"With both hands."
She finishes the laces. Stands. Rolls her neck once, settling into herself, into the command, into the war. She crosses toward the door.
I catch her wrist as she passes.
She stops. Turns.
My thumb finds her pulse. In time with mine. The M and C crest on her ring catches the last of the daylight through the window.
"Maximus."
"Celeste."
"We have a war to run."
"In a moment."
Her eyes hold mine. I bring her wrist to my mouth. Her pulse against my lips. Her skin against my mouth. I've cataloged this difference a hundred times. It doesn't diminish.
Her free hand comes up and her fingers slide into my hair. Her thumb traces behind my ear. Slow. Deliberate.
Her fingers tighten once. Release. She pulls her wrist back gently.
"Dusk," she says.
She walks out. I let the warmth of her wrist fade from my mouth before I follow.
Julian's vehicle is already through the gate, heading south to his elevated position. Three comms channels live. Marcellus has his people assembled at the south exit, Chen's four fighters and two of our compound vampires in formation. Erik's wolves are running the perimeters across three counties.
Simone is at the south exit. Geared. I didn't expect her.
"Lira told me to go," she says.
Ava and Tristan hold compound security with a full wolf detail on the perimeter. Carson's prototype runs behind locked doors with Elena and Dalton on watch. Seraphina says Lanthar is sending a Fae detail to reinforce the compound before we reach the farms.
Seraphina and Mira stand at the compound gate. Mother and daughter. Seraphina's hair lifts in a breeze that touches no one else. Mira's hand is in her pocket.
Celeste walks through the gate into the dark. I walk beside her.
By morning, there will be three fewer buildings in the world with locked doors.
Chapter
Twenty-Eight
We're through the gate, and the night closes around us, and I'm counting.
Three teams. Three farms. Four hundred humans, maybe more, behind doors I promised to open. Julian is already south, running the southern strike from elevation with comms live across all three sites. Marcellus has six fighters at his back, and the western farm coordinates on his tablet. Erik's wolves are fanning out across three counties, faster than anything on four legs has a right to be.
Maximus walks beside me. His hand brushes mine once. I let it.
Focus.
Simone is geared and silent at my left. She hasn't said a word since "Lira told me to go." Alexei is behind her, every layout Konstantin ever built filed in a memory that doesn't loseanything. Seraphina and Mira are at the gate, waiting for us to clear the perimeter before they follow.
I check comms. "Julian, you read me?"
"Three channels live. All teams reporting." His accent has that nighttime weight.
