“Yeah, and some other Hunter too pretty for a human but just as lethal. Slug…Slander…well, S something. Terrifying bastards, both of them. I’ve heard stories about Hunters, but these two must be next level, sweetheart. I know you’re one of them, but your little friend might’ve mentioned that that’s not the case anymore. Never pegged you as the bad girl type, but I approve.”
“Sloan?” I nearly shouted.
The voice came and went again, then Big huffed. “That’s it. You humans and your weird names.”
Says the bro called Big.
I barely gathered enough words to speak in full sentences. They’d found a way here, and I needed to know how. “They’re not our enemies. They’re mine.” I rushed to add, “Uh, part of my group.”
Big expelled a loud enough breath that it came through the stone. “Gotta say, that’s the best news of the day, sweetheart. They’ve scared the shit out of a number of my boys already. Us Wings don’t like to mess around with vampires, and definitely not these vampire hybrids they call Hunters. One even heard thetattooed freak was the bastard who killed Eros. That true, little vampire? What sort of monsters are you collecting over there?”
Technically I killed Eros, but Phillip was there, so same diff. Word traveled across realms, it seemed. I was surprised to hear it mentioned, but maybe the Fae realm wasn’t as cut off from ours as we thought.
Hunters had been active long enough to make a name for themselves, and the Fae knew most Hunters were vampire hybrids. Maybe they even knew about the other hybrids the Organization had created. The Fae did have more freedom going back and forth. My recent encounters proved it. It was really only us who couldn’t.
But none of that mattered. It was such a huge relief to know it wasn’t a pair of dangerous enemies after me but people I’d been desperate to see again. Phillip and Sloan were here. My boys were out there looking for me.
I cut a decisive look at Cash. “We have to go find them.”
He was quiet, his jaw strained. With a sigh, he pocketed the stone. Goodbyes were apparently a silly human custom. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t annoyed that he’d cut off Big when I still had a hundred-million questions to ask.
“You need blood. I can feel how weak you are, love. It’s too dangerous to leave before you’ve regained your strength.”
“And you know what happens when I drink your blood. It’ll take hours, maybe even a day to get my head back. And the longer we wait, the more at risk they are of the Nether Royals finding them. We need to be the ones to find them first. Is there a way to locate them here? A tracking spell or stone or some shit? Use your Dark King woo-woo and get them here, Cash.”
Jo touched my shoulder with a little smirk. “There’s a way. I can find them, and quickly.”
“Then you can go alone—” Cash started, but I was quick to interject.
“No, I need to go with her,” I demanded, barely keeping my legs underneath me.
I swayed, but Jo didn’t let me get far. Neither did Cash, honestly. Go figure it was the only time they worked together without fighting.
“I have to be the one to find them,” I mumbled, my consciousness fading in and out. I blinked rapidly and tried to dispel the urge to fall asleep.
Jo sighed and pressed a kiss to my cheek. “He’s right, babe. You need blood.”
“Thank you very much, devil woman. I know,” Cash clipped indignantly.
“But she’s also right. Your blood is bound to…stimulate her. I’ll get blood that won’t, and then we’ll go find them,” Jo argued judiciously.
I smiled at her and nodded. “Okay. Will it take long?”
“No longer than a half hour. I have a place I can go. But you’ll need to stay awake, or I’ll have to force-feed you,” Jo said in a teasing way, but we both knew it wasn’t a joke. If I passed out, that was my future.
“Oh, have it your way, woman,” Cash relented, swooping me up into his arms again. “But be quick about it. I’ll wait no longer than a half hour, then it’ll be my blood I force-feed her.”
Luckily, Jo honored her promise with minutes to spare. She returned in just twenty-five minutes, and I’d been diligent with battling the urge to pass out. So had Cash, who suggested we do something to keep me awake.
His method? Kissing me silly. This asshole had an insanely soft mouth, and I was not-so-secretly addicted to it, so it didn’t take much convincing on his part.
But the guilt was back. It nagged at me every time I touched them, knowing Sloan and Phillip were out there, worried about me, and I was just sitting here making out with someone else. Someone they’d considered an enemy not very long ago. Maybe still did.
Unfortunately, I needed to satisfy what I could now, because soon I’d have to explain everything to Phillip and Sloan that had happened—the Season, the bonds, the enemy turned accomplice—and the very notion of it had my stomach in tangled knots.
Sloan would take everything in stride, but Phillip hadn’t liked the idea of Cash to start, and this was likely to send him into a raging mantrum.
I didn’t have any clue how to explain it the two guys I’d been in a relationship with up until I got whisked away to another world. It felt too tall a task, too scary to utter out loud, but I wouldn’t have any other choice. They’d find out sooner or later, and I didn’t want them to feel confused or betrayed when I threw myself at Jo and Cash to satisfy the Season’s urges.
