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“I’ll go check it out.” Ridley disappears.
“What is it?”
“We’ve got company.” The moment Rainey says it, the ward lines go off again, alerting us to the presence of strangers.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Tarnley growls and blurs away. We race out onto the driveway, making it only a few yards before multiple pairs of headlights damn near blind us. The vehicles come to a stop, and Rainey comes to stand beside me as Tarnley blurs to my other side.
Car doors open.
They slam.
I don’t have to look behind me to know that everyone who’d been watching the funeral now flanks us. We may be battered. Bruised. Beat the hell down. But we’ll still fight.
A woman comes into view. Her fiery red hair is pulled up into a tight bun, and she’s dressed in black leather pants and a blood-red t-shirt. On both thighs, long, silver blades are sheathed. Her freckled face is beautiful—but in a savage way—and I know without a doubt this is a hunter.
“Rainey Astor?” she asks.
“That’s me.” Rainey steps forward. “Who the fuck are you?”
“Natalia. But you can call me Nat.”
“What are you doing here?”
She glances to Delaney. “Delaney Astor?”
“You seem to know an awful lot about us,” Delaney shoots back.
Nat turns her dark gaze to me. “You’re Bronywyn Walsh. Tarnley—don’t know you’re first name. You’re Cole Miller, and you’re Elijah Hawthorne.”
“She didn’t mention us. My feelings are hurt,” Ridley comments, dryly.
“You here on behalf of the council?” Elijah questions.
Natalia glances back at the people still shielded by the bright headlights and laughs. The chuckles from her comrades reach us. “The council did not send us,” she assures Elijah. “In fact, we’re here because we want to help you kill those assholes.”
“Why?”
“You don’t even realize what you’ve done, do you? What you’ve started.”
“A revolution?” Fearghas jokes.
Her gaze flickers to him. “Exactly. But it’s more than that. The councils have reigned unchecked for far too long. If you knew the half of what they’ve been doing—”
“Murdering innocents?” Rainey asks. “Torture? Rape? We’re pretty well-versed.”
“Are you aware of the experiments, then?”
That’s a new one.My blood ices. “What experiments?”
She shifts her gaze around our group then glances past us, at those lurking behind. “Can we go somewhere less open to talk?”
