On the screen, Cason leans back, electricity still dancing across his fingers.
“You’re fucking mine, Reese Morgan.”
I go still. Is that why he did this? Revenge for my revenge? I suppose I can’t fault him for it with how badly I hurt him, but, unfortunately, now I want to hurt a lot of other people right now. My vision is bathed in red, everything pulsing in sync with the rage flooding my veins.
And yet, my mind snags on one word—mine—and a slow,dangerous smile pulls at my mouth.
I pick up my phone and press a button without taking my eyes off the screen. The moment the call connects, I say, “I need you to do something for me, Baz.”
There’s a pause on the other end, background noise, movement. Then, “Well, you sound homicidal.”
“I need a message delivered.”
Sebastian’s a few hours away on an assignment to approach a possible newly Ascended. But between the two of us, he’s the bigger brains on all our dark web networks. He’s the one most capable of getting a message to Cason that would be the least traceable. Considering my plan to lure him to me, to the safehouse, that’s important.
“To him?” he asks, already knowing.
“Yes.”
I give him the quickest explanation I can and tell him what to send. Fortunately, he doesn’t ask questions that could make this take longer than it needs to.
When it’s done, I hang up the phone. The message appears on Cason’s screen moments later, and he turns, looking directly into the camera. Directly at me. My shadows settle but not quite calm as something dark and possessive coils deep in my bones.
“See you soon,” he says.
My smile sharpens. “See you soon, little menace.”
And this time, I’m not letting him go.
The drive is quiet.No music, no distractions. Just me, the road, and the coordinates burned into my brain like a countdown that gets louder the closer I get.
The city bleeds into empty roads, then into something rougher and narrower. Trees start to crowd in on either side, shadows stretching long across the asphalt like they’re already reaching for me.
That’s fitting.
“This is probably a bad idea,” I mutter under my breath, my hands tight on the steering wheel.
Felix isn’t here to judge me, but he made sure to tell me how much of a fucking idiot I am before I left.
I take a turn, and recognition hits as I remember being picked up here the other day. I was out of it and don’t remember much, but I’m pretty sure someone or something was affecting me, causing me to get all turned around. I do remember some things—vision blurry, lungs burning, sweat dripping down my face. Running without knowing where I was going, just knowing I had to get away.
And here I am, willingly walking right back to the same man who’s taken me twice.
I find a place to pull the car off into the grass and cut the engine. For a moment, I just sit here, staring out through the windshield at the tree line,hopingthat I’m ready for this. Ready to face him again.
I’m probably not, but carpe fucking diem.
“Round three.”
Then I get out.
Dusk purples the sky, and as I move into the trees, the canopy shrouds what little daylight remains. Every step crunches too loud under my shoes, dry leaves and twigs snapping, announcing my presence. Not that it matters. I’m sure he already knows I’m here.
I don’t try to follow the exact path I took before. There’s no way I could. I was barely conscious. I felt barely alive, running on instinct and adrenaline and pain, both the physical kind and the kind that hurt deeper.
But now I have coordinates.
And something else.
