Page 3 of Reign

My brows dipped. “But what can he possibly want from me?”

“Not just from you. From us both.”

I swallowed at the intensity in his gaze, my libido stirring for the first time in months at being held so close to him. In my head a voice screamed to step away, but it was dampened by the pleasant buzz from the painkillers and the wine, so I slipped my arms around his waist.

“Yes, but what is that?”

“A baby.”

Chapter 2

Connor

“Anything?”I strode into the large room that doubled as an IT and meeting room. My wet top stuck to me as I peeled it off and flung it into the corner. My body was so tense, frustration riding me so hard, it took every bit of self-control I had not to punch the wall.

The poised blonde woman who stood in front of the nearest flat-screen monitor turned and appraised me. Her greedy eyes travelled from my wet hair down to my chest, past my stomach, and headed in the inevitable direction she always went whenever she did this, straight to what she could only imagine was below my belt buckle. My jeans were wet, but I drew the line at dropping them in front of this woman. She'd just have to keep imagining. She was as much a predator as any of my brothers, and I’d spent the last two months trying not to get caught in her snare.

“Xania? Any new information?”

Xania raised her brows at the demand in my voice. Yeah, she was still as cold as she had been as Miss X. It was away from this room and the professional responsibilities that Walker had assigned her, that she’d become a huge pain in my arse. She was as tight-lipped as ever about her boss, not to mention her ability to regenerate, and it was obvious that, although she was here workingwithme, she still, without a doubt, workedforWalker. She might want to get in my pants, but her life revolved around Walker, and she was utterly loyal to him.

Alex wandered in from the opposite door and kissed Xania on her cheek. She huffed at him, her platinum blonde brows dipping. Alex grinned, always ready to wind up his unemotional sister. “Hey, how you doin’, sis? You find anything with that clever brain and cool tech yet?”

I rolled my eyes at Alex’s attempt to appease his sister. Both were Doppelgangers, and both could be an asset in this war, not only to save Ember but in fighting the demons that were trickling through the nearest Hell Rift. But X, as the rest of our team called her, wasn’t much of a team player.

“I’m fine,brother.Or at least I was untilyou twodisturbed my thinking space.” She peered over to where Lance and Ava worked side by side. “At least they’re quiet. And no, I haven’t found the girl yet. I can’t see what the rush is. She’s immortal. They can’t kill her any more than they can kill me—or you, brother. Not unless they have a succubus demon or some kind of Faerie spell we haven’t heard of yet.”

I cocked my head, hearing the bitterness in her words.

“X.” Alex sounded exasperated. “You know they can unleash Hell on Earth with her phoenix.”

X shrugged. “Then we persuade Walker to let us go back to Faerie. That’s my home now, not this shitty planet with men that are too frigid to fuck. At least the fae embrace their baser needs.”

I ignored her snark and the way her eyes slid to my groin. Instead, I began to peer at the day’s images that graced the large bank of screens. There were hundreds of pictures from all around the world. Walker’s spy network was vast, but no matter how many spies worked with us, they still hadn’t helped uncover where that fucker Jed had taken my mate. Every sighting we got of a woman matching Ember’s appearance, I sent one of my brother’s to check it out. It had been nearly two months now, and each sighting had been a dead end. Neither had there been any demands from Jed or the man he worked for. There had been no rumblings from the supernatural community about the Halo, either, which in itself made me worry about what they were waiting for. The Halo had been stolen by Jed when he’d kidnapped Ember. And it was as dangerous as my mate if used by the wrong hands. Zander, my brother by blood, had sacrificed himself using that damned thing. He had left me a letter explaining it all. A letter I had kept and reread every night. I wouldn’t forget my brother or leave him in Hell.“It’s a fallen angel’s Halo, Lucifer’s Halo, to be exact, and the only one known to exist outside Heaven. It is the only known way to pull a spirit from its host. But it opens the doors to Lucifer’s realm when it is used. The user can prevent themselves and the spirit from being propelled through the gates of Hell, but they must use angelic words to do it.”Zander hadn’t used the angelic words because he couldn’t.

I flexed my neck and rolled my head on my shoulders, stretching my fingers out from the fists they’d rolled into. The tension in my muscles was almost unbearable. I needed to fuck or fight—or both. And as I wasn’t going near another female, my need to fight was always there, smouldering in my gut.

“Hey, boss, you find anything?” Kawan asked as he prowled into the room as wet as I’d been. It hadn’t stopped raining for weeks; even London’s streets were waterlogged, the drains overflowing. I just grunted at him. That was answer enough. He came and stood next to me, dripping all over the floor. I could feel his need to speak as surely as I could sense his hesitation to incur my wrath.

“Don’t fucking say it,” I growled.

“He doesn’t need to. You know as well as everyone else that the demons are overrunning this city. This Rift is now bigger than the one in the prison ever was. Something or someone powerful is feeding it. We need to pool our resources into hunting demons, not expend them searching for Ember. She’s gone, Connor. For now, at least.”

My nostrils flared, my stomach knotting with anger. Everyone stopped talking. Slowly, I turned to face Stone. He was dressed in grey leathers etched with fae runes.Brotherhood.Strength. Loyalty. Bravery. Wrath.Those same runes were now tattooed down the strong column of his neck and across both of his pecs. Beside him, B’nar assessed me with his strange, pale green fae eyes. Side by side, it was clear they were from the same race, and it wasn’t human, not by any stretch of the imagination. Together they looked a formidable pair—because they were. Myles and Reed walked in, their hands unclasping as they entered the room. I sensed Drake and Lionel behind me but didn’t bother to turn and greet them. As my brothers entered the room and power seeped heavily into the air, Lance and Ava looked up from their workstation.

Lance crossed his arms over his chest and smirked. “Oh, this should be a good fight.”

Ava slapped the back of his head. “Don’t be a dick, love.”

He rubbed it. “What? I can’t help it if I wanna see blood. It’s in my nature.”

I ignored them both, my focus on my brother.

“Fuck you, Stone. We could hunt and kill every demon in this city, and it would make no difference in the end, as you well know, because, if they sell her to the Devil, he will invade this world and kill everything in it.”

Stone cocked his head. A minute movement that meant he was angry. If I didn’t know him, I might have missed it. But I did know him very well. His gaze narrowed on me and his top lip curled up, revealing the permanently sharp canines that hinted at his fae heritage. “Then why don’t you tell us who’s really got her? And I don’t mean Jedediah Hawk.” He stepped forward, his large body relaxed but ready to defend himself. “Why aren’t you sharing that little piece of information? Hm? Because I know you well, brother. You know who it is; you have from the moment they took her. Yet you're sending our brothers and me chasing damned ghosts all around the world.” His purple flecked, grey eyes narrowed. “Why?”

Prime’s anger flared along with mine. “Ember is not a ghost!” I bellowed.

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