Page 70 of Property of Mako
But inside, I felt nothing. No satisfaction. No victory.
Because Thane wanted this. He wanted us to find the rat. He wanted to prove how deep he was inside our walls. And Niner? He’d just been a pawn. Expendable.
I turned and walked out, wiping the blood off my hands. The weight in my chest only got heavier.
War was inevitable. And Thane had just reminded us he was always ten steps ahead.
Chapter 34
The Reckoning
Lyra
The clubhouse felt too quiet.
The Kings were out checking the city. All I was told was that they had a shipment coming in and essentially needed to make sure the coast was clear. They had all been somber after they came back the other night. Niner had been conspicuously absent.
Tonight, Crypt had been left behind to “keep an eye” on me, though I knew that meant Calix had told him to keep me under lock and key if I so much as twitched wrong. Lily sat at the table with Dexter and Bugsy, picking at a deck of cards and pretending she wasn’t still shaken. She’d been jumpy since the plantation. Since Thane. Since everything.
I understood. I was jumpy too.
“I want to go home,” Lily whispered suddenly, voice barely audible. “Not the house—just… somewhere that doesn’t smell like oil and cigarettes.”
I smiled faintly, brushing her hair back from her face. “Soon. Calix and the guys are just tying up a few loose ends.”
Crypt’s wolf-yellow eyes flicked up from where he leaned against the wall. He didn’t say anything, but I felt the weight of his stare. Watching. Measuring. Like he wasn’t sure if he was guarding me… or guarding the world from me.
I was about to tell him off when the air shifted.
Cold. Heavy. A creeping chill slid beneath my skin and set my teeth on edge.
Then he was there.
Thane stepped through the shadows as if the night itself had opened a door for him. His smile was too sharp, his presence wrong in a way that made my stomach twist.
How the fuck did he get in? He was a vampire, not an elite demon. Calix had explained to me that only the top few demons had the abilities that Haidyn had. Vampires couldn’t just pop in and out of places like they could.
“Well, isn’t this cozy,” he drawled, voice like silk over broken glass. His eyes lingered on me before cutting to Lily. “Two little songbirds in a gilded cage. Or should I say a rusty cage?” His lip curled as he glanced around the clubhouse with disdain.
Crypt was already shifting, bones snapping as the wolf surged forward. But Thane didn’t even flinch. He looked past him, straight at me. Dexter and Bugsy were still, but I could tell they were ready to spring.
“You should know,” he said casually to Bugsy, Crypt, and Dexter, “your little traitor? Niner? He was mine from the start. An easily manipulated fool. I’d planned to sacrifice him anyway. Everything played out just as I wanted.”
My stomach dropped.
He was gloating. Because he could.
His gaze sharpened as it swept over me, taking in every line of my body, every breath I took. “I see Mako couldn’t resist changing you.” His mouth curved into a sneer. “Pity. You might still prove useful, though. Besides, I still have your sister.”
Lily froze beside me. “What?”
He lifted his hand and in a blink of fire, a brand glowed across her wrist—dark, ugly, twisting. My breath caught.
“Do you know what this means, little one?” he asked her softly. “It means you are mine.”
His eyes cut back to me, glowing with malicious satisfaction. “That mark was branded with a drop of my blood. Imagine it as my personal little beacon. I can always find her. Even if I hadn’t won the auction that you and your friends interrupted, I would’ve found her and taken her. And the treats you were fed during your captivity? Do you remember those, Lily?” He paused and glanced at her trembling form.
Lily whimpered, tears brimming in her eyes.
