Page 54 of Hitched to the Vampire King

“So long as everyone has cell phone reception, our connection shouldn’t be a problem,” Josh said.

“Perfect,” I said, turning my earpiece off. I wouldn’t need it now until we arrived at the warehouse. “What about the spell?”

Jaden grabbed her purse and pulled out a vial of something that looked…murky. I only hoped I didn’t have to drink it. Because I was fairly sure there were chunks ofsomethingin there.

“Did the witch say how long the spell lasts?” I asked.

“No more than a few hours. So hurry up.” Much to my dismay, Jaden cracked the lid and held it out to me. “Bottoms up.”

I took the vial from her, my mouth already salivating, andnotin a good way.

Jaden ignored the look of disgust I gave her and fished out the second vial for Sam. “And here’s yours.”

“Oh, goodie,” he said dryly.

I lifted the spell to my nose and sniffed, wincing when an acrid stench assaulted my nostrils. “What’s in here? No,” I muttered, shaking my head. “Never mind that. Don’t answer me. I don’t think I want to know.”

“Nope, you likely don’t,” Jaden said, grinning. “But let me just say I am super glad I’m not going to this warehouse with you.”

Great. Just great.

I held the vial to my lips, then glanced at Sam, who watched me with the same unsure expression.

“On three?” I asked.

“Oh, screw it.” He upended the vial and dumped all the contents into his mouth, swallowing quickly.

The second it was down, he lowered the bottle and caught my gaze, a challenge glinting in his eyes.

Well, hell. Now Ihadto. I couldn’t let Sam make me look bad, not in front of everyone here. Chuckling, I pressed the glass rim to my lips, closed my eyes, and dumped the contents into my mouth. I meant to open my throat, let it pass down without hitting my taste buds, but my stupid tongue didn’t listen, and it closed off my throat, pooling the liquid in the back of my mouth. With a disgusted moan, I forced my tongue to move and swallowed before I spat it all back out.

Afterward, I wheezed for breath and reached for a nearby bottle of water.

“That was terrible,” I rasped after guzzling half the bottle. “Like drinking moonshine.”

“Familiar with moonshine, are we?” Jaden teased.

I just rolled my eyes, then lifted my arm and sniffed. Huh. I couldn’t smell me at all. Not that I ever stunk, of course. But werewolf senses made it easy to pick up on one’s own scent, and right now, I couldn’t.

“Interesting,” I said, sniffing at my skin once more.

I looked up to find Sam doing the same.

Lucy hovered over him, subtly sniffing at the air near his hair. “Nothing,” she reported. “Wow. That’s really weird. My eyes are like, hey your husband is standing right next to you. But my nose is all, nope, no one’s there.”

I chuckled at her in-depth description, then handed the empty vial back to Jaden. “Thanks for picking that up for us.”

With the scent-blocking spell in effect, I shifted my focus to weapons. I retrieved a bag—which Jaden had brought me from Jackson—from the hallway, then dropped it on the kitchen table and unzipped it. One by one, I started unloading it. I pulled out the leather harness Anna had gifted me when I first met Gabriel, and slipped it over my clothes. Then I armed myself with a mix of stakes, daggers, and a sword. Because a girl could never be too prepared. Once I finished that, I reached in and pulled out a few spare stakes, handing them to Sam. When he reached for it, I pulled it just slightly out of reach.

“These are treated stakes. They’ll put down any vampire, so long as you get them in the heart.” I turned the stake and placed the tip on my chest, just above my heart. “Do not miss. The chest won’t cut it.”

Sam nodded, then reached for the stake. I gave him three just in case. Then waited while he armed himself with a series of blades. He didn’t have a nifty harness like me, but I had some spare wrist and thigh sheaths that would work for him.

Once we were armed, Josh handed Sam the RF detector. “This is for you, because Maddie will be too busy looking for vamps. I know you’re a big bad alpha werewolf, but so is she, and she’s also a vampire slayer trained specifically to hunt them. You aren’t. Let her take the lead.”

Indecision warred on Sam’s face, but after a quick glance at Lucy, who silently nodded, he agreed. That had to be tough for him, but he was smart enough to know better than to argue with us.

“Alright. The primary goal is to find any info on Nash’s dealings, especially anything that gives away his or Adrian’s daytime location,” I reiterated. “With luck, they’ll both wake up tomorrow with a stake buried in each of their chests.” When Jaden and Josh opened their mouths to correct me, I chuckled and said, “You know what I mean.”

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