Page 119 of Blood and Trouble

Kennedy bitch?

Did she mean Maeve?

“Her fucking spawn weren’t supposed to receive the moon gift. They weren’t supposed to shift. That’s what we were paid for. And now, look at this mess. As usual, I’m the one who has to clean it up.”

I put that together with what I already knew. Bridge had said the ritual Marx was doing was a suppression curse, meant to keep a shifter latent so that he could siphon their magic and make himself more powerful. But the way Evelyn was talking, it sounded like both she and Marx had been paid something a long time ago, something meant to keep Ava and her sisters from shifting. Was she talking about Priscilla Kennedy? And who the fuck paid them?

She might have read the confusion in my eyes as horror or disbelief, because she sighed and shook her head.

“Trust me, I know what this makes me.” She laughed, low and humorless, pressing a hand to her throat. “I didn’t give a shit about shifters before all this, before I agreed to help my brother and paid for it with…whatever this is.” Her gaze found mine, and for a heartbeat, the vampire fell away. I almost saw something human in her stare…almost. “Your wife…your mate…will die screaming. And I’ll take everything her blood is worth. Believe me, I know what I am, what I’ve become. I’ve made my peace with it. If it means I get rid of this wretched plague, I’d do it a thousand times over.”

I blinked and scrambled for a way to get out of this. Fury engulfed my senses, blinding me, and my wolf growled, extending his claws in preparation for a fight. He wouldn’t let Evelyn have Ava. He’d throw himself in front of any magic, any ritual, any spell, to protect her.

“No matter,” Evelyn said, brushing her hands together like she was clearing off dust. “The Vanderbilt bitch will come, and I’ll finish what we started all those years ago, and we can be done with this nonsense.”

Not revenge. Not even a grudge. Whatever she and Marx tried to do to the Kennedy bloodline had backfired. Now she had to finish it to cure herself.

“Ma’am,” said a smaller woman from the doorway behind Evelyn. “The moon is almost in the correct position. We’ll need to get started. Any word on the sacrifice?”

Sacrifice?

That got my wolf’s attention. Whose? I had to get out of here. I had to get my shit together and break out of these fucking chains and…what? Find Moose? Find Locust? I didn’t even know where the hell we were, much less how to find my brothers and escape to safety.

Evelyn turned to me again. “Well, shifter? Any word from your so-called mate? Is she close? Is she coming?”

The smaller woman came closer, and a static charge wafted off her, hitting me between the eyes. She smelled like incense and fire and earth, something distinctly magical. Witch.

“Check him,” Evelyn commanded. “Verify the sacrifice will still work.”

The witch stood in front of me and put her hand under my chin, forcing my gaze up to hers. I didn’t realize what was happening until it was too late. I should have closed my eyes. I should have made a better attempt to guard my mind, maybe conjured thoughts of a peaceful ocean or remote forest. Instead, the witch cracked me open like a ripe peach, splintering any guardrails I thought being a supernatural being gave me.

She dug through my soul, crawling over my memories like a spider. I tried to think of anything except Ava and Poe, anything except the pack, but she was like a bloodhound, sniffing them out anyway.

“Don’t struggle,” she said telepathically, a surround sound to my internal horror. “It will hurt less if you cooperate.”

“Fuck you,” I spat. My wolf howled, hackles raised. He bared his teeth at the intruder, and just when he was about to sink his claws into her magic, she found what she was looking for—the tiny, barely there thread connecting me to Poe. She gave it a tiny flick, watching it hum and echo through my body.

Then my wolf clamped his fangs around her presence and severed the connection, forcing her out.

She gasped and fell back, landing hard on her ass. I wanted to be pleased that she’d gotten what she deserved, but my head throbbed and the beginnings of a migraine formed between my temples.

“Well?” Evelyn said.

“There is one sealed bond, but the male carries two marks. The female only one.” The witch clenched her eyes shut. “Your suspicion is correct. The bond is incomplete. The sacrifice will still be viable.”

“Perfect.” Evelyn cleared her throat and turned to the other vampires. “Prepare the other shifters. Be careful not to do too much harm. The silver has weakened their magic, but we can still wring them dry for whatever they have left.”

“What kind of fucked-up shit are you doing?” I stammered. “Using shifter blood as fuel? Are you insane?”

There was a reason her kind liked to feed on mine. I’d heard stories of witches using shifter blood to enhance their magic, but those were old wives’ tales meant to keep us from offering ourselves to the highest bidder. If it wasn’t wielded correctly, the magic’s power could backfire and become unpredictable. To use three of us at once…

Evelyn ignored my protest. “When the sacrifice arrives, kill her companions.”

Her imbeciles stalked off, leaving only me, her, and the vampire with the kink for violence. But I focused on what she’d said.

Her companions.

Ava.