“We have to go now!” I shouted.
“You’re not listening to me!” Ransom yelled. “I said they’re gone. I don’t just mean Olivia and Valor. Avianna’s chamber is empty. She’s not here.”
Hawke’s silverware fell to his plate, crashing into the china Lyric was so fond of.
Lyric blinked quickly. “Okay, that part I didn’t know,” she whispered. “I thought it was just Olivia and Valor. I never would have let Avianna go.” She shook her head furiously.
The room fell silent for the span of three heartbeats.
Until Alek and Lyric were blessed with a child, Avianna was the heir to the throne.
Hawke exploded out of his chair, nearly toppling the damned thing as he grabbed his cell phone and strode out of the room, already dialing. “It’s Hawke. Meet us on the hillside just out of sight of the compound. Yes, I fucking know that wasn’t the plan. Plans changed.”
“We have to go.” Benedict followed him out.
“Eat this. We can’t have your stomach grumbling.” Ransom shoved a blueberry muffin at my chest on his way to the door.
“I’m so sorry,” Lyric whispered. “You have to get them back.”
“We will,” Alek promised, kissing her hard and quick before rising to his feet.
“She’s my best friend,” Lyric said to me, her eyes shining with unshed tears. “I was just trying to help.”
“She’s my everything,” I countered.
Alek came my way, his power filling the room, but I knew he wouldn’t compel me or take over my mind. No, he was readying himself to unleash it on our enemies. His hand gripped my shoulder. “You will forgive her, my friend. If not for her sake, then for mine.”
I looked at Lyric as the first tear slid down her cheek. Logically, I knew she’d done what Valor had asked. She’d simply distracted the others for long enough for a head start that made sense when faced with a this-will-protect-them argument. But logic had flown out the window the second my mate had chained me to the bed.
“Lachlan,” Alek prompted as I heard Ransom barking orders to the soldiers who waited outside for my command.
“Only if Valor lives.”
Lyric’s eyes slid shut, but I was out the door before any other response could come. In seconds, I was in the courtyard, facing forty of my finest soldiers, broken down into their ten-man squads. At the front of each line was the vampire I’d handpicked to lead the men behind them.
The bond struggled, fading even more, and I realized it wasn’t because I’d been chained with iron…it was because Valor was now behind iron-enforced walls.
“You will kill any man who raises a weapon at you,” I ordered the men, who had already been briefed on tonight’s mission. “But only subdue the women if possible. There are four of our own within those walls, and one wrong move gets them killed. Do you understand?”
“Sir, yes, sir!” they called out.
I looked over my king and pushed past the icy fear that gripped my heart. Anything could have happened to her in the last thirty minutes, but she had to be alive. The bond was faint but still there. She was alive. But was Olivia? Avianna? “Let’s go.”
Ransom raced from the other end of the courtyard, waving his phone.
“What now?” Alek asked.
“It’s the secondary school,” he said quietly so only the Order could hear him. Some of the men behind us had younglings in that school.
“What about it?” I was losing patience.
“It’s under attack. The teachers just raised the alarm.” His gaze jumped between Alek and me.
“Who the fuck attacks children?” Alek seethed.
My mind processed all the possibilities, weighing and measuring each scenario. Then I nodded. “Okay. Alek and Benedict, you take half the men and go. We can still accomplish our goal with our half and Xavier. Go now.”
Alek’s jaw ticked, but he nodded before clamping down on my shoulders. “Save them.”
I nodded, and he took off, already shouting orders. “Hawke, you’re—”
“With you,” he answered, rolling his shoulders. “Just try and send me with Alek. I dare you.”
My eyebrows shot up. “I was going to say that you and Ransom are with me.”
“Excellent choice.”
Within minutes, we wended.
18
Valor
“Ready or not, here I come!” Kyle called from down the long corridor of our father’s most recent purchase. He lived to collect old buildings.
I tucked myself tighter into the small closet, trying to will myself to become invisible. This time, I’d win. I was sure of it.
Footsteps echoed down the hall, and I held my breath as the sounds paused just outside the door.
“Come out, come out wherever you are,” Kyle cooed, and it took everything in me not to giggle when he did that.
The footsteps resumed, his sneakers squeaking against the freshly polished floors. Father had a massive team doing renovations to the place. Something about needing a new building for more research projects. I didn’t mind at all because it was in an entirely different part of the city, one we’d never been allowed to visit before. I loved seeing new places. So did mom, but she wasn’t here today. Father had sent her on some search for a new desk or something.
I released the breath I’d been holding, Kyle’s footsteps now silent. Likely he’d turned at the end of the hall to search the countless rooms that rested on either side. Most were filled with wooden crates or old furniture draped in dust-covered sheets. I had thought about hiding there but I thought it was too obvious—
The door jerked open, casting my dark closet in gobs of light that stung my eyes.
“Gotcha!” Kyle reached into the closet and hauled me out so fast I screamed.
He laughed so hard he threw his head back.
I stomped my foot, then kicked him in the shin.
“Not fair,” I whined.
He shook his head, wrapping an arm around my shoulders. “You should be used to it by now, little sister. I’m always going to be able to find you.”
I blew out a frustrated breath, disappointment curling in my stomach. “I thought I had you that time.”
“Keep trying,” he said, walking me down the hall. “You’ll get better.” He flashed me a smile. “Let’s go raid the catering truck Dad brought in.”
“Race you there!” I didn’t waste a second before taking off, knowing I needed a huge head start to beat him. But that didn’t stop me from trying.
It didn’t matter. He beat me.
“Six guards are posted on the exterior,” Olivia’s whispered words cut into my thoughts, slicing the memory to ribbons.
My heart felt much the same condition—the memory had hit me full blast the second Olivia had wended us before the building. The same building I’d designed based off my many, many experiences visiting and playing in every facility of my father’s as a child.
“Two up front, one on either side, and two in the back,” she continued. “But they’re in motion. We have thirty seconds, then they’ll move away from the truck’s entrance.”
Our only possible entry point.
“There are likely a dozen more inside,” I whispered right back. “But we won’t know for sure until we’re in.”
“Olivia,” Avi said. “Do us a favor and incapacitate the guards outside. We’ll handle the rest when we’re inside. Maybe we can get in and out unnoticed.”
I flashed her a look that said otherwise, but I didn’t want to crush her confidence.
“On it,” Olivia said, and she was gone before I felt the wind from her exit hit my face.
“Fuck, she’s fast,” I said, shaking my head.
“You have no idea,” Avi said, eyes on the building’s entrance. “Wait until you see her showing off.”
“Olivia?” I tried not to laugh. “I’ve never seen her show off before.”
“She normally doesn’t. We tend to keep the extent of our powers concealed for
obvious purposes, but sometimes when Ransom is ribbing her, she’ll unleash it all just to best him.”
“I didn’t think she’d let him get under her skin.”
“Try being friends with him for over a century,” she said, and I nodded.
“Wait, you said we conceal the extent of our powers—”
“Done,” Olivia said, materializing by our side so quietly I jolted. She arched a brow at me. “We’re about to infiltrate your psychotic brother’s heavily armed establishment, and you jump at the sight of me?”
“You’re as silent as the night,” I chided her. “And just as quick.” She flashed me a wink, and I breathed out slowly. Her joke had helped take off some of the nerves, but not all of them.
“Let’s roll,” I said, shoving down every doubt and fear sluicing through my veins.
The girls flanked my left and right as we hurried toward the front door and ducked to the left behind the corner of brick.
“That wasn’t there before,” I whisper-hissed, eying the camera positioned in the top corner, almost imperceptibly so. “Fuck.” I ground my teeth. Of course, Kyle would up security. “If he sees my face, all bets are off.”
“Leave it to me,” Avi said, eying Olivia.
I glanced between the two, but Olivia simply nodded. “What—” Avianna blinked out of sight. I turned to Olivia. “I thought you had to have seen the place to wend to it. There is no way she’s been inside this facility before, right?”
“Right,” Olivia said, nodding toward the door. “Just watch.”
I trained my gaze on the door, my lips parting open as it opened. I held my breath, terror shooting through me at the thought of another guard walking out and spotting us so close to the door.
But no one came through.
I furrowed my brow, but Olivia tugged on my arm, hauling me inside the facility, the door closing gently behind us. We hurried into a small corridor to the left, hitting another wall of steel and iron. I hurried up to the retina display, praying to whatever gods existed that my eye-scan would still work.
A few clicks, and the steel door groaned open. Olivia and I rushed through it, and I ducked into a small office I knew sat just to the right of the hallway.
“Where is—”
“Here,” Avianna said, materializing before us. I jumped again, glaring at them both. Avianna shrugged, then blinked in and out of sight right before my eyes.
I gaped at her. “How…but everyone said you didn’t have any power.” And this power? The ability to become invisible and walk through iron-laced walls? Fucking hell, she’d be more sought after, have a bigger target on her back if anyone knew.
“And I’d like to keep it that way,” she said, her blue eyes boring into mine.
I swallowed around the rock in my throat. This was trust…in its purest form. And she’d put herself at risk—they both had—to help me.
“I…” I didn’t have the words.
“We’ll hug it out later,” Olivia whispered. “I’d rather get out of here before the real threat shows up, and I don’t mean your fucking brother.”
Shivers danced over my skin. Lachlan and the Order. They would definitely kill us—Alek especially, if he caught Avi here. “Right,” I said, nodding. “Holding cells are a few hallways down,” I said. “I’d put money on it that Daphne is in one of them.”
“Lead the way,” Olivia said, and Avi nodded.
I stuck to the walls, drenching myself in the shadows that were only broken apart by the glowing moonlight slicing through the windows. My heart hammered against my chest, almost as if it could sense the threats all around us and was warning me against it. But I pushed through the panic, the terror of running into my brother, focusing solely on Daphne.
She was innocent, more so than me. She deserved to escape, even if it meant I had to take her place.
“Here,” I breathed the word, knowing Avi and Olivia’s heightened sense of hearing would pick up on it.
We turned a corner silently, and my breath tightened in my lungs. Daphne sat tucked in the corner of one of the sealed rooms, her head between her knees as she rocked back and forth. I could barely make out her shape through the small window in the door, and I nearly screamed at the sight of her.
I swallowed it all down and reached for the handle, almost crying when it clicked open. We shuffled into the room, and I sank to my knees before her.
“Daphne,” I whispered, reaching for her.
Her eyes snapped up to mine, and instantly her face crumbled. “I knew it would be you,” she cried, her whispers muffled as I hauled her into my arms. She shuddered against me, and I pushed her back just enough to examine her face.
“Are you injured?” I asked, knowing better than to ask if she was okay. Nothing about what had happened to her had been okay.
She shook her head, swiping back her long hair with her hands.
I glared at the diamond on her left ring finger.
“Not…injured,” she managed to whisper.
I nodded, then shifted to stand, keeping her hand in mine as she followed me. “This is Olivia and Avianna,” I said, not bothering to address Avi with her formal title. Later, there’d be time for proper titles and explanations. Right now, we had zero time. “They’re vampires, and you can trust them.”
Daphne’s eyes flashed wide, but she nodded—perhaps a little more excessively than she needed to, but it was an adjustment I was asking her to make on the fly. With how quickly she smiled at them—albeit a bit broken—I knew that she’d undergone some terrible shit while I was away. If she decided that her fate with vampires would be better than questioning me, then I couldn’t imagine what she’d suffered.
Anger flared red hot and searing through my blood, dousing whatever terror I had left and leaving nothing but rage.
Rage at my brother, at the Sons, at all of the hate that fueled their organization.
“Come on,” I said. “Stay quiet and stick to us.”
Daphne nodded, and I led the way out of the cell and back into the dark hallways. All was quiet, and with each step we made it closer to the main door, the more weight lifted from my chest. Maybe I’d been right and they’d expected the Order to show up guns blazing. Maybe they were waiting for a clear display of power and direct attack as opposed to a stealthier mission. Maybe this…betrayal of mine—chaining my mate to his bed, fuck he was going to murder me—would really save them all.
We turned down the last hallway, and I sighed at the sight of the door we’d come in at. I squeezed Daphne’s hand in mine, a silent show of relief.
We had her.
We were getting her out—
Lights burst and popped down the hallway, flooding us so quickly I had to squint to adjust to it.
“Found you,” Kyle’s cold voice rang down the hall.
Daphne squeaked behind me, and I stepped in front of her, trying to shield her entire body with mine.
Olivia’s demeanor shifted to appraising, almost innocent, while Avianna was nowhere to be seen.
“Smart of you to come without your army,” he said, stepping in front of the main door—blocking it like I was blocking Daphne. He tilted his head, nothing but icy hate in his eyes as he scanned the length of my body.
Tears stung the back of my eyes, but I swallowed them down.
“Ready to play a new game, little sister?”
“You won’t win this time, Kyle,” I spat, and he glared at me. He took calculated steps toward us, his gait eating up the hallway until only a breath of space separated us. Daphne trembled behind me, but I held onto her.
“Don’t I always?” he whispered, then shook his head.
“You—”
The back of his hand stole the words from my mouth and the breath from my lungs. Stars burst behind my eyes from the hit, my cheek throbbing.
“You didn’t honestly think I’d let you take her from the family, did you?” He sucked his teeth, folding his hands behind his back.
Over two dozen guards, a
ll armed to the teeth, flooded in from the hallways on either side of us. Some positioned at our back, others behind my brother.
A trap.
It had all been a trap.
And I’d been dumb enough to walk right into it.
19
Lachlan
She’d left the gate open.
“Hey, at least she planned on coming back, right?” Ransom whispered through the dark, apparently thinking the same thing I had.
We were amassed in the shadows and had been for the last minute, waiting for Xavier to arrive and doing a last-minute recon to see what had changed with Valor’s arrival.
“The patrol pattern is broken,” I noted.
“There are four guards tied up and unconscious behind the shed back there,” Hawke added, twisting his dagger in his hand. His usual zeal for an upcoming fight had been replaced by the hard glint of determination as he stared at the compound.
“That explains it,” I whispered.
“Olivia,” Ransom muttered. “She’s fucking fast when she wants to be. Not fast enough to keep me from throttling her once I get my hands on her, but definitely too fast for the mortals.” His focus narrowed on the outlying buildings, and he tilted his head.
“You thinking the same thing I am?” I asked quietly.
“That they may have split our army to defend the secondary school, but they split theirs, too? Those barracks are empty, and the majority of the heat signature I’m picking up is from inside the building.”
Iron could mess with a lot of things—our thermal vision wasn’t one of them because it wasn’t magical. It was biological.
“So this is where the party is,” Xavier said, strolling out of the woods with his hands in his pockets. The shadows came with him. “I brought a few friends, hope you don’t mind.” He motioned over his shoulder toward the horde of demons that followed him to the fence line, not bothering to stay hidden. “It’s been a couple of centuries since I unleashed them.” The corner of his lip lifted into a cruel smile.
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