Page 272 of Caelum

Eve dipped her chin and quickly unfastened the buttons on the blouse she was wearing. The second we saw the strange motif on her stomach, the glow and the ink just as unusual as the leaves had been, screams sounded from the nightclub.

“Cover up,” I snarled at her, barely giving her the time to do so beforewe hustled her into a protective circle and began to clear out of the office. As we moved, the scent of blood grew stronger, as did the scent of fire, except the over furnished spaces hadn’t fared as well as Drekavac’s empty office.

Everywhere was scorched and parts of the VIP area were still burning, but what caught my eye were the piles of ash on the ground. Dozens of them.

It had fucking worked.

Bartlett and Avalina’stheory, one posited from the clue scrawled on Eve’s skin, was true.

One of the Original lines was defunct because Drekavac was no more, and all that remained were piles of ash that would be swept into the trash where they belonged.

NINETEEN

SAMUEL

“Did that seem too easy to anyone else?” I asked once we were safely back in our vehicle and heading to our digs.

Eve blinked at me. “Easy? Were you in the same room as me?”

I snorted. “We just walked in and killed his ass. I expected more action.” After weeks of planning, of building up to this moment, it was all over. Pretty anti-climactic, in my opinion.

“Sorry to disappoint you,” she retorted with a huff as she folded her arms across her belly. But I spotted the wince.

“Is it sore?”

She pulled a face. “A little.”

“When we make it back to the hotel,” Reed said, “we’ll take a picture so you can show Bartlett and Avalina. They can translate what we need to do and where we need to go.”

“I hope we get some action next time,” I stated on a grunt. “I didn’t even get to feed.”

“If my blood isn’t enough for you…”

The twinkle in her eyes told me she was teasing, not that my Vampire appreciated the joke.

I grumbled, “There’s a difference. The blood of a mate and the blood of an enemy.” I smacked my lips. “Nothing better.”

“Love and hate are on the same taste spectrum, are they?” she countered with a pout that had me grinning at her.

“I think I preferred you when you were quiet and didn’t understand half of what we had to say.”

She snickered but shoved me in the side. I pressed my lips to her temple, hiding a grin. Around me, my brothers chuckled in the confines of the SUV Frazer was driving like he was on a NASCAR track, but there was a definite levity in the air, a joyousness that came from a job well done.

In less than five minutes, we’d eradicated a huge threat. How couldn’t we be proud of our achievement even if it had gone easier than anticipated?

And what Eve had done? The way the branches had appeared like that? Man, that was beyond intense. It was like something from a movie and it had me wondering if the motif on her belly would do the same thing.

Clue, script, and weapon all in one.

Talk about multitasking.

I rubbed her arm as I said, “You know, when I looked up Drekavac, he was listed as a Slavic demon.”

“So, in this area, they’ve always known to fear him,” Eve mused.

“I’d never heard of him,” Stefan countered stiffly, but that was him at the moment.Stiff. He’d been in a mood since we’d landed in Romania, and that mood stank.

Still, I got it. This was not the home London was for me.

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