Page 26 of The Powers of Nyx

My jaw clenched, but I shook my head. “It’s impossible.”

“Is it?” he asked quietly, brows furrowing. “Look, I think—”

The cell phone in my pocket gave a shrill ring, cutting Archer off from the rest of his theory. I spared him a sharp glance before reaching into my back pocket.

Cyrus’s name flashed across the screen, and I held my breath. The call ended, but he didn’t try to call back. My heart rate picked up; had he found something about Ivy’s Fae mate? Maybe found the bastard himself?

Thoughts about it almost overshadowed the pack up, but I tried to push them aside. “You okay there, Wolfy?” Archer asked, stepping up beside me.

“Yes,” I replied through gritted teeth, shoving the cell back into my pocket. “It’s nothing.”

Archer’s eyes darkened, but he held his tongue and turned away. The vehicles were finally finished, their charms activated and protections sealed. If we had Kingsley or Ivy here, the charms would have been stronger.

I prayed to Nyx it would be enough.

“Let’s get the prisoners onboarded,” Jay barked, his voice carrying over the low murmur of the working agents.

Four agents split off the main group and started for the hall where we kept the prisoners. We’d managed to keep the two we had alive weak and easily moveable, but something in my gut told me it wouldn’t be enough. That even if they were as compliant as we thought they were, there was still something we were missing.

My back teeth ground together when the agents returned. Tension rolled off Archer as he took up a similar position as me. Once the prisoners were locked in their respective vehicles, wewere meant to get Thea and the kids into our heavily charmed SUV and take off before the others. There was already one other SUV doing a slow patrol of the warehouses around us.

The vampire came out first, followed by the shifter. Both had sacks over their faces, mostly to protect our identities, but to also keep them from seeing the children and Thea up close. It was also a sensory deprivation technique, so the sacks were charmed to not only blacken their vision, but they also couldn’t hear or scent anything around them. Perfect for two of the biggest predators in our world.

All supernatural creatures had their strengths, but shifters and vampires were hunters. Take that away, and they had little left to offer.

So why do I still feel like they have something planned?

We’d spent hours going over whether capturing them had been a mistake, something they might have planned. Had they purposefully been taken by us? Had they intentionally put themselves in our path?

Nothing they did confirmed or denied that. So, it became a matter of assuming the worst, and planning for it.

Should they prove dangerous, they would die and be reunited with the Goddess they so deeply wished to shun. Let Her take their souls and punish them how She saw fit.

My eyes narrowed on the first set of agents and their prisoner as a soft voice pierced the barrier of the charmed bag. I took a step forward, but it was a voice I’d become familiar with during the long days spent in his cell.

“The fuck did you say?” one of the younger agents growled, his voice carrying through the bay. He ripped the bag off the vamp’s face and pinned the lanky creature up against the wall.

The prisoner in front of him smirked; the vampire’s face was no longer a mangled mess of cuts and bruises. He’d healedbetween then and now, but it shouldn’t have been that quick. The runes carved into his chains should have stopped it.

But the bastard’s eyes drifted from the agent holding him to meet mine. His dark lips moved, but I didn’t understand what he was saying. The agent slammed the vamp into the wall again, the prisoner’s head snapping back with a loud crunch at the impact.

I moved before I could even comprehend what was happening; the shift burned beneath my skin, and it took all my willpower to not let the wolf out. My canines elongated, and claws ripped through my nail beds, but I felt none of the usual ache or discomfort that would normally come with it. Instead, there was just the burn of Ivy’s strength and power shuddering through me.

Tearing the agent away from the vamp, I clamped a hand around the male’s throat, letting the claws bite into his flesh. Red eyes met mine, glassy from the impact, weakened at least from the chains, but still as alert as he had been earlier during our session.

“What. Did. You. Say?” I growled, baring my teeth at the smarmy bastard.

Pale lips moved, but I tightened my hold.

“Do I look like a fucking lip reader?” The vampire’s mouth opened and snapped shut in a gasp. “Speak. Or you’ll find you won’t have fangs for a very long time.”

A fury I’d come to know all too well filled his eyes, but it didn’t give me pause or make me reconsider what I was about to do.

“Your little would-be-Queen isn’t here,” he rasped, eyes flickering around the now still loading bay. “Her power isn’t detectable at all.”

A growl rumbled through my chest. “You don’t get to speak about her. Hell, you probably shouldn’t even be thinking about her. Not when I could rip out your throat at any second.”

Pale lips pulled up into a smirk, revealing bloody teeth. “She’s never going to make it to the throne. She’ll never take the crown.”

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