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“Well, I’m not leaving until you’re leaving,” West said—gruffly, but even though I wouldn’t have expected anything else, hearing him say it brought a heady flutter into my chest. Like when he’d kissed me last night, with a new tenderness I hoped I’d get to experienceagain.
But not now, obviously. The arched beams of the gas station sign came into view up ahead. The truck and the sedan ahead of us turned in, and West followedthem.
We parked along the edge of the abandoned lot. With a rev of an engine, any of the cars should be able to leap the shoulder back onto the road if we needed to make a hastyexit.
Dry leaves that must have been left over from last fall crunched under my feet when I stepped out. The sign overhead creaked as the wind swung it on its chains. The pumps must have been completely dry—not even the faintest tang of gasoline reached my sharp shifter nose. Only the pine scent of the forest, like back at West’s estate, with an added edge of rustingmetal.
“Give me the phone,” West said, holding out his hand. His lieutenant handed it over. As the rest of our contingent spilled out of their vehicles, the canine alpha called up one of hisscouts.
“Rayanne. Slight change of plans. The vamps can meet us at a gas station six miles down the highway from that crossroads. You tell them that from as far as distance as you can manage, and then hop on that motorcycle of yours and come join us. I don’t want them taking any ‘disappointment’ out onyou.”
The other alphas had ambled over to join us. “Let’s see if they still want to play ball when we’re wise to their tricks,” Marco said with a fiercesmirk.
“I’d imagine they’ll realize why we’re changing the plan,” Aaron said. “If they believe they have anything to gain from coming to a compromise at all, they’ll accept. If violence was their only goal…” His jaw set. He glanced down the highway as if we might see the vampires heading our wayalready.
They might still come then. With guns in hand, ready to openfire.
The scout called back in. West brought the phone to his ear, said a few encouraging words, and then glanced around atus.
“They appear to have agreed to meet us here. They’re on the move now. Beready.”
“Where do you want all of us stationed, sir?” Bertrandasked.
“We don’t want to give them a reason to think we’re here anything but peacefully,” Aaron said. “That’ll end this parlay before it evenstarts.”
“Even when they came out in full force against us already,” Nate muttered. He stepped closer to me. “Let them just try tocomplain.”
“No, the eagle shifter is right,” West said. He nodded to his kin. “Spread out into the woods, but stay on our side of the lot. Just far enough back that they won’t be able to see you. Vamps can’t rely on smell. But I want you close enough to engage if you need to—or jump into those cars and get out of here if it comes to that. You know thesignals.”
Except for a few who continued to flank us, the rest of the canine shifters faded back into the forest beside the gasstation.
Lights glowed in the distance down the highway. My shoulders tensed. Here were thebloodsuckers.
“I should shift now,” I said. “So I’m ready. The second I see one gun, I’m blasting them all. If they actually negotiate, you guys have a better idea than I do what the treaty says anyway. Any argumentsthere?”
None of the alphas gave me one. “Just be careful,” Aaronsaid.
Marco shot me a grin. “They’re the ones who’ll need to be careful with our Princess of Flames on theprowl.”
They kept watching the road while I peeled off my clothes. When the first trucks were close enough that I could make out the shape of them behind their headlights, I knelt on the ground and beckoned the shift through mybody.
It was a pleasure, getting to shift at a natural pace rather than rushing into it as quickly as I could force the change. My muscles stretched and tingled rather than aching. The scales rippled over my skin with a giddy shiver. My wings swept out from my back, sending a rush of anticipation through my nerves. I loomed over the cars, fire already prickling at the base of my dragon’sthroat.
I didn’t think I’d have any use for my truth-seeking flames tonight. If the vampires who’d slaughtered our kin took one step wrong, I was turning them into instant barbeque. It wouldn’t solve the problem of all the other vampire groups out there, but at least it’d knock down their numbers a little. And be plenty satisfying at the sametime.
The trucks, small delivery ones with no windows on the bulky back compartments, slid into the lot, staying on the opposite side from us. I kept my dragon eyes trained on the windshields, the doors, for any hint of a figure raising agun.
A slim, dapper-looking man stepped out of the cab of the middle truck. His hair was pure black and his eyes glinted with some semblance of life, but his skin was deathly pale. A sour smell reached mynostrils.
The stench of the undead, that only our sensitive shifter noses could pick up. Their human victims neverrealized.
This guy was clearly the king. He strode into the middle of the lot, past the vacant pumps, as if he wasn’t worried for himself at all. His gaze didn’t even flicker my way, even though there was no way he could have missed the massive dragon watching him. Nine of his people gathered behind him, standing guard. The others stayed in thetrucks.
“We’ve come to your parlay,” West said. He and the other shifters were poised by the first of our cars, ready to use it as a shield. “Maybe you’d like to explain why your people attacked so many of ours lastnight?”
The vampire king smiled thinly. “That was a demonstration. To provide context for thistalk.”
“That context meant more than a hundred deaths among our kin,” Nate said, his voice almost agrowl.
