Page 41 of Fallen Heirs

I followed after her, catching up so we were walking side by side.

I took in the awful state of what had been one of the largest wolf packs in the supernatural world.

Just ruins now.

The hundreds of log cabins, their former homes, were burned to the ground. Even the grass and vegetation was scorched.

Debris and ashes were all that remained.

The bodies of the fallen had been taken care of byExemplar.

But the devastation remained.

I could feel it in the air, so much death.

“God,” she uttered. “They were completely wiped out. A whole pack, families, innocents.”

“I know,” I murmured, taking it all in.

“Nowhere is safe. No one.”

“You’re right about that,” a voice whispered on the wind, a moment before a rush of air whipped all around us.

In a blink, we were surrounded by a dozen vampires, all with their game faces on.

I cursed under my breath and went to call my magic.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” one of them spoke, the same voice that I’d just heard a moment prior.

I swung my head as the guy stepped forward at the same time as the rest took aim in a split second, pistols trained on us. “Ammo doused in holy water,” he told us.

I took him in, long dirty blond hair brushing the shoulders of his black tee that was tucked into a pair of tactical pants. He was dressed the same as the guys surrounding us.

“Unless you want your girlfriend to watch you die, I’d stay nice and still, if I were you. You could stop some of the shots, but not all of them. The concentration of holy water is enough to burn you from the inside out in moments. As that’s happening, we’ll descend on the Nephilim.”

“Where did you get such weapons?” I demanded. “Anything like this is outlawed.”

“New creations, courtesy of our benefactor.”

“Constantine?” Alena asked.

“You’re quick,” he bit back at her, sarcasm dripping.

“Why would you align with him? Look at the damage he’s done here.”

“To a foolish wolf pack with an even more foolish Alpha. They perished for their bad decisions. Not just aligning withExemplar, but agreeing to track Constantine and his army. He’d offered them greater power and riches to get them out of this hovel and that was how they repaid him.”

“You’re aligning yourself with a monster, a being completely beyond reason,” I told them.

“Beyond reason? Is that why he asked us to deliver an offer to you?” the guy said, eyeing me.

It hit me then. “That scent was planted to lead us here.”

“Correct.”

“There’s nothing he could offer me that would—”

“He’s found a way to cure you of your vampirism.”

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