And Rolf knew they needed to leave. Like yesterday.
He cast runes to protect them from the forthcoming assault and threw Mormo and Khent, clutching Val, through the doorway that suddenly appeared. He’d almost made it through himself before that Mesopotamian asshole wind-blasted the flesh from his back, laughing.
“See you soon, Rolf. And tellyour dadI said hi.”
CHAPTER
THIRTY
Val hadno idea what was going on, except that her vampire was growling under his breath, the large, black whispers of wings caging her while the four of them stumbled back into the living room of the vampire house.
Everyone seemed to shout. Mormo yelled at Rolf for interfering while trying to heal his body, she noticed, spotting first his blond hair.
Then what remained of his back.
She shuddered and barely contained a loud, “Ew.”
Rolf lay belly-down on the floor. She could see bands of muscles and ribs. In some places, his vertebrae. He held out a thumbs up though he sounded in pain when he said, “It’s all good.”
“What the fuck? Are thosewings?” a deep voice she hadn’t heard before came from the couch, where a giant vampire even taller and more muscular than Khent stood. He had short black hair and dark eyes, dressed in jeans and a ragged tee-shirt.
From behind him peered a gorgeous woman with dark blue eyes and white hair. Oddly, she put Val in mind of a fairytale princess with luscious red lips and pale skin that seemed almostunreal, especially when she moved and Val swore she saw a pale blue light shimmer over her before fading.
But there was no hiding that definite baby bump.
“Orion, what are you doing here?” Khent asked, as if it weren’t unusual to flex giant black wings made of what felt like death energy. “Shouldn’t you be out with Varu and the others?”
“I won’t stray far from Kaia, no matter what that asshole who thinks he’s in charge tells me. Good thing I didn’t. Some dickhead with necro vibes tried breaking into the ADR.”
“Technically, he didn’t try. He broke in,” Kaia said, amused, as she tried to stand and tugged on Orion’s arm for support.
He lifted her carefully then tucked a muscular arm around her shoulders. “Yeah, broke in and about got his ass handed to him when I told him to get lost. He had a bunch of undead magir doing his bidding. I can tell you MEC is really not happy about it.” He glanced at Val, looked her over, then sighed. “You must be the other necromancer they want to burn.”
Khent growled low.
Everyone stared at him in surprise.
“Relax. I’m not going anywhere,” she told him as well as the others.
“Ha. I knew it.” Orion looked giddy. “Sucker.”
“Shut up, vryko,” Khent seethed. “You know nothing.”
“Kraft owes me money.”
Kaia sighed. “I need juice.”
Orion kissed the top of her head. “Apple or orange?”
“Apple, please.”
He left them for the kitchen, where Val heard rattling. She couldn’t help watching in awe as the pretty pregnant woman had a vampire dancing to her tune. Kaia saw her staring and winked.
Khent pulled Val closer. She struggled to get free, aware he wasn’t behaving rationally. And those wings… She ran her fingers over them and startled. “This is real. Not energy.”
Khent seemed to realize he still had them out, surrounding her, and they vanished.
“You’ll explain that,” Mormo said, his attention still on Rolf’s now-healing back.
