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But he felt it as well, that something wasn’t right.
The wraith-pair he’d been chasing hung in the air near the waterfall, talking quietly to each other, well beyond the cabin’s position.
The whole situation started to smell like a trap.
The door of the cabin opened, and a second wraith-bonded pair, the mate a powerful vampire, strode out onto the front deck. The vampire fixed his gaze in Seth’s direction.
Even at that distance, he knew he was looking at a mastyr vampire, like the ones Quinlan had encountered in Grochaire Realm just a little over two months ago. With no other sign of Invictus around, Seth made a calculated decision to do what he could to take out the vampire on the porch. Slaying one part of a pair, rendered the other half immobile and sometimes even death followed.
He flew at top speed toward the cabin. The vampire saw him coming, but didn’t move. Instead, as Seth flew closer, a slow smile curved the vampire’s lips.
Lorelei let out a sudden powerful howl, clearly a warning, but of what?
The next moment, a preternaturally charged fae net surrounded Seth as though coming out of nowhere.
He tumbled around then landed hard against several boulders not far from the Loperz’s yard. The air got knocked from his lungs and he’d broken an arm, a few ribs, and shattered his knee.
Holy fuck. He was completely immobilized. He slid off the rock, the jute netting clinging to him and burning his skin, as he landed in the snow.
He pathed to Aaron. I’m trapped in a net. Bones broken. Can’t move.
Three Guardsmen are seven minutes out. Hang tough.
Seth couldn’t tell him the rest, that two wraith-pairs headed in his direction, taking their sweet time, knowing they had him, and that at least one of the bonded vampires was at mastyr status, the other not far behind.
He worked at his healing and by the time he saw the thick leather boots of the vampire, he’d brought his forearm bones into alignment and they were knitting together.
But the pain from his ribs kept him pinned in place, and his knee was a mess.
Despite all that, he gathered his battle energy into both hands, but at the last second he realized he couldn’t fire.
“Won’t do you a damn bit of good, Mastyr Seth. You’ll fry your own ass if you let loose with that charge.” His smile broadened. “The mistress told us you’d fall for the trap and that we should make quick work of you. But I’ve lost too many friends because of you and your Guard, not to savor this moment just a little.” He gathered saliva in his mouth and let it fly.
The spittle landed on Seth’s face. Rage moved in him, and he wanted to attack, but the nature of fae-charged nets meant that any battle energy he might send outward would be reflected by the netting. The vampire was right. He’d kill himself if he discharged a serious energy blast from his hands.
And right now, he had a whisper of time on his side as he stared up at the bonded vampire who had already made the decision not to kill him immediately. “We have someone who can sever the wraith-bond. You’d be free. Her name is Samantha. She’s bound to Mastyr Ethan. I can bring her to Walvashorr with one phone call.”
“What the hell makes you think I want to be free? A bunch of us mastyrs watched you and the others take over our realms, and I promised myself that if I ever had the chance, I’d off as many of you assholes as I could. Today just happens to be my lucky day. Margetta has big plans and I’ll one day rule in this realm, so no, I don’t want you to make a phone call, not today, not ever.”
If he could keep this egomaniac talking, his Guard might get to him in time. “And what exactly would you do with Walvashorr if you had the chance?”
“Trying to buy some time?” He chortled. “It’s okay. A few seconds more won’t matter and I’ll happ
ily share exactly what we will do once we gain power. For starters, we’ll get rid of the lesser folk, weed out a few of the elven and troll lines, build up the wraith and vampire populations, limit the number of shifter packs to one per realm, maybe two. I can at least respect the shifter’s battle ethic.”
“You’re talking genocide.”
“Whatever it takes. But enough of your stall-tactics, mastyr. Time to pay your debt to nature.”
He felt the vampire’s power revving up. His wraith-mate joined him, a beautiful female who wrapped her arms around his shoulders as she floated slightly above him. “Sweet music to my ears, darling. Now kill the prick. Do it slow. I want to watch him suffer.”
“Anything for you, sweetheart.”
Seth knew he was about as close to death as he’d ever been in his long life. His Guard was too far away to intervene and Lorelei was no match for either of these Invictus pairs.
But just as the vampire would have released his blast, a white blur came at the vampire from the side. Lorelei, still in her wolf form, clipped his legs hard and knocked him off-balance.
The vampire spun, falling hard to the snow-covered ground.
