Page 98 of Fated In Blood

Scared in a way I hadn’t been in a long, long, time.

Scared, not for myself, but for someone else.

Scared by my own, utter helplessness.

Fear gnawed at me as I imagined a dozen different scenarios, all of them terrible. And that’s when I realized—far too late—that somewhere along the line, the little slayer had somehow worked her way under my thick skin.

“Two minutes and we’re in the wind.” Rohr tore off his suit jacket and yanked on a fitted leather reinforced with Kevlar. “What’s the best way to do this?” Strapping a sheath around his ankle, he slipped a knife in place, then another.

“A hundred miles per jump,” I decided, hesitating as I drew a shaky breath.

“I know where she is. Where Ithinkshe is,” I corrected myself. “The Silverwood family compound is in Virginia. My instincts tell me she’sgotto be there, but we’ll make adjustments until we confirm I’m right. Then we kill whoever the fuck is hurting her.”

***

Fear made the little slayer easy to track, her terror a homing beacon pounding in my chest. With every jump, her panic grew more unhinged, as if she was losing control.

And hope.

“When’s the last time she fed?” I asked Rohr, hands braced on my knees, catching my breath before we dematerialized again. “Every emotion I’m getting is being filtered through a haze of hunger. She’s in real trouble, Rohr.”

“Two days ago?” he calculated, his eyes widening. “Longer?”

“That means not only is she hurt, she’s on the verge of bloodlust,” I muttered, and something like fear flashed over Riordan’s face.

“She’s in pain, she’s injured and she’s starving. She’s in Virginia, which means her family has her.” I closed my eyes. Now that I knew exactly where we were going, I could barely endure the onslaught of Evangeline’s terror twisting inside me like a living thing.

I pressed my lips together. “She’s too weak to escape. Or too badly injured.”

“Where are we going, Blake? How much further?”

She had to be at White Chapel, her family compound, shehadto be. Now that we were closer, I was sure of it. But I was risking Evie’s life on an educated guess. If I was wrong…

“Blake,talkto me.” His face went bone-white, another wave of her pain leaving us both shaking.

“They’re killing her, Rohr.” I grunted. “She’s not through her transition and she’s still so vulnerable, so weak…”Fuck, why hadn’t I kept a closer eye on her? Why hadn’t I anticipated she’d run?

“Blake. Pull yourself together.” Riordan steadied himself, his face a mask of calm. “How close are we?”

I sucked in a lungful of heavy, humid air, the sun rising over a stifling southern morning. “One more jump to WhiteChapel, if I’m right…but she’s…I can’t tell exactly where she is. Everything’s muffled like she’s being held underground.”

The glow in Riordan’s midnight blue eyes dimmed. “Same. It’s like the closer we get, the more my instincts are getting scrambled.”

When I’d come here a few days ago to scope out the Silverwood compound, I’d surveilled the adjacent town and the acres of rolling pasture surrounding the property where she’d been raised. The wards surrounding the property. The armed guards.

I’d been furious with Evangeline then. Furious at her lies.

Furious at how quickly I’d fallen for her. How easily she’d tricked me with those big blue eyes and innocent-as-a-virgin act. Furious at my own vulnerability.

I wasn’t furious now, I was terrified.

“Why is she here?” I muttered, trying not to picture how badly she was injured. “I don’t understand why she’d come back, when she’s been running from her family most of her life.”

“She came to retrieve the dagger.” Riordan murmured. “I told her we needed it, and she came down here to steal it.”

“Her father…her uncles must have caught her.” Bile rose in my throat. “They caught her…and now they’re killing her.” My eyes locked with Rohr’s and my entire body went weak, my strength draining out of me.

This couldn’t be happening. I scrubbed the sweat off my face. I couldn’t lose Evie like this.

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