“Damn, I was just getting ready to shake the shit out of you,” Xan said, standing next to the large bed, a worried frown on his face.
I stared at Laikyn, who lay next to me. “How the hell did we end up here?”
The two vampires sat in chairs across the room. Xan shrugged his massive shoulders. “After about fifteen minutes of y’all standing around looking like you were in the zone, I got a little freaked, and lifted you up first, put you here, then placed Laikyn next to you. I felt a little bad for the Cordells, so I sat them down. Breezy promised me she’d give me a treat later, so all’s good. No need to thank me.”
Laikyn sat up, rubbing her eyes. “Do I want to know?” I explained to her how we’d ended up in bed, leaving out the thank you Xan was expecting from his mate.
Damien and Lucas both popped out of the chairs in fighting stances. Damien spoke first. “What the hell? How long were we gone?”
“About thirty minutes.” Breezy looked at the clock on the wall, then nodded.
“Times a wasting. He’s probably already out hunting. I’d say what he did depleted his reserves. It takes great strength to move a person without their help or consent. Which means therewill be a body count. We can track him by those, or we can go hunting. I vote for hunting,” Lucas said.
“The vision you showed us? That was your home, or at least the woods near your family home?” Damien asked Laikyn.
Laikyn bit her lip, nodding. “I haven’t lived there in a couple of years, but yeah. My parents have a home in Florida, but they still come back often since they own the property and the house here. They always hoped I’d move back here.”
I kept my anger at the thought of her living out there all alone to myself. “We will go there now and see if he’s there or has been there.” Lucas held his hand up. “If you go with us, he will feel your presence and run. He will think we are checking up on him and think to one-up us. Believe me, we’ve faced vampires like him.”
I understood what they were saying, but having others out protecting my pack and defending my mate grated. I wanted to be the one to rip this vampire’s throat out with my teeth. “The Council will want him to face them. I can’t allow you to kill him outright unless he actually harms you or your mate. I know he did do that.” He pointed at the healed wound. “But he could have killed her. Instead, he was trying to capture her. Believe me when I say this being is not one to play with. Allow us to handle him, and when the time comes to see his death, I will petition you to be there.”
“If he threatens my mate, or any of my pack, I will kill him. Your Council be damned.” I stood from the bed.
Damien inclined his head. In a blink, he and Lucas were gone.
“Well, that is some freaky ass shit,” Lyric gasped.
“You can say that again,” Rowan agreed.
Chapter Fourteen
My brother and I landed in the yard of Laikyn’s family home. Her scent still loomed around us, but the vampire we were hunting overlaid everything. “He’s been here and gone. We can trace him, but I think we’ll be chasing shadows. He’s got to have some donors around that he’s left alive. Let’s find them, and then we’ll find him.”
Lucas bent and picked up a piece of dirt. Visible signs of several footprints were present. “We should split up. I’ll follow his trail, while you see if you can’t get a lock on one of the humans he has working for him,” I murmured, staring at the home.
My brother looked at the sky. The sun rising would work in our favor. One thing we’d learned in all our very long years was not to underestimate an enemy. “Maybe we should stick together until the sun is at its highest. Who knows what kind of nasty surprises this being has in store for us?” He tilted his head toward the home.
A feeling of being watched, even though we couldn’t sense a presence, was strong. “Don’t you feel that?” Lucas asked through our twin bond.
I turned my back, pretending to study the gravel drive, my brother was sure. “There is something, but I thought it was my overactive imagination.”
“Let us take to the sky as air, and circle back. See if whatever it is shows its hand.” Lucas followed me, becoming molecules. A crack split the ground we’d been standing on moments later.Both of us floated higher, waiting to see what happened next as a man came out the door, followed by another.
I didn’t recognize either one, but the fact that they were newly made vampires, or younger than a century, amazed me that they could control their powers. Not to mention, they were working together. Damn, we needed to inform the Council of Vampires.
“We need to talk to mom and dad.” My words echoed my brother’s thoughts.
Before Lucas could agree, wind whipped past us. He and I knew it was the beings below searching for a sign. We kept our cool, neither of us young and inexperienced fighters, although our instincts demanded we return to the ground and kill the puppets.
“They will lead us to him.” Lucas floated next to me. My dry chuckle entered his head.
“What’s that saying? Like shooting fish in a barrel?”
“Yeah, well, right now we’re like sitting ducks.” Lucas grit his teeth as the two shits below used what powers they had, aiming cracks of lightning at us. The slight stings felt like the pinching we’d endured as children from the little females whom my brother and I could give two shits about.
“In another five minutes, they’ll have to give up and head toward their Master,” I grunted.
What felt like more than an hour later, the men below stopped attacking the skies in the hopes of ferreting out my brother and me. Their voices carried in the wind.
