Page 64 of Savage Blood
Gareth motioned toward the screen, its light making his green eyes glow. “That’s a demon language, isn’t it?”
Gia nodded. “I believe so, but it’s not one we have recorded in any of our books at Corvin Manor.”
“How do you know, Gareth?” Camus crossed his arms and leaned back in his seat to study the other wolf shifter. “Seems a little convenient that you, Jax’s former assistant, recognize this as a demon language.”
A snarl curled Gareth’s mouth. “I bet your mate knows all about this.”
Camus shot to his feet, claws bursting from his fingertips. “My mate is not your concern.”
“She’s lost her damn mind,” Gareth said, brushing his chin-length dirty blond hair from his suddenly flushed face. “She doesn’t even know what day it is, much less her own name.”
The trail mix I’d eaten roiled in my gut. If that was true, she was much worse than the last time I saw her—when I tortured her, and she stabbed me with that damn dagger.
If she hadn’t, I wouldn’t be feeling the effects of the leftover piece of the Infernal Sol so much. Not yet anyway.
Would all The Collective Nosterium members lose their minds like Reese?
A warning growl, laced with alpha power, arose from Ari. “Sit down, Camus. And Gareth, if you antagonize him again, youwillbe kicked out of this meeting.”
“Tate?” Gia pointed at the screen. “Are you able to read this?”
Not without the Infernal Sol.
“No. Sorry.”
My neck tattoo tingled, and Fane’s incorporeal form materialized behind my chair. His presence wrapped around me like a warm, familiar blanket. I wanted to jump up and fall against him, let him hold me until the anxiety crashing within me didn’t make me feel like a miserable piece of crap.
“What are you doing here?”I hissed through our mental link instead, hoping I’d shoved plenty of rage into my tone to mask my sadness.
The rumble in his chest vibrated my chair. “You’re the one who called me, fiera mika.”
I scoffed.“No, I didn’t.”
“Your emotions did.”
Stupid bond.
“The words reference the Infernal Sol.” Fane motioned toward the projection screen as he perched on the table and stroked my arm. Even when he was in this form, his presence inundated my senses and made my muscles turn slowly into mush.
Saint’s fingers still seared on my knee. “Do you think she’ll come after you, Tate?”
For shit’s sake, having the two of them touch me at thesame time threatened to make my system go haywire. Images of the three of us rolling around in the forest under a full moon, naked, caused heat to bubble through my bloodstream. I could almost feel them?—
“Um, yeah, I don’t know.” My voice came out in a squeak, and I choked back the lust that tried to overwhelm me before any of the shifters could notice.
Sensing my emotions through the bond, Fane smirked—until he saw Saint’s hand on my leg, his thumb rubbing back and forth. The demon shifter’s teeth bared as he realized both of them had turned me on.
“What about the drawing of that stone in a sun-shaped setting?” Captain Gia asked.
Camus muttered a few curses under his breath as he shoved his empty plate away and leaned toward the screen. “Reese has drawn the same thing.”
“Really?” Olivia tapped her lips as she examined the charcoal sketch.
The air left my lungs, and invisible concrete blocks dropped onto my shoulders, pinning my body to the seat. They were getting dangerously close to the truth and yet still so far from it. Guilt ate away at me for keeping the shifters in the dark. They’d lost dozens of people already, and they could lose more soon.
They didn’t know the entire bitten population could die if I didn’t defeat Barric.
A low growl vibrated through Fane as he loomed next to me like a storm cloud materializing over the horizon. “Don’t do it, Teague.”
