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Lach was happy to see Shim hauling ass back to camp. He grabbed Bron and forced her behin
d them.
Dante walked in, his hands in the air. Kaja was at his side, in her wolf form, her delicate nose in the air.
A large man was behind Dante. He was at least Lach’s height at six foot five. He had an Unseelie look about him, and Lach would bet he wasn’t a pure sidhe. Emerald-green eyes and pitch-black hair made a stark contrast to Dante’s reddish blond.
“Dude, I told you we’re not Torin’s guard. I showed you my fucking fangs, man. I’m a desperate vampire looking for a consort. Do you know any? Because I will pay.”
Kaja growled a little.
“I’ve learned not to believe everything a person says. People lie, even when they have knives to their backs.” The dark man looked around. “You have women here. Why the hell do you have women here?”
“I’m ridiculously wealthy. I keep an entourage with me, even in faery forests. The men are here to ensure my safety and the women are here to do what women do.”
Gillian huffed. “As if I would touch you, Dellacourt.”
The dark man stiffened. “Dellacourt? Are you one of the vampires who’s related to our kings?”
A little laugh came from the trees above. “Yes, he is, Master Zane. He’s the billionaire playboy turned fairly ruthless political advisor. And the wolf beside you is his wife.” The phooka. Of course. It was chaos. Naturally the phooka showed up. It was in its tree form, hanging upside down from one of the low branches. “I believe I mentioned we could call them allies.”
Dante breathed a deep sigh as the man named Zane let him go. “I was giving into Kaja’s need to hunt when this asshole jumped me. When did the lemur thing start talking? You know we’re in a faery forest. It’s really best to shoot anything that talks and ask questions never.”
Lach felt Bron trying to get a good view, but he wasn’t certain anything had been settled yet. He blocked her, unwilling to expose her at all.
Zane sheathed his incredibly large knife and looked at Dellacourt. “So all that talk was bullshit. You don’t need a consort. You have a wolf.”
Kaja changed, her transformation so quick if he blinked he would miss it. “He has a consort, though after calling my friends cheap women, he might not get his meal tonight.”
Dellacourt shrugged out of his jacket and wrapped it around his wife’s shoulders. “I am sorry, lover. They are very expensive prostitutes. Is that better?”
“Much. One would always rather be expensive. Queen Meg taught me that.”
“Too bad she didn’t teach you to bite the people who pull a knife on me.”
Kaja shook her head. “He wasn’t going to use it. He’s protecting his son. And someone else. There are still two more out there. I could smell them. They’re afraid. And on the run. Fear is easy to smell.”
Zane turned back to the forest. “Nathan, you can bring Charlie out now.”
A second man, this one slightly shorter but just as fit, his brown hair curling over the edges of his tunic collar, walked out of the woods carrying a young man in his arms.
“I told you I would bring you to safety,” the phooka said.
Nathan struggled a little with the body in his arms, but he seemed resolute. “You told us you would take us back to Aoibhneas.”
Shim moved forward. “You’re the Harpers’ friends. The one whose boy was taken by Torin.”
Bron moved, sidestepping Lach and slipping toward the newcomers. Gillian moved, too, though Roan and Harry did nothing to stop her.
“She’s very good with white magic,” Roan said. “Why don’t you bring the child over here to the bed?”
Roan tossed the cube to the ground and in an instant it was a full-size air bed. Nathan gently laid his son on the top. The boy looked to be more of a young man, roughly fifteen or sixteen. He was malnourished, his body a mass of gangly arms and legs.
Nate put a hand on his son’s head, smoothing his hair back. “He was taken when we brought our wine to the marketplace. We’re isolated. We hadn’t heard that Torin was laying claim to all bondmates. Honestly, we didn’t know he could bond.”
“The mayor told us he could.” Zane stood over them both, his eyes worried.
Nathan’s lips turned up in a little smile. “The mayor is insane and he told us Charlie could bond because of that device Caleb made for him to track Planeswalker demons. Please excuse us. Our mayor is a brilliant warrior, but he’s deeply preoccupied with what he calls the coming Demon Invasion. Anyway. Zane and I were haggling and then Charlie was gone. He’s been missing for two years. If Torin is selling bondmates to vampires, why wouldn’t he feed our son? Wouldn’t a vampire want a healthy mate?”
