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“We’re working to try to find Ell and take him out, but until we’re sure he doesn’t have a back door into your brain, there’s a lot I’d like to tell you, but nothing you need to know.”
Later, I’d find out Mordecai had taken Ryan and Blaze to Svartalfheim, looking for him, but at the time, it was best my friends kept me in the dark on that kind of thing.
“Yes. You’re right. Whoever you’ve sent after Ell, I hope they disembowel him and make him hurt before he dies.”
Kirsten smiled, and Aaron chuckled. “I’m not sure if Kendra has been a good influence on the two of you, or a bad one.”
I returned Kirsten’s smile and told her, “Damn, I’ve missed you.” I looked back to Aaron. “When can Kelsey start?”
“She’s already in and looking.”
I shook my head. I knew she could hack brains, so it shouldn’t bother me so badly that she was in and I didn’t know, but it did.
“What do you want to eat?” Aaron asked.
“Cow, and lots of it. I suppose I have to stay human while Kelsey’s scanning my brain, but I really want to let my wolf out and let her eat raw beef until she has to go to sleep because she’s so full.”
“Let’s save that for tomorrow. The kitchen’s throwing burger patties on the grill to start, and we’ll get you some steaks as fast as we can. The burgers are fresh, the steaks need to be thawed.”
“Thanks, Aaron.”
“I’m just happy to have you back. We need you, Cora, Alpha of the Homewood Pack, but I would miss you as a person, too, if something happened to you.”
Chapter 22
Marco
I understood, logically, why Cora and I shouldn’t talk until it was safe to be around each other. If the pathways were still there so she could see what I’d done and what I planned to do, and if she was a brainwashed puppet of Ell, then he’d know everything as soon as she did.
And if all of the bonds were broken between Cora and me — and I believed that to be the case — it would be best for us, relationship-wise, to fix them posthaste, before we had to deal with each other across the distance of not being connected. But we couldn’t reconnect them until we knew she wasn’t a puppet of Ell.
So I worked with Ryan, Mordecai, and everyone else to figure out how to repel the attack, when it came.
Because Ell was still out there, and I was certain he’d be coming for me, this time. By taking over my territory, he’d own everything that was mine.
Yet another reason not to make Cora mine again just yet — not until we’d beaten the motherfucker who wanted to own her badly enough, he went against the Concilio to try to make it happen.
He was one of the few vampires strong enough, he didn’t have to worry about pissing off the powerhouse of the Vampire Council.
And I was supposed to fight him?
Mordecai flashed into the upstairs kitchen of the coterie house. Alarms went off, we saw who it was, and someone shut them down. A guard walked him down to see me, since the sun was still up, and I walked out of my office to meet him in the downstairs great room.
“I’m sorry to come unannounced, but Ell returned to his castle and is gone again. Likely another realm, but I can’t find him. We need to talk, preferably with your most trusted people present — those you trust to help you make some hard decisions.”
When a god of old offers to help you figure out what to do, you jump to it, so I telepathed my top people to join us, as well as a few others who might not be mega-powerful, but had been around long enough I value their counsel.
I settled us all into the downstairs great room and put Mordecai in the chair I usually prefer, so my people would understand the importance I was giving him.
“As I see it,” Mordecai began, “you have two courses of action to decide between. I understand why you don’t want to rebind Cora yet, and because I’ve grown to care for her, I approve of that decision. However, once we’re positive Ell has been kicked out of her head, I’m not certain it’s the correct one.”
“You think I need the power she brings if I have a hope of defeating Ell?”
“We’re talking about a vampire powerful enough he just openly challenged the Concilio.”
“Seriously?” Etta asked.
Mordecai nodded and told her, “They threatened him with punishment, and he told them to try their best, and he’d destroy not only every vampire involved, but every sanctuary they claimed, and every living and nonliving being within said sanctuaries.” He met my gaze. “You wouldn’t go up against the entire Concilio structure, and you’ll have to be stronger than even that to go up against Ell.”
