Page 29 of Bitten By Desire

In answer, Julian flashed me his breathtaking, true smile and swiftly got to his feet to offer me a hand up.

“How the hell does your hair stay so perfect?” I asked, readjusting the single curl that liked to swing down onto his forehead.

“You’re the one that’s perfect, my love.” He pulled me into his arms. “Are you sure you want to do this?”

“Yes,” I cut off Julian’s protests again with the word and a palm laid flat on his chest. “We’re going in. I don’t expect anyone else to put themselves on the line either. It doesn’t make sense. All I need is one quick distraction so I can get a word out.”

“I will gladly be your distraction,” Julian said.

“You may want to zip up your fly first,” I said with a wink. “Or maybe not. Maybe that’s the best distraction of all.”

Julian growled, flashing fang as he adjusted his wardrobe malfunction, and I bit the inside of my cheek to prevent myself from laughing. Then he took my hand.

“You know I’m not fond of this idea. But I guarantee I’m much stronger than I was the last time I encountered my superior officer.”

I leaned up and kissed his smooth cheek, warm with my blood flowing through him.

“This time, we have the upper hand.”

“Unfortunately, we do need someone else’s assistance,” Julian said, tugging me into his arms. “Even if I speed us inside, taking the elevator is asking for trouble. There’s only one way we can truly take him off-guard.”

“What’s that?” I asked, not wanting to acknowledge it.

“Your sister must open a portal.”

I frowned, but Julian waited. I knew he was right, but I hated the idea of it. Finally, I nodded, and he took off with a gust of wind. I’d only paced the small clearing four rounds by the time he returned.

He opened his mouth to tell me how it went when a familiar blue energy circle appeared in front of us, and Zoe stepped through.

“I’ll always have your back,” she said, arms folded across a T-shirt with a llama on it.

The color of her portal had snagged something in my brain, and a vision of the glowing blue demon portal that had called to me rose. I shivered with a sudden, strong feeling I didn’t want her involved. “We don’t have time to deal with the wards, though?—”

“Hazel already helped me bypass them.”

I clamped down on the inside of my cheek and tried to remain calm as I slipped out of Julian’s grasp.

“This is something I need to do myself. Can you promise you’ll only open the portal and then go right back to Hazel?”

Zoe’s lip quivered as her eyes turned glassy. “Are you sure about this? I can just portal you somewhere new and we can start again.”

Shaking my head, I pulled her into a hug. She smelled sweet like a cinnamon roll, and I took a moment to revel in the feel of her.

“Charlotte is right, we have to finish this,” Julian said as I backed away, wiping my eyes. “Please send us below the platform in the command center if possible.”

Zoe raised her arms and forced a grin. “No problem.”

The portal opened before us, and we stepped through into the shadows below the platform the general always stood on. Eerie silence filled the space along with the glow of hundreds of screens all around, depicting places all over the world with no idea they were being spied on. It was the absence of the worker bees as I liked to think of the black-uniformed underlings that normally worked down here that made my skin crawl.

What was he doing up there?

Julian caught my eye and gave a nod. When I gave the signal, he’d rush up and distract the general long enough for me to yell, “Freeze”. It was a simple plan, and though it seemed foolproof, something inside of me yearned to run away.

Not that there was any way out now without being spotted.

I was about to nod back and get this over with when the screens all went black and a single one snapped on directly in front of me and behind Julian.

A circle of white birch trees shone in the moonlight, giving off a silvery blue glow. A large boulder sat to the right of the clearing. On it rested my sister, in shorts and a llama T-shirt, hugging herself.

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