More guards dressed in tactical gear appeared. They spread out in formation as the crowd dispersed from the plaza. Olaf must be putting on quite the show from the volley of roars rattling the windows.
“You are both under arrest,” a mage sneered. “Come peacefully and nobody will get hurt.”
“Not fucking happening,” I snorted. Kenji materialized and leaped onto my shoulder. I reached for Kai, and we blinked away, landing in a corridor lined with photographs of Tiberius Vane alongside various smiling dignitaries.
The acrid scent of burning flesh drifted out of a room on our left.
Kai looked sick but followed me as we headed that way. Upon rounding a corner, we saw two mages standing guard outside a set of carved double doors.
“Are we waiting for the others?” Kai mouthed, but before I could reply, pain ripped through my chest.
I doubled over as something inside me snapped, and for a moment, all I could see was darkness. Kenji disappeared as Kai stumbled against the wall, panting from the same pain that was slicing through me like knives dipped in basilisk venom.
“Alaric…” he gasped, clutching his chest. “He’s…”
“Dead.”
48
Zane
Thirty minutes earlier…
If not for the fact my precious pet, the Juliet to my Romeo, was once more in the clutches of my archnemesis, the evil mage overlord, I’d be loving life right now. There were very few things I enjoyed more than taking Brenda on a psychotic murder spree.
As I told Rasmus when we first went hunting together, murdering was an important bonding exercise for harem mates. Or pack mates, as Maverick liked to call us.
I let him have that one. If being labeled the alpha made care bear happy, then fine. He could do his alpha thing. I had no great desire to be in a leadership role. I much preferred life as a lone wolf.
Or not-wolf.
Nobody liked wolf shifters.
Not even other wolf shifters.
The goddess knew I didn’t follow orders particularly well. Or at all, if I were beingcompletelyhonest. Which was why I’d persuaded the vampire that we needed to cause as much bloodshed as possible, contrary to the bear’s instructions that we focus on finding our mate, not killing mages.
What was wrong with doing both?
I was born to be an overachiever.
The dragon had landed on the roof shortly after we arrived. A quick glance at my phone showed the humans were live streaming everything, no doubt all agog at the sight of a real-life dragon.
Good for Olaf. He deserved his fifteen minutes of social media fame after hiding his scaly ass away for centuries.
Maybe becoming a dragon celeb would help him connect with other dragons in hiding. As well as the two dragons he’d told us about, I was sure there had to be more hiding in plain sight. Just like there were probably more vampires lurking in dusty crypts.
Countess Fangalicious seemed cool. I especially liked her swords. She and I were birds of a feather, or siblings from another species. I felt sure we’d be good friends once we’d eliminated the mage problem.
“Fucking mage scum!” I yelled as we burst through a door to find ten of the bastards waiting. Since I had juiced up on rage and pain, I felled them with a wave of visceral fear, enjoying the way they screamed as their worst nightmares exploded inside their pathetic little brains.
Five of them dropped dead from heart failure, which left five to slice and dice.
Kasumi, my new K-dude bestie, hopped onto a table and groomed himself as Rasmus and I divided and conquered. Kudos to the vamp, he sure was efficient at killing.
No blades needed. That dude’s teeth were his best weapon. I dodged a nasty attack spell as Count Suckula tore the throat out of a mage while snapping the neck of another.
He yanked the heart out of a third mage before the asshole even knew what was coming for him.
