Chapter 59
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I didn’t answer. I didn’t have to. I just smiled and let sleep take me, wrapped in love, magic, and the strongest arms I’d ever known.
The next morning….
The morning air was crisp as fuck and smelled like dew, coffee, and maybe a little leftover sex. I stretched like a satisfied cat, tangled in Lachlan’s arms, and groaned as he kissed my bare shoulder. Daxon and Ash were already thumping around in the hallway, being loud and obnoxious like the feral man children they were.
“Rise and shine, beautiful,” Daxon hollered through the door. “Planes don’t wait for pretty girls who oversleep!”
I rolled my eyes. “Bite me, wolf boy.”
“You liked it last time,” he shot back, laughing.
Breakfast was chaotic in the best way. Taya had crumbs in her hair. Rylen looked smug and was shirtless for some reason. Lachlan couldn’t stop smirking at me across the table, and Ash just looked dangerously hot and sleepy. The strike team was posted by the exits, doing that thing where they look calm but could kill twenty people in three seconds.
After shoving down my fourth piece of toast, I wiped my mouth and stood. “Alright, nerds. Let’s fly.”
The private jet gleamed ahead of us on the tarmac like something out of a dream. But just as we stepped onto the pavement….The air shifted. Thick. Heavy. Electric.
“Oh fuck,” Lyssira snarled in my head. “Move. Now.”
A shrieking crack split the air beside the trees as a swirling portal burst open, purple lightning lashing the edges like a beast unchained.
Vampires.
Five of them. Aegis protocol. Fanged, feral, and armed to the damn teeth. Their eyes were glowing with that sick and hungry red.
“Targets acquired,” one growled. “Hand over Elowen Skye Thorne. Now.”
Daxon stepped in front of me instantly, his body vibrating with the shift just beneath the surface. “How about you hand over your own fucking head?”
“Bold for something already dead,” Ash muttered, summoning blood magic with a flick of his fingers, a jagged crimson blade sparking to life in his palm.
1/3
8:45 Fri, Sep 26
Chapter 59
The strike team formed a perfect perimeter, guns out, magic prepped, jaws tight. I felt Lachlan beside me, already calling the wind to circle us, his hand gripping mine so tight it burned.
The lead vamp hissed and lunged…But then. A soft voice behind us: “Not today, filth.”
Isobel, the sweet woman with a crooked smile and an apron covered in flour, walked out from behind the SUV like a goddamn force of nature. Her eyes had turned pitch black. Her fingers sparkled with ancient sigils as she chanted in a tongue older than time.
The ground shook. A dome of shimmering gold erupted around us like a giant bubble. The vampires slammed into it, and fucking bounced back, snarling and screeching.
“What the fuck,” Jace breathed.
“She’s a fucking witch,” Taya whispered, wide eyed.
“A powerful one,” Rylen added, cracking his knuckles. “And clearly on our side.”
The vampires went ballistic. They clawed, kicked, threw spells and blades, but nothing broke through.
The witch didn’t even blink. “Get on the jet, children. I’ll handle this mess.”
“I’m sending you a fucking pie, lady,” I called as the team shoved us toward the stairs.
She smiled. “Make it cherry.”
We ran.
We boarded fast, the jet door sealing behind us as we buckled in. The strike team gave the all clear and contacted Alpha Draven mid air.
As we lifted off, I looked out the window just in time to see the innkeeper witch standing there like a damn legend, her arms raised, her protection shield holding firm while the Aegis bastards shrieked in rage.
Holy shit.
“Next time,” I muttered to Lachlan, who was grinning wide, “we’re staying somewhere less eventful.”
He laughed. “I dinnae think we do uneventful, mo ghrá.”
Touché.
