***Tessera***

All of us are in a grim mood and standing in front of the clubhouse. Nixie is crouched down near the tire tracks. She’s sprinkled something over it that she threw together with different herbs and made a potion out of it. Really, I have no clue but she’s touching the gravel and there’s like this tiny tremble even I can feel underneath my feet.

“There, he should be here soon,” Nixie states and wipes her hand on her long black dress.

Jagger points at Tria who walks out of the clubhouse. “I told you to stay inside. The protection spell still works and we don’t want Vike to get distracted with you here. Besides, we might need you to get him to listen.”

“Great, now I’m the leverage,” Tria mutters.

Right when she wants to turn and stroll back inside the clubhouse, there’s a flash of fire before a huge beast appears behind Tria, snatching her leg with his claw and holding her upside-down the next instant. More flashes of fire appear left and right as guys surround them, dressed in black leather.

“We’ve been waiting for this one. Thank you for strolling out, makes it easier to snatch you up, Viking’s whore.” The beast sneers. “You’re the one he wants, or so my little helper told me when he followed Vike here.”

Anger courses through me. The need to help my sister is strong. I can feel my wings sprout from my back but I’m being pulled against a hard chest, blocking me from spreading my wings.

“Don’t fucking do it,” Jagger growls into my ear. “If a Demon can’t take out this Demon on its own, I’m not fucking risking you to go all vigilante on me.”

There’s a black flash with a sound of thunder. Vike is standing there with five other men behind him. Vike steps forward, his gaze directed at Tria before it slowly trails up toward the beast with the double set of horns on his head who is still holding her upside-down.

“Vapula.” Vike chuckles. “Didn’t your mama tell you how to properly hold a woman?”

Tria growls and is turning red, scales already appearing on her skin.

“Now, now, little firefly. I blink and you’re mad, mind if we switch?” Vike says and winks.

Tria’s standing next to me the next instant. Dammit, that was smart of Vike to tell her to blink. Vapula roars and stomps a foot shaking the earth with a crack of thunder. He starts to rub his hands together, creating a ball of flames.

Nixie grabs Tria’s hand and this makes me automatically reach out for Tria’s other hand. Jagger’s still got a grip on me.

“Step away, Jagger,” Nixie whispers and nods toward Eliana and Velma to connect hands.

Valpula throws a fireball toward us but before anyone of us can act, Vike is standing in front of us. The fireball seems to shatter into a shield of blue, protecting us from impact.

“Fight me, motherfucker. Leave them out of this,” Vike growls.

The men behind Valpula are crawling all over the place and Vike’s men spread in an effort to go after them resulting in bloodshed. It pains me to see this but none of us are doing anything.

Taking one step forward, I hear Nixie’s voice again. “Don’t break our chain, Tessera, you might think we’re just standing here but take a breath and concentrate. Feel it building. Your sisters are channeling their power but you have to let go of your fear.”

Let go of my freaking fear? There’s a large pitch black beast over there with gaping holes in his body where bone is peeking through as black slimy goo is seeping out. Not to mention the two sets of massive curled horns and the fireballs he produces.

Okay, Vike has some kind of shield that manages to bounce those off but how long is that going to continue? Shit. Focus. Breathe. Let go of that freaking...oh fuck is that a head in front of my feet? Yikes. Vike grunts due to an impact from one very big-ass fireball. Are they getting larger? Yes, they freaking are, dammit.

Tria squeezes my fingers through the point of pain, adding on a hiss, “Focus, dammit, or I’ll eat off your nose.”

“Eat my nose?” I shake my head from this insanity, needing to close my eyes to block everything out. But mostly? That beast needs to be thrown back into the hole he crawled out of, taking his guys along with him. Now, dammit, I need things to be quiet so I can focus.

The next instant everything is dead silent. No growling, grunting, squirting of blood, or crackling fireballs. Nothing. Just utter silence. I open my eyes and see Vike standing in front of us looking around like everyone else is doing because they’re gone. The beast and his guys disappeared altogether.

Nixie rushes toward me, clapping her hands. “You did it, you did it. Ha! Elite can’t butt into shit but we have our own damn beauty to help us out. You just need to learn how to channel it.”

“Have my sister threaten to eat my nose, that’ll do the trick,” I mutter.

Tria grins. “You’re welcome.”

“Where did he go, and why the fuck did you do that? I finally had him, goddamnit. Do you know how long I’ve searched for that fucker? How damn rare it is for him to show his mutated ass? A fucking decade, that’s how long. Now how the hell am I supposed to wait another decade to take him out? I need to end this before he finishes the venom he used to curse my brother with so he can infect every fucking human and Paranormal on this goddamned earth. Yeah, brilliant, go cheer for that fucking Elite freak. Fuck!” Vike seethes.

“Hey,” Tria snaps and jabs a finger against Vike’s chest. It makes me wince because Vike is like double Tria’s size.

“That’s my sister you’re talking to,” Tria reprimands. “I know you protected us mere seconds ago, but how were we supposed to know all of what you just said? We summoned you here to talk about it but then that Demon popped up and all hell broke loose.”

“It’s not their fight, it’s ours,” Vike shoots back, wrapping his fingers around Tria’s wrist.

I hear Jagger and Alastair curse behind me. I glance back for just one freaking instant to see why but when I look back at Tria, I know why...there’s only a cloud of black left that’s slowly disappearing.

“Nooooooo,” I scream, hearing my sisters yell out with me.

“I should have fucking known he would take her and not work together,” Jagger growls. “How the hell are we going to get her back?”

“Can you concentrate and...I don’t know, drag her back like how you managed to make Valpula disappear?” Alastair questions.

“It doesn’t work that way,” Nixie answers for me. “She has the ability to do that with items only. We managed to channel our powers to blast him away, it was mainly Eliana, Tria, and Tessera with me boosting the Witch side. It’s to ward and protect. Maybe Tria will be here soon, she’ll blink and be here. That’s logical, right?”

“Not if he binds her. He’s already got her sister, we all know he was coming for Tria the first time...he heard what she really is and that gave him time to prepare, no...I’m one hundred percent sure he would take steps to prevent her from blinking. He even made her do it to escape Valpula. That fucker is selfish, like all fucking Demons are. And let’s not forget we ticked him off with sending Valpula away, he doesn’t want to accept our fucking help.” Jagger shakes his head. “This is bad.”

This can’t be happening. “I’ll get Azrael here. He will be able to help, he just has to. Maybe he can get Tria away from Vike.”

“You can’t.” Eliana sighs. “You heard him, Tessera. He said so a few times. Tria is part of the legend. But most of all? He gave his word to Vike not to interfere between Tria and him. It was what Azrael got in return for them to leave you alone.”

My chest tightens with devastation. She’s right. Azrael will never go back on his word. Even more? He wants all of this to play out. But he’s wrong about one thing though.

“I’m not giving up,” I growl in a fierce promise. “I will get her back and end Valpula. Even if it’ll cost me my last breath, I don’t fucking care, he won’t win, not ever. If he thinks he’s entitled to evoke a damn apocalypse than he needs to face all of us, right?”

I glance around and see all of those who are close to me nod. Alastair is wearing a proud smile along with it.

I feel Jagger’s arms circle my waist. “I can’t allow for that to happen, Angel. We will come out on the winning side because there’s no fucking way I will ever let you die.”

I tap his arm. “Good. Because I have no intention of dying. Revenge comes first, then we can see about planning a future that revolves around the two of us.”

Jagger nips my neck. “Then let’s fucking hurry inside the clubhouse and get our heads together so we can come up with a plan to get this shit started.”

Sounds of agreement fill the air. Caius guides Nixie toward the door as I try to suppress the fear that’s raging inside my body. But it’s useless...there’s a nagging feeling inside me that tells me I won’t be seeing my sister any time soon.