Page 111 of Fated Exile

I won't let her.I let all my confidence shine through my inner voice, sending him an image of me tearing Delphine's throat out with my fangs.She's got a hell of a fight in store if she tries to take me.

Good. I'm glad. See you in the morning, Dee.

Later, Roarkie.

He snorts at the nickname, then paces off, leaving me to find my way home on my own. I consider his words as I pace through the darkness, worrying them over. Maybe Delphine did mean my blood—or maybe it was some other blood entirely, for a dark spell or curse. Many of the curses I found in Kieran's aunt's books involved blood of some sort, or some kind of sacrifice.

All I know is that I can't spend too long trying to predict her actions. I can only make my own plans, and in my case, those plans involve finding Gregor's knife and slashing Delphine's throat with it the instant she attacks.

Resolved, I lope towards home and head up the front porch, finding a familiar, large, scarred wolf stretched out on the boards nearby. Bastian is awake as well, watching the moon with his wolf eyes, his fur glimmering in the darkness.

I couldn't sleep,he tells me, setting his chin down on his front paws and sighing huffily.When I woke up, you and Roarke were gone. So I came out here to wait for you to come home.

That's very sweet, but you know that he's not Finn.Pacing over, I nudge his shoulder so she shifts to make room for me, and settle down on the porch next to him.He's not going to be interested in you joining the two of us in bed.

He isn't?Bastian sounds surprised.I don't know why. Finn says it would be more convenient.

Finn only thinks with his downstairs brain when he's brainstorming.

I don't know what that means.

I'm about to explain to him when the wind shifts, and a sudden scent hits my nostrils. It's the smell I caught multiple times in the woods, near piles of vampiric ash and the sound of chanting. A smell like ozone and oily fur, the kind of scent that makes your hackles stand on end.

I shoot to my paws, looking around in the darkness with alarm.Do you smell that?

I smell you.Bastian lumbers to his feet and points his muzzle out towards the road into town, his lips peeling back in a blood-curdling snarl.There is something out there, though. Something that's trying to hide itself with magic.

Delphine.I shove a shoulder against him and hold him still before he can race out into the darkness and get himself hypnotized again.You go get the warriors, Roarke, and the others. Wake up Cat and Kerry while you're at it. I'm going to scout out there.

Alone? But—

I'm not alone. I have the gemstones, and I carried my traveller's charm in my pocket,I tell him.If it gets dicey, I'll shift to human form and use it.

I don't like it.He presses his shoulder up against me.Wait for me to get the others.

I start to protest, then nod.I’ll wait and watch.

Good. I’ll be back soon.

He disappears in a blur of dark fur, his strong legs carrying him quickly across the ground. I watch, then shift back to my human form, spells ready and waiting at the tip of my tongue.

Staring out into the darkness, I feel it suddenly. A presence caressing the back of my mind. Fingers crawling up my neck.

Delphine.

Too scared to come out and face me?She taunts me with her voice, light and feminine in its lilt.I understand. You know that you won’t be able to face me.

I peel my lips back from my teeth, pushing a thought out towards her.I’m going to finish what was started centuries ago. Youwilldie by my hand.

Laughter peels inside my head.You don’t have the courage to kill me.

Don’t I?I send an image of me cutting her throat into the distance.

Been there, done that.She sends several images back that make me shiver, each of them moments when a witch in her coven, or a wolf in her pack, slit her throat only to watch in horror as her flesh reformed around the wound.Many have killed me. None have succeeded.

Reaching into my pocket, I grab onto the gemstones, and feel their warmth. Suddenly they push an image of their own into my mind: of a glowing blue dagger, waiting for me to grab its hilt and use it to take Delphine’s life.

Another image appears, this time from Delphine. It’s of her standing in the darkness, waiting for our attack. My mates come at her, one at a time, and she kills them, peeling their fur-covered skin back from their bodies, torturing them as they whimper in fear and pain.

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