Her heart thrummed. “Okay. I trust you.”
A low chuckle rumbled in his chest. “You don’t know how much that means.”
She gave Kova a long hug before he retreated for the day, and she followed the instructions Olivia had left to find Julian in Building Two, sleeping hard in a sun-proofed room. She couldn’t help but notice the way he’d edged over to the side of the bed, as if he was anticipating someone joining him.
Standing in the doorway, her mind felt sheared in a dozen directions. She saw him—younger, with longer hair—asleep under a thick woven blanket with a fire still crackling in a stone fireplace. In another flash, he sat up, then crooked a finger at her in a quiet invitation. And in another, he was atop her, greeting the sunset buried between her thighs.
Strange fear shuddered through her, and she quickly backed away from the door, closing it quietly. If there was some strange protection on her, it ended tomorrow.
And then, she was in fate’s hands.
Chapter 25
STELLA
“Quit your sniveling,” the witch scolded herself, gritting her teeth as she brought shaking hands to her face to dab on makeup. Her brow was split and swollen from having her head slammed into metal bars, but the worst of it had come from her allies, not her enemies.
Dark, webbed lines crossed Stella’s chest and face, the evidence of Armina’s attempts to get information from her. Her entire body felt bruised, but like hell was she going to let them see her cry. They’d basically blamed her for letting Scarlett escape, as if she was responsible for an entire squad of vampires dropping on the house.
When she’d regained consciousness, she tried in vain to stop the vampires with one of her most powerful spells, a burst of sunlight that scorched their skin. But they were already outside, making their escape.
So she’d limped back inside and helped Marlee up, and they’d pawed through the house in search of supplies, weapons, and Lux’s vampire puppets. An hour later, they’d found two headless vampires and no sign of Armina or Lux. While Marlee gathered her weapons, Stella had contacted Lux to get directions to the safehouse in the north Georgia mountains.
They’d made the drive, although Lux made her meet fifteen miles away at a truck stop and gave her the third degree before letting her come to the cabin. And after nearly blowing her brain up with magic and driving for hours through the mountains, Stella just wanted to sleep for two days straight.
Instead, Armina sat her down and grabbed her face and shoved her magic down Stella’s gullet like a parasite. Hours of questions until she was satisfied that Stella hadn’t done anything to free Scarlett or betray her.
Finally, she’d slept, but Lux had started banging around early that morning. Now the air in the cabin was electric with power, but it wasn’t the steady, reassuring sensation that had filled their old home back in Charlotte. It was chaotic and unstable, as if a single spark would ignite the whole place.
Stella winced, then swore silently as she swiped powder foundation over her discolored cheeks. Who the hell was she even trying to impress?
She crept into the hall. Sitting on a stool at the end of the hall, Marlee kept watch outside the main bedroom. Armina was resting inside after completing her marking spells on Jordan Cole.
“Stella!” Lux snapped. “Get down here.”
In the kitchen, Lux stood at the massive granite island with a laptop on one side and an ancient-looking grimoire on the other. The air crackled with power, and she slowly stirred her fingers through the air over a shimmering pool of shadow, as if stirring a dark liquid.
“I need blood from the vampire,” the other witch snapped. “Go get it.”
Her fingers twitched at her side. Lux treated her like an idiot child, but one snap of her fingers and Stella could burn her eyes out of their sockets.
Maybe.
“Feed him while you’re down there. Until those idiots can bring us back more of the Durendal, he’s all we’ve got,” Lux said.
“You have bags?” Stella asked.
“You have a heartbeat. Call it farm to table.” The other woman’s dark eyes flitted to a sharp silver knife and flask at the edge of the island.
Stella sighed. “How much?”
“Fill it up,” Lux replied.
After grabbing a dishtowel from the counter, Stella grabbed the knife and flask, then headed for the door to the basement.
Her heart pounded as she descended another set of stairs to the basement of the cabin. It was nicely furnished, with another living room that branched off to a bedroom and a laundry room. Sliding glass doors overlooked the woods.
Down here, the odor of vampire blood was thick and cloying, mixed with the musk of unwashed bodies. They were going to get hit with a hell of a cleanup fee if Armina wasn’t careful.
