Page 33 of Under a Wicked Moon
“What’s the problem? Maybe they can help each other.” He leaned back, but light from the overhead burned to the point he had to squint to make out Roman’s face.
“Until we’re ordered to kill both of them.” Roman’s lips shifted as skepticism lit his eyes. “You’d let Vivi waltz out of your life and happily go kill her when she goes into psycho-assassin mode?”
“That might be tough. Not going to lie. But it’s not like we’re bonded or anything.”
Roman snorted. “Uh-huh. She checked out your ass about as many times as you stared at her chest.”
“We’re not like that. We were cellmates. Nothing happened. Are you and… Oh, shit. You and Nova?”
Roman stalked to him, leaned in, and lowered his voice. “Yes, something happened between Nova and me. Something real. She’s with me now. As in permanent. And she’s not getting within a hundred fucking miles of Vivi. Ever.” He rubbed a finger over one eye as if trying to relieve a headache, stood, and stalked away muttering. Ky picked up some words about difficulty keeping her away.
“You’re kidding.” He swallowed hard. “You bonded with a lycan? You’re not worried the monarchy will kill her like they did…”
“Of course I’m worried, but they alreadykilledNova once.” He did air quotes. “They think she’s dead. Can you imagine what will happen if Vivi reports to whoever is her handler that her sister lives?”
“Nova will want to meet her sister,” Ky pointed out.
“You think?” he said sarcastically. “We have to keep them apart as long as possible. I don’t want Nova to remember or be at risk of someone else controlling her again.”
“Where is Nova?”
“Supposed to be with Mom. She agreed it was too dangerous to get near what she already escaped once.”
“I can’t believe you got… Congrats. Seriously. Kinda jealous you figured out how to make it work. I’m worried for you about them finding out she lives and making us try to kill her again. You think the new monarch is involved in this?”
Roman shrugged. “He’s a part of FenCor. He wears one of their rings on his pinky finger.”
The secretive organization had its tentacles into governments across the world. “You think they’re involved in trying to train lycans to work for them?”
“Did you see any evidence of FenCor inside?”
“No. But honestly…” He dropped his head and scratched a hand through his hair, which felt dirtier than normal, stiff and noncompliant. “I don’t remember a lot.”
“We have to figure this out. Maybe we can use Vivi as bait to find out who’s the mole in our midst.”
“No. We’re not going to put Vivi up as bait.” The metal chair screeched as it dragged backward on the concrete from the force of Ky jolting to a stand.
Roman sighed the kind of aggravated noise that meant he had a plan.
Ky’s head pounded, and vertigo spun the room. But he paced toward Roman. “We just got her out. We’re not going to risk them capturing her again.”
“Stand down. I’m not going to tie her to a chair and call them to come get her or anything like that. We’ll figure it out. Time to go to Vienna.”
“Vienna? The mage?”
“He may be the only one to help us find out what happened during the times you can’t remember.”
Chapter Eleven
Vivi chose a seat on the plane far away from the cockpit. When Flynn moved to sit near her, she glared her scariest evil eye. “You get any closer, and I’ll scalp you.”
“Staying away. Got it.” He parked himself close to the front but yelled back, “You hungry?”
Yes.
Would she admit it?
No.
