Page 8 of Princess For All

Swearing went up all around us as the snake nodded.

“We weren’t complete idiots and welded those covers closed,” Cerdic told me firmly. “Andwe blocked the access points. We put barbed wire all over the place plus everything that would deter corrupted.”

“Except now they have help,” Sebastian seethed. “We need to warn the other covens and allies. Certainly the outposts.”

“Awww, fuck, we’re going hunting in the fucking sewer, aren’t we?” someone bitched.

I couldn’t even blame them. Yeah, that was gross.

I turned to Shawn Boyle. “I want a location to set up security monitors and a new duty for humans to watch them 24/7. We’re going to clear every tunnel and underground everything, but then we’re putting in those sentry guns.” I glanced at Cerdic. “Turrets? I forgot whatever, but remote weapons. We put those at the access points with lights—”

“Yeah, good. Lights with batteries so they can’t cut the cables and leave us blind. I’ll get with Trisha and her team,” he agreed. “We should also fill in the areas we can safely cut off and we’ll demolish buildings.”

I nodded. “Until then, let’s get gear here to get in the sewers. We’re going to have to have patrols and—it sucks, but we can’t risk it.”

“We’ve all been through worse,” Jaxon said easily like he wasn’t just as grossed out by the idea.

Yeah, we all were, and I was glad that I wasn’t going to be the one to do it, but I was the one who turned it all on.

The humans werenothappy to learn that corrupted had slipped through, but even the humans in charge made comments that they hadn’t thought of it either, so maybe people needed to remember to help and stay vigilant instead of assuming it was a free ride. That was helpful and people chilled.

They really calmed down when it was only two corrupted that made it all the way to under the settlement but yeah, couldn’t get up because we’d sealed the manhole covers. But we found where they entered, and it was very obvious that a vampire had used their power to take out the metal barbed wire because there were just energy beads all around.

Fuckers.

Seriously, what fuckers.

“No one is to mess with these sealed manhole covers,” I told the human leaders firmly. “Only Shawn Boyle or one of my husbands can give the order. If they are not involved, start all the trouble and get guards here. Fast.”

One of them nodded. “Because you don’t know all your vamps any better than we do the humans. Fair. For checks and balances sake, I suggest we have a job of two guys checking every cover. People can walk around and check them along with all of the fencing. You guys can take down fence fast too.”

We were all completely in agreement with that, especially since we had more and more radios going.

Given the emergency situation and because no one wanted to let all our hard work go to waste, everyone was pulled from raiding to help.

And the humans jumped in to feed all of the vamps and shifters, which was nice that they appreciated it. In Albuquerque, New Orleans—all the locations.

But the snakes were a huge help… And yes, we worked out a better signal than biting. Now it was slobbering on a finger. Awkward when they shifted back, but it worked for now. We needed to get them a buzzer or something, but—yeah, too much going on.

Always.

3

Jaxon

Inez was a mess after what happened with her mother and brother.

Understandably a mess. Honestly, I was impressed that she was still standing. I had messed up and almost ruined our marriage a few times because of way less and just being stupid.

And it was time to commit to fixing that instead of simply waiting for her to stop being so upset… Because she was becoming indifferent. She didn’t seem to even care if I was around her or in the room.

My blood didn’t set her on fire anymore. That realization was like a kick to the nuts. I’d tried to comfort her that it was understandable with everything she was going through and she got annoyed. I didn’t understand that until Kristof said I needed to stop placating her and ask what was going on with her.

Yeah, but I didn’t like the answers normally.

I didn’t this time either. She snapped that my blood hadn’t made her feel fire for weeks before her mother and brother showed up so not to use her latest crazy against her and make her feel fragile. It was abusive and made her seem weak to others.

“I hadn’t meant to do that,” I told my dad and Jamelle when they found me. “I would never undermine her or—I don’t deserve her. I should let her go.”

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