by Ivy Asher
“You said you needed to feed, right?” I ask, confused. Do they not drink from people like I thought they did? Shit, did I just offend him? “Sorry, maybe I’ve seen too many vampire shows. I didn’t mean to be an asshole,” I rush to tell him.
His ice-blue eyes search my gaze, and his lips seem to be fighting not to show any hint of amusement. “No, they pretty much have it right. Well, my face doesn’t morph into that of a demonic shar-pei, but we do drink from people when we can.”
Sabin gets the metal on the lamia’s arm unlatched and moves to do the same to his leg.
“What’s your name?” I ask him as I place my wrist in front of his face.
Sabin gets one leg unchained and relocates to my side of the chair to finish working.
“Siah,” he answers, and I notice that his pupils start to dilate as I push my wrist closer to his mouth. I nod in encouragement and press closer to his mouth. He abandons the obvious wariness he’s feeling about this situation and sinks two sharp canines into my wrist. He pulls his fangs from the new wound quickly and then seals his mouth around the punctures and sucks hard at them, his eyes never leaving mine the whole time.
I’m oddly fascinated by what he’s doing and very aware that we’re being watched by disapproving eyes, but helping him is the least I can do after what Silva just did to him. I turn away from the sight of this lamia feeding from me and focus on the others in the room. Ryker is standing in the doorway, waiting to be told what we need.
“Where are the others?” I ask, ignoring the strange pull at my wrist.
“Valen, Bastien and Torrez are taking Silva to the main house and making sure that Aydin and Evrin don’t leave. Knox is making something in the other room.”
Out of nowhere, purple magic sparks to life on my forearm, and before either of us can pull away, the magic strikes out at Siah as he’s drinking from me. His eyes widen with fear, but as he absorbs the magic, his eyes close, and his face relaxes the tiniest amount. I don’t hear his moan, but I can feel it where his mouth is attached to my wrist. The next thing I know, pleasure is surging through me, and I tilt my head back, reveling in the feeling of it.
“Does that mean what I think it means?” Sabin asks, his tone pure shock.
Siah flinches back from my arm, and just like that, the euphoria is yanked from me too. My head snaps down, my eyes immediately landing on his, and we both just watch each other for a beat. The last chain on the chair is loosened, and just as Siah pulls his arm free, Knox pushes past Ryker with a bottle of blue liquid in his hand. I step away from the lamia as Sabin and Knox start administering the blue liquid to his wounds, but as I watch, I start to feel oddly fuzzy all of a sudden. I hold out my arm and move toward Ryker so he can heal me, when the world tilts out from underneath me, and I watch as the ground rushes up at me. I’m yanked away from the pain the ground promises and wrapped up in someone’s arms. I feel the telltale tickle of magic moving over my body, and then everything goes numb…and then dark.
I’m warm when I come to, wrapped in strong arms, safe, confused, and surrounded by people. Voices dance around me, and I feel like I could almost float on the anger in the room as they argue. I nuzzle the chest my cheek is pressed against, and soft lips kiss my forehead. I blink slowly, my eyes adjusting to the light in the room. Ryker’s sweet smile looks down at me, and I can’t help but return it.
“My hero,” I sigh dreamily, and his chest rumbles with a laugh that vibrates through me. “Thanks for catching me,” I tell him and pull his lips down to mine for a quick kiss.
“Wish I could claim the save, but the lamia caught you,” Ryker tells me, his face so close that all I can focus on is how much I want to turn that quick kiss into so much more. “Then Torrez almost ripped him apart when he walked into the room to find an unconscious you in the arms of some lamia no one knew. It got worse when Torrez caught his scent and realized he was one of the lamia that breached his old pack’s territory.”
I exhale a long tired breath and reach up to push hair out of Ryker’s face. “Think if I just close my eyes and stay like this with you, they’ll work it all out on their own?” I ask hopefully.
He scrunches up his face adorably with doubt. “It’s not looking likely,” he confesses, rubbing the tip of his nose against mine.
I pull him in for another kiss. “Well, thanks for the cuddles then. Let’s work some serious make out time into the schedule soon, okay?”
His laughter washes over me, and I sit up with the feel of his happiness on my skin. The arguing in the room pauses as attention is turned to me. My eyes land on Aydin, and a spike of pain slams into me.
“Did you know?” I croak, not sure what I’ll do if he says yes.
“No. Evrin and I had no idea they were still doing that.”
I nod and stand up, shoving a heavy weight off my chest with his words. “Silva?” I ask as I get up, my legs shaky.
“He’s upstairs. Ryker and I refused to heal him, so he’s recovering the old fashioned way,” Evrin supplies. His tone and features are pissed, and I’m pretty sure he mumbles “stupid prick,” but it’s so quiet I can’t be sure.
“You okay, Killer?” Knox asks me from where he’s leaning against a wall on the other side of the living room we’re all gathered in.
“I think so,” I tell him. He pushes off the wall and makes his way to me. Knox pulls me into a hug, and I realize right now in this moment, how much I’ve missed him. He’s been so serious and frustrated since Enoch and his coven showed up, and I hate that he feels more guarded to me now. I know he’s still ride or die, but it sucks that he’s not as carefree as he usually is.
“Miss you,” I tell him quietly, when he cups my cheeks and searches my eyes.
“I’m here, Killer.”
I nod and give him a small smile before I turn back to the rest of the room. Knox wraps me up in his arms, and I lean back into him, happy to use his strength right now instead of trying to pull my own armor up and over me.
“Your…uh…magic went a little crazy when you passed out. Any clue what happened?” Valen asks me.
“Sentinel magic,” I fill in, and Valen looks around like he’s hoping Siah didn’t just catch my mistake. “It’s okay,” I reassure. “Sorik trusts him, and he already knows. Sorik talked about being Chosen and his runes even though Siah was there. I figure the Sentinel cat’s out of the bag.”
“We don’t even know if we can trust Sorik yet, Vinna,” Valen warns me.
“You can trust Sorik,” Siah speaks up from the big chair he’s sitting in. He looks completely healed. “I’ve yet to meet a more decent being than Sorik. We’ve been close since we were brought into this world”—Siah motions to us—“but he kept your mother’s secret, their secret, until he had no other choice. He needed help getting to you, and I know he’s been working tirelessly on arrangements for you since.”
My features must fill with obvious question, because Siah shakes his head.
“I don’t know what the arrangements are; it was safer if I didn’t know. All I have pieced together is that he’s searching for something, and I’m watching his back while he’s doing that.”
“Why would you help him?” Evrin asks, his tone suspicious.
“Because regardless of the fact that we’ve been sired into Adriel’s nest, it doesn’t mean we all agree with his obsessions.”
“Then why not leave?” Bastien asks, and there’s no missing the accusation in that question.
“And go where?” Siah demands. “We’re not a beloved supernatural species. No one is throwing their doors open to welcome us and offer a safe haven from the mad masters that rule us. There’s too much bad blood and prejudice out there for us to survive on our own. Not to mention that we’d be hunted down by our own kind for breaking from our sires without permission.” Siah narrows his eyes at Bastien. “So you tell me where we’re supposed to go.”
The room falls quiet, everyone’s gazes locked on each other. Uncertainty and tension wafts arou
nd each of us as we all try to work out what happens now.
“So how do we stop him?” Sabin finally asks.
“I don’t know if you can. He’s obliterated much larger numbers than you have, so attacking him won’t go well.” He jerks his chin in my direction. “As soon as he finds out that she’s this close, he’ll throw everything he has at you in order to get to her.”
“Then we make sure he doesn’t find out,” Bastien announces, glaring at Siah.
“I’m not going to tell him, if that’s what you’re getting at, but they haven’t exactly been discreet in their hunting.” Siah jerks his chin in the direction of Aydin and Evrin. “It’s only a matter of time before someone recognizes who they are and lamia are sent to investigate.”
“Will he trade for Lachlan and Keegan?” I ask Siah.
“Trade what?” Aydin asks confused.
I take a deep breath. “Me.”
The word is barely out of my mouth before the whole room explodes with arguing. I wait silently as they fling their objections my way. But their promises that we’ll find another way, or the reasons they have for why it’s a bad idea, slide right off of me as I watch the crystal-blue eyes that are watching me.
“Your friends are the only leverage Adriel has right now. He would say he’d exchange them, but he won’t. He’ll use it as a way to lure you out, take you, and then use them against you. Even if they managed to escape somehow, he’ll hunt anyone and everyone you’ve ever known. He’ll dangle each and every one of them in front of you until they’re dead or he gets what he wants.”
“Fucking hell,” Knox breathes out, and the frustration in his words tickles my ear as it passes by.
I watch Siah as I mentally flip through the options for other plans of attack. Violet magic sparks on my hands, and I mentally curse it and shake them until the flashes sputter out. Ryker gives me a questioning raised eyebrow, and I huff out a breath and shake my head.
“We’ll talk about that later,” I tell him, and he snorts out an exasperated breath of his own.
Keep the flirting and the Chosen marking to yourself, magic. We’ve got enough shit to deal with right now; you and your hoarding can just fucking wait, I scold, and then once again feel like a dumbass for lecturing something that’s essentially me. Although I swear it has to have a mind of its own.
“So what if we attack from all angles?” Kallan asks absently, and all eyes in the room move to him.
“Meaning?” Valen asks.
“Meaning, what if Vinna gives herself up—” The rest of Kallan’s words are swallowed up by shouting. Everyone starts to square off, and I begin to feel like the aggression in the room is about to boil me alive. I push out of Knox’s arms, which isn’t hard to do because he wants in on the beat down that sits like a promise in the eyes of all of my Chosen.
“Stop!” I yell out, and the command is punctuated by a pulse of Sentinel magic that shoots out in a purple arc that slams into everyone. Enoch, Nash, and Kallan drop to their knees, and everyone else in the room hisses as the magic rushes through them and out through the walls. I look down at my hands, a little surprised by what just happened.
Well, fuck.
Looks like my magic is done messing around. I brush off my surprise and try to adopt a I totally meant to do that mien. Based on Torrez and Knox’s snickers, I’m not pulling it off as well as I was hoping for. I shoot them both a look and then focus on Kallan. He struggles to look up at me.
“Uh, are you okay?” I ask warily, completely shattering any illusion that I know what I’m doing. I offer him a hand, and as soon as I do, it’s like whatever hold was keeping Kallan and his coven on the ground breaks. They all get up, their eyes bouncing from their limbs to me like they can’t figure out who or what betrayed them.
“What were you saying before about attacking from all angles?” I ask before the room can break out in another yelling match now that the effects of my magical bitch slap seem to have worn off.
“I was saying, if you give yourself to Adriel, that means we have you, Lachlan, and Keegan on the inside.” Kallan points to Siah. “If he can gather the lamia who want out from underneath Adriel’s thumb, then we’d have another group on the inside too. If we could coordinate something with us on the outside and you all on the inside, we could attack from all angles.”
“Has anyone ever done that before?” I turn and ask Siah.
“No, at least not like how he’s suggesting. When your mother escaped, the prisoners were capitalizing on an attack that was happening, but the attacking group and the escaping group weren’t working together.”
“Do you think you could get other lamia to join in the fight against Adriel?” Aydin asks.
Siah shrugs. “There are some I know that would, but it’s hard to say how many would actually fight other members of the nest. It would also be very tricky to try to more or less plan a rebellion without it being whispered into the wrong ears or brought to light by a weaker member wanting to win favor with Adriel.”
I nod my head in understanding and lose myself in thought for a moment. “Wolf?” Torrez’s eyes move from Siah to me, and I see a hint of something I can’t identify in his gaze. “Do you think you could convince the Volkovs and any other packs they know to fight with us?”
“I don’t think they’d take much convincing,” he tells me with a grin. I smile and nod back at him, they were pretty amped for a good fight.
“How many lamia are in Adriel’s nest?” Enoch asks Siah.
“About two hundred and fifty, give or take. A third of that number is actually skilled fighters. He sends out hunting parties all of the time, so there could be anywhere from ten to sixty battle-ready lamia gone at any given time.”
I look around the room as Siah talks about the size of the nest. There are fourteen of us. How the fuck are we going to take on those numbers in a head-to-head fight? Kallan’s suggestion just became the best shot we’ve got. If we can get the Volkov pack to fight with us, then we’d be a hell of a lot more evenly matched.
“Is the nest predominantly male?” Valen queries, and I can see the spark of calculation in his eyes.
“The ratio is about seventy-thirty, but the females are just as deadly as the males, if not more so. It can be hard for other supes to kill women, and female lamia will use that to their advantage.”
I look around the room. “Anyone else have a better plan?” I ask, meeting each of their eyes in turn. Every single one of them hesitantly shake their heads slowly or answer no after a beat or two.
“Then, let’s do this.”
17
Bouncing around the room is a cacophony of: “Wait, what?”; “Fuck no,”; “Killer!”; “Think again, Witch.” Aydin, Evrin, and Kallan move to block the door. When Siah stands up, a handful of voices yell at him to sit the fuck back down. It would be kind of funny if everything about this situation wasn’t deadly serious.
“We’ve talked for all of ten minutes, and you’re ready to just walk up to Adriel’s front door and ring the bell?” Valen demands, stepping closer to me, his irritation pushing uncomfortably up against me.
“What’s left to work out?” I challenge. “You guys continue to train, Torrez is going to get the pack involved, Siah is going to rally as many lamia as he can, and I’m going to pretend to get taken and wait for my chance to kill Adriel.”
“Oh, just like that, huh?” Sabin argues, and I try really fucking hard not to roll my eyes.
“Excuse us, we’re going to go have a little chat with our mate,” Knox announces to the room and then picks me up and starts to carry me out.
Enoch moves to follow, and Bastien steps in his way. “Chosen only,” he growls at him. A tic starts in Enoch’s jaw, but he doesn’t argue or move. Siah watches Knox manhandle me out of the room, and the rest of my Chosen fall in line behind us.
“You’re lucky I like being carried around, or all of you’d be begging Ryker to heal more knife wounds,” I tell all of them with a huff.
Someone clears their throat, and I smile against Knox’s mouth. He makes an irritated noise and sucks on my tongue, pulling away to growl over his shoulder.
“Wait your turn,” he grumbles before grinding between my thighs and turning back to kiss me deeper. Chuckles reverberate off the walls of the room, and someone else makes a satisfied mmmm sound.
“I didn’t know exactly how I’d feel about watching her be with someone else, but it’s actually fucking hot,” Torrez announces.
“It is, isn’t it?” Ryker agrees. “I, for one, never thought I’d be okay with group stuff outside of the Bonding Ceremony, but watching definitely has its own appeal.”
Murmurs of agreement sound off around me, and I snort super unattractively into Knox’s mouth and push him back.
“You guys are all fucking weirdos,” I announce as I wiggle into a sitting position, ignoring Knox’s objections.
“You know you like it, Bruiser. You pretend to be weirded out by group sex, but we all know you’re game. You’re not fooling anyone.”
I look at Bastien, incredulous. “I am weirded out by group sex. There are six of you and one of me, and I just can’t work out the logistics of that.”
“Seven,” Sabin blurts, and all heads swivel to him. “Based on what’s going on with her magic, I suspect that the lamia might be lucky number 7, either that or he’s one of whatever Enoch and his coven are,” he explains.
“Well, shit, Bruiser, another one?” Bastien whines.
I let out a loud irritated moan. “My magic and I have already had a little chat and agreed it needs to go to rehab for hoarding.”
