Page 83 of Blood of Vengeance

“The mating energy, of course.” He practically leaped at us, landing inches away. Grabbing my hand and bringing it back to his nose. Freezing me in place with his proximity but not with his magic. Not yet. “You’re mated to my good friend Wolf Flinch. His scent is in you, which means he bit you, but you didn’t complete the ritual. You have yet to bite him back. The energy is fascinating in its makeup because I can feel the holes. The lack of your side.”

My heart sank, the bite on my neck suddenly pulsing, as if simply acknowledging its existence woke it up. “What do you mean? How do you know this?”

Adam leaned in closer and ran his nose from my wrist to my fingertips, keeping his eyes on my neck the entire time. On the bite mark left by Flinch. Licking his lips before finding his words.

“You’re mated to your wolf, beautiful. Forever and always, especially now that he’s bitten you. He’s going to feel you, no matter where you go. He’s going to know how to track you, mostly because losing you would mean his own death. Oh yes, losing a mate destroys the inner wolf of those like our good friend Wolf Flinch. You and he are a package deal for all of eternity.” His grin turned even more wicked. “Or did he forget to tell you that part before his teeth broke through your tender flesh?”

I couldn’t move, could barely breathe. All I could do was stare at the demon before me as my heart tried to beat its way out of my chest. Dear god, what had Flinch done?

But I didn’t have time to think about all that—about the way Flinch had likely trapped me in the desert with him. Didn’t have the ability to focus on that because as I stood there stunned and reeling, another man walked into the bedroom. One I recognized. One who sent ice straight down my spine.

“No,” I whispered, pushing Zella back, wanting to get us both away from him.

From the man who had been watching me.

“Good evening, ladies.” He nodded toward Adam. “Demon.”

“This is a bad idea,” Adam said as his eyes went solid black. As his energy shifted into something that had me ready to jump through a window to get away from. No magic holding me in place this time, even though it seemed the demon had finally entered the chat. Fully. “You’re making a mistake coming for this one.”

The man gave what once had to have been a smile, but his waxy skin didn’t move quite right. His facial structure didn’t shift the way one would expect it to. And his eyes. Bright and yet dead, those orbs that seemed to be trying to look into my soul sat dark and dull and yet shiny in a way that didn’t make sense in my brain. Terrifying.

“You know not of what you speak, demon.”

“I know killing Wolf Chiggy was one thing. You riled a hornet’s nest with that move and earned yourself your own grave. Killing the fated mates of two executives of the Desert Hellions?” He choked out a sound that was likely supposed to be a laugh as smoke literally began to drift out of his mouth. “Even I don’t want to witness the amount of chaos that move would cause. Those shifters will burn the world to the ground if you fuck with their mates, vampire.”

Zella grabbed my hand tighter, tugging us closer. Both of us staying silent and yet listening to all the plurals in Adam’s sentences. Not mate, mates. Two. Fuck, what had Flinch and Cutter done?

“We want the desert,” the vampire said, staring my way without blinking. Ever. He didn’t fucking blink. “The dogs have to go.”

Dogs. Meaning wolf shifters. Meaning the Hellions.

“This isn’t the way to get them to leave,” Adam said, inching slightly closer to us. Almost…protecting us. “This is the way to start a supernatural war and get your rotting asses nuked out of existence.”

“A pack of dogs is no match for the royal army of the vampire queen.” The vampire hissed and bent forward, as if readying himself for a fight. As if about to attack. Adam growled low and deep, a tone not at all like a wolf growl. Those were warm and comforting. Adam’s growl sounded like something from my nightmares.

“Today is not the day for this fight,” Adam said, growling through every word. A powerful energy building around him with each syllable. “Killing Wolf Chiggy created chaos in the supernatural world. Too much chaos. You won’t survive the retribution for that act, but your queen will. You take out the fated mates of two shifter leaders, and the pendulum will swing against her.”

For the first time, the vampire blinked. Sort of. More closed his eyes partway for a moment then reopened them. As if he had to think hard for that split second. As if he needed a break for that tiny allotment of time.

“No demon will threaten?—”

“This demon will—and did. These women aren’t yours to take tonight.” Adam moved a step closer, keeping his eyes on the vampire even as he reached in our direction. Even as the smell of burn and rot rose in the room and the smoke practically billowed from his mouth. “Sorry, ladies, but it’s the only way.”

He moved faster than I could have predicted, turning to face us as his eyes slid from solid black to pure fire as he grabbed Zella and me by the wrists. One second, there was nothing but confusion in my brain—a need to run overridden by outside forces held in those fiery eyes. An unsurety of what was coming or why. And then, there was pain. Searing, soul-shattering pain. And screaming. Whether that was coming from Zella or me, I had no idea, but the sound would be something that haunted my dreams for the rest of my life. As would the memory of the feeling of my entire body going up in flames.

My final thought before the heat seared its way to my very core, the only person who came to mind to think of as my insides burned, was Flinch.

And how this was all his fault.

Twenty-Seven

Flinch

“What the fuck are you doing here?”

The one thing I hadn’t expected to find in my bedroom on the night of a vampire attack was a chaos demon. Adam stood in the corner, looking… Well, he looked out of his fucking mind. His eyes glowed a deep red, and his top lip had pulled back as if he were some sort of animal smelling a female in heat.

But even Adam’s presence couldn’t fully distract me from my mate.

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