Page 117 of Blood and Trouble

Orion wrapped an arm over Sol and hugged her in close. Poe tightened his grip on my palm, his brows furrowed with concern, our bond vibrating with tenderness and empathy.

“Oh my God,” Sol murmured. “This is horrible.”

I swallowed down the fury and anguish of knowing my mother had done all this to protect us. It enraged me, made me want to kill Marx all over again, made me want to rip Evelyn’s head off her stupid shoulders. My heart broke for the woman I’d barely gotten to know and all the moments she didn’t get to see. That she’d done all of this to protect us, taken one last look at us, told Guin to be strong, and walked out into the night knowing she wouldn’t come back.

“So just to be clear,” Serpent said as he lit a cigarette, “we’re walking into a fucked-up vampire ritual, run by a woman who’s been rotting for twenty years, to undo a curse that blew back on her?”

“You’re not walking anywhere,” Orion said. “You’re going to sit your ass right here until we can get you patched up.”

“If only we had grenades full of gas strong enough to knock them out,” Serpent groaned. “Oh wait. We do. But they’re in Montana because somebody wouldn’t let me try my luck getting them through customs.”

“I’ve got the list of properties,” Mill interrupted before Orion could snarl at him. “There are two west of here.”

“What are they?” Mick asked.

“Something on Runnymede and another in Chess Valley,” he said.

“It’s the second,” Mick said. “There are stories about Grim’s Ditch. Named after an old God. If it’s proper hiding she wants, that’s where she’d go. Big houses tucked down in the folds. You could drive past one all your life and never see it.”

“Sounds good to me,” Orion said.

“What’s the plan?” Aquila asked, turning to Orion.

“We make Evelyn our main target,” Orion said. “We take down anyone in the way, but bring her in alive. I want to know what she’s doing and why. If we kill her, we might never be able to end this.”

“Leander and I can take out whatever wards she has in place,” Bridge said. “I can buy you minutes to get inside.”

“We’ll split up,” Orion continued. “One team handles the nest. The other pushes forward to Lycan, Locust, and Moose. Aquila, Mill, and Ren, you’re with me. Everyone else goes in.”

“I’ll distract her,” I said.

“No,” Poe said at the same time as Sol and Maeve.

“It’s not a debate.” I set my chin and stared up at Poe. “If this is a trap, if we need to lull her into thinking she’s got the upper hand, I have to be the bait.”

“You’re not going in alone,” Maeve said.

“We’ll go with you,” Sol added.

“Absolutely not,” Orion spoke up.

Mill growled and raised an eyebrow at his mate.

“Alright, calm down,” Bridge said with a humorless laugh. “There’s enough alpha male pheromones in here to fuel a city for a century. This is going to be tough. We took out a lot of vampires earlier today, but my guess is she only sent her grunts. There will be more waiting. The powerful ones.”

“You’ll need all the help you can get,” Guin said. “We’re all going in. She wanted the Kennedy bloodline. Let’s give her exactly what she asked for.”

Before anyone else could argue, Poe doubled over onto the ground, clutching his midsection. Anguish screamed across the bond, forcing all the air out of my lungs. It wasn’t the tender ache of the last hour, no. This was something new, something magical and agonizing. Cold, deliberate, and precise.

“Fuck,” Poe shouted. “It’s getting worse. We have to go. Now!”

CHAPTER 27

Lycan

“You’re sure she’ll come?” someone asked, drawing me from my stupor. I opened my eyes and rolled my head back on my shoulders, trying to focus on the scene. My blood burned, every molecule on fire from the silver injections. Then they’d taken turns beating me to a pulp, biting into my neck and drinking my blood like fucking leeches. I was surprised they weren’t passed out in some drug-induced coma by now.

Two male vampires stood on either side of a tall blond woman, her hair cut in a bob, angled toward her chin. They wore filthy jeans and leather cuts that proclaimed them as members of the Bloody Scorpions MC. She had on a black power suit with matching heels, her ostentatious jewelry glinting in the low fluorescent light. She looked the part of the powerful vampire queen in charge, but something about her energy smelled off.