Page 92 of For Love and Blood and Fury

“Until you told me just now it was true, my answer would have been no one is that fucking stupid.” Narine’s gaze darted between Elena and Librada. “What makes you think it’s Baylor?”

“The assailants were all male—” Librada started.

“That could just mean that the queen bee is smart enough to hide herself. Just in case things didn’t go to plan,” Narine interrupted.

“That’s what I said,” Elena agreed. “What female would be leading Baylor’s crew?”

Narine dropped back against the couch like her mind was going in a hundred different directions. Like she was digging deep into her memories. “Those morons had very incorrect ideas about how the world works. Starting with the fantasy that we’re all just pretending that men cannot turn new vampires.” She gurgled a chuckle that stayed in her throat. “Something aboutus just refusing to teach them how to do it. Appalling gender-based conspiracy theories. You know those ideas pop up every few decades when new baby vamps are learning the ways of the world.” She shook her head again. “Anyway, there’s no way they’d follow a woman. Not that guy or his knuckle-dragging groupies.”

She didn’t understand why men who couldn’t give birth in their first life would find it so hard to believe they couldn’t do it in their second. Becoming vampires only enhanced what was already there. Vampire procreation wasn’t so far from human childbirth to be incomprehensible.

Elena turned her head toward Librada in the chair next to her. Could this Baylor really think he could obtain a shred of authority if he killed her? Even if he succeeded by sheer luck, they would be obliterated by the joint force of every other cartel in the country.

“I don’t know why Baylor would be dumb enough to do this, but if they rose up against you…” Narine stood, the invisible aura of a war-cry radiating from her skin. “I will crush them.”

An hour later, Elena was walking back to the helicopter significantly lighter than she’d arrived. If all she had to contend with was a band of misguided fools, the solution was simple. It was just a matter of rooting them out. That was the hardest part. But once she’d found them, they wouldn’t be able to hide behind a coward’s ambush and some poison. This was the best possible scenario really. A group of radicals that could have gone after any cartel head. It wasn’t personal. It wasn’t even a real challenge.

The sound of Librada’s phone ringing wouldn’t have normally derailed Elena’s thoughts, but it was followed by Lib muttering a Spanish curse under her breath when she answered. The caller hadn’t said more than a few words before Libradaturned to her. “There was trouble,” she said with unusual concern bleeding from her too-wide eyes.

Everything else in the world dropped away. Elena didn’t waste another breath asking questions. Taking off in a blinding sprint, hood blowing off but the weak sun wouldn’t slow her advance, she bellowed for the pilot to open the door.

The pilot tumbled out of the helicopter, openly confused. He remained rooted to the spot while Elena blew past him.

Leaping into the helicopter with Lib right behind her, she turned to show the stunned pilot her fangs and growled, “Home. Now.” Grabbing him by the shoulder, she hauled him into the helicopter.

Body trembling, the pilot locked the door and all but tumbled into the cockpit. “Yes, ma’am,” he said like he was going to puke while flipping switches and causing the helicopter to whirl to life. “Buckle in and I’ll get us?—”

“Now,” she repeated, fear a belt tied around her throat pulling tight enough to strangle.

Now, she prayed, standing behind the pilot and looking out into the dark gray sky like she could manifest herself back to them. Like she could keep them safe through sheer force of will.

Chapter Fifty-One

“Isthat the one with the freaky wings?” one of the four vampires Zuri could see from where she was still face down in the gravel asked. Well, she couldn’t seethembut she could see their boots.

“No, that’s the other witch,” another male said.

Zuri tried to get her elbows under her chest and leverage her weight. Tried anything to get herself off the ground, but all she managed to do was shred her forearms and elbows. Was that the piece of shit who tried to kill them in the hospital? Zuri couldn’t remember what he sounded like.

“This is the one,” he said with a tone that had to be followed by a serpentine flick of the tongue, a grotesque leering. “Get her up.”

The thought of hands on Bambi’s body, rough and unwanted and hateful, gave Zuri the kind of insane strength that made women flip cars off the fucking road with their bare hands. With a scream that grew from the very center of her being and broke through her lips like an ancient curse, Zuri grabbed her umbrella and jammed it as hard into his leg as she could manage from the awkward angle. She’d hoped to get him in the groin, but the side of his knee was enough to make him falter.

Falter but not fall. He cursed, yanking the umbrella out of her hand hard enough to pull her arm out of its socket. Pain shot hot and electric from her wrist to her shoulder, but she didn’t let it slow her down. Trying to use his momentary distraction to her advantage, Zuri shifted her weight to one side, desperate to at least roll over. To see what was happening.

“Oh, I’m going to have so much fun making you pay for that,” he vowed like he was spitting on her.

Zuri stopped struggling. Not because she was afraid, but because she’d been letting her anger cloud her judgment. Physical strength wasn’t going to get Bambi out of this. She didn’t have the focus to tap into his deepest fears—not with his boot making it impossible to take more than a shallow breath. But maybe she could confuse him.

What better time to try something you’ve never done than when Marisol’s safety hangs in the balance?She grimaced, the pain radiating through her right arm nearly debilitating. And then she heard Bambi’s whimper, and she was sure she’d gnaw off the fucking arm to get to her.

Reaching back again, pain blurring her vision and sending a spike of nausea straight through her, Zuri grabbed the ankle thatwasn’tusing her as a footrest. He laughed at her, but only for a moment. Magic born of the primal need to survive erupted from her body. She was in his mind, ignoring the vitriolic hate, and making him forget. Forget why he was here, forget why he was standing on her. Forget his name, his life, his purpose. She willed him to see only a thick, gray fog.

The moment he took the slightest bit of pressure off her back, Zuri braced herself on her left arm and scrambled to her knees. Balance lost, he stumbled back and away from her. Zuri’s vision doubled with the pain screaming down her spine, her right arm hanging terrifyingly low.

“James! What the fuck?” Hospital Fuck, his face visible under his hoodie, looked at Zuri like she was the monster. “I told you not to let her fucking touch you!”

Good, he hasn’t forgotten what I can do to him.

---