Page 74 of Viper

Jester’s brows slid together. “Spoke to her about what?”

“Ghost doesn’t know.” Viper set his cup down on the counter. “He says Ella doesn’t seem fazed or upset. While I’m confident she can handle Neta just fine if need be, I still don’t like it. And I want to know what was said.”

“It could be that Neta simply asked her if you two are seeing each other. Maybe talk to Ella first.She’smore likely to spill all.”

Viper rolled his shoulders. “Not really feeling in the mood to delay—” He cut off as Darko teleported into the kitchen of the clubhouse, the light of urgency in his gaze.

“Hudson, we have a problem,” Darko announced.

“You mean Houston,” Jester corrected.

Darko shrugged. “Whatever. There’s a problem.”

“Which is?” asked Viper, pushing away from the counter.

Darko planted his feet. “I tracked down some strix, but they’re in a pretty public place.”

Viper felt his eyes narrow. “How public?”

“They’re at a damn carnival.”

Shit.“Coordinates?”

After Darko rattled them off, Viper telepathically sent them to each brother along their club’s ‘channel’, adding,Other thanGhost—you need to stay on Ella—I want everyone to teleport to this spot. There are some strix there.He refocused on the angels in front of him. “Let’s get gone.”

As one, they teleported to a shadowed spot among the trees at the carnival’s perimeter. It was like walking into a wall of noise. So much talking, laughing, circus-like music, chugging machinery, screams of riders, and the spooky theatrical sounds filtering out of the haunted house.

“They’ve separated into groups,” said Darko, who then pointed to the clusters of strix that were hovering out of sight near amusement rides; watching the children with a predatory gaze.

In quick bursts, more of Viper’s brothers materialized, gathering into a tight huddle as they spied on the demons.

“There’s, what, twenty of them?” estimated Omen, a slight question in his tone.

“Looks like it,” replied Razor.

“We can’t really afford to have our usual fun,” said Viper. “Too many people would see things they shouldn’t, not to mention get hurt.”

Jester cocked his head. “What are you thinking we should do?”

Viper pursed his lips. “I’m thinking we teleport behind each of them, snap their necks, and then whisk their corpses out of here.”

Rebel frowned. “Do we really have to make their deaths fast? They’re about to snatchkids. They don’t deserve quick and easy.”

Viper sighed. “Fine. We teleport behind them, grab them before they can act, and whisk them away from here so we can kill them in privacy.”

Darko grinned. “I like that plan better. Where do you wanna take them?”

Viper chewed on the inside of his mouth, pensive. “Strix hate water, right?”

A smile curved Omen’s mouth. “You’re thinking the small stretch of beach where we once had that party.”

“No one goes there, and it’s far away from everything.” The perfect spot.

“The beach it is,” decided Merchant, who’d been out of isolation for a few days now. He pointed at a particular strix. “I wantthatone in the green jumper. Which one do you want?” he asked Sting.

At that, each of the brothers chose their own target. Several of the angels would return for the last cluster of strix before they could notice their brethren had been taken.

“Right, let’s move,” said Viper. He teleported to a particular demon, grabbed it from behind, and teleported it straight to the destination in mind.

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