He sent her one.You still breathing?
After five more minutes when she hadn’t answered, he tried again.
Nothing.
Half an hour later, he left instructions with the group that remained awake, and with Misty in particular. The cat was the sanest and most responsible of all the shifters.
She nodded, her eyes wide. “I’ll let you know if we have any problems. But Talon, everyone avoids this place because of all the death.” She cringed.
The shifters around her cringed as well.
A lot of lycans had been sacrificed on the property to bring forth some weird monsters, supposedly from hell. They all knew the stories.
But hey, Talon would take prior demon infestation over expensive rent any day of the week.
“Right. I’ll bring my cell phone. Call if you need me but give me a little time to call you back. I’m flying over.”
They nodded.
He strode to the roof and stripped off his clothing. Unlike those cocky lycans, regular shifters didn’t change form and have their clothes magically disappear. Shifters had to remove them first or end up in shifted form caught in a Journey tee-shirt and jeans with their boxers hanging over their tail feathers. Embarrassing.
After donning a harness where he tucked his phone, Talon shifted into his golden eagle form, one marginally larger than an actual golden eagle. He had no idea why, but he’d always been a little different than his flock, even as a kid.
Ava hadn’t cared though. They’d locked eyes at just five years old and been bonded ever since. Their parents had thought it adorable. Magical. Talon justknew.Ava was his, as he was hers. Until she’d been slaughtered by that prick, Vladimir.
Angry all over again, he let the rage wash the weakness of grief away and took off into the air, his phone strapped to his back, where it wouldn’t be visible should anyone see him and wouldn’t interfere with his flight.
He set a course for the vampire stronghold on Mercer Island, not sure what he would do if he found them hurting Val.
But he could guarantee the bloodsuckers wouldn’t like his retaliation. Talons had a few aces up his proverbial sleeves.
And a lycan that owed him a massive favor.
CHAPTER
TWENTY-ONE
Khent continuedto work in his laboratory, doing his best to keep Valentine Darkmore out of his thoughts. The growing urge to check on the woman bothered him. She still slept in his room, though it had been close to twenty-four hours since their battle with the dead.
He knew where she was. Hell, he had a pet keeping watch on her, a small salamander who enjoyed his freedom, often wandering the house.
Several of his pets meandered unobtrusively, giving him updates on the other vampires in the house. Not that Khent distrusted his housemates, not now. At first he had though, and keeping track of the others gave him a sense of safety and advantage should he need it.
Now he kept abreast of the mansion’s doings through habit.
He closed his eyes and moved through his pets’ thoughts. Overhead, several ravens sat in the trees, keeping watch. The salamander showed Valentine snuggled up to his pillow. The sight of her flushed cheeks and sound of her soft, even breath had him aching, so he glanced away, annoyed with himself.
He’d spent the previous day in his laboratory, curled up on a cot in the corner, unable to be near Valentine without feeling out of sorts. Too attached, which made little sense.
Reaching out once more to his pets, he rifled through the images they sent. His fae spiders in the gymnasium couldn’t always be counted on to focus, as they were prey-driven, even in death. But now, they showed a few of his kin sparring. Rolf fought with Onvyr and Kraft.
Kraft shifted into a wolf, like Rolf, and they fought with the same levels of aggression. The rest of the Night Bloode took avian form when shifting shape and were more devious when it came to battle. At least, in Khent’s opinion.
Like Rolf, Kraft had a temper that, when riled grew awesomely fierce. It figured that their wolf-shifting nachzehrer had mated a lycan. And not just any lycan, but a fierce berserker, the strongest of their kind. Riley also had a tie to her goddess, Hirpus, that intrigued Khent.
It seemed Hecate continued to gather an assortment of nonvampires to add to the Night Bloode. Many of them had connections of some kind to her divine cohorts. She used Morpheus to tamper with vampires, making them dream. Hirpus had taken a shine to her berserkerandKraft. And they had bonds to MEC through Duncan and his Bloode Witch, in addition to Orion and his White Sea Witch since Kaia worked at a facility of great magir knowledge.
Khent tried to see the bigger picture. Obviously, Hecate wanted their clan to be powerful enough to lead the charge on some ball of chaos aimed at humanity. But more, she wanted to protect the Mundane realm and all that lived within it. Granted, he had no liking for humans, but they made a decent enough food source.
