Page 6 of Master Bistrita

Willow’s eyes begin to swirl, as Natalia’s phone buzzes. Overmaster Descallia scowls, clearly frustrated with disruption after disruption and no forward movement in finding Lucas.

Natalia’s eyes burn bright red. Master Oradea is by her side in a second, sensing that something is very wrong. She reads the screen of her phone. “It’s my brother, Michael.”

I know Descallia’s temperature will cool if he has even something that will help us find any of the rogues, knowing that they may take us to Lucas. “Does he have information?”

Natalia’s chest heaves with angst. Willow and Raven’s fingers snap with electricity. Natalia finds her voice to answer my question, but it’s just barely above a whisper. “The shifters are at Club Descallia, in Oradea. My brothers and Chara are trapped. They’ll die.”

The masters don’t need to be told what to do. They gather their females, wrapping them in the protection of their cloaks, and quickly transporting to defend our club and everyone in it. The mangy, yellow-eyed shifters know exactly what they’re doing. They’re not looking to hurt the patrons, just using them to lure us in.

The fuckers…

The customers don’t know that, though, and some of them look scared to death. The vampires trying to protect them seethe with anger, impatiently waiting for us to arrive so they can hunt and kill the wolves who dared to break through those doors.

Chara, the red-haired beauty, stands behind the bar as my brothers descend on the others. A mangy wolf growls down at her from the top of the bar with teeth bared and jowls drooling onto the marble below.

Michael has a gun pointed at the wolf in a standoff, but the minute he fires that gun, it’s going to set off a chain reaction, and he and his brothers are smart enough to know that someone, possibly one of their own or the ladies, are going to be caught in the crossfire. And even as trigger happy as the Benzinis are, they’re not going to endanger their sister’s friend, Chara.

I don’t even need to give Gregor a nod. He knows exactly what I want him to do, the minute I need him to do it. He lets a round of his Glock fire at the wall on the other side of the club, causing just the distraction my brothers and I need to transport across the room. The wolves are not as quick as they’d like to think, their agility worn down by battle after battle with the vampires who will not quit until we’ve found and killed every single one of the rogue traitors.

I position myself between the beauty and the snarling beast above, and with one blaze of my eyes singe his hair with fire before slicing his head with one arc of my long sword. His head bounces on the floor, rolling past us as I take the beauty’s hand and guide her out of harm’s way while my brothers and the syndicate boys make quick work of the wolves who’ve now lost the element of outnumbering our own.

The minute the wolves are subdued, Natalia races to Chara and pulls her into her arms. “I’m so sorry. We should have taken you with us!” She looks to her brother, who puts another round in the mangy wolf at his feet for good measure. “Fucker,” he says.

Natalia smiles at her brothers. “Not too bad for mere mortals.”

I growl at Michael’s show of strength. He and his brothers couldn’t protect Natalia, and they can’t protect Chara either. They aren’t vampires and don’t fight with the senses of vampires, witches, and shifters of the underworld. They should learn this before anyone else they care about gets killed. Stubborn fuckers. “Your men didn’t see them coming?”

“They attacked some of our guys and got past the patrol outside. Sneaky fuckers. That should be the end of it, though.”

My chest still pounds. “Don’t count on it. We’ll send some of our own to help with the perimeter.” Silver clears his throat, saving me from dealing with the syndicate boys and their reasons for not wanting our help. They’re getting it whether they like it or not. “What is it Silver?” I ask.

I don’t know him well, but I’ve heard of his powers of sight, almost as strong as Lucianna’s, they say. His eyes are homed in on the ceiling. “It’s not over. They’re coming back. There’s a wall of fury heading our way, right now.”

Lucianna leaves her place by Overmaster Descallia, surveying the carnage. “I can feel it too, Silver,” she says, softly, observing all the blood spilled upon the floor.

Raven rubs the stone hanging around her neck, one of the three matching stones that are said that at one point will help us find the rogues. Her gaze finds Lucianna’s. “Are you sure?” she asks our future queen.

Willow looks to the other witches and their stones and then to Lucianna. “We’re not getting that vibe either. I think we’re clear of danger, but that’s not to say that they aren’t nearby. They’re going to already know that you got the best of the wolves. The rogue vampires won’t chance coming here to meet the same fate, knowing you’d be lying in wait for them.”

Whether they would or wouldn’t, I’m not about to leave the club until I know for sure. “If we’re certain the stones will help guide our path, then it seems prudent to wait.” I don’t tell them that I’m not certain of any such thing. Waiting here is as good as any place. And it has nothing to do with the fact that the creamy skinned, red-haired beauty is here either. “Let’s move some of our men more interior and have them surround the club. If anyone comes within fifty feet of this club, they will not survive.

I give Gregor a nod. “Would you take these two and see if you and your men can get some information from them? Silver, can you work with Raven and Willow and see if you can home in on where the rogues may be? Michael, you and your brothers want to help Oradea find out how they got into the perimeter, and make sure no one else can get through or out?”

Overmaster Descallia nods, sending an appreciative glance. “Good thinking, men. Maybe we can get information from some of the shifters. This should be the last of the mangy traitors. Sheba will be happy to know we’ve caught more of the rogues who left his pack.”

My eyebrows raise, but I don’t say a word. Sheba is going to need to start at square one, rebuilding his pack and empire within the underworld. Nothing is going to be easy about that for the leader who once commandeered the entire forest of wolves.

The red-haired beauty whispers to Natalia, but my keen ears hear every word. “Now that I know you’re safe, I can’t stay here. I’m going to go home. Taylen will hang out for a while and make sure no one needs anything. She speaks vampire.”

I hover toward Chara, Natalia, and Taylen. “I’m afraid I can’t let you leave.”

Her friend, Taylen, steps between us. “She needs time. They flew in here so fast all we could do is hit the panic button. The safe room was out of the question. We know how to use it, but we didn’t have time. It scared the hell out of all of us, but she took the brunt of it. They know she’s friends with Natalia and didn’t waste any time getting to her. I’m just sorry I couldn’t do more to get in the way of it.”

Chara places a hand on her friend’s shoulder and gives her a weak smile. “It’s okay, Taylen.” She scowls up at me, though, her colorful lips pursed with displeasure. “I appreciate what you did.”

“You don’t look one bit appreciative.”

She looks around at the bloody bodies being dragged from the room and then back at me, more as though she blames me for what happened. “I am not part of this war. Like hell do I plan to stay here with all of this.” She gestures around at the carnage.

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