Page 109 of Primal Bonds

“I want you to lay down a false trail. I don’t want your alpha finding us.”

“Adric’s not my fucking alpha.”

“Pardon.” Tyrus inclined his head mockingly. “Lay down a false trail for the Baltimore alpha. I’ll leave at dusk—but I don’t want to be disturbed before then. I don’t care how you do it.”

“Or,” Corban returned with a smirk, “I could lead Adric here and let him drag you into the sunlight. How long would you last, I wonder?”

Tyrus struck. One moment he was eyeing Corban coldly, the next he had Corban up against the wall, a knife to his throat. Jace felt the dark hum of Tyrus’s energy, sucking at Corban. The whole thing was done in a creepy silence.

“What the fuck?” Kane started down the ladder, but Tyrus bared his teeth at him, and the other man froze.

The night fae turned his gaze back to Corban. “Do we have a deal?”

Corban glared back, hate in his eyes, but growled an assent.

Tyrus released him and stepped back, but kept the knife out. Corban shoved a few things into a backpack and headed for the ladder.

“You forgot something.” The night fae held out a hand. “The quartz?”

Corban shrugged, and then to Jace’s horror, tossed his quartz to Tyrus. The night fae’s cold fingers wrapped around it, and Jace felt an answering chill clear to his soul. Terror touched him, black and stark. Anyone who held his quartz could hurt him—but a fae who knew the secret could control him. It was the earth fada’s Achilles’ heel, the price exacted by the fae who’d created them. Those fae had feared the water fada’s independence and had ensured Jace’s people would have both greater power, and a greater weakness.

“You fucking SOB.” Jace struggled up on his forearms to glare at Corban. “You…give our secrets to a fae? This is the kind of alpha you’d be?”

Corban’s jaw worked. “Shut the fuck up.”

Kane was crouched at the surface, mouth slack with dismay. “Corban. Think about this, man. You’ll have every earth fada in the world gunning for you.”

Corban swung on him. “Only if they find out.”

Kane shook his head. “I don’t like this.”

“You don’t have to like it.”

Kane’s throat worked, but he nodded and backed away from the opening.

A shadow fell over Jace. Corban stared down at him, his face dark with loathing. “You’re just like your sister. Bringing mixed-bloods into the clan.”

“At least I didn’t betray my alpha and sell secrets to a fae.”

Corban’s heavy black brows snapped together. “Make sure you kill him for good this time,” he told Tyrus as he aimed a kick at Jace’s stomach. “I swear the fucking cat has nine lives.”

Evie threw herself forward to block the kick, but she was too late. It landed squarely on his still healing knife wounds. Jace grunted and fought to remain conscious as Corban swarmed up the ladder.

The rock dropped back over the entrance. He and Evie were alone with Tyrus.

Chapter 33

Adric spent a precious few minutes tracking Tyrus. The night fae’s noxious scent covered Evie’s but he caught a hint of her as well.

“He’s headed north,” he told Marjani and Zuri.

The three of them jumped on the bikes, Marjani still behind Adric, and accelerated down the quiet street. He deliberately didn’t call any backup. Any more men and they’d risk spooking Tyrus, and then they’d never find Evie. The same applied to Corban and Jace.

As alpha, Adric could use Jace’s quartz to pinpoint his location to within a hundred yards. However, with the quartz removed, that ability was gone. Still, he had the sense the quartz—and possible Jace—were moving in the same general direction as Tyrus.

He refused to think about the fact that his friend had been bleeding right up until they’d apparently put him into a car. The only good thing was that if he was still leaving a trail of blood, Adric could follow the scent.

But Evie first.

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