~

“Point taken,” River said.

“To the chest with something wooden,” Ray grumbled under his breath. Rock growled a warning at him.

“Well, this is fun — but it’s not why we’re here,” Frankie said. “I’m going in to get Audrey.”

Rock didn’t like that idea. Letting her out of his sight wasn’t part of the plan that he was happy with, but she was supposed to go.

The vampire would have been stupid to assume that she was just going to walk in there and hand herself over to him, hence why they were on sacred land, but still, something didn’t add up — feel right.

‘Audrey, what are we walking into?’ Rock asked, but there was no reply from his sister. That meant that she was either unconscious, or dead, and he’d rather go with the first option if he could.

“Let’s do this,” Rock growled.

They had a plan, and that was what they were going to stick to as much as they could.

 

~

~

 

“Holy crap!” Frankie said.

Rock had told her to put as much description into what she saw as possible so that the supernatural element among them could hear her and know what was coming, but she’d been totally blindsided by what she saw.

Not even in her wildest dreams could she have expected to see the vampire standing over Audrey’s motionless body on the ground, and a nun kneeling beside him.

“Who does that?” Frankie bit out, berating the vampire for his stupidity. “Who kidnaps a nun?”

“Someone who can rinse her memory afterward, if she lives,” Lance stared back.

“Satan’s minion,” Sister Mary Kate bit out.

Frankie had to admit that the nun didn’t look shocked, surprised, or even afraid to be meeting a vampire face to face.

“Sister?” Frankie drew her attention toward her.

“Damn vampires,” Sister Mary Kate bit out as she rolled her eyes and huffed.

“Apparently, the nun knows all about the local pack, vampires, and witches,” Lance informed her. He would much rather have kept that information to himself, but the nun couldn’t hold her tongue.

“No need to rinse her memory then,” Frankie offered back.

So, they wouldn’t need him alive after all. That was good to know. If he’d used any kind of persuasion on the nun then it he would have been the only that could have undone it.

“You can’t use your magic on sacred land, this is a protected place,” Sister Mary Kate informed her.

That threw something of a spanner in the works, and Frankie’s hope that the three witches together with the amulet could call the Morrigan for help was dashed. She needed to come up with a new plan and fast.

 

~

~

 

“Damn meddling nuns,” Ava bit out, but when her mate offered her a curious look, she grimaced. “Oh, like it’s my fault the church has an aversion to white witches — dark magic, sure — but please like we are bad people or something.”

“O-k-a-y,” Ray said slowly. He wasn’t even going to go there. “Now what?”

“Well, thanks to the meddling nuns, we can’t call the Morrigan, so all bets are off, and we’re going to have to deal with him in the old-fashioned way,” she informed him.

“Fine, I’ll rip his head off,” Ray growled, and he went to take a step forward, but Ava grabbed his shirt by the scruff of his neck and yanked him two steps back.

“Not so fast, speedy,” she hissed.

“That’s my sister,” Ray growled back.

“Mine too, apparently,” she reminded him, and her words and the meaning behind them hit him right between the eyes.

“I’m listening,” Ray grumbled.

He would much rather have rushed in there and ripped the vampire’s head clean off, but that wasn’t without its risks for Audrey. If his mate had a better idea then he’d listen.

 

~

~

 

Lana launched her body at her mate, wrapped her arms around his neck, and pressed the length of her body against his as she pulled his head down toward her. Her lips met his, and she heard the rumble of a growl roll through his chest against the hardness of her nipples and knew she’d succeeded in her plan.

It hadn’t been the best of plans, but she’d panicked. Her mate had been relaying Frankie’s conversation back to her, and when she’d told him what that meant for their plan, he was about to take matters into his own hands.

That would have been bad. Now, all that she had to deal with would be the aftermath of that kiss.

“While I applaud the sentiment, and welcome you getting behind the whole wooing thing, is now really the time?” Cary hated to say it, but his sister’s life was on the line.

While it is true that he was momentarily distracted by that kiss and the thought of taking her down to the ground and claiming her as his mate — which his wolf was fully behind — there were other, more pressing things to deal with.

“It stopped you doing something you would regret, no?” she said. “Think about it.”

“I…” He was momentarily lost.

“Actually, don’t. We don’t have that much time. We need to come up with a new plan,” Lana informed him.

“I plan to go in there…”

“Which is why I kissed you in the first place,” she hissed back at him.

“I thought it was my animal magnetism,” he grumbled.

“No comment,” Lana didn’t even want to go there. Bless him.

 

~

~

 

Frankie weighed up the options. She knew that it wasn’t just about what she could come up with or decide for herself, there were other players in this deadly game, and she couldn’t be sure what the alpha was going to do.

“Please tell me that you brought it with you so that I don’t have to cause undue pain and suffering to them while you’re off getting it,” Lance sneered.

“I have it,” Frankie said, and it wasn’t a lie; it was pressed against the sweaty palm of her hand as she debated her next step.

Where was the harm in trying?

What did she have to lose?

If nothing happened then she wasn’t any worse off, but if something did happen…

Frankie made the decision and acted on it. She pulled her magic tightly within her and reached out to the others to do the same.

Then, with them all working as one, she petitioned the Morrigan for help.