspicion, and I noticed none of the other guys had moved to greet Wes. “You want to explain how this is possible? Or how you found us here?”

I frowned up at River, but understanding dawned when I glanced at everyone else’s wary expressions and defensive body language. They think this is a trap. Of course, that actually makes more sense than Wes coming back from the dead.

“I found you because I helped you pick out this fucking house over the internet and then drew up the contracts of sale for you. Besides, if you’re so worried I’m an imposter, just ask the question.” Wes arched a brow at River in a confident way that had me hesitating. That wasn’t the Wes I knew.

River gave a short nod. “What did you see last Tuesday?”

With a little grin Wesley replied with confidence, “A pink-and-green-striped chimpanzee drinking tea in the sun.”

At this nonsensical response, the tension dropped from River’s body, and he relaxed his hold on my waist. “Crow, you’d better have a damn good story for what the fuck happened.”

River sounded relieved, but I was confused as all hell.

“It’s a passphrase, Vixen,” Cole explained. “We have them set up for any situations where our team might be compromised. Each key word gives a different meaning if changed. For example, if Wes had responded with ‘a green-and-pink-spotted baboon drinking coffee under the moon’ we would have known that he was here under duress and that there were seven people both watching and listening.”

“Oh,” I said, nodding. “So… he gave the right phrase? It’s… him?” I glanced over at the him in question as I said this, feeling a bit rude for talking about him and not to him.

“No idea how,” Caleb muttered. “But yeah. That’s him.”

The missing member of our team gave me a shy smile—Wesley’s smile—and my shattered heart thumped heavily in my chest. I stumbled down the two steps we had just ascended and crossed the foyer to him, pausing when I got a foot or so away.

I scanned his face, desperately seeking some sort of confirmation or denial that he was who we thought he was. Perhaps he was some long lost older brother?

“Sweetheart,” he said softly, his blue eyes capturing my gaze as sure as any radar. “It’s me. I’m home, Kit.”

Hearing him speak, hearing him say my name and call me sweetheart...

“Wes,” I gasped, then threw a solid right hook at his scruffy jaw.

His head snapped back, and he stumbled, clutching his face, before frowning at me. “Ah, okay. Yeah, I guess I deserved that,” he groaned, rubbing his jaw. “You still hit pretty damn hard considering you’re human right now, sweetheart.”

“Shut up,” I whispered, throwing my arms around his neck and clinging to him for dear life while he hugged me back just as fiercely.

There were no logical explanations for how he was back. None. But I couldn’t care less. Wesley was back, my Wesley was back... Maybe this world wasn’t doomed, just yet.

19

The guys had to all but peel me off Wesley, but soon we were tucked up on the couch with a mug of coffee each. When Caleb had produced coffee for everyone, I’d had to shift off Wesley’s lap just far enough that we could both access our drinks without actually losing contact.

“Holy fuck,” Wesley groaned, taking a long sip of his coffee. “You have no idea how badly I’ve missed coffee, you guys. I’m going to start rivalling Kit for crazy coffee obsession.” He said it with a lazy smile and gave me a little wink.

He was so... different. More confident in his own skin and relaxed. I guess that made sense given he hadn’t thought we were dead.

“Wes,” I started, tightening my grip on my mug as my anger started to surface, but River beat me to it.

“Why don’t you start from the beginning, Wesley?” he suggested, giving my shoulder a quick squeeze before sitting in one of the armchairs with his own steaming mug. Tea for him, though. Some habits he’d never shake.

Wesley sucked in a deep breath, then blew it out and took a quick sip of his drink. “The beginning. Fuck, it was so long ago for me...” He trailed off, looking at his hands wrapped around the mug. “So I should start that morning in Ireland.”

He glanced over at me, and I gave him a small smile. “I left to get groceries, and when I was coming back, the house just exploded.”

“Ah, I figured it was something like that. It took a while to get any sort of answers on the other side.” He ran his hand through his hair, the same old nervous gesture he’d always had, then linked his fingers through mine on his lap. “So, that morning I was working through some of the info in Seamus’s book, which talked about being able to physically cross over into the dream realm—not just inside your mind, but with your physical form. According to the book, that was the only way to access the city of Caora where the badbh originated from.”

“They originated there?” Austin asked, leaning forward on his tattooed arms. “They weren’t created by the first Ban Dia like all other supernaturals?”

Wesley shook his head. “No, the badbh are older. From a similar time and place that the Ban Dia came from.” He shrugged. “Sort of hard to explain; there was a lot of just like... data dumping via direct mind link.”

“That sounds like something out of Star Trek,” I murmured jokingly, and he smiled.

“Something like that. Anyway, that morning—not long after you left for the store—I worked it out. Or I had in theory. I hadn’t actually tried it yet when there was a knock at the door. Seamus answered and carried a package back inside. That’s all I really remember happening. The next thing I knew, I was in a field outside this sort of medieval-looking village, and the fact that there were three suns was sort of a dead giveaway that I wasn’t on Earth anymore.” His fingers tightened on mine. “That was three years ago for me.”

My jaw dropped in shock. “Three years?”

“Give or take a bit. They don’t really follow any sort of calendar, so I did the best I could by tracking sunrises. How long has it been here?” He looked around at the guys, all of whom looked as stunned as I was.

I mean, that certainly explained why he looked like an older version of himself and how his hair had grown out so much, but how was that even possible?

Duh, Kit. Magic... idiot.

“Uh, about ten days or so?” Vali was the first to answer, which made sense as he was also the least shaken by both Wesley’s “death” and his reappearance.

“Ten days?” Wesley’s blond eyebrows shot up. “Shit, I miscalculated that one. I was aiming for two or three days at most. You’ll have to fill me in on what’s happened.”

“Maybe later,” I croaked. I’d need to tell him about Jonathan, but that wound was still way too fresh.

“Fair enough,” he agreed. “So anyway, once I’d arrived at Caora, I wasn’t permitted to leave until I could prove my powers had been mastered. Which was a pretty big problem, given I knew squat about being a badbh.” He rolled his eyes, and I caught another glimpse of this more confident, comfortable Wesley.

“And it took you three years to figure it out?” Caleb exclaimed in disbelief. “Bro, you’re supposed to be the genius here.”

“No shit,” Wesley growled, flipping Caleb off awkwardly with the hand that held his mug. “Clearly it wasn’t as easy as I had first thought.”

“So you learned your magic, and now... here you are?” River summarized for him, heading off whatever was about to start between the boys.

“Pretty much. Oh, and I saved the book, too. I must have been holding it when I realm-jumped because it came through with me.” He grinned, and I couldn’t help but smile back. Of course our academic managed to save the magical bible from being burned to a crisp.

“Wait, I saw you in the fire.” I frowned. “Even the cops said they’d found a body, but they just couldn’t ID it because we were on fake passports.”

He shrugged and gave me an awkward nose crinkle. “Could it have been Seamus?”

My jaw dropped, and I stared back at him for a moment, before shaking my head. “No, they said a body other than Seamus.”

“Maybe whoever sent the bomb wanted to make sure the job was done and got caught in the fire or something?” Wes suggested.

“I was so upset it never even occurred to me that anyone else might have been there.” I groaned, mentally kicking myself for being an idiot. “Then again, the idea that you’d escaped into another freaking realm also never would have occurred to me.”

“Well, that’s understandable. I’m here now though.” Wes pried the cushion from my face and placed a gentle kiss on my knuckles. “And I’ve got a pretty solid mastery of my magic now, so that can only be a good thing, right?”

“Of course,” I agreed.

“Well... don’t keep us all in suspense,” Caleb teased. “What can you do? And what the hell happened with that dickhead who was supposed to be training you? Did he get his ass handed to him?”

“Gaelin?” Wesley’s tone darkened, and his lips tightened. “Yeah, he definitely got what was coming to him. Apparently I was just collateral damage in a long-standing argument.”

“Sounds like you dealt with things,” River commented, and Wesley nodded. “Will you share with us some of the things you learned?”

Wesley finished his coffee and placed the mug down on the table beside my own empty one. “It’d be hard to explain a lot of it, but I can show you one cool thing if you want.”

Everyone seemed to glance at me for permission, and I nodded frantically. Hell yes, I wanted to see what he’d learned.

“Let’s go outside,” he suggested. I stood up from his lap, letting him get up from the couch, then took his hand.

Cole led the way back out to the rear porch, and Wesley released my hand to stand closer to the railing.

“Uh, what’s with the burnt patches?” he asked, turning to raise an eyebrow at Cole and Vali.

“I’ll tell you later.” I shook my head, not wanting to discuss the devastating events of the evening. Not yet, anyway. We’d just gotten Wesley back, and for now that was the only thing I wanted to focus on.

He nodded his understanding and sucked in a deep breath as his fingers twisted the silver ring on his thumb. I’d noticed it when he’d been holding my hand, but had been too caught up in the fact that he wasn’t dead to ask about it.

“Okay, so, this was part of my final exam—so to speak—to prove I had mastered all of the badbh core magics. So...” He trailed off awkwardly and sucked in a deep breath. “Here goes.”

Light sparked from the ring he was twisting, spreading out rapidly to encase his whole body, and when it faded, he was gone. In his place a large black crow perched on the veranda railing and cawed at us. Around its left leg was that same ring Wesley had just been fiddling with.

“Holy shit burger,” I breathed, taking a step closer to him. “You can fully shift into a crow. Not just borrow their eyes and ears.” The oversized bird dipped its head in agreement, then with another flash of light, shifted back into Wesley.

“I know its not as cool as, like, a dragon or something. But it could come in handy. Traditionally, my people were spies, which kind of suits my personality, don’t you think?” He gave me a half smile, and I beamed back at him.

“It’s perfect for you,” I agreed.

“I’d say it’s probably more useful than these overgrown lizards,” Austin commented, and both dragons in question narrowed their eyes at him. In return, Tyson—who had been hanging out quietly—growled and flashed his fangs.

I guess they hadn’t been kidding about dragons and cats not liking each other.

“He’s got a point,” River murmured, the corner of his mouth twitching with a smile. “You two are hardly inconspicuous. But that’s enough for tonight, I think. Wesley, mate, it’s damn good to have you back.”

River stepped forward, clasping Wesley in a brief man-hug and clapping him on the shoulder. I always found those man-hugs a bit awkward, but seeing a display of affection from River for one of his team sort of drove home just how badly Wesley’s temporary death had affected all of them. I’d been selfish in my glass house of emotion; I could see that now.

“Everyone get some sleep,” River ordered us. “We can check out the book in the morning.”

One by one, the guys all gave Wesley their own version of River’s man-hug before heading inside, until it was just the two of us left on the veranda. For ages, we just stared at one another.

“You look exhausted, sweetheart,” he said eventually, cocking his head the side. “Something more has happened, hasn’t it?”

Incapable of words, I swallowed and nodded. Vali was right in what he’d told me. There would be plenty of time for tears later; now was the time for strength and justice. It took a few shaking breaths before I could utter the words.

“Simon... killed Jonathan.” Saying it aloud was like being punched in the gut, and it left a sour taste in my mouth.

Wesley looked stunned and held out a hand to pull me closer to him. “And Simon?”

“Dead. For real this time.” I nodded to the burnt patches on the grass. “Vali made sure of it.”

“Good.” He wrapped his arms around me tightly, and we just stood there like that for a while. “Would it be okay if we stayed out here for a bit? I doubt I can sleep any time soon, and I just want to stare at the stars for a bit.” It was asked with the same old shyness he’d always had, and I smiled.

“Of course we can. Come on, I have your suitcase in my room if you want to get changed first,” I replied, looking pointedly at the thin, basic, cotton shirt and pants he wore with no shoes. It was a cool night, and he was already shivering a little. He nodded and took my hand as I showed him the way up to my beautiful purple room.

When we stepped inside and closed the door, Wesley looked around with a small, satisfied smile on his face. “They did well with this,” he commented, and I frowned in confusion. “The decorating, I mean. I had my doubts about how those manly men were going to pull off a woman’s bedroom, but maybe they took my suggestion and hired a decorator.”

“You knew they were buying this house before...” I trailed off. Even though he clearly wasn’t dead, it was taking my fragile emotions a little bit to catch up. “Of course, you said before that you drew up the contracts. Was I the only one out of the loop on that one?”

“We wanted to surprise you, sweetheart,” he told me with a smile. “But yeah, we were discussing it that week you and I were in Ireland. I really thought they’d fuck it all up, but they did well. Better than I could have done, anyway. If it had been left up to me, you would have really cool technology and no furniture.”

I snorted a small laugh. “That’s probably true. Here.” I tossed him the hoodie that I’d been wearing earlier in the day, which was draped over my dresser. “I’ll grab the rest; hang on.”

Disappearing into my walk-in closet, I dragged out the suitcase, which I hadn’t let the guys unpack. When I set it down on the bed in front of him, Wes reached for the hem of his shirt, and a sudden wave of awkwardness enveloped me.

Blushing, I turned my back on him and headed for the door. “I’ll, um, leave you to change. Although your room probably has stuff in it too; I’m not sure. I haven’t been in there.” Jesus, Kit, quit rambling like a weirdo! “So, um, I’ll go make us more coffee?”

“Sure,” Wesley chuckled. “I’ll be down soon. I might actually shower. Caora was a little behind the times with modern plumbing.”

Biting my lip to keep from picturing Wes in the shower, I made my way back down to the kitchen, where I brewed a new pot of coffee and poured two huge mugs.

“Got enough for one more?” Caleb asked, appearing in the doorway, and I nodded, fetching another mug.

“Can’t sleep?” I guessed, handing him his coffee.

“Didn’t bother trying,” he admitted, following me out to the veranda and taking a seat in one of the seven wicker armchairs. “Do you mind if I hang out for a bit?”

“Not at all,” I murmured, sipping my hot drink and relaxing back in my own chair.

Neither of us spoke for a long while, and when Wesley rejoined us, looking fresh from the shower and dressed in his customary crumpled T-shirt and hoodie, he simply took his coffee and joined us in silence.

One by one, the other guys all trickled back out to the balcony carrying their own mugs of coffee or—in River’s case—tea. Each of them just silently took a seat in a matching armchair and stared up at the stars with us.

So much for us all getting some sleep.

But I guess sometimes, just being physically present was more important than words, and that was all we really needed in that moment.

To just be.

20

Despite all the coffee I’d consumed and my claims that I would be unlikely to sleep, I must have passed out the second my head hit that pillow. I didn’t even remember Wesley joining me, but when I woke up, I was wrapped in his warm embrace and feeling bittersweet.

“Morning, sweetheart,” he murmured from behind me, kissing my neck and sending shivers scuttling across my skin.

“Hey,” I whispered back, not bothering to open my eyes as I snuggled into his embrace. “How are you feeling this morning, you know, being back on Earth?”

Wesley chuckled softly, his warm breath stirring my hair. “Better than I ever imagined. There were some days I wondered if I would ever get back.”

“Will you tell me about it? Caora?” I asked, and he sighed as he kissed my neck.

“Later?” he offered. “I want to know about what happened after… you know, after you thought I had died.”

I groaned and rolled over to face him. “Later?” I echoed him. “I’m not really ready to revisit all of that. Let’s just enjoy the fact that we’re both here now. Alive.”

He smiled at me. “Sounds good. I can’t think of anywhere I’d rather be anyway.”

Wrapping his arms around me, he pulled me tight, and I snuggled my face into the crook of his neck, taking a surprising amount of joy from just cuddling him. It wasn’t long before we were interrupted though, but that was the way of my life these days.

“Kitten,” River called out, tapping lightly on my door, then opening it just a crack. “Bridget has resurfaced. We thought you might like to know straight away.”

“What?” I scrambled out of my giant bed and snatched a bra from my floor. I never had been amazing at putting my clothes away. “I’ll be two seconds!”

“Bridget?” Wesley asked me with a frown, “The twins weren’t able to track her down this whole time?”

“Nope.” I shook my head, hooking my bra and tugging a purple tank top over it. “She just dropped off the face of the Earth for a while there. We tried reaching her at that hotel she told me she was staying at, and she’d left a message for me. It just said she had gone out of town but would be back soon.”

“Let me guess, the guys installed a tracker, but it’s probably a pretty basic one...” He trailed off as he yanked his own T-shirt back on, covering the stunning crow tattoo on his torso. “I will check in with the crows to see if I can get eyes on her, but that only helps if she is outdoors and within sight of a crow when I scan. So as well as that…” He started murmuring under his breath about wire taps and hacking the hotel’s security system, and I knew I’d lost him.

“Come on,” I said, opening my door and hurrying downstairs to where the guys were already up and preparing breakfast. “So, what’s the news? Did she call back?”

When we had first received her infuriating message, I’d left a very casual message for her to call back and left the number for a secured voicemail account. The fact that she’d even left a message with the hotel in the first place told me she’d been expecting to hear from me, which gave me hope. It also made me mad as hell.

“Yeah, about an hour or so ago. Just said that she was back at the hotel if you wanted to get in touch.” River handed me the phone and pursed his lips. “What will you say?”

“Exactly what we discussed,” I replied, shrugging. “Play dumb about the bracelet and ask if we can meet up.”

He nodded. “The twins can go and see if they’re able to apprehend her anyway—”

“Don’t bother,” Wesley cut him off, tapping on a laptop that I don’t even know where he found. “Looks like she’s just having her hotel room phone forwarded to an undisclosed location. Makes sense; if she suspects Kit’s onto her and she knows what Caleb is capable of, it’d be pretty stupid to stay there waiting to be picked up.”

“Well, let’s see what she says to meeting up, then.” I took the phone from River and dialed the number for the hotel in LA where Bridget had been staying. Holding the phone to my ear and listening to it ring, my stomach churned over in knots. The only parent I’d ever truly known had just died less than twenty-four hours ago, and here I was about to arrange a meeting with the woman who’d given me up as a helpless seven-year-old.

“Room seventeen-oh-eight please,” I asked politely when reception picked up, and there was a click as they connected me through.

It rang four times before she answered.

“Christina,” she greeted me. “I’m so glad you called back.”

“It’s Kit,” I snapped on instinct, then took a breath to control my inner bitch. “How did you know it was me calling?” Aside from the facts that you’ve set up a phone diversion and I’m probably the only one calling this number.

“Oh, just a hunch,” she replied. “Sorry I missed your call last week; I had some business to take care of with an old friend.”

I couldn’t stop my eyes from rolling at that one. Old friend, huh? Seemed like anyone we spoke to who knew Bridget was not a fan. Not even Nicholai, who for some reason still stuck by her, and certainly not Vic.

Frowning, I grabbed a scrap of paper and scribbled on it to the guys, “Have we got any leads on finding Vic again?”

To Bridget, I replied, “Uh-huh, that’s okay; it wasn’t urgent. I hope everything was okay with your friend?”

Bridget made a noise in her throat that I probably wasn’t supposed to hear. “It will be; he’s just lost his way a little. Now, you called me for a reason, I imagine?”

“I did.” I smiled, despite her not being able to see me. One of the lessons my stupidly expensive school had taught me was that people could hear a smile in your voice, even when they couldn’t see you. “I wondered if maybe we could meet. I have so many questions about who—what—we are and about those years that I can’t remember. Would that be okay? To meet?”

“Oh, that’s what you were calling for?” She sounded genuinely surprised. Had she really thought I’d call and accuse her of blocking my magic over the phone? She really didn’t know me at all. “Well sure, I guess we can do that. I’m about to leave LA though; would it be okay to meet up elsewhere? I imagine Caleb can bring you in a portal.”

I glanced up at Caleb and raised my eyebrows at him, but he just shrugged. The guys were clearly leaving the decisions up to me in this circumstance.

“Yeah, for sure,” I replied and wrote down the address and time she gave me. “I’ll see you then.”

“Oh, and Christina? I’d prefer it if you only brought Caleb with you. Nothing against your other guardians, but I just don’t know them. You can understand, I’m sure. We can’t be too careful with so few of our species left in this world.” It was a weak excuse and one I wasn’t buying for a second, but I agreed anyway. It didn’t bother me to only bring Caleb. We already knew she was estranged from Vic and no one had so much as laid eyes on the mysterious Lachlan, so she should only have Nicholai with her.

Although we should also work on tracking this Lachlan character down. If Jonathan was right in that he’d escaped the geas Bridget was holding Vic and Nicholai’s silence with, well shit, he could be some serious help to us.

I’d add it to my mental list of things to do before the end of the world.

For now, from what we could tell, Nicholai was just a fox shifter and likely not a threat against Caleb’s blood magic. Right?

When the call disconnected, I looked to the guys for their thoughts. We had already come up with our rough plan a week ago when we first tried contacting Bridget, but maybe Wesley might have some other ideas.

“So, meet up with her and confront her about the bracelet... and then what?” Wes asked us, pausing in what he was doing with his computer. “I doubt she’ll fess up and take it off you.”

“I agree,” I nodded. “We had been thinking to place a magic tracer on her so we could get a better idea of what’s going on. She just popped back into my life right when this supposed war is about to go down, and it all seems really convenient, don’t you think?”

“You’re right that she’s unlikely to take the bracelet off,” Vali agreed. “She went to the trouble of putting it on Regina and then spelled it so it would be unnoticed, so there has to be something in it for her. Either she needs Kit powerless for something, or...” He grimaced, trailing off his sentence.

“Or she has some plan to steal my magic,” I finished for him. It wasn’t something we had ever really discussed before, but I’d be lying if I said it hadn’t crossed my mind about a thousand times before. “Granny Winter up in Harrow mentioned Bridget has been trying for years to bond more than three guardians, which could only be to make herself stronger. It stands to reason that this might be a play for the same thing. Power.”

Wesley nodded, chewing the edge of his lip in thought. “So, you plant a tracker and then just... let her go?”

“We’re open to suggestions, genius,” Cole snapped, but it was done in good humor.

Wes playfully flipped him off and then rubbed his forehead. “No, I don’t really have anything better. I mean, you’re right in deciding further information is more important than just grabbing her at the first chance you get. Something tells me she wouldn’t crack under torture, so you’d just be wasting an opportunity. No, this seems smart. Plant a tracer that won’t be affected by whatever is cloaking her whereabouts, and then we can do a little spying to see what’s going on. Do we think she’s working for someone else?”

I sighed heavily and snaked a piece of freshly buttered bread from the nearby plate. “I don’t know what to think. I really, really don’t want to believe my bio-mom is on the wrong side of all of this crap, but it’s looking more and more likely.”

“We’ve yet to meet anyone who has thought very highly of her,” Austin added, pushing his plate closer to me so I could access the next piece of bread after I finished cramming the first one into my mouth. There was something seriously amazing about fresh bread and butter. The only thing that could make it better was coffee.

“We should probably catch Wesley up on everything we learned while he was dead,” River suggested, “then check out this book that he saved from the fire in Ireland. See if there might be anything useful in there for Kitten.”

There was a tightness around his eyes that made me suspicious of that last statement. Not that I ever thought River would be duplicitous, but maybe he wanted to have a flick through and see if any of the other species jumped out as familiar. It was what I would do in his situation.

“Here,” Vali said in a quiet voice, placing a huge mug of coffee down in front of me and a slightly smaller one in front of Wes. “Got to keep you two addicts happy.”

I grinned but couldn’t speak thanks with my mouthful of bread, but Wesley gave Vali an appreciative nod.

“Thanks,” Wes said to the Romanian, taking a sip. “You seem more mellow with everyone. How are things going with the girls running your empire?”

Vali gave a little huff and shrugged. “I’m not too sure. Lucy missed our scheduled catch-up, so I might need to check my emails. Actually, do you mind if I do that now while you get up to speed on what you missed?”

“Sure,” Wesley replied, passing his laptop over the table. It was what Vali had just said about Lucy that had me worried though. She hadn’t picked up when I’d called her from Ireland or any of the few times I’d tried since then. I’d assumed she was just worn thin with Vali’s business and hadn’t checked our line. It happened. I knew I hadn’t checked it for almost a month before calling it.

Her not being in touch with Vali was a bigger worry. Maybe I’d try her again later, before going to meet with Bridget. Hopefully she’d emailed him or something. Maybe Elena and Finn had taken her away for a vacation.

For now, I needed to focus on getting Wesley up to date with everything we now knew. Jonathan’s plans for a supernatural army, his revelations that we had two enemies to keep an eye on, and most importantly, the strange stuff he’d told me before Simon killed him.

Based on what little he’d said, I could only assume his saving me from Suzette’s house of horrors was no accident. He’d been actively seeking me out… because he knew my grandmother?

I wish I knew more.

Fuck that, I needed to know more.

21

VALI

I started up the encrypted sites that I used for all my business emails and admin while Kit began quietly filling Wesley in on what had being going on while he was missing. It couldn’t be easy for her, talking about Jonathan like this so soon after seeing him die, but she was doing so well.

I’d really worried about how she might have responded to everything I’d said after his death. God knew I wasn’t the most sensitive, new-age guy out there, but that just wasn’t what she’d needed. Not when so many lives were potentially on the line.

No, she’d needed that dose of tough love, and she was strong enough to take it.

Sighing to myself, I drummed my fingertips on the table while waiting for my server to connect. It was normal, though. I had it routed through so many different countries to hide the signal it was to be expected that it might take a while to boot up.

When it finally loaded on my screen, I was shocked by the first email sitting in my inbox.

It wasn’t from Lucy or my sister, as I’d expected it to be.

It was from the Director of Omega, Kit’s now deceased adoptive father.

What the shit...

I clenched my jaw tight to keep from drawing attention as I clicked into the unread email to see what it said. I was beyond stunned though. The time stamp on it suggested he’d sent it while on the phone to Kit, right before he was killed. Why would he have emailed me though?

He had my contact details, as many officials did, for when they needed to trade a favor with the darker side of the law. Most recently, we had been in contact to arrange Kit’s safe retrieval from the Onyx Auction where that disgusting pervert Mr. Gray had tried to purchase her.

Sucking in a deep breath, I angled the screen a little more away from the others and started to read.

Dragomir, I’ll make this quick as I don’t have a lot of time left. By the time you read this, I will already be dead... or wishing I was. I can only hope that the people who have infiltrated my compound are too stupid to keep me alive.

As one of my daughter’s bonded guardians, you have a sacred duty to protect her at all times, but you and I both know you are not a good man. You’ve done things in your short lifetime that I would never wish my girl exposed to, but I do believe you’ve done them for the greater good.

It’s because of this that I’m passing along this information to you. You’ll do what needs to be done and not let emotions or mercy cloud your judgement.

Bridget needs to die. None of this will end until she is finished.

There are only two ways a Ban Dia can be killed—at the hand of her dianoch or by the hand of a direct relation, daughter to mother or mother to daughter.

Kit will never kill Bridget, not unless she is faced with no other choices. I fear Bridget does not harbor the same sense of decency.

You must track down Victor and Lachlan. She burned her bridges with them a long time ago, and if you stand any chance of being rid of her, it will be because of them.

Good luck, and take care of my little girl.

I scanned the email several times, reading it carefully before closing the window down and scrubbing my hands over my face.

Holy shit.

What the hell was I supposed to do with this information? Obviously, it was important or why would he have spent his last precious moments emailing it to me instead of just... telling Kit? There was also a whole fuck load of subtext to those words that was making my stomach turn over like a cement mixer. Surely I couldn’t let Kit meet with Bridget un-armed after learning all of this?

I needed to speak with the guys.

Christ. It was pretty clear Jonathan wanted me to keep it quiet. From everyone or just Kit? It didn’t feel right keeping secrets from her. While I knew that was a pretty big statement from someone like me, someone with more blood on his hands than he could even remember, it was still true nonetheless.

Wesley had been spot on when he’d commented on me seeming more mellow. I had definitely changed, there was no question about that. But I think it was for the better.

Having this second chance with my brother and a first chance with love, it was making me see the world in a whole different light. It was making me actually want to be in this world, while six months ago I couldn’t have cared less.

Because of that, I knew I needed to do everything in my power to help Kit win this power struggle. Everything. Even if it meant suffering consequences for my actions later, it would be worth it to know she was safe.

And that was exactly the reason Jonathan had emailed me and no one else.

I’d make those hard choices without question. For her.

22

AUSTIN

Wes was officially all caught up on our new intel, and Princess was pacing the length of the veranda while stressing about Lucy not taking her calls. Vali hadn’t received any emails from her either, which seemed odd. He’d definitely gotten an email from someone because while he was reading it, he looked like he’d just swallowed a live canary.

“Who do you think that email was from?” I murmured to Tyson, who lay at my feet cleaning his paws with his huge tongue.

We couldn’t communicate as easily as Caleb and Sam, with actual words. For Tyson and myself it was more just a thoughts-and-feelings mesh; I just knew what his opinion on something was without needing the actual words. In this case, Tyson really didn’t give a shit who Vali’s email was from, but he was wondering if there might be a belly scratch in his future if he went out to see Christina.

“Dude, focus,” I growled at him, nudging his fat ass with my toe. “The scary scaly one is keeping secrets; doesn’t that annoy you?”

Tyson’s feelings on the matter were that both scaly ones were pretty damn scary, but he would totally take them on in a fight if he needed to. Optimistic bastard.

I sighed, chewing the edge of my thumbnail as I watched Christina pacing back and forth through the windows, holding her phone in her hand and every now and then pausing to hit redial. Ever since Vali had said she’d missed their catch-up, Princess had been convinced something was wrong. I couldn’t totally disagree, either.

We had more urgent matters to deal with, though. She’d agreed to only bring Caleb to meet with Bridget, and Wesley had managed to convince her it’d be safe for him to tag along in crow form. Lucky bastard; that power really was perfect for his voyeuristic ways.

I doubted any of the others had caught on to it, but I knew his little kink was in watching. Maybe when this was all over, or at least when things calmed down a bit... we could have some fun.

“How are we going to keep Baby Girl safe if she won’t let us come with her?” I pondered aloud, and finally I got Tyson’s attention. Fucking cat was totally in love with my girl.

“She has none of her own magic, she can’t heal herself, and her strength is gone. She has Caleb with her, and he is pretty badass—not that we will ever tell him that. Wes has been learning his magic for three damn years, so who knows what he might be capable of. But it still doesn’t feel like enough.” I pulled a fine-tipped marker from my pocket and doodled a couple of runes on my right arm to clear some of my old ink. It was ink that Yoshi had done for me years ago when I was still learning. None of it was powered and, quite honestly, not as good as my own stuff. I wanted some clean skin to give myself a fox. No reason why.

Tyson huffed, and I could feel him laughing at my own mental sarcasm, so I bopped him lightly on the nose with my pen.

“Shut it, cat, or I’ll tattoo you next,” I teased him, then paused. “Actually, that’s a good idea.”

Tyson bared his fangs at me in warning, and I shook my head at him. “Not tattooing you, dickhead. Christina. Surely Caleb and I can lend her a little magic through blood ink to keep her safe for this meeting.”

The big cat cocked his head at me, then licked his whiskers in a way that clearly told me I should have thought of this hours ago. Smartass. Everyone thought Sam was the asshole because... well, okay yeah, he was a dick. But Tyson wasn’t exactly sunshine and belly rubs all the time either.

Speaking of belly rubs, the overgrown kitten rolled over onto his back with his dinner-plate paws in the air, begging me to follow through for him. Giant sucker.

I snorted a laugh and gave him a quick scratch before smacking him lightly on the butt.

“Get up buddy. We have some tattooing to do. Go grab Cal; we will need some of his blood in the ink to make it stronger. I don’t know how effective it’s going to be while she has that fucking bracelet on.” Tyson was already bounding away before I finished speaking, so I headed outside.

“Hey,” Christina said, giving me a tense half smile. “She’s still not answering. I called about fifty times, so, hopefully when she sees all the missed calls she will call back. Ugh, that sentence just had ‘call’ in it so many times I feel like I’m losing my mind or something.”

Her voice was trembling, and I prayed to all things magical that Lucy was just being a shitty friend, not that something bad had happened to her. My girl couldn’t take much more heartbreak, and she sure as shit didn’t deserve it.

“She’s probably in the middle of some crazy menage-sex weekend with those two hotties she’s dating,” I suggested as casually as I could manage. “Just leave it for now; she’ll call back when she can.”

She nodded, chewing her perfect lower lip and still looking worried as all hell. I hated that I needed to add to that, but... well, fuck if I wasn’t just as worried for her.

“I was thinking about your meeting with Bridget,” I started, and her ice-blue eyes narrowed on me.

“No, Aus. We already discussed this, and even Alpha agreed. It’s Caleb and Wes only.” Her tone was final, and it made me want to fight with her, if for no other reason than it turned me the fuck on.

Not the fucking time, Austin.

I had to remind myself that on an almost daily basis around this girl. With all the shit going on, there just wasn’t enough right times, something I knew all the guys agreed on. So the sooner we could get Christina out of danger, the better.

“I know,” I agreed from behind gritted teeth. “I had another idea for how to keep you safe in case your mo—I mean, Bridget tries anything shady. I just need to know you can protect yourself.”

She shrugged one shoulder. “I’m still pretty badass as a human, you know? I can shoot almost better than you, and Cole did teach me some pretty hard-core combat moves.”

“Princess.” I grimaced, running a hand over my face. “That shit isn’t going to be worth crap against her if she wants to start crap, and you know it. You need magic.”

She raised an eyebrow at me and looked ridiculously sexy doing it. Damn her. “You have an idea, oh great and powerful Ink Mage? Oh!” As she said it, I saw that she’d thought of the same thing I had. “You can ink some magic into me?”

“I can try,” I agreed. “If you’ll let me. I’d feel better about you going with only my weakling brother to back you up.”

Caleb’s snort of laughter came from behind me, and I bit back a grin.

“Oh please,” he snickered, clapping a hand on my shoulder. “You know my magic is way more useful than yours. It’s why I get the shitty side effects, remember?”

Christina laughed, holding her hands up. “Okay, measure dicks later; let’s get this ink done while we have time. I think it’s a good idea.”

“Babe.” Caleb sounded offended and glanced at me with a teasing glint in his eye. “We’re identical twins; there is no measuring required. We’d be happy to show you, though... for scientific purposes.”

She gave us a saucy smile as she brushed past us to head inside. “Maybe later,” she called over her shoulder, and fuck if I didn’t get a boner faster than a teenager at the Playboy Mansion.

Caleb noticed, of course, and flicked me in the crotch before following our girl inside.

Dick.

“So what’s the design this time?” she asked me, perching on the edge of the table.

Chewing the edge of my nail, I pondered her question.

“Let me grab my stuff while I think about it,” I muttered, jogging upstairs to my bedroom to grab my case with all the equipment I might need.

When I came back to the dining room, Caleb had made Christina laugh about something, and jealousy stabbed me briefly. My twin had it so easy sometimes. He was such a charismatic people person, while I seemed to just end up in fights everywhere I went.

Tyson butted me with his huge head, almost sending me flying, but his message was clear. Princess loved me just the way I was, rough edges and all.

“Yeah, yeah,” I whispered to the big cat, gently pushing him out of the way so I could get back to the table. “Okay, let’s start with just a small spell and see if it will hold. I’m a bit worried about how that fucking bracelet will interfere.”

“Good point.” Caleb nodded. “All right, you need my blood, I take it?”

“I do,” I replied. “Princess, shirt off and lying facedown on the table, please. This one is for your back.”

There was no reason why I chose specific locations for her ink, other than that was where I wanted them to go. I fucking loved that she didn’t question my choices though; she just trusted me.

At least I wasn’t the only one having trouble keeping focus as she stripped her purple tank top off, showing off her black bra before lying flat on her stomach. I needed to whack Caleb in the stomach to bring his attention back to me and the little cup I was holding out for his blood.

“Sorry.” He snickered. “Got distracted.”

“No shit,” I muttered, waiting for him to cut his inner arm deeply and bleed into the cup for me to mix with my inks. “Princess, we’ll just start with a small fire rune to test it out.”

“Cool,” she replied, propping her head to the side on her arms as I dragged a chair up beside her.

No one spoke while I mixed the blood and inks, then prepped my gun, but Caleb pulled up a chair of his own to watch. Once I was ready, I smoothed a hand over Christina’s back and felt a thrill run through me as her skin shivered and pebbled under my touch.

“You good?” I asked her, positioning my needle on the top of her spine. She murmured a noise of assent, so I began.

It was only a small rune, no more than an inch in diameter. If it worked and held magic for her, then I would form a chain of runes, each holding its own spell, all the way down her spine. Not only would it keep her safe, it’d look sexy as fuck.

“Done,” I murmured when the design was complete. “Sit up and try this one.”

She did as I said, swinging her legs around to dangle off the table on either side of where I sat, grinning and tempting me even more.

Does she have any idea what she’s doing to me?

“What do I try?” she blinked at me with total faith in my abilities, and I badly hoped I hadn’t fucked it up. Only one way to know though.

“Simple fireball,” I told her. “It was just a small fire rune.”

She nodded, holding out her palm and conjuring a fireball exactly the way I’d taught her to. It flared to light in her palm, and I let the breath gust out of me in relief.

“Sweet,” Caleb murmured, coming to stand closer as she extinguished the fire. “Once more? Make it bigger.”

Holding her palm out again, she followed the correct steps... but nothing happened. Nothing. Not even a little puff of smoke.

“Did I fuck it up?” she asked me, scrunching her nose adorably.

“Probably,” I retorted in the way she would expect, but I was pretty sure she hadn’t. “Do it again.”

She repeated the action, but still nothing happened, and I heaved a sigh.

“Single-use spells?” Caleb murmured, and I nodded.

“Seems so. Okay, Princess, here’s the deal. I can magic in as many single-use spells as we have time for, but you’ll need to use them sparingly.” I gave her a stern look to make sure she was paying attention, and she nodded back to me with confidence.

“Let’s get started then,” she agreed, lying back down on the table.

I chewed at the edge of my lip for a moment, thinking about which spells would be most useful if she ended up in the shit with Bridget. I’d have to start with the more complex ones and then, if time allowed, I could go back and add extra small ones in between to link the chain down her spine.

Placing my tattoo gun down for a second, I unclipped her bra strap and couldn’t help running my hand down her bare back.

“Cal,” I said under my breath, “I’ll need more blood. Let’s make this as strong as possible.”

He nodded back to me and flicked out his blade again.

It wasn’t ideal, but I felt a hell of a lot better about Christina having some back up of her own, rather than none at all.

* * *

After Christina left with Caleb and Wesley, I packed up all my equipment and stored it back in my bedroom. When I came back down, the dragons were sitting at the kitchen island drinking beer and speaking in low tones that cut off as I entered the room.

“Why do I get the feeling you were talking about me?” I muttered, heading to the fridge to pull out my own beer. “Why do I care?”

The second part was rhetorical, but Vali gave me a mocking smile. Scaly fuck.

“Tell him.” The older Romanian nudged his brother, and Cole scowled back at him.

I narrowed my eyes at our team’s second-in-command. “Tell me what, Cole?”

“Well,” he started, then took another sip of his drink before continuing, “your skanky ex, Peyton. She’s dead.”

The bottle I was holding almost slipped from my fingers as I stared back at him in shock. Did he seriously just say…?

“She’s dead?” I repeated, and both dragons nodded. “How do you know this? How did it happen?”

At these questions, Vali rolled his eyes and Cole ducked his head to avoid my gaze. That told me exactly how they knew, and I groaned.

“You killed her?” I exclaimed. “How? Why? She has Bella. Please tell me you didn’t just leave that kid to grow up with only a shitty dad and no mom.”

“We didn’t,” Vali responded, and I heaved a sigh of relief. Far too soon. “I mean, we didn’t leave Bella with no mom. Peyton had given her up for adoption years ago because your ex was a lousy excuse for a human. Cole did kill her though.”

“Cole,” I growled, and he gave me a sheepish look. Or as sheepish as an asshole as intimidating as he was could manage.

He shrugged uncomfortably. “It was a spur of the moment thing. We’d been looking into her for her involvement with the gala shit and then found out she was neck deep in these shifter videos hitting the internet. One thing led to another, you know?”

“I’m sure it did,” I murmured, twisting the top off my beer and taking a sip. I wasn’t particularly upset about Peyton being dead; she definitely deserved it if she’d been involved with Gray after all. It was just concern for Bella that’d had me in shock initially.

“So, these people that adopted Bella…” I started, and Vali gave me an understanding nod.

“They seem to be good people. Nice neighborhood, she goes to a good school. I had one of my guys do some recon to double-check, if you want the folder?” His diligence on the matter was appreciated, and I nodded.

“How are things going with your criminal empire anyway?” I asked him, and he shrugged.

“With Lucy and Elena running things from behind a smokescreen, I’m pretty confident we are one hundred percent legitimate now. Those two work well together,” he commented, then grimaced. “The only thing I feel unsure about is Finn.”

Cole grunted a noise of disapproval. “The boyfriend? He has always felt off to me.”

I frowned. “How? He’s never around when we are.”

“Exactly,” Cole responded with an eyebrow raise. “Something about him seems off. Why was he at Blood Moon in the first place when we broke in? And didn’t he rip a man’s heart out with his bare hand? That’s some scary shit right there.”

“Says the dragon shifter.” I snorted, remembering uncomfortably that I’d just de-hearted several men myself recently. “Does Lucy or Elena know what variety of supernatural he is?”

Vali scowled. “They say they do, but they’re not letting on. I might put my guys on him and see if they can’t find out more.”

“Just tell them to be subtle about it,” I advised him, realizing I was asking two dragons to be subtle. “If the girls find out you’re investigating their boyfriend…”

Vali nodded. “I got it handled.”

I rolled my eyes but didn’t argue with him. He was only marginally better than Cole, who had the tact of a sledge hammer.

Whatever, it’s their funeral.

I, for one, had no interest in getting on Lucy’s bad side. There had to be a reason her name was Lucifer, after all.

23

KIT

The location Bridget had arranged for us to meet was apparently the house that Caleb had been meeting her at for their magic lessons. His theory was that she already had it so heavily warded with magic it made for the perfect safe meeting place... for her.

Wesley shifted into his crow form before we left and took off into a tree the second our portal dropped us onto the grass. He did it quick enough that to anyone not watching for it, he’d have just seemed like a startled bird.

“Remember,” Caleb said in my ear as I surveyed the back of the house. “We want her to come outside so Wes can keep an eye on things. Also, I think it’s better to steer clear of her wards if possible.”

“Understood,” I reassured him. “I’m human-ish, not stupid.”

We walked together across her immaculate lawn and up the few steps to the glass door where I knocked politely.

It was Nicholai who answered, which didn’t surprise me. Bridget didn’t seem like the answer her own door type of woman. The smile he gave me seemed genuine, but I wasn’t fooled. He was sticking by Bridget for some reason... I just didn’t know what it was. There was his dianoch bond, sure. But Vic had all but outright said that the bond did nothing to coerce feelings or loyalties. Maybe Nicholai really still loved her?

“Kit,” he greeted me. “It’s good to see you. And you Caleb. Will you come inside?”

“We’d rather not,” I replied with a smile of my own. “Do you mind if we sit out here?” I indicated to the expensive-looking outdoor setting on the patio. “It’s such a nice day, after all.”

Okay, so “nice” was stretching it, but it was springtime and warm enough to go without a jacket. This was a good thing because without my super-healing, my back was on fire from the detailed runes stretching from the nape of my neck down to the top of my ass. It was actually amazing how many Austin had managed to get done in such a short time, but holy crap, I could feel them all now.

Regardless of the lingering pain that I was unaccustomed to, I was grateful. There was enough magic inked into my skin that I should have no issues defending myself long enough for Caleb to get me the hell out, if need be.

Nicholai gave me a small smile that said he knew exactly why I wanted to stay outside, but he didn’t argue. Smart man.

“Of course,” he agreed with a small head tilt. “I’ll tell Bride to come out. Can I get you a tea or coffee?”

“Coffee,” I accepted just a touch eagerly, and Caleb said the same. The fox shifter nodded and headed back inside the house while Caleb and I took a seat at the outdoor setting. I perched on the edge of my chair, wanting to stay alert for any mischief my bitch of a mother might have up her sleeve.

“You doing okay?” he murmured to me as we waited, and my gaze searched the trees for Wes. “Just remember, keep calm and play dumb. We want to coax the information out of her, if possible. At worst, we don’t want her suspicious about why we came here, right?”

“Uh-huh,” I agreed, finding Wesley’s dark, feathered form in one of the top branches of a huge tree.

“Kitty Kat, that doesn’t sound very encouraging,” Caleb whispered, but whatever he was going to say next was cut short with the door opening and Bridget strutting out to meet us with Nicholai on her heels holding a tray.

That wasn’t even an exaggeration; she strutted out like she was Queen Shit and we were her lowly peasants coming to beg favors from her. I was really starting to get a feel for why so many people disliked her.

“Christina, darling,” she cooed, coming to air kiss my cheeks before pulling out a chair for herself. “I’m so glad the change of locations wasn’t too much trouble for you. My business was all wrapped up in Los Angeles, you see. There was no need for me to stay there any longer.”

“Didn’t bother us,” I replied in a cool tone. “We can go anywhere... as you know.”

Bridget flicked a glance at Caleb and gave a quick, brittle smile. “I do. So what can I do for you, sweetie? You said you wanted to know more about our people?”

I nodded, taking the cup of coffee that Nicholai held out to me. Then I thought better of it and placed it down on the table without taking a sip. Bridget had already proven she wasn’t above magically drugging people’s drinks.

“Yes,” I replied, meeting her darker blue eyes without so much as blinking. “More importantly, I want to know why you gave me this fucking bracelet and how to get it off.” I held my gold-encircled wrist up, even as Caleb groaned and kicked me under the table.

Bridget’s red brows shot up in surprise, and her gaze flickered to my wrist. Her shock only lasted a brief second, though, before her lips twisted into a cruel smile, and I came to the sickening realisation that we were about to meet the real Bridget.

“Oh dear,” she murmured in a mocking voice. “Did someone cut you off from your magic?” She shook her head and clicked her tongue. “What a terrible shame. And you, the Ban Dia who was supposed to save the world.”

“Excuse me?” I snapped, narrowing my eyes at her. “No one ever said I was supposed to save the fucking world. What is your problem, really? What the fuck did I ever do to you? I was a child, for god’s sake!”

“Well, that’s where you’re wrong, sugar.” She leaned forward in her seat, her eyes flashing with danger and her teeth taking on a decidedly sharp gleam. “I am so glad you decided to drop the pretense. This was going to be so boring if you never knew what I was up to.”

My teeth ground together hard, and it was taking everything in my power not to pop her in the nose again. “Why don’t you enlighten me then?”

“Of course,” she replied gracefully, sitting back to sip her tea. “I suppose I will need to, given that, I assume, Jonathan never did get around to telling you all the important parts. Always was a fault of his, hiding his head in the sand. Pretending like if he ignored fate, then it might not happen.”

“What the hell does this have to do with Jonathan?” I demanded, choking slightly over his name.

She grimaced. “Yikes, he really didn’t get far before Simon shot him, did he?”

“How the fuck do you know about that?” I gasped, feeling bile rise in my throat. Surely Bridget couldn’t have been the one behind Simon’s orders....

She flapped her hand like that was the least of her concerns. “Jonathan had a whole lot more to do with this than you clearly understand. I don’t suppose he ever told you about his sister?”

I started to shake my head, then remembered. “Only that I reminded him of her; that was why he adopted me himself instead of putting me back into the system.”

She snorted a laugh. “Yes, I imagine you would. His sister, Tasha, was my mother—your grandmother—and the sole reason we are all in this shit fight to begin with.”

My jaw dropped open, and the air all gusted out of me like I’d just been punched in the gut. Jonathan was my great-uncle? Why would he never have told me that?

“Wait, how...?” Coherent sentences were failing me as my mind frantically tried to fit all the pieces together.

“How was that bitch responsible for this mess?” Bridget finished for me. It wasn’t what I’d been about to ask, but it would do, so I nodded. “Tasha had the gift of foresight. One of her dianoch was a seer, and she gained some of his power when they bonded. Ban Dia aren’t designed to take on anything more than a faint shadow of their dianoch’s magic, though. They exist to increase our strength in our own magic. Not to share theirs. Anything more than just a little taste, and it can drive a Ban Dia mad. That’s what happened to Tasha.”

She paused to sip her tea, watching me from under her long lashes. That bitch. She already knew I had taken on more than a “little taste” of my dianoch’s powers.

“Anyway, Tasha became a bit deranged, determined the world was about to end and desperate to stop it from happening. I was just a little girl at the time, but she became convinced that I would be the one to bring destruction down on the earth.” Bridget rolled her eyes, but her voice was bitter with deep-seated hatred of her mother. “So she colluded with a group of mages to strip me of my magic when I came into it at age seven. That’s the pivotal age for Ban Dia children. Seven. When we know if our child is our one true descendant or just a dud.”

“That’s the real reason you dumped me, isn’t it?” I breathed, feeling shivers of shock creeping over my skin. “You thought I was a dud.”

Bridget shrugged, uncaring. “You showed no signs of being a Ban Dia on your seventh birthday; I saw no reason why I should keep you. Not you or any of the other dud children I’d created over the years. Besides, you should be thanking me. If I’d known you were my true heir back then, I would have drained your magic straight away. You never would have made it past childhood.”

I gasped with shock, and Caleb tightened his grip on my hand. I hadn’t even noticed him take it to begin with.

“Clearly Tasha’s spell didn’t take,” Caleb commented. “You don’t look like your powers are stripped at all.”

“Clearly,” Bridget responded to him as if ignorant of how her casual news was hitting me. “Tasha wasn’t all there in the head, so it was hardly a surprise that it all went wrong. My magic was a little dented, but in no way stripped like she had hoped.”

“The plague,” I whispered. The churning in my belly was only getting worse with every word that crossed her lips. “My grandmother was responsible for the plague?”

Bridget rolled her eyes again. “Finally, you’re getting it. Perhaps now you can see I am only trying to right the wrongs of my mother by returning supernatural-kind to their bloodrights.”

“You’re the one?” I was in such a state of shock I needed things spelled out to me. “You’re the one behind all these shifters preparing for war? How exactly do you plan on saving them all when you don’t have the magic to restore them?”

“No, I don’t,” she agreed with me. “But you do. Or you did. Come the full moon, that nifty little bracelet will allow me to absorb everything that was yours. Dianoch included.” Her lips peeled back in a macabre grin. “Then, once my army is assembled, we will take on the puny humans and finally take back this world for magic. The way it was always meant to be. And you know the best part about it all, Christina?” I shook my head, numb to speech. “Without your magic, there is nothing you can do to stop me.”

She let out a childlike giggle, like the psychopath she was turning out to be, then leaned in to kiss my cheek. I wasn’t so shocked that I couldn’t place the tracker on her, though, and she’d just presented the perfect opportunity.

“Wait,” I gasped, grabbing on to her bare arm and placing the spell against her skin. “What will happen to me after you take my magic?” I really didn’t give a shit; it was never going to happen. But the spell inked on the thin piece of tissue paper needed three full seconds of contact to bind.

“Aw, honey,” she sighed, cupping my cheek and giving me this look of pity that made me want to tit punch her so damn badly. “You’ll die, of course. With no magic left, you’ll be nothing better than human. And humans will have no place in my new world. The kindest thing would be to let my army tear you to shreds.”

She patted my cheek in a condescending way, then pulled her arm free from my grip. “I think we’re done here? I’ll let you leave unharmed. After all, you pose no risk to me, and you…” She turned to Caleb with a simpering grin. “You will become mine all too soon. I do so hate to see handsome men damaged.”

With another giggle, she turned and headed back inside the house, not even glancing back to see if Nicholai was following or if we were leaving.

“I’m so sorry, Christina,” Bridget’s guardian murmured softly. “If there were anything I could do...” He trailed off pathetically, and I tried not to turn my anger on him. After all, this wasn’t his fault; he was just too damn spineless to stop her. Fucking fox shifters.

“There’re plenty of things you could do, N,” I told him in a cold voice as I shoved back my chair and made my way to the stairs. “You just need to grow a pair, like Vic. Maybe he can help us stop this madness before it goes any further.”

“I hope so,” Nicholai muttered, giving me a sad smile. “Good luck.”

Curling my lip at him in disgust, I turned my back and walked out to the grass with Caleb beside me. Right before the portal runes flared to life, Wes flapped down from his branch and perched on my shoulder to hitch a ride home.

Bridget had just dropped a truckload of information on me, but she’d fallen into that same old bad guy role. They really never can resist boasting about how smart they are and what their master plan is. I guess it was just a flaw of the overly arrogant? Whatever the reason, it was damn helpful knowing what we were in for.

Now we just needed to foil her diabolical plans and then... save the world. So easy.

24

RIVER

My heels clicked a rhythmic sound on the wooden boards of the front veranda as I paced. It was the best I could manage in an effort to keep control, and it was barely working as it was.

Kit had returned some hours earlier with Caleb and Wes and filled us in on everything Bridget had blurted out about her plans. Stupid woman. No wonder her mother had tried to strip her magic from her all those centuries ago; she wasn’t sane enough to handle them herself.

It was the email that Vali had shared with me that had me pacing the damn veranda, though. He’d done the right thing, showing me. I could tell how torn he was, and it was clear that Director Pierre hadn’t wanted the information shared with the team. Otherwise why not send it to me?

Expecting Vali to keep something of that magnitude to himself was too much to ask, though. He was sitting in one of the wicker chairs, watching me with those dark gray eyes as I paced, and the tension practically vibrated through him.

“So, what do we do?” he asked me after the longest amount of time.

I didn’t immediately respond; instead I paced a few more lengths while I thought his question over. What the bloody hell did we do?

“I guess we track down Bridget’s missing guardians. Most likely they are staying away due to the geas she placed on them, but surely with Austin and Caleb at full power we can break those for them. That would allow them to do what needs to be done.” I tightened my lips over my teeth, knowing that hadn’t been what he was asking.

“Makes sense,” he rumbled. “But you know what I meant. What do we do about the other message.”

My next step faltered, and I paused, sighing heavily. Jonathan’s surface message had been clear. Find Lachlan and Victor, and have one of them kill Bridget before shit got out of hand. His other message wasn’t that much harder to determine.

A Ban Dia could only be killed by her direct relative, say Bridget to Kit. Or by her dianoch.

So if one of us were to lose control, we stood a very real chance of hurting her. Maybe even killing her. I couldn’t let that happen. But what were my options, here? To never let her heal me and therefore never turn into the beast that lurked inside my mind?

Leaving wasn’t an option. Maybe it should be. Of course, it should be, and a better man than me would already have his shit packed and be on a plane to the farthest corner of the earth in order to keep her safe.

But the thought of never seeing her again made me physically ill. Even entertaining the idea resulted in a sensation akin to being stabbed by a thousand knives dipped in acid. Deep down, I knew I couldn’t survive being away from her. Sooner or later I would lose my battle for control, and something told me if that happened, there would be no need for her magic to bring out my beast. He could do that all on his own given half an inch of freedom.

“I don’t know,” I finally admitted to Vali, dropping down into the seat beside him and scrubbing my hands over my face. “I honestly don’t know.”

He pursed his lips and nodded slowly. “I respect your honesty on this one, Alpha,” he growled, and I huffed. He’d never called me Alpha before, I suspect because he never really considered me his leader—which was understandable and not a battle I was concerned to fight. His use of it now, though... that worried me.

“My suggestion, if you’re open to it,” he started, and I gave a small nod to continue, “is that you let Kit heal you in a controlled environment. Your need for control is clear, and I suspect it stems from whatever you’re afraid you’ll change into.” I gave another short nod. “So, maybe we need to create an environment similar to the control you keep mentally. A cage or a box, a confined space where you will feel safe. Then if anything does go wrong after she heals you, we can keep you under lock and key until you get a hang of things.”

I sighed, rubbing at the stubble on my cheek as I considered his idea. It wasn’t a bad one. Far from it. More to the point, it was a hell of a lot better than anything I’d been able to come up with so far.

“It’ll take time to arrange,” I said in a soft voice, almost not wanting to voice my agreement. “More time than we have before the next full moon.”

“Well,” he said, clapping a hand on my shoulder. “Then we just need to keep you alive through that, keep Kit from having all her magic stolen by her psychotic biological mother, and then we deal with all of this afterward. One step at a time, right?”

He was right. It was weird, talking to Vali. He was so much like Cole that sometimes it felt like they were the same person, but then at other times he showed exactly how he’d become such a formidable crime lord. He was a damn master strategist, and a skill like that was going to come in handy with what was to come.

“One step at a time,” I repeated. “But promise me this. If anything happens and you think I might be at risk of hurting her...” I trailed off, my throat tightening with panic just imagining it.

“I’ll shoot you myself,” Vali promised. “You have my word.”

“Thank you,” I murmured, feeling just a tiny bit of weight lift at his oath. At least I had contingencies in place, should the worst occur. I couldn’t risk being the one to hurt my Kitten, and yet, I was the most likely to.

Bugger. I was right royally fucked.

* * *

Returning to Omega Headquarters for the reading of Director Pierre’s will was a somber affair. There had been no funeral, as per his wishes. Instead, his body had been cremated and the right officials paid off to avoid a police investigation into his death. It wasn’t needed, after all. We knew who had pulled that trigger, and he had paid for it.

“Are you sure you’re okay for this, Vix?” Cole murmured quietly to our girl as we walked down the marble corridor to the conference room. We were a few yards behind the other guys, and I walked on her other side.

She didn’t answer, but her lips tightened and she gave a sharp nod. Nobody could ever accuse her of weakness, but once in a while I wished she would lean on us. Let us help shoulder some of the weight on her mind.

“Good, you’re all here,” the Omega lawyer announced as we entered the conference room and he snapped his briefcase shut. “This is the Last Will and Testament of Jonathan Davenport, aka Director Louis Pierre. It was just updated recently, a month ago as witnessed by me, but the contents are strictly confidential and for your eyes only. Not even I know what is in this document.” He slid a thick manila folder across the table to me, and I caught it before it slid off the edge. “Mr. Morgan, if you’d be kind enough to visit me when you’re done here? I’d like to know what the future looks like for Omega.”

“Of course,” I murmured with a small nod.

Graeme, the lawyer, picked up his briefcase then turned to Kit and pursed his lips.

“I’m very sorry for your loss, Christina,” he said in a less businesslike voice. “I know we haven’t ever met, but your dad and I have worked together for many years. He’ll be sorely missed.”

“Thanks,” she responded in a husky whisper.

“Come and see me if you have more questions that those papers don’t cover. I was privy to… most of what Jonathan was doing here.” He gave her a pointed look that left no doubt in my mind he knew about the magic.

Kit gave him a tight smile, and he left us alone in the conference room, closing the door behind him.

“Shall we?” I suggested, indicating to the seats around the table. The boys all took one, but my Kitten hesitated, her eyes darting to the small metal urn she carried.

“I think I might get some air,” she said quietly. “I’m okay,” she added before I could express concern. “I just don’t know if I can hear what he put in that packet. I’ll wait outside, okay?”

I wanted to say no, to tell her that it wasn’t safe to be anywhere without protection until she got her magic back, but that wasn’t the way to deal with her. It was just a surefire way to make her claws come out.

“Stay where we can see you?” I asked, nodding at the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the grassy lawn dotted with oak trees.

“Of course,” she agreed, backing out of the room. “Come get me when you’re done.”

We all waited, tense as violin strings, until she reappeared outside the window, giving us a small wave and then sitting cross-legged under a tree.

“Let’s see what the director left,” I started, flipping the folder open and breaking the seal on the flap. The accompanying letter, which Graeme had read to me over the phone, had been clear that Jonathan’s will was for all seven of us to read.

A lot of it was the standard stuff that I’d had to deal with when my parents died. Properties, bank accounts, safety deposit boxes, and priceless artwork were all left to Kit as Jonathan’s sole surviving family member and named heir of his estate.

The part that was, no doubt, the reason for the secrecy was the stack of DNA results. One for each of us, including Kit and Jonathan, which showed their matching DNA and confirmed what Bridget had told Kit about him being her blood relation. I flipped through them, then put them to the bottom of the pile to continue on. We didn’t need to read them to know they showed us all to be a whole lot more than human, and a quick glance at mine showed exactly what I had expected.

“Species: Unknown.”

“Is that everything?” Vali asked from across the table, and I glanced up. I hadn’t even realized I’d stopped speaking and was retreating inside my head once more.

“Uh, no.” I shook my head, scanning the next page. “The company, Omega Global, has been left to all of us. Kit is named as majority shareholder, but the remainder is split equally amongst the rest of us. Director Pierre asks that we keep Omega open and operational until such time that we deem Kit ‘of sound mind’ enough to make her own decisions with it.”

Cole grunted a disgusted noise. “So he doesn’t want to jeapordize his experiments while Vixen is emotional.”

“Something like that,” I agreed, druming my fingers on the tabletop as I read that document again.

“There is something I was meaning to bring up,” Wesley said, breaking into my musing. “Kit said that Jonathan assured her that all Omega recruits and agents were here voluntarily and fully aware of what is at stake with them being changed… but I sure as hell had no idea. Did you all?”

“I’m not an Omega recruit,” Vali replied with a grin. “But I know what you mean. Our family told stories about being descended from dragons, but they were only stories. Unless you learned something more after you came here?” He raised his brows at Cole, who shook his head.

“No,” he confirmed. “I had no idea.”

“Neither did I,” Wesley agreed.

Caleb shifted in his seat. “We knew about our heritage, obviously. But no one at Omega ever mentioned it to us.”

“Nor me,” I added, pursing my lips. “Do we think he lied to her?”

“See if there is anything else useful,” Wes suggested, nodding at the stack of papers in front of me. “I’ll do a quick bird’s-eye view of campus and see if I can get any intel.”

Caleb snorted at Wesley’s bird joke, and I rolled my eyes. Apparently he’d grown a sense of humor in the three years he’d been away.

Wesley’s eyes glazed over, and I flipped through the few last papers in the stack, which seemed to be summaries of the current recruits and agents under Omega’s employ. Names, ages, locations, and estimated species. Certainly explained why the document was for our eyes only. It would be pretty dangerous information if someone like Bridget got wind of it.

“Back,” Wes announced, and we all looked at him expectantly. “Most recruits have been sent home under the excuse that the campus is undergoing renovations. I did overhear a couple of first years talking, though, and it really does seem like they know what’s going on. Not about the director’s death.” That was still being kept a secret until Kit could make a formal announcement. “But they were discussing that girl that Kit healed back in her training group. They knew she’d shifted into a wolf and almost sounded excited to learn what they might be.”

“Huh, so we were the only ones kept in the dark?” Caleb pondered aloud, and Austin scowled.

“Sounds like Pierre was pulling a lot more strings than he has let on,” he muttered, slouching in his seat and folding his arms.

“What will we do about Omega?” Cole asked me. “Do we tell Vixen?”

“Not yet,” I decided, shaking my head. “For now, Vali and I will take over the running of things. Keep it all business as usual until this shit with Bridget is over with.”

The Romanian met my eyes across the table and gave me a nod of support. He was a lot like me, in some respects, and I was starting to overlook his history of violence and crime.

Charming bastard.

25

KIT

The tracking spell had worked. For the next six days leading up to the full moon, we were able to track Bridget’s comings and goings perfectly and had even had Wesley give us visual confirmation on a lot of locations, just to be sure it was working properly.

Unfortunately... that told us nothing. None of her movements seemed to make any sense, and we’d gained absolutely no insight into how she was planning to complete this spell which would transfer all my magic, and my guardians, over to her.

Worse still, we had zero leads on finding Vic or the mysterious Lachlan. Vali and River had told me they were trying to find them in the hopes that they might know more about Bridget’s plans and maybe even how to remove the magic-blocking bracelet. It sounded like a good idea, but now that it was coming up blank, I was starting to lose hope.

“So, we follow her like a shadow today until we work out where this spell will go down, and then... what?” I asked, clenching and unclenching my fingers in the hem of my shirt.

“And then we disrupt whatever components she needs to complete the spell. If we can keep her from doing whatever needs to be done, then we have gained another month to figure this all out.” River sounded confident in this plan, but there was a tightness to his jaw that gave him away. He was worried.

“We’re just assuming that there even are components to disrupt,” I pointed out. “What if it’s not that complicated? What if it’s just as simple as ‘Oh look, full moon. Bam. Magic gone.’”

“It’s not,” Austin snapped. He’d been particularly peevish today, way more so than usual, which was kind of cute. I liked to imagine it was because he was worried about me, but it was probably worry for what might happen to them if Bridget succeeded.

“Austin’s right,” Caleb confirmed. “There is no way in hell a spell like this, something powerful enough to actually strip a Ban Dia of her magic, could be done without a ritual—probably blood sacrifice and definitely a sacred space laid out with corresponding runes. There will be enough for us to disrupt. Trust us.”

I chewed my lip as I considered this. I really did want to trust them on this, but it all seemed too hopeful. All of our fates could hinge on this. Except...

“River, I think you should stay behind,” I blurted out, and he raised a dirty blond brow at me.

“Excuse me?” he asked in a dangerous voice.

Licking my lips, I straightened my spine to defend what I’d just said. “You’re the only one not bonded to me in some way. I think you should stay away so that if things do go wrong, you won’t get sucked into Bridget’s web. Actually, you too Wesley.”

“No way,” Wes snapped, folding his arms over his chest and glaring at me.

“Ah, yes way. You’re not bonded to me as a dianoch, so she shouldn’t be able to absorb you with her diabolical plan. Unfortunately, I’ve already doomed these four, but you two should stay safe. Just in case.” I hated saying those words, hated the idea of being separated from two of my guys at a time that could very well see the end of me, but it was for their own damn good. Surely they could see that?

There was a long, heavy silence for a moment as the guys all just stared at me. No, they glared at me. Finally, River flicked a glance at Wes who gave a tiny headshake.

“No,” River said. “Sorry, Kitten but I’m pulling rank on this one. As team leader, I make final calls on mission plans, and this mission plan requires everyone’s involvement. End of story.”

“What? You can’t do that!” I protested, but they were already dispersing from the kitchen without listening to me. “River! You can’t do that!”

He didn’t respond until it was just the two of us left in the kitchen, and then he prowled closer to me, boxing me against the counter with a hand planted on either side of me.

“Technically, Kitten, I can. I shouldn’t; you’re absolutely right. But sometimes we have to risk the anger of the ones we love in order to keep them safe.” He leaned in closer, capturing my gaze with his golden eyes. “So, in this instance, unless you plan on physically restraining us, there is not much you can do to stop Wes and I from coming.”

“River.” I pleaded at him with my eyes. “Can’t you see that’s what I’m trying to do? Keep the ones I love safe? I just have a really bad gut feeling about how this is all going to go down, and I just... I can’t lose anyone else. Not now. It’ll kill me, you know it will.”

A hot tear slipped from my eye, and River caught it with his finger, wiping it away and caressing my cheek with his palm.

“If that were to happen, it wouldn’t kill you, Kitten. It’d hurt, I have no doubts about that. It’d damn near feel like it was killing you. But it wouldn’t. You’re too damn strong, love. The only way you’ll ever be defeated is if you let yourself be defeated.” His voice was soft and low, intended only for my ears. “But this thing tonight. You need all of us there with you. We need to be there together as a united team. Individually we are strong, but together we’re indestructible.”

Hearing River echo a thought I’d had myself, only a week or so ago... it was startling. But it gave the idea more weight. He was right. We were stronger as a team, so maybe he was right about needing to come with us tonight.

“River, I just... if at any stage it looks like things might go bad, you need to promise me—”

“We’re not leaving you, Kitten. Not ever, so don’t even ask that. If things go bad, then they go bad for all of us. But we won’t turn tail and run without you.” He was firm in this, totally resolute, and I knew I wouldn’t change his mind.

“Well, then we better win, huh?” I tried to joke, but it came out sounding weak and scared.

River gave me a small, half smile and cupped my face with his palm. “It’s the only acceptable outcome, love. I won’t tolerate failure on this mission.”

His formal phrasing made me smile, so it was with reluctant acceptance that I nodded my agreement and then sealed it with a kiss. River’s lips met mine gently, and he kissed me slowly, like he was committing this moment to memory, just in case. It was because of that kiss that I knew he wasn’t anywhere near as confident as he was acting.

That bastard.

“I love you, Kitten,” he whispered when we broke apart, his voice hoarse with emotion.

“I love you too, Alpha,” I whispered back, swallowing tears down and silently praying this wouldn’t be the last kiss we would share.

* * *

“What do you think is down there?” Caleb murmured from beside me. We were lying flat on our bellies on the roof of a two-story office block, watching the storm shelter entrance that shifters had been coming and going from for almost an hour.

“Has to be some sort of sacred ground doesn’t it?” I whispered back, not taking my eyes off the doorway. “That’s where you said she’d be completing the spell.”

He grunted a noise, chewing his lip as we continued to watch. We’d tracked Bridget inside almost two hours before and she hadn’t left, so we were pretty confident this was where it would all go down. Where I might die... if I wasn’t smart about how I handled things.

“Hopefully the others have been able to get more than we have from here,” he said, sounding disappointed. “So far, all we know is that she’s got a buttload of shifters helping out, which isn’t necessarily the worst thing in the world, but it’s sure as hell going to complicate matters.”

“True,” I agreed. It wasn’t like we had really expected her to try something like this magic-stealing crap without any backup... but it would have been nice. I guess her hubris only extended as far as confessing her plan in advance. “How many have you counted so far?”

“About fifteen or sixteen,” he replied, shifting his weight to find a more comfortable spot. “You?”

“Same,” I confirmed. They’d been carrying boxes and potted plants out of the basement for the past hour, loading them into a waiting truck. That suggested they were clearing out space for something.

“We can handle that many normal shifters easily. I just hope she doesn’t have more stashed inside or something.” He had a good point. Fifteen shifters would be a walk in the park for two dragons alone, and that wasn’t even taking Caleb, Austin, and Wes into account. Or River with his arsenal of weapons. As for me? Well, my job was pretty clear. Bridget.

Distract, delay, detain—whatever it took to keep her occupied while the guys saved my bacon. I’d really never fully appreciated how much I relied on my powers until I no longer had them. I felt powerless and vulnerable. Was this what Lucy had felt like when I was on Fox jobs? If so, it fucking sucked and I owed her an apology.

A tremor of anxiety rumbled through me at the thought of my bestie. She still hadn’t returned any of my calls, but after Wesley had looked into it, he’d said there was evidence they might have just gone away for a vacation.

Every fiber of my being hoped that was true.

“Hey,” Wesley whispered as he materialiszd from crow form to human beside us. “Any luck here?”

“No sign of Bridget, but we’ve counted about fifteen shifters,” I reported. “How about you?”

“The roof of that building is that sort of retractable glass designed so you can open it up and have a courtyard, you know?” He fiddled with his ring as he lay beside me on the roof. “So I’m wondering if this entrance brings them out into that part. It would make sense if Bridget actually needs the moonlight to complete the spell.”

“You couldn’t see anything?” Caleb asked, and Wes shook his head.

“Nope, the glass is tinted and it was too dark inside to make out anything.” He sighed, and I placed my hand over his.

“That’s good info, Wes,” I assured him. “It makes sense with all the plants they’ve been moving out.”

He huffed, pursing his lips as he looked down on the spot we were monitoring. “Have they brought anything in at all?”

“Not much,” Caleb answered. “Except for whatever that is.”

While we watched, several muscle-bound shifters carried an intricately carved silver chest off the truck and down the stairs into the darkness. It was big, maybe five feet long, and looked heavy. Whatever it was, they were handling it with extreme care.

“Well, that’s interesting,” I murmured. “What do you suppose that could be?”

Caleb shrugged. “I’ve never seen anything like it. Maybe an altar or something? It looks like an old, magical artifact, at any rate.”

“Definitely old,” Wes agreed, staring at the darkened hole where the chest had disappeared with its guards. “We will need to keep an eye out for that when this all kicks off.”

“Hopefully it’s just a pretty box that she thought would look great holding her cauldron and spell book,” I mumbled under my breath, and Caleb arched an eyebrow at me. “Yeah, yeah, not the time for jokes. Got it. Any new orders from River?” I asked Wes.

“Yep, he said if nothing more has happened to fall back to the meeting point. It won’t be dark for another couple of hours yet, so we should be conserving energy.” He gave me a little nudge with his shoulder. “Or maybe fuelling up on coffee?”

I snickered, despite the tense situation we were in. “I love it when you talk sexy to me, Wes.”

“You two are addicts,” Caleb muttered, scooting away from the roof edge and dusting off his clothes. “Why don’t you just throw in some cheesy bread for Kitty Kat, and she’ll really be in heaven.”

I licked my lips with enthusiasm, even as my stomach rumbled its agreement. People shouldn’t joke about coffee and cheese with me; that was a quick way to getting stabbed with a fork or something.

“Silly thing to joke about, bro,” Wes chuckled, following us back over to the fire escape on the far side of the building. “Now you’ll need to follow through on that offer.”

Caleb groaned, and I laughed as we made our way down the rickety iron ladder to the dirty alleyway below and then around to the diner we had named as a rendezvous point. It was a totally inappropriate time for joking and coffee, but... if not now, then when? We really needed to seize these moments when they arose because who knew when the next one might be.

If ever.

26

Our carefully planned mission of infiltration fell to pieces mere moments after crossing the threshold into the greenery-lined atrium. Wesley had been correct in his guess that the passage Caleb and I had been watching would lead us to the greenhouse. From what we could tell, the exteriors of the building were totally separate from this center area and the only way in or out of this inner part was via underground passageways.

That was all well and good, except for the booby traps Bridget had left for us along the way. Turned out she wasn’t as stupid as I had thought she might be.

Cole and Vali had found another way in, accessed via a manhole in the street on the other side of the building, so they had taken that way in, along with River. I could only hope they were faring better than we were.

After disabling the wolf shifters guarding the entrance, we had made it barely fifty feet inside before Caleb stepped on a trap spell that immediately encased him in ice. Thankfully, both he and Austin had their familiars out, and Sam was able to relay Caleb’s message to me that he was fine and to go on ahead. He was confident he could get out, but unsure how long it’d take. Seconds after delivering that message, the ice extended to Sam, even though the snake was nowhere near the trap.

“Because he’s part of Caleb,” Austin explained without me asking.

No sooner had we left him than we ran into our next roadblock.

“Shit,” Austin cursed as he threw a white hot ball of magic at the first half-shifted wolf who lunged at us from the darkness. His ball hit, sending the deformed beast flying back several yards, only to be replaced by another. “How many? Can you see, Wes?”

“No,” Wesley replied, sounding frustrated. “They’re moving too fast for me. There’re a lot though.” Even as he said that, he spun to narrowly avoid the slashing claws of another wolf and then seized its furry head between his palms. Whatever he did in those few seconds that he clasped the shifters face resulted in the creature slipping lifeless to the ground, twitching as foam bubbled from his mouth. It was scary as fuck, and also crazy awesome.

“There’s a hell of a lot more than fifteen shifters in here, Princess,” Austin snapped as he took on two more rabid creatures who both tried to pounce on him at once. “Something tells me your mom expected you to show up.”

“No shit,” I replied, using my handgun to shoot a third shifter who was attempting to catch Austin unawares. “Notice none of them are going for me?”

Something heavy dropped from the ceiling of the tunnel, and Wesley dodged it just before being flattened. When it moved, I fired off three shots into its mass to prevent it disemboweling my dorky lover.

“Thanks,” Wesley called out to me before slamming his hand into the forehead of another attacker. Whatever it was he could do to them, it looked fucking painful.

“Yeah, I noticed that,” Austin replied to my question. “I figure Bridget needs you in one piece until the spell is completed. This lot is just intended to slow us down, I imagine. None of them are even trying to kill me.”

“No, they wouldn’t,” I agreed, shooting another half-formed shifter in the throat. “She wants your strength too, remember? She’d only be weakening herself if she killed you guys now.”

“Well, in that case, we must still stand a chance of stopping her,” Wesley offered, panting with exhaustion as he got a short reprieve between attacks, thanks to my silver-plated bullets. “Otherwise why bother trying to slow us?”

“Fucking good point,” Austin grunted, throwing the immobile corpse of another half-wolf off him. “Push forward then. Let’s get Christina to the atrium as quickly as possible.”

Bolstered by the knowledge that these shifters weren’t actually trying to kill us, our progress was a little easier. Tyson offered damn good help in the fights, too, being quicker and more brutal than the shifters.

By the time we reached the leafy atrium, the guys were both panting with exertion, and my gun was already out of bullets. Not a good thing when we had yet to even start on the real fight. Nothing could have prepared us for what we found, though.

“River,” I gasped, spotting him first across the emptied-out room.

He was being held by two enormous, half-shifted creatures that seemed to be some variety of bear... maybe. Whatever they were, their teeth were longer than River’s head.

Casting my gaze around, I spotted Cole in a crumpled heap in the corner, while Vali was being dragged out of the opposite corridor by his ankle. He was totally unconscious, from what I could tell, and both their bodies were covered in a glittery sort of dust.

“Christina, darling, you made it!” Bridget crowed from her seat on top of the ornately carved silver box. “Hope you don’t mind; I have to stack the deck in my favor, you know?”

A small movement out of the corner of my eye was all the warning we got before Nicholai appeared out of the shadows and blew a sharp gust of shimmery, glittering powder at the three of us. On reflex, I sucked in a breath and choked as the dust infiltrated my lungs. It only caused me to cough a few times, though, and then I was fine again.

Austin and Wesley, not so much. They both collapsed into boneless heaps, just like Cole and Vali. Tyson winked out of sight the second Austin lost consciousness, too, so I was alone on my side of the room.

“They’ll be fine,” Bridget assured me, her blood-red lips split in a toothy grin. “This will just take them out of commission for a few hours. I wouldn’t want my new harem of men to be harmed in all of this, now would I?”

“I don’t understand,” I puzzled. “Why didn’t it affect me?”

“Because right now you’re nothing more than human. Same, it seems, as your other handsome friend here.” She hopped off her box and prowled towards River on spike-heeled shoes, her velvet gown dragging across the ground behind her. “Imagine my surprise to find you haven’t even changed one of your guardians yet! Not to worry, though. It’s the very first thing I will rectify when I have your magic.”

River’s golden eyes met mine across the room, and his feelings were clear. There was no way in hell he would let that happen.

“Bridget,” I started, taking a step toward her.

“Stop!” she cried out, and I froze. “You foolish child, do you know nothing? If you step on the wrong rune, you’ll be incinerated.”

Foot frozen in mid-step, I peered at the floor a little closer. It was dark within the artium, the only light coming from the stars and the slowly rising moon, but I could still make out vaguely familiar runes etched into the stone floor.

“These are...” I frowned, crouching to inspect the designs more closely. “These are actually cut into the stone?”

“You have no idea how long that took me,” Bridget informed me. “So don’t spoil all my hard work by dying now.”

Pursing my lips, I looked at the runes a little longer, trying to pick out the pattern. It had to be possible to walk across them; Bridget had just proven that herself. So it must just be the occasional rune that wasn’t safe.

Trouble was, these weren’t the mage runes that the twins had taught me. These were Ban Dia runes, the same as on my ring or that appeared during a bonding. Runes that I knew nothing about. Thanks, Mom.

“You’re playing with fire, girl,” Bridget snapped as I tentatively slid my foot closer to the nearest design. But her words gave me an idea. Twice now she had made fire references, which meant the runes to be wary of could be fire runes. If Ban Dia magic followed a similar formula to Mage magic—which stood to reason—then all of the elements would be incorporated into a major spell such as this. So if I just...

Ah-hah.

I spotted one that seemed to vaguely resemble the Mage rune for water and hopped onto that, squeezing my eyes tight shut and praying for the best. When nothing happened, I heaved a sigh of relief and opened my eyes to grin triumphantly at Bridget.

“Lucky guess,” she spat, ignoring River and stalking confidently back to her silver chest. I could see now that the top was laid out with a few candles and herbs, but I got the feeling the majority of the preparation had been in her cutting the runes all over the floor.

I shrugged at her comment. Lucky or not, it was right. That was all that really mattered, wasn’t it? Confident in my guess, I didn’t bother trying to decode another safe rune; instead I just hopped across a few more water-type runes until I’d reached almost the center of the room.

From there, I could see something seeping out from some small holes at the base of the silver chest. A blackish sort of fluid that I couldn’t make out in the darkness was seeping from the chest and into carefully cut grooves in the floor. They were lined up too damn perfectly for it to be a mistake, and the fluid was slowly filling the etched designs like it was inking them in.

“You may as well just give up, child,” Bridget told me in a condescending way. “As much as I do appreciate you bringing my new lovers to me so I wouldn’t need to hunt them down, your presence really wasn’t required for this part of the spell. As soon as all of the runes are joined and the moon reaches its zenith, all of your magical essence will transfer across to me.” She held up her own wrist where a twin gold band glinted in the moonlight. “See, the funny thing is that this is the spell my mother was trying to create to strip me of my magic. She was missing this part though. The receiver’s bracelet. She just thought she could strip my magic and have it dissipate into the earth. But it doesn’t work like that. That’s why it all backfired on her, foolish old woman.”

“Right,” I said, nodding like I was appreciating her genius. “So, she had all the other components in place, like the runes cut into stone and the, er, liquid stuff?” I indicated to the box she was perched on, which almost seemed like it was bleeding. “And the full moon... but just not the second bracelet?”

I wasn’t as dense as I was sounding; I was just trying to get her to fill in the gaps if there were any other important factors to the spell. So far, my only hope was in stopping the slow-moving fluid from filling all of the furrows in the ground.

“Yes, that is what I just said, isn’t it?” she snapped at me, and I sent up a mental thanks that she had given me up as a kid. I couldn’t imagine she was very good mom-material.

Pausing where I was in the middle of the floor, I needed to make a choice. Get to River and try to free him from the huge fanged creatures, or work out how to stop this spell, which was already underway.

A short glance at River told me he wasn’t totally unaffected by the glittery dust shit. His eyelids were heavy and drooping, and he had yet to speak. Not really within character for him. It confirmed my own suspicion that although I’d never healed him, he hadn’t been totally human to begin with.

Bridget had already said she wasn’t interested in harming the guys, though, because she wanted them for herself. I couldn’t help wondering if her caution around them had anything to do with Victor and the horrific scarring on his face. Something had clearly gone wrong between them, and now she was trying to replace him.

I refused to even acknowledge the ick factor of my mom planning on sleeping with the men I loved. That was the icing on the shitcake that was my lineage, really.

No, my first priority needed to be stopping this fucking spell, which meant either stopping the moon from fully rising or stopping the liquid shit from filling out all the runes. No prizes for guessing which option was going to be easier to achieve.

My gaze rapidly scanned the floor, checking the progress. It had gotten far enough that there were too many channels filling now to simply block them up. I needed to somehow get rid of the blackish fluid altogether. A high pressure hose would probably come in handy at a time like this...

Actually, that wasn’t such a terrible idea. I still had plenty of unused spells in my spine tattoo. Surely if I used a couple of water ones, I could wash that crap away. It wouldn’t stop it permanently, but it’d buy me enough time to do some damage to the runes or push the box off alignment with the floor grooves.

Hiding my hand behind my back, I summoned as much water energy as I could, drawing directly from the blood ink and praying it would pack enough force to disrupt the pattern.

Not wasting time with grand gestures, I hurled the water at the floor, right at the line where the dark fluid was trickling across freshly cut stone. My water hit with an explosion of red-tinted spray, and it was then that I realised what was filling the runes all over the floor.

Blood.

Bile rose in my throat, but I tamped it down and refused to let my mind wander onto what might be inside that box. I needed to keep my focus on the water before the spell was used up.

Directing the stream, I used it just like a high pressure water blaster, forcing the blood out of the floor grooves and spreading it over the flat stone in between. When the magic dried up moments later, it looked like I had succeeded.

Until the diluted blood began gravitating back to the grooves with the speed of a receding tide. It was almost like it was being sucked back into its correct position, but what was worse, my water had only served to spread it faster and thin out the consistency so it travelled faster through the designs.

“No,” I groaned, seeing the red blood move faster through the patterns, linking up rune after rune and bringing the spell so much closer to being finished. “No,” I muttered again, even as Bridget broke out into peels of laughter at my expense.

There was only one option left. I needed to destroy some of the runes. Surely if I hacked into a few of them, the spell couldn’t be completed.

Not allowing myself another second’s indecision, I summoned lightning from one of the runes I remembered being near the base of my tattoo. With a forceful throw, I aimed it directly into the centre of what seemed to be a water rune. Water was surely going to be a safer rune to explode than fire, right?

Too late, I realised my mistake. Ordinary lightning and water were a volatile mix, at best. Magical lightning and water was a whole other story.

The impact was so extreme that I was knocked off my feet, smacking my head hard on the floor and rolling over just in time to avoid slapping my hand down onto a rune that looked a lot like fire.

“Fuck,” I groaned, putting a hand to the back of my head and coming away with bloody fingers. Dazed, I looked to where Bridget had been sitting, but her silver box was vacant. Next, I looked for River.

He and his guards had been hit by the impact too, and I saw the second River spied his opportunity to escape. He probably would have made it too, except his motions were delayed thanks to that glitter dust crap and his guards were supernaturals. They moved ten times faster than him, and he’d barely made it two steps across the room to me when a blade protruded out of his chest.

“No!” I screamed, my voice echoing off the walls and bouncing back at me in a cruel mockery of my pain.

River was frozen on the blade of the enormous shifter thing, and I was powerless to help him as the bear-beast tore his weapon from my lover’s body, causing a sickening arch of blood to spray across the floor.

Freed from the long blade, River’s golden eyes held mine without a single drop of fear as he crashed to his knees, then crumpled face forward. Lifeless.

“No!” My cry was echoed, but this time it wasn’t from me, but my mother. “No, you incompetent sack of shit! I told you not to harm them!” she screeched at the two shifter guards, hurling blue-purple balls of flames at them that set them alight instantly.

For several long moments as the two shifters howled and screamed their death song, I crawled over the rune marked floor to reach River’s body. Ignoring the painful deaths of the shifters nearby, I rolled him over and swallowed a scream of pain at just how much blood there was. His own was mixing with the creepy box blood and filling the pattern all that much faster, but I couldn’t bring myself to care.

“River,” I sobbed, turning his face to mine and finding him still clinging to life. Barely. “I don’t know what to do. I can’t heal you. None of the runes on my back are for healing.” Why were none of the runes on my back for healing? Because they were all for combat. We’d never guessed I might end up needing to save the life of one of my guardians.

His mouth opened to say something, but no sound came out. Only a bubble of blood that caused him to choke and convulse, while tears streamed hard and fast down my face.

“Alpha, you can’t. I can’t do this without you,” I cried, holding his face between my hands and desperately trying to pretend my knees weren’t wet with his warm life blood. “What do I do? You need to tell me how to save you!”

Bridget’s mocking laughter bounced through the room, and as much as I tried to block her out, I couldn’t.

“You do nothing, Christina,” she sneered at me. “Soon enough you’ll be reunited, though. Don’t you worry about that. Oh look. The pattern is complete.”

As I watched in horror, the last lines of the blood-filled runes linked up, and the whole thing pulsed with power. My lightning strike had done nothing to disrupt the spell. Worse than nothing, it had gotten River killed.

All my fault. Always my fault.

Grinning with glee, Bridget looked up to the sky to check the progress of the moon.

“Only a minute or so left, I would guess,” she informed me with delight. “Any last words, child? After I take your magic, I will need to strike you down. I hope you understand.”

“Fuck you,” I spat at her, my face wet with tears and my voice husky.

“No, sweets, that’s what my new guardians will be doing, just as soon as you’re gone. Trust me, darling girl, I’ll make it so they never even remember meeting you. Now, isn’t that kind of me?” Her grin split her face, and her sharp teeth showed through. “Oh, but I almost forgot. I have one last parting gift for you.”

She circled around behind the bleeding chest and unbolted the lid of it. I wanted nothing more than to run screaming from that room, but I was frozen to the spot, crouched over River’s dying body and unable to look away from whatever my evil, sadistic mother had inside that chest.

“Do thank this one for me,” Bridget implored me. “She was such a big help.”

With one high-heeled foot, she kicked the heavy chest over so that it landed with its lid open, allowing me an unobstructed view of the contents. Not that I needed to see inside. The force of the chest falling caused the person inside to tumble out and roll to a lifeless stop in the middle of the runed floor.

There was no mistaking those delicate limbs or that short, bright purple hair.

“Lucy,” I moaned. “No, this can’t be happening!”

The inside of the box she had been contained in was lined with sharp spikes. Each and every one of them was coated in her blood, while her body was riddled with corresponding puncture wounds. She was pale, almost blue, and based on the amount of blood filling the floor... well and truly dead.

“Oh don’t worry, she’s been dead for days,” Bridget informed me, “I just kept her blood flowing with my magic for this very purpose. Little scamp had the audacity to try and escape me, and I accidentally hit her a little too hard. You know how it is with our sort of strength.”

Rage was building in me like a tsunami, and every word that bitch spoke pushed it higher. My heart and soul had just been ripped to shreds; my best friend—my sister—had been dead in that fucking box this whole time and I’d never known.

Now my lover lay dying in my lap, and this psychopath was making jokes?

“Ding!” Bridget exclaimed, like a deranged game show host. “Full moon is up. Now, come to Mama, you delicious magical essence.”

The gold band on my wrist began glowing under the bright moonlight, and hers echoed the glow with its own dimmer version. Judging by the laughter peeling out of her, this was exactly what was supposed to happen.

I didn’t give a shit about the magic, though. I didn’t care about her plans for world domination or her intentions of enslaving the human race. All I could focus on was Lucy’s pale, bloodless corpse in the middle of the room and River’s slowly diminishing heart rate under my fingers.

Most of all, was the pain. The sheer heartbreak at losing these two people who I loved so damn hard.

All of that manifested in me like a geyser, and I screamed my frustration and fury. All of my agony and despair, my heartbreak and hopelessness poured out of me with that scream, and to my abject shock and fascination, the band around my wrist clicked off and hit the floor with a delicate sounding ping.

My magic all came snapping back into me like a rubber band that had just been released, knocking me flat on my back and leaving me gasping.

“What?” Bridget’s scream bellowed through the room, and I pushed myself back up to look at her. But then I remembered I had my magic back. I could heal River!

Frantically, my hands found his wound, and my magic rushed into him with the speed of a bullet train. There was no stopping it or holding it back this time. The second I gave the okay to heal my lover, the magic took over with a life of its own.

Numb and still wracked with agony over losing Lucy, I willingly relinquished control, taking a backseat and letting the almost sentient magic do what needed to be done to try and save River. He would be changed, there was no avoiding that now, but at least he would be alive. That was all that mattered.

Bridget’s screams and protestations reached my ears as the magic finished all it needed to do inside River’s broken form and began retreating back up my arms, leaving the feeling behind that my fingers were sinking into dense, silken fur.

“This isn’t possible!” my biological mother howled, holding her own bracelet in her hands and shaking it, like that would make it suddenly work again. “It’s not possible! You can’t... No!” As she screamed and ranted, I withdrew my red-slicked hands from River’s chest and turned my gaze on her.

Whatever she saw in my face in that second scared her.

Her skin blanched almost pure white, and she took a shaking step back before recovering her wits and casting a hasty rune portal before I could cast anything to keep her in place. In seconds, she was gone, leaving nothing behind but a glowing circle of runes and a trail of destruction.

Almost instantly, I dismissed her from my mind. I’d find her sooner or later, and she’d pay for what she had done.

Under my fingertips, River stirred. Shoving all thoughts of revenge and punishment aside, I crouched back over him, checking and finding a steady pulse in his throat. The relief that washed through me when his golden eyes opened was almost enough to choke me.

But it was short-lived.

“What have you done, Kitten?” he whispered in a hoarse, pain-filled voice. “I can’t hold him back. You need to kill me, please.”

“Wh-what? No, River, I just brought you back.” Confusion clouded my brain, and I shook my head at him. “I’m not fucking killing you. What the shit, River?”

“Then...” He trailed off, grinding his teeth together and grunting in pain. “Then wake Vali. He made me a promise.”

I sat back on my heels in shock. Vali had promised River he would kill him if he ever changed? What the hell could be that damn bad? And if he was so afraid, why didn’t he just fucking leave me?

“River,” I started, but it was too late. His body was already shifting, despite his clear efforts to hold it at bay. “Jesus fucking Christ, River. Just give in to it. This is insanity!”

He looked like he was going to disagree with me, but he was losing the fight.

Trying to get out of his way, I went to shuffle backward but slipped in his blood and smacked my elbow painfully on the floor. Hissing with pain, I took my eyes off River for the briefest second to regain my balance, but that was all it took.

When I looked back, the River I knew was gone. In his place stood an enormous, snow-white wolf with River’s beautiful, golden eyes.

“Holy shit,” I breathed, pushing myself unsteadily to my feet so I felt a little less like food. I could hardly be blamed for that reaction with a wolf the size of a donkey staring me down. “River? Are you okay? See, that wasn’t so bad, was it? You’re just a wolf. A really massive, white wolf.”

Unlike when Cole and Vali changed into dragon form, though, there was no trace of the River I knew in this beast’s eyes, and I sucked in a sharp breath of fear.

The wolf lowered his head, his lips pulled back in a growl and his eyes locked on me. Like I was the enemy...

“River—” I started once more, but cut off when his form began to ripple again, like he was about to shift back. Or that would have been the best-case scenario.

Instead, he shifted again into something else. His snow-white coat shuddered once and turned completely ink black. His form increased in size until he stood towering over me, and fangs extended throughout his mouth until it was like staring into the mouth of a shark.

Most frightening though, were his eyes. No longer were they the familiar liquid gold of my British lover. They were molten, rolling, fiery pits that made me feel like I was staring straight into the mouth of Hell itself.

This.

This was what he had been so afraid of.

“River?” I whimpered, feeling desperate. Not because I feared for my life; I couldn’t care less for that. I was desperate to see that there was some small flicker of him left inside that beast. To know that I hadn’t just condemned him to a fate so much worse than the death he’d been so close to just minutes ago.

His huge head lowered, saliva dripping from his rows of razor fangs and hitting the ground with a hiss like acid. Actually, based on the holes in the stone, it seemed like his saliva really was acid.

A low, menacing growl rumbled from deep within his chest, and I braced myself. For what, I wasn’t totally sure. To get my head ripped off, probably.

I squeezed my eyes tight shut out of reflex as his jaws extended and came close enough that I could feel his scalding breath on my face. But then... nothing.

Peeling one eye open again, I found myself standing alone in the room of horrors.

Scattered around the edges were the motionless forms of my guardians, at my feet was a sickeningly large puddle of River’s blood, but there in the middle of the room, like a broken doll, lay Lucy.

“Lucy,” I moaned, taking three stumbling steps across the room to where she was, then I collapsed to my knees like my strings had just been cut. With a shaking hand, I reached out and rolled her over to face me, trying not to cringe at her ice-cold, waxy skin.

“Lucifer? You can’t be...” I trailed off as a sob ripped through my body. For a long moment, I just clutched her to me. The raw ache inside made an unsealable wound where Lucy belonged—my best friend, my partner-in-crime—my sister. The tears wouldn’t fall, even though the primal scream inside me didn’t seem to have an end. I pressed my face against her purple hair. I needed Lucy to be alive. I’d fought to keep her that way, pushed, pulled—dammit. She would never give up on me; I would be damned if I’d give up on her.

Sniffing back tears and trying to calm my breathing, I sat back on my heels and laid trembling hands on Lucy’s chest. Surely if Bridget could keep her blood pumping for several days after death, I could restart her heart. Couldn’t I?

“Come on, come on, come on,” I begged my magic to do it’s thing, mentally grabbing it with both hands and trying to force it down into Lucy’s body. At first it seemed to be working, transferring through my hands and into my best friend, but all it did was circulate her body uselessly and then return to me feeling confused.

Over and over I tried the same thing, despite already having seen it wasn’t working. Sometimes, it just wasn’t that easy to admit defeat.

How long I knelt there, trying to force my magic to heal the girl who had been there for me my entire life—my oldest friend and closest companion since as long as I could remember—I had no idea. At some stage, I exhausted myself and just lay there on the cold stone floor beside her, sobbing and cursing that poisonous bitch that had birthed me.

I didn’t hear Caleb arrive, and when he smoothed the hair away from my face with frozen fingers, his words weren’t reaching my ears. His blue, frostbitten lips were moving, sure, but all I could hear was a dull whooshing noise.

Maybe I was dying too? Maybe Bridget’s spell had worked after all and this was just how a Ban Dia died. That would certainly explain why I couldn’t heal Lucy...

My limbs were numb, and I couldn’t have moved even if I’d tried to as Caleb collected me up in his arms and carried me out of that horrific place. My eyes drifted closed somewhere along the tunnel we had come in through, and I put no effort into opening them again.

What was the point?

Jonathan was dead. Lucy was dead. And River... probably wished he was dead right now.

Everything I touched turned to shit.

27

For the next few days, my five remaining guardians took turns staying with me. My body was so severely depleted of magic that I needed the skin-to-skin recharge, but I was only just on this side of catatonic.

So for however long it took, they rotated time with me, just lying there in my giant purple bed and hugging me. I wished I could say it made everything better, that it made me feel safe and loved and that I realized there was more left to live for.

I wished I could say that. But I couldn’t. Instead, all their presence did was remind me how many other people stood to lose their lives because of me. Had we not already come close with Wes? We still had no idea who had blown up Seamus’s house. Hell, we hadn’t even tried to find out; we’d been so focused on Bridget.

Every time one of the guys slipped into the bed with me, enclosing me in strong arms and whispering words of love in my ear, it made me even more certain that I would eventually be their downfall.

“Vixen?” Cole crouched in front of me, stroking my hair back behind my ear. Someone was still wrapped around me from behind, maybe Vali? I’d lost track. “Lucy’s funeral is today. We thought you might want to go.”

I blinked my gritty eyes back at him a couple of times, letting his words sink in to my foggy brain. I’d run out of tears days ago and had just been staring at the wall when I wasn’t sleeping.

“Regina?” Vali murmured in my ear, confirming my guess. “Do you want to shower and dress? I think it would be good for you to go.”

Cole cleared his throat and shot his brother a sharp look over my head. “If you want to. You don’t have to go if you’re not feeling up to it.”

Do I want to go? Am I really ready to face the sight of Lucy in a fucking coffin?

Then again, what good did denial do me? She was dead. Hiding in my bedroom and refusing to pay my respects wasn’t going to bring her back.

No, the least I could do was take a fucking shower and put on a black dress. Lucy was my best friend, my sister. To not attend her final send off would be just a fucking slap after I had let her be killed.

With a small nod, I tried to push myself up, only to be immediately lifted into Cole’s strong arms and carried into my adjoining bathroom.

“Cole, I’m not disabled,” I grumbled, my voice husky from disuse. “I can handle showering alone.”

The big man paused, having just turned on my shower to warm up the water.

“Huh, I never realized how much I missed your voice, Vixen. Even when you are being a grump.” His lips pulled up on one side in a half smile that didn’t reach his eyes. Not even close.

I glared at him, not totally sure why I was being such a bitch when all he was doing was helping me. “I have this handled, Cole. Just tell me how much time I have to get ready, and I’ll meet you downstairs.”

His jaw clenched, but he gave me a tight nod and opened the bathroom door to leave. “You’ve got about forty-five minutes. Yell if you need anything, and we will hear you, okay?”

“I’ll be fine,” I assured him, but I really needed to reassure myself. Because I was far from fine. The least I could do, for Lucy’s sake, was to fake it. She deserved that much from me.

Then maybe I could find my backbone and do what I should have done a long, long time ago... walk away.

* * *

I showered as quick as my stiff muscles would allow, then roughly blasted my hair dry with the swanky hairdryer one of the boys had equipped my bathroom with. After it was dry enough, I took my time to carefully apply some make up. Lucy would be horrified if I turned up to her funeral looking like a sack of shit, even if that was how I felt.

No, for her I made sure to take my time, winging my eyeliner and applying a soft pink lipstick. She’d have given me a high five for the finished product if she were still here.

Back out in my bedroom, a new black dress lay out on the bed with its tags still attached. Nice of someone to have thought of that, considering none of the black dresses I currently owned would have been anywhere near appropriate for a funeral.

Biting my lip to keep my emotions in check, I slipped into some fresh underwear and then stepped into the dress, tugging the zipper up myself and not bothering to look in the mirror. Chances were, Vali had bought it for me, and he had a real knack for getting my sizes spot on.

The garment was comfortable, a soft fabric that clung to my upper arms and chest, then flared out from the waist into a full skirt that fell to my knees. Reaching behind me, I yanked the tags off, then sat on the edge of the bed to roll stockings onto my legs and stuff my feet into the pair of simple, black patent leather Louboutin pumps that had been left out.

Placing my hand on the door handle, I took a moment to gather what little strength I had left inside me. Lucy’s adoptive parents would be there, and they didn’t need to see me in a blubbering mess. Neither did Elena or Finn, Lucy’s lovers.

At some point after getting back from the fight with my mother, Wesley had told me that they’d found Elena. Apparently Bridget had been holding her too, but when Bridget didn’t return and her guards disappeared, Elena’d been able to escape.

Vali and Cole had to be relieved to know that Elena was okay. No one had seen Finn for a while, but from what I knew of his relationship with the girls, that wasn’t unusual for him. I did hope he would make it to Lucy’s funeral, though.

“Ready?” Wesley asked me as I joined the guys in the foyer of our opulent house. They were all smartly dressed in dark suits, but I was too far gone to appreciate the image they cut.

I gave him a nod and followed them out to the backyard for Caleb to portal us to wherever the funeral was being held. It dimly occurred to me I didn’t even know what country our home was in. Then again... I no longer cared. I’d be gone soon enough.

The six of us congregated together in a circle, ready for Caleb to do his thing, and someone took my hand. Glancing down, I saw inked fingers gripping mine, and as the whoosh of magic flared around us, Austin squeezed my hand tightly, then released as we appeared on the grass outside a depressing-looking chapel.

“This isn’t right,” I muttered, staring up at the stained glass angel above the open doors. “Lucy would have hated to have her funeral in a church. She was a scientist; she wanted to be cryogenically frozen, not prayed over.”

“It’s what her parents wanted,” Vali told me, nudging the small of my back to coax me into motion, instead of standing there like one of the stone angels in the graveyard.

Heaving a sigh, I dragged my reluctant ass up the steps toward where I could see people taking their seats inside. “Makes sense, I guess,” I sighed. “Her adoptive parents are lovely people and yes, very religious. I’m still shocked they never changed Lucy’s name.”

“Lucifer?” Caleb smiled. “They couldn’t have. It suited her too much.”

“It did,” I agreed, making my way down the aisle but pulling up short when a five-foot-tall, weeping woman threw herself into my arms and sobbed into my chest.

“Kit,” she wailed, clutching me tight and leaving me no option but to pat her awkwardly on the back while she babbled totally incomprehensible words into my dress. A few feet behind her, Lucy’s adoptive father, Jerry, stood watching us and looking just totally lost.

He and Valda had been older when they’d taken Lucy on, and she’d really only ever spent holidays with them since starting boarding school with me, but they loved her like she was their own child. They’d been the best parents any foster kid could have hoped for, and I knew this would be devastating them.

Yet I couldn’t force myself to try and comfort Valda as she sobbed on me. I couldn’t summon up those empty words or platitudes that I knew she needed to hear so badly.

Thankfully, one of the guys sensed my dilemma and carefully peeled her off me to offer a box of tissues. Free, I took a few more shaking steps toward the front of the chapel. Toward the coffin, which sat there in the center of the open space surrounded by flowers and with its lid propped open.

“I don’t think I can do this,” I whispered to myself, my fists clenched so tight that I wouldn’t have been surprised to see blood on my palms.

“You can, Vixen,” Cole murmured in my ear. “I know you can. You’re stronger than you think.”

My lips pursed, and I bit back my angry retort that he didn’t know what he was talking about. I wasn’t strong, I was just... lucky. Or unlucky, depending how you looked at it. Somehow I kept escaping with my life, while those around me suffered.

But right here, at my best friend’s funeral, I owed it to her to at least say goodbye.

Shaking Cole’s hand off my arm, I quickly closed the space between me and Lucy’s casket before I could change my mind again.

She looked so peaceful lying there. Like she was just asleep. The funeral home had done a good job of arranging her short hair to cover the evidence of her head wounds, and Valda had picked out a long-sleeved floral dress that Lucy would have made fake vomiting noises over had anyone suggested she wear it in life.

“Lucifer,” I whispered softly enough that no one without supernatural hearing could hear me. “You look ridiculous, babe. And in a church as well. I’m amazed your body made it inside without bursting into flames.” I paused, biting my lip. “Then again, there’s nothing of you left in there, is there?”

Reaching out a trembling hand, I lightly touched her cheek.

“I’m going to miss you so damn much, girl. I hope you know that. I hope you know how much I fucking love you. And I promise you, I will get vengeance for your death. That bitch will pay for what she did to you, I swear it.” One last time, because I couldn’t help myself, I sent another pulse of my magic into her body, and when it returned to me, I imagined a small piece stayed with her. So a little bit of my essence would always be with my sister.

Sniffing hard and swallowing the heavy lump in my throat, I leaned down and kissed her forehead before turning and halfway running back out of the chapel. I’d said my goodbyes, and that was all I could handle.

As I came to a gasping stop some fifty yards into the graveyard, a gentle hand rested on my back, and I cringed away from it.

“Go back inside,” I told him, wrapping my arms around myself and staring into the distance. “I just want to be alone for a bit.”

“I’ll leave you alone,” Vali murmured in a soft voice. “But I won’t leave you. I’ll go over to that bench and wait until you’re ready.”

He didn’t linger to try and force a hug on me or demand I talk about my feelings; he just walked away and went to sit on the park bench at the top of the grassy hill overlooking the site where Lucy would be interred.

For a while I stayed where I was, kneeling on the wet grass and trying to pull myself together. I’d cried enough in past few days, and that wasn’t productive. Lucy didn’t need my tears and self-pity; she needed justice.

Wiping my face on the hem of my dress, I slowly picked my way between headstones up to where Vali sat waiting for me.

We sat there together, not speaking until the sounds of singing could be heard from the chapel, and I knew the service was almost over.

“That wasn’t what she would have wanted,” I said finally, looking towards the house of God where my best friend was being prayed over.

“I know,” he replied. “So does Elena. But it was important to Valda and Jerry, and she didn’t have the heart to tell them no. After all, funerals are for the living, not the dead, are they not?” I said nothing, and he let that thought hang in the air for a moment. “Did you say goodbye?” I gave a tight nod, not trusting my voice. “Well, then that’s all that matters.”

He reached down, taking my hand in his and linking our fingers together between us.

One of the best things about Vali and Cole, they didn’t waste words. I’d never met two people more comfortable with silence before, but it calmed me. Especially in a time like this.

“I can’t let this go,” I finally said, my voice hardening with resolve as weeping guests began pouring out of the chapel, following my other four guardians as they carried Lucy’s casket across the grass to her final resting place.

“We never thought you would,” Vali responded simply. Below us, the people who had come to mourn Lucy gathered around the hole, which had already been dug out of the ground in preparation. My guys placed her coffin down on the pulley system that would slowly lower her corpse into the ground and stepped back.

Vaguely I recognized a few of the people in attendance, standing there clutching flowers and getting ready to throw them on top of her casket. Kids from school, teachers, residents of Cascade Falls... Mostly though, they seemed to be Valda and Jerry’s friends, there to show their support for the older couple who had just lost their daughter.

It was the striking brunette stalking towards us that held my attention, though. Her hair was perfectly pinned into place, exactly the way it had been when I’d first met her, and her black dress was cut in a severe line across the neck.

“Elena,” Vali greeted her when she approached, and I stood to greet her with dread pooling in my stomach. It was my fault her girlfriend was dead. There were no ifs, ands, or buts about it.

Instead of the polite kiss that she gave her brother, when she turned to me, it was a sharp slap across the face that she delivered.

Her slap took me by surprise and my head snapped to the side. I raised a hand to my stinging cheek even as she jabbed a finger in my face.

“Elena!” Vali roared, grabbing her hand to prevent another slap, even though I doubted she was going to try it again. She was grieving, not stupid.

“This is your fault,” she hissed at me, her words vibrating with fury and grief. “She is dead because of you. Will you never get tired of bringing so much death and destruction to those who love you? Who will be next, huh? My brothers?”

“Elena, you are way out of line,” Vali growled in a menacing way, but she ignored him. Instead she just glared at me with poison and hate in her eyes.

I said nothing in my own defense. What the hell was there to say? She had just perfectly echoed the thoughts that had run through my mind only seconds earlier.

“Elena,” Vali tried to redirect her ire again, “she didn’t—”

“She didn’t what?” Elena whirled on her older brother, her mouth twisted in an ugly scowl and her words dripping with scorn. “She sure as shit didn’t keep Lucy safe. Nor did she come for her when that psychopath had us locked in a cage for close to two weeks. And yet Lucy never stopped defending you. Right up to her last moment, she was defending her precious, beleaguered Kit.” She sneered at me in disgust. “You’ve done nothing to deserve that sort of loyalty from her, and then she died for you. I hope her face haunts you for your eternal life, you piece of shit.” She spat at my feet, then turned on her heel and stalked back down the hill to where a dark-haired man was just arriving in a blacked-out town car.

When Elena spotted him, her pace increased to a run, and she launched herself, sobbing, into his arms. Over her head, Finn met my eyes with pain in his own, and I looked away.

“Regina,” Vali said, trying to take my hand once more, but I jerked out of his grip.

“No, she’s right. You know it, too.” I tucked my hands under my arms, hugging my body tight and steeling myself for what needed to be done. I’d saved Simon and Lucy over and over again when we’d been at the orphanage. I’d saved them from Mr. Gray and all the other sick psychos. So that what? My mother could torture Lucy and kill her. So that Simon could butcher my friends and murder the one real father I’d ever had. Yeah, I’d saved them, and look what happened. My kind of saving wasn’t really a blessing, was it? “Lucy’s death is on me. As is Jonathan’s, and River...” I sucked a deep breath, remembering the midnight black, fire-eyed beast he had become. A hell-hound, according to the supernatural bible. Or that was as close as Wesley could work out based on the sketchy details given within those pages. “Elena is right. I can’t keep putting you all at risk. It isn’t fair.”

“Regina, what are you saying? We’re bonded for all eternity. We’re in this together whether you like it or not.” There was a stubbornness to his voice, but it was underscored with pain. He knew what I was saying; he just didn’t want to make it so easy.

“That doesn’t mean you have to become collateral damage in my mother’s war,” I told him firmly. “I promised Lucy I would get revenge for what that bitch did to her, but I have no intention of losing any more of you along the way.” As I said the words aloud, I sensed my resolve hardening and my magic responding. Since breaking the bracelet off, it had been different... more sentient. And now it was angry. Furious. Blood-thirsty.

All I needed to do was embrace it.

“Kit,” Vali said, this time with a little more urgency to his voice. It was too late to talk me out of my plan, though. I was already opening myself to that dark, violent magic, feeling it fill my body and then flood my soul.

There would be no turning back from this. Not until Bridget was dead.

“Regina, love. Your eyes have turned black. What’s happening to you? Talk to me, please.” Vali sounded panicked. For the first time ever, fear echoed in his voice, his posture—even his eyes. That terror wasn’t anything I wanted to hear again, and that made it all so much easier to walk away. I couldn’t be the cause of my men’s loss of self.

Across the graveyard, the massive black form of River’s beast stepped out of the shadows of a tree, and I met his glowing, red eyes without hesitation. He was here for me, and on some level, I’d been waiting for him. River would never abandon me, no matter what darkness consumed either of us. He would help me in my quest, and when it was done... we would either be saved or damned.

Either way, my remaining loved ones would be safer, and Lucy would get her vengeance.

I blocked out the sounds of Vali’s protests, using my magic to keep him from following as I strode across the grass to where River waited. The last thing I saw before my hand touched his obsidian fur was my five remaining guardians running toward me, trying to stop me... from what? It didn’t matter.

The second my fingers touched fur, we were gone.

To be continued in The Alpha’s Pack...

About the Author

Hello! I’m Tate, or TJ, or Goldie 2. I write books about people who do things, meet other people, things happen and stuff gets said. I am a wine and coffee addict who swears too much and thinks of sarcasm as the highest form of wit.

For more rambling, contact me directly via my website!

www.tatejamesauthor.com

Or join my readers group on Facebook!

www.facebook.com/groups/tatejames.thefoxhole

Ps. Thank you so much for buying/reading The Crow’s Murder. If you made it this far, it’d mean the world if you left a review on amazon!

Also by Tate James

Kit Davenport Series

#1 The Vixen’s Lead

#2 The Dragon’s Wing

#3 The Tiger’s Ambush

#4 The Viper’s Nest

#5 The Crow’s Murder

#6 The Alpha’s Pack (2018)

Once Upon A Harem (multi author series)

Trials of Deception (September 25th 2018)

Standalone Contemporary

Slopes of Sin (November 2018)

Co-Authored by Tate James and C.M. Stunich

Hijinks Harem

#1 Elements of Mischief

#2 Elements of Ruin

#3 Elements of Desire

The Wild Hunt Motorcycle Club

#1 Dark Glitter

#2 Cruel Glamour (2018)

#3 Torn Gossamer (2018)

Foxfire Burning

#1 The Nine

#2 The Tail Game (TBD)

Turn page for Chapter One of Trials of Deception…

TRIALS OF DECEPTION

By Tate James

Three trials. Three weeks. Three Royal Princes.

It should have been an easy task for a skilled mercenary like Rybet Waise. Simply break into the royal palace, and rescue her friend from the executioner's block. But when Rybet accidentally qualifies for the Trials, she finds herself with little choice but to see them through.

A thin veil of etiquette, elegance and glamour hides the true nature of the Trials. Behind closed doors, they are brutal and bloody, and to fail means to forfeit her life.

Thrust into the limelight and forced to compete with the Kingdom's elite sweethearts, unlikely allies emerge, and bonds are formed. But someone will stop at nothing to see her fail.

After all, she's nothing but a dirty Pond-dweller.

Rybet will do whatever it takes to survive until the Golden Ball, Princes be damned.

Trials Of Deception

Chapter One

“That one,” I whispered to the grubby faced boy beside me. “You see? The one with the beer gut? He's half asleep, an easy mark.”

We stared across the crowd to the cluster of guards following the smartly dressed Royal Steward as he went door to door through the richest part of Lakehaven—capital city of Teich—delivering invitations to the most eligible women in the kingdom.

“Are you sure now is the best time to be doing this?” my companion asked with a tremor in his voice. “Surely with the Trials about to start, everyone will be on high alert?”

I rolled my eyes and turned to glare at him. “That's exactly why now is the best time. Look at them all, acting like it's Frogs’ Feast or something. Trust me, Flick, they aren't focusing on two unassuming kids who have wandered too far from The Pond.”

My charge, Flick, screwed up his dirty nose as he inspected me. “You're not exactly a kid, Rybet. If those guards caught you, you'd be tried as an adult now that you're eighteen.”

I gave him a bitter smile and chuckled. “So would you, kid. The royals don't give a shit about us dwellers. We've seen loads of Pond kids hung for bullshit crimes, and well younger than eighteen, too.” He blanched white under his freckles and I cuffed him around the head. “So don't get caught okay? Master Bloodeye and I have invested far too much time and money into you to see you hang now.”

If anything, this only made him look more like he was going to vomit, and I sighed heavily.

“Look,” I offered. “Do you want me to go first and show you how easy it is?”

He nodded frantically, his dirty blond hair flopping in his eyes and making him need to push it away again so he could see me. “What will you take from him?”

Turning my attention back to the guards following the steward, I considered what they were carrying that might make a target both easy enough to take without being caught, and hard enough that Flick could prove he was ready to go out alone.

Our boss, Master Bloodeye, was no amateur. He took in orphans of The Pond, gave them a roof over their heads, clothes on their backs and food in their bellies. In exchange, we stole for him and contributed to making him the unofficial ruler of The Pond.

Once upon a time, the area we lived in was the richest part of Lakehaven, with marble streets and sprawling mansions for the Teichian nobles. That was before our deities tried to kill us all with the Age of Darkness. Before the droughts that took away our water and storms that plunged us into two years of darkness and rain.

Before the plague.

Now, that area of the city was a relic, a painful reminder to us all not to piss off our gods.

Streets that were once walked by women dripping in gold and jewels, escorted by their wealthy husbands and fathers, now lay under a foot of murky water. Technically, that area of town was supposed to be off-limits. The buildings were too damaged to be safe, and the water seemed impossible to drain.

Technicalities never mattered much when you had nothing and no one.

It took no time at all for those abandoned mansions to become the new homes for those of us without one of our own … and so The Pond came to be. Our very own water-logged slum bordering the palace grounds.

“That,” I announced, spotting my target. We'd been trailing along the street some distance back from the royal emissaries, but kept them within sight. As they approached each house, one of the guards would withdraw a tightly rolled invitation from his jacket and hand it to the steward, who would then present it to the household.

It was a huge to-do. The girls would come rushing out to receive their invitations and gush and cry as though they had no idea they'd be getting one. All within view of the street, of course. What good would it do to be chosen by the palace and not rub their neighbors’ faces in it? It took ages, too; in the time we had observed them, only three invitations had been successfully delivered. No wonder Tubby looked half-asleep.

“The invitations?” Flick squeaked in surprise.

“Yup,” I nodded. “See how they all keep them in their left inside breast pocket? Tubby over there at the back hasn't taken any out, but you can see he has some from the way his coat sticks out a little on that side. He's also only bothered to fasten two buttons, so it should be a cinch to slip a little hand like yours in there and snag one.”

Flick chewed at his lip in nervous anticipation. He was usually pretty confident, so his anxiousness was out of character.

“Hey, I'm going first remember? I'll show you exactly how to do it. Follow me and repeat what I do; you can't go wrong. Okay?” I bopped him on the head and tucked a stray piece of my own straw-blonde hair behind my ear.

“Okay,” he nodded. “Let's do this.”

“Remember, watch me closely. I will meet you at the Pig and Ferret when you're done, yes?” I eyed him sternly to make sure he understood. It was protocol to split up once you'd made a snatch and run, that way if you got caught you weren't dragging your partner down with you.

Not that I did this sort of work much any more. Pickpocketing was for the children, like Flick. He was barely eleven, but well old enough to earn his keep and pay back his debt to Master Bloodeye.

He gave me a nod of encouragement, and I melted into the crowd. It took me less than two minutes to reach my mark, divest him of one scroll, and then slip back into the excited spectators. Then again, I was one of the best. At age eighteen, I'd already gained quite the reputation for myself in Teich. I was the notorious Rybet, protégé and suspected favorite of Master Bloodeye.

It was no mistake my name sounded like the noise a frog made. Technically, it wasn't my name, it was a nickname given to me at age five when Master Bloodeye saw how easily I could slip in and out of buildings and crowds unnoticed … slippery, like a frog. I had no idea what my real name was, since he found me as a four year old right after the Age of Darkness.

The guardsman barely even blinked when my hand slipped inside his coat, lifting the rolled up piece of parchment out and slipping it up my own sleeve. That was the benefit to having so many people around, for sure.

When I’d made it further down the street, I glanced over my shoulder to ensure Flick was doing as instructed, repeating exactly what I'd just done.

Our meeting point, the Pig and Ferret, was only a few hundred yards away, but I needed to keep an eye on him to make sure he wasn't cocking it all up. My gaze tracked him as he made his way through the crowd and approached the same tubby guardsman who was yawning heavily.

Flick's back blocked his hand from sight, but I knew he'd be making the transfer from the guard’s pocket to his own sleeve, and then … I released a nervous breath I’d been holding as Flick moved away. The guard was none the wiser.

Good boy!

Letting the tension drop from my shoulders, I turned my back on him to hurry my ass along to the Pig and Ferret, so he wouldn't know I stayed to watch. I wanted the kid to think I trusted him to do it all on his own.

Just as I laid my hand on the heavy wooden door of the inn, a commotion broke out in the street behind me. Dread pooled in my belly and I turned to see what was causing such a fuss.

“Aana's tits,” I cursed ignoring the gasp of shock from a passerby as I rushed back into the crowd. As if I was the only one to curse using the names of our deities.

I still needed to get closer to see what was going on, but when I did my heart lurched.

Flick, his wrist held firm by that same overweight palace guard, the stolen invitation being brandished in his panic-stricken face. Shit! How?

It didn't matter how, though. I needed to get him free of those guards or he stood no chance. The palace didn't care if he was only a kid. He was a Pond-dweller, and they saw it as their civic duty to cull our numbers any way they could.

“Flick!” I yelled, pushing forward faster only to be grabbed from behind with an arm like steel, and dragged into a dark alleyway between two ostentatious mansions.

Fight or flight instinct was a powerful thing, and I had both. Thrashing hard, I threw elbows and heels into my captor to try and release his hold on me, but he didn't for a moment waiver. His arms held me firm against a strong body and a large hand clamped down over my mouth before I could scream.

“Stop it!” he hissed in my ear. “Stop fighting, boy! Does your life mean so little to you that you'd throw it away to save a Pond orphan?”

Of course not, you idiot!

I wanted to scream the words at him, but it would be too hard to explain that I had no intention of being caught, simply giving Flick time to get away. He called me boy, though, which was good.

“You caught a live one,” another man chuckled, as if I wasn't already outweighed by the first one. I didn't stand a chance against two grown men in hand-to-hand combat. The last thing I needed was to fight off a rape at a time like this.

There weren't many girls in my line of work. When you grew up in the slums, there was really only one career choice for a pretty girl. Whoring. That had never sat well with me, and thankfully Bloodeye had seen talents beyond the income I might earn on my back with my legs in the air.

I fairly much lived in boys’ clothes: a loose shirt and leather breeches with an oversized tunic to hide my womanly curves. It had clearly been too much to ask of Aana, our Goddess of Fortune, to bless me with a boyish frame. Thankfully, this guy seemed too distracted to notice as he restrained me.

“It's too late for him,” the man snapped in my ear, and I got the distinct feeling he thought he was saving me. “They've caught him red-handed. There's nothing you can do now.”

Sure enough, the palace guardsmen were already binding Flick's wrists and throwing him over the front of a horse to be taken to the royal dungeons. It was a crime to steal in Lakehaven. Hell, it was a crime to steal anywhere in the Kingdom on Teich, but it was a whole other thing to steal from the royals themselves.

As the tubby guard rode away with my little friend, the man's grip loosened on my face, but not from around my waist.

“You can thank me now, boy,” he muttered sarcastically. “I just saved your life.”

“You can let me go now, letch,” I sneered back at him, pitching my voice a little lower than a girl’s and peering down at the hand still clamped firm across my abdomen. Any higher and he would have felt the evidence that I was most assuredly not a boy.

A gold ring on his pinky finger gave me pause and I leaned a little closer to make out the crest. Then gasped in horror.

“Your Highness,” I breathed with dread and revulsion. I'd just tried to kick one of the Royal Princes in the balls with my heel.

“Shit,” the man—prince—holding me cursed and the other man groaned.

“Seriously? You forgot to take off your ring? I'm never letting you sneak out with me again, little brother.” The second man sounded exasperated, but also a touch amused.

I just wanted to get the hell away from them. Little brother meant that this was another of the crown princes!

“Please, Highness,” I whispered, “Let me go, I swear I won’t tell a soul that you're here in the city.”

The one holding me released his grip abruptly and I stumbled forward a few steps, letting my hood fall further over my face to hide my features.

“Go, then,” he snapped. “But we were never here.”

Nodding as frantically as I could without displacing my hood, I kept my gaze firmly on the ground to avoid any further insult as I sketched a shaking bow and backed out of the alleyway. As I reached the crowd, I couldn't help myself, I glanced back into the shadows to get a look at the princes.

Could anyone blame me? No one had laid eyes on our Frog Princes in ten years. Not since they'd ended the plague by summoning hundreds of drachen--a magical creature that was actually a small variety of dragon, but looked a lot like a frog. The drachen swept through the land, devouring the insects which carried and spread the plague, and within a year, it was extinct.

Typical of my luck, though, all I could see in the shadows were three sets of men's boots, and a ripple of fear ran through me. Three. All three princes were within breathing distance of me … and I'd walked away with my life.

The notorious Rybet Waise didn't rise to such heights of crime in such a short time on luck alone though. No, I had a natural instinct towards danger. Premonition, Bloodeye liked to call it, but I preferred instinct. After all, none but the royals possessed any magic since the Age of Darkness.

My instincts, the ones I’d trusted all my life to keep me alive, told me that this wouldn't be the last time I'd encounter the three Frog Princes of Teich.

DARK GLITTER

The Wild Hunt Motorcycle Club #1

By Tate James & C.M. Stunich

Ciarah O’Rourke was born into torture.

A human spirit reincarnated in the body of an ancient fae goddess, she’s spent the last five years in iron shackles, her mind poisoned with magic for secrets she doesn’t know.

Waking up in a dirty alley with no memory of her escape, Ciarah finds herself in the hands of The Wild Hunt Motorcycle Club--a ruthless and violent group of bikers with faerie blood in their veins.

Arlo.  Reece. Killian.

Three men drenched in death, sin, and old magic.

From their clubhouse in the middle of the Louisiana bayou, they’ll offer Ciarah the keys to unlock her memories and control the veil between worlds.  But even her knights can’t erase the twisted scars that remind her they aren’t the only ones who hunt.

When The Wild Hunt rides, the souls of the dead join their parade.

All that’s missing now is their queen.

THE NINE

Foxfire Burning #1

By Tate James and C.M. Stunich

Tricky, like a fox.

As a kitsune—a fox shifter—I have to be to survive.

Sometimes it seems like the whole world wants me dead.

Ironic, considering that’s my job—to kill people.

Thea Hunt, professional assassin at your service.

But that’s not my only vice.

I’m also attracted to the darkest denizens of the supernatural world, the men I should run from instead of fall for. Men like Mikhail, the leader of the assassins’ guild, Bennett, the local alpha wolf, and Nix, the skinwalking coyote that’s likely to bring the entire shifter community to their knees. And then there are my exes—Riot and Fin.

Somebody’s cursing old gods, stripping shifters of their ability to change. And a trapped shifter doesn’t last long without losing their mind. Nix knows; Mikhail wants me to kill him; Bennett wants me dead. Oh, and Riot and Fin are determined to make my life a living hell.

As the youngest kitsune to ever get nine tails, I should be able to trick my way out of this one, right?

Right?!

ELEMENTS OF MISCHIEF

Hijinx Harem #1

By Tate James and C.M. Stunich

Four hunky, supernatural plumbers.

One reluctant, slightly drunk human.

A match made in heaven … or in the bathroom, rather.

My name is Arizona Smoke, and I'm the proud owner of a house haunted by my dead Gram, best friend to a cocktail dress loving werewolf, and apparent soul mate to four plumbers who also happen to be elemental dragons. Besides rippling pectorals, tattoos, and … uh, nice, long pipes, the guys also have control of the elements.

Supernatural law (whoever heard of such a thing anyway?) dictates that since I stumbled upon the guys in their alternate forms, I have to marry them. All four of them. Oh, and apparently one lousy (okay, awesome) night of sex means that I'm an elemental, too—and no amount of magical penicillin can cure this disease.

All I wanted was hot running water and toilets that flushed, but now I'm dealing with monsters lurking in the sewers, supernatural politics, and four penniless (but totally hot) plumbers living in my crumbling old Victorian.

I'm Ari Smoke, wine aficionado, ex-barista, and a girl who is completely out of her element.

Having four hot husbands is nice … but the death threats, not so much.

SLOPES OF SIN

(Originally published in Snow and Seduction Anthology)

By Tate James

"will these winter wankers be my ho ho holiday treat?"

After securing a job as Santa’s Little Helper in a swanky ski resort, all I needed to do was show up, do my job, and hopefully win the Candid Moments Photography Exhibit. Sounds easy, right?

When elf slippers, ice and an out of control snowboarder combine, I’m forced to watch while my dreams slip through my fingers and shatter at my feet.

Things rapidly turn from bad to worse, when I lose my job and then my home. What other choice do I have, but to accept help from the ones who started this whole mess? The Kings of Snow.

Four of the most elite snowboarders ever to step foot on the snow--notorious for their party boy ways and disposable women--suddenly want to help me. Thrust into the media spotlight, everyone either wants to be my friend or sell me out. But who am I to warrant such attention?

I’m just Mila, the Elf.