Page 33 of Short, Lethal & Claimed

CHAPTER 18

“You’re healing slowly again,” Tomas said, gesturing to the burn marring Logan’s skin.

“Why is that exactly?” Logan asked, ignoring the pain tearing through his fingers as he drummed his fingertips against the dining room table.

“I’m honestly surprised that you don’t know,” Tomas said, sounding amused.

“And what is that?” Logan drawled as he shifted his attention back to his laptop and scrolled through the forum until he came to the job that he’d posted and-

Nothing.

Not one single fucking bid on the bounty that he’d placed on Magnus’ head, which made him curious about something. Logging out of the forum, Logan opened a private window and pulled up the forum again before turning the laptop around and pushed it towards Tomas.

“Log in,” Logan said, watching the demon sigh heavily as he reached over and pulled the laptop closer. After quickly typing in his login information, Tomas pushed the computer back to him and said, “Evander.”

“What about him?” Logan asked, wondering what any of this had to do with his sire.

“When’s the last time that you saw him?” Tomas asked as Logan scrolled through the forum.

“The sixteenth or seventeenth century,” Logan murmured absently as he came to the bounty on the children and-

He was going to make Magnus pay for every fucking ounce of pain that he put those children through, Logan decided as he took in the long list of mercenaries bidding on their bounty. He was going to drag the fucking prick over shards of glass coated in holy water and have the children’s cuffs coated in holy oil and welded to his fucking body to make sure that his fucking hands and feet didn’t grow back and-

“He found his mate,” Tomas said as Logan reached for a pen and legal pad and began making a list of everyone that accepted the bounty that Magnus placed on the children.

“Vampires don’t have mates,” Logan pointed out as he wrote the last name down before tossing the pen back on the table and began scrolling down the page only to feel his stomach drop when he saw the second bounty placed on the children. Grinding his jaw, Logan took in the list of mercenaries that accepted the bounty, noting that this list was twice as long as the one for Magnus’ bounty before shifting his attention to the poster.

Pierce.

“Not usually, no,” Tomas said as Logan forced himself to scroll down the page, looking for the reason why no one had accepted his bid and found himself chuckling when he saw it.

Tomas reached over and turned the computer around so that he could see what Logan was looking at only to turn it back around with a sigh. “Looks like you finally have his attention.”

“Only took eight hundred years,” Logan said, leaning back in his chair as he took in the bounty that had been placed on his head. At least this explained why no one had accepted his bountyon Pierce, Logan thought as he took in the fifty-million-dollar bounty on his head if they took him alive, twenty-five million if they were able to provide proof of his death before moving onto the deadline placed on the bounty.

“What’s happening in September?” Logan asked, frowning as he scrolled through the forum, looking for anything that would clue him into the reason why Pierce was determined to get him out of the way by September only to curse when he scrolled back up and-

“Shane’s fifteenth birthday,” Logan said as he took in the deadline that he’d missed the first time.

“They want to get their hands on his blood when he transitions for the first time.”

“Double the guards on the building,” Logan said, closing out of the forum and opened the security app when a sense of sadness washed over him.

“I’ll do it on my way out. Where do you want me, Boston or London?” Tomas asked as Logan searched through the video feed until he found the reason why his heart suddenly felt like it was breaking.

“Here,” Logan said, watching as Jill knelt down by Caleb’s side while James examined his burn, looking absolutely helpless as she watched the little boy cry. “I want you to protect Jill and the children.”

“What about Gray?” Tomas asked after a slight hesitation.

“I have him watching the brownstone,” Logan said as he watched Jill pull Caleb into her arms and-

“Tell me what happened to Evander,” Logan found himself saying as he watched Jill kiss the top of Caleb’s head as the little boy hesitantly wrapped his arms around her and held on while James applied a salve to the burn that looked like it was a little over a week old.

“Well, after I realized just how badly you fucked up, I did some research and found out that your sire was happily mated and the father of a Pyte,” Tomas began with a heartfelt sigh.

“Evander has a son?” Logan asked, watching as Jill wiped away Caleb’s tears before he reluctantly closed his laptop and focused on the demon.

“Kaius,” Tomas said with a nod. “The Sentinels have been after him for a while to join them.”

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