My pulse settling, I enter ‘the zone.’
Twenty-Four
HIM
I pull into the back of the museum Aleric wants to meet us at. It’s far enough away from the tower that the wolves won’t be able to smell us. With this being a rescue first and an attack second, we don’t want to reveal the fact that we’re working with the Blood Fangs unless there’s a certainty of killing Antonio.
As we step out, Aleric and six of his soldiers – two men, four women glide out of the shadows. His normally dark-brown eyes are blood red now, and they reflect strongly in the night. As do the silver and black piercings he has in his eyebrow, nose, and ears.
“Look at this,” Aleric says as he stops in front of me, damn near bouncing on his toes. He holds up his phone. There’s a text chat on his screen between him and Antonio.
Aleric:I see you’re entering your villain era.
Aleric:May I suggest getting a costume? I think you’d look hot in spandex.
Aleric:Just no cape. No cape!
“I don’t have time –” I start.
“Read from the bottom. That’s the latest text,” he says as if he’s the one who’s exasperated with this conversation.
I glance at the most recent message.
“If I let you tie me up and call you daddy,” Maddox reads over my shoulder, “will that get the stick out of your ass? I’ll even let you use it to whip me. Kisses and licks and bites on that pretty little cock of yours.”
Aleric turns his phone to him. “LOL. I must have scrolled up on accident.” The fuck he did. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have asked us to read it.
He swipes the chat down, then angles it at me again.
“Holy fuck!” Maddox says. “Leno, look at this.”
Krypto cocks his head to the side, wagging his tail, and Aleric points the phone at him.
“Holy fuck!” Leno grabs his dog by the scruff of the neck and hauls him away from the screen. “You’re an asshole,” he snaps as he shoves Maddox in the shoulder. Krypto barks.
“No,that’san asshole,” our youngest brother cackles, his arms wrapped around his sides.
The image Aleric has just shown us is of a woman on her knees with her ass in the air. Her hole’s been stretched to the point of bleeding.
“She looks like Siome, Antonio’s dead wife,” Vlad says, no doubt seeing I am an inch away from shooting his boss in the fucking groin. “He sent that last night, and Antonio hasn’t retaliated.”
I glance at the bottom right of the screen. Two ticks tell me he’s seen it.
“So he’s planning something big for you. Got no time for me,” Aleric says as he slips the phone into his pocket. “You go in tonight, and you might not come back out.”
“Worried about us?” I ask dryly.
“I only need one of you to live to honor the treaty.”
I stare at him for a moment, then I turn to Rudy.
He shakes his head. “I’m the strongest –”
“Which is exactly why we need you to be the calvary,” I sign to him. “If it all goes to shit, you can get us out.”
He doesn’t look happy, but he nods.
“None of Antonio’s other bases around here are missing soldiers,” Vlad says as I turn back to face them, meaning he hasn’t packed the building with an army. “And unless he has a witch with him to hide their heartbeats, we’ve only detected four humans inside.”