“I will. I can’t allow my mate to fall so easily, and never to an unworthy humanhack.Vladimir of the Void. What a pathetic waste of blood.”
“Preach.” Talon grinned. When Khent didn’t grin back, he sighed. “No sense of humor in you fangers. But this bit about mating my friend. That’s not going to happen, reaper.”
“Bird, it’s already happened.” Khent stared at him, amused.
Talon glared at Valentine. “Did you tell him?”
“I tried.”
“Tell me what?” Khent didn’t like secrets unless he was the one keeping them.
Valentine cleared her throat. “Well, it’s just that a part of our big plan was for me to work some major death magic at the end, to take out Vladimir. And that involves my death at some point.”
“I forbid it.”
“Yep. There it is. The kiss of death—no pun intended—to our plan.” Talon sighed. “Vampires ruin everything.”
Khent scoffed. “I won’t allow my mate to die to kill a mere necromancer. No offense, Valentine. You’re appropriately powerful. But Vladimir is nothing but a thief. His power comes from something else. That’s what we need to be concerned about.”
“Well, yeah. I know.” She frowned at him. “I guess if you don’t want me to die to power up, you’d better get to teaching me what I need to know so we can kill him.”
Talon looked a little cheered at that. “Well, if the Night Bloode are going to help us kill him, that might work. More death magic, vampire interference, and I’ll call on Riley so we’ll have a berserker backing us up too. With the shifters fighting the more mundane enemies we’ll face, we might have a real shot at this.”
Khent didn’t understand the undercurrents he was clearly missing. “I’m not sure how your death would help you, Valentine. Once dead, you can’t control your pets anymore.”
“Well, that’s not necessarily true.”
“Oh?” He studied her, aware that every time he looked into her eyes, he fell deeper under her spell. And he was too enchanted by her to care.
“I’ve kind of died a few times before. And I can hold them more easily while I’m in the Between.”
Khent froze. “Say that again?” He studied her but didn’t see an undead creature. Valentine Darkmore appeared powerful and human to him, nothing unnatural about her.
“I—”
One of the bears appeared in the doorway, the dead witch at his elbow. “Problem. MEC’s arrived. They brought a vampire with them.” The bear glanced at Khent then at Val and Talon. “Here’s hoping our guy’s stronger than theirs.”
Aggravated, Khent snarled, “We arenotdone with this conversation. Now who the hell thinks they can step in on my territory?”
“Wait.” Talon hurried to follow him outside the garage. “Whose territory?”
Valentine raced after him as well. “Khent, this is Talon’s place. The Beast Brigade Headquarters, remember?”
“My pets claimed it for me.”
“Now hold on…” Talon trailed off when they faced dark SUVs cluttering the property.
Way too many for this small group to handle.
Khent focused on the main threat, careful to keep himself between Valentine and the newcomers.
To his pleased surprise, he felt Valentine order her pets to hide and get better vantage points from which to attack. Khent did the same with his ravens and eagles hiding out in the small woods around the property.
A familiar figure stepped away from one of the vehicles. Tall and broad-shouldered, with short black hair and handsome features, he spotted Khent and grinned. “Oy, mate. Thought I’d find you here.”
“Duncan.” Khent nodded, saw the revenant’s mate, Macy, and scowled. “Bloode Witch, this is not your place.”
Her partner, Cho, and two dozen MEC agents with weapons cautiously approached.
