“No,” he barked, a ring of steel in his words. “I can’t risk him hurting you.”

“But what if I could change him back like I changed you?” Digging her claws into his arm, she refused to back down. “Don’t you want to save your brothers?”

His features softened, a look of pain flashing in his eyes. “Of course I do.”

Resolve hardening, she released her hold and straightened her shoulders. “Then we can’t pass up this opportunity.”

Cadmus threw up his hands, pacing the floor. “How do you expect to catch him?”

“Easy.” Her gaze drifted to Tigress and the blood still seeping from her paws. “We just need some bait.”

Tigress snorted at that, then let out a warning growl as she backed away from Phoenix. “Don’t look at me like that.”

But it was too late. Cadmus joined Phoenix, eyeing the hell cat through slitted lids while rubbing his rough beard. It was clear the wheels were turning in his mind, and they were about to go demon zombie hunting.










Chapter Seven

Cadmus, like all betas, proved to be an excellent tracker. They found Damon wandering a patch of rocky soil on the other side of the crystal mountains. Somehow, a river cut through the parched land, brilliant pink and gold hues reflecting off its surface as it flowed quickly down a steep slope, disappearing beneath another outcropping of pink crystals.

Tigress hadn’t been fond of their plan, but after Cadmus threatened to prevent Phoenix from healing Tigress’s foot, she’d reluctantly agreed to help them. Phoenix healed her foot, and the demon cat had stayed true to her word.

Phoenix and Cadmus waited behind a large, jagged crystal jutting from the ground, looking through the pink prism of light as Tigress made her way toward Damon. The zombie wolf wasn’t paying attention to her as he knelt beside the river and slurped water like a parched horse.

Phoenix fingered the claw wedged on top of the crystal in her pocket, whispering to the claw to mask them from Gorgo’s seeing eye. She wasn’t sure if it was working, but it was the only thing she knew to do. She could distinctly smell mint every time she whispered the spell, so she hoped that was the scent of the celaris magic.

“Tell me about the Amaroki wolves.”

Phoenix stole a glance at her mate. He picked a heck of a time to start up a conversation. “Shortly after the Vindictus cast you down, a demon stole Daeva and Horatiu’s souls and used them to make a new race of wolves called Amaroki.”

“My cousin and his mate!” he hissed.

She clutched his hand, meaning to offer him comfort, but when a zing shot up her palm she quickly pulled away. “They’ve been reincarnated and reunited with their pack.”

She cast another glance at Damon and Tigress. The lioness was hunched several yards from him, her tail swishing back and forth, the fur on her spine standing on end. The zombie appeared to have an endless chasm of thirst as he continued slurping from the river. Phoenix’s mouth watered. She doubted the water tasted any good since it ran through mountains of salt. Yet her zombie gamma couldn’t get enough. The zombie virus must’ve rotted out his brains, and he didn’t realize the water was making him more thirsty.

“And I hope that demon was fed to the beast.”