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Kendall sighs. “Fine. We’ll do this officially.” She steps forward and holds her hand out for me.
“What is this?” I ask.
“I’d like to read you if that’s okay.”
“Read me?”
Tori mutters something, which Kendall ignores.
“I have sight,” Kendall explains. “Mostly about death. So, if you’re planning to kill us, I’ll see it.”
I hesitate. “And is your gift only focused on the future? Or do you also see the past?”
“Future,” she says. “Why?”
“No reason.” I glance at Tori, who looks impatient, and then place my hand in Kendall’s.
A surge of jealousy slams into me, and I look over to find my mate staring at my hand resting on her sister’s. Enjoying her reaction way too much, I wait until she glances up at me again and smirk. Her eyes narrow, and she holds my gaze almost defiantly until Kendall releases me and steps back.
“He’s not a threat,” Kendall tells her sister.
“You can’t know that. It’s too broad of a?—”
“He is responsible for your curse, though,” Kendall adds.
“What?” I demand at the same time Torissa says, “I fucking knew it.”
“Sorry,” Kendall shrugs at me. “But you are. Which means you should really help her break it, you know. It’s the right thing to do.”
I shake my head.
Releasing myself from Caius in order to protect Tori was supposed to be temporary. A quick good deed—and a chance to get up close with the mate bond to decipher how in the hell this is even possible—and then we’d part ways forever. But now that I’ve met her, I can’t imagine walking away. Something I know she’d gladly do. If helping her break this curse keeps her close, I’ll take it.
“I agree,” I say, “But in order to do that, I have to take you to Tartarus. It’s the only magic that could have done this, which means we’ll need?—”
“No way,” Tori says. “Tartarus is a horrible place. I’m not?—”
Behind Tori, a black-clad figure emerges from the woods. He sprints toward us, an axe gripped in his raised hand. He rears back, ready to throw it right at her head. With a snarl, I step in front of her and catch the axe mid-air. Then I hurl it back at him.
It lands, splitting his forehead in two.
Another figure appears behind him, then another, then another.
My beast strains to be let free, to raze this place to the ground with every threat incinerated to ash. But a glance behind me reveals four more vampires charging at us from the opposite direction.
There’s no time to isolate the enemy from the ones I want to save.
The need to protect my mate is consuming. It outweighs even my instinct to stay and fight.
“Put your scarf on,” I tell my mate.
“What?”
“Do it,” I snarl.
Without waiting for an answer, I shift, shredding my clothes and gritting my teeth against the pressure that compresses in on me from the inside out. Black scales replace my flesh, my wings unfurling so quickly that one of the attackers is knocked off his feet, his flesh instantly shredding thanks to the razor-sharp scales that slice through him.
Kendall screams as one of them tries to grab her. Tori races over to put herself between her sister and the threat. I slam my wings downward and lift myself airborne, scorching hellfire building in my throat and begging to be freed.
