“Oh, isn’t that interesting, Grandma?” Anna asks, going to study Talbot, who refuses to meet her eyes.

“Thought you were just an incubus,” Zuela chimes in.

“As much as I adore attention, I believe we have more pressing matters to concern ourselves with. Once this storm concludes, Idun will be ready to put the game to an end. It’s different this time. This time, she’s really pissed off about you putting her underground for a thousand years, and it’s finally starting to show,” Talbot deflects.

“According to every knight who has ever crossed paths with you, you’re rarely wrong, and you’ve saved plenty of their lives, while just passing by,” Zuela cuts in, showing Talbot more recognition than he’s ever shown any other incubus.

Talbot nods, almost as though he arrogantly already expected Zuela’s respect.

“She casted the Van Helsing in his own silver. I don’t know how Violet’s ghosts found them,” he says, his eyes moving deliberately to Anna, since he can’t even bother denying it.

Anna grins. “I have my ways. You’re sneaky, Talbot Lane. I don’t like sneaky boys any more than I like sneaky girls.”

“Everyone has secrets to keep for one reason or another,” Talbot fires back.

Anna rolls her eyes and gives me her full attention, while waggling her eyebrows. “Hey, sexy barbarian. Wanna talk Violet into loaning me her vagina, so I can show you what a real woman can do with a touchable body?”

“Where’s Violet?” I demand.

Her eyes flick to Vance, and she tilts her head, as her eyebrow arches.

“How long will he be stuck in there?” she asks instead of answering, giving the silver man a worried look.

He’s been put at a diagonal on the floor of the helicopter, since it’s the only way he’d fit.

“Where is Violet?” I ask, using a more commanding tone this time.

She gives me a lazy look. “She’s with her vampire and her Morpheous. They’re devising a plan to stall until you return with Vance—Damien and Arion, that is. They’ve gone and knocked Violet out, and they both tried to salt me. I figured I’d come hang out with the sexy wolf instead. Please don’t salt me.”

“This is a fucking mess, Anna. Tell me where she bloody is,” I say on a feral growl.

She slashes her claws at me, grinning the entire time. “You’re even sexier when you’re angry. I can’t tell you where they are. Not until Vance is not stuck in silver. Sorry about the mess. I tried to warn her, but she never listens to me.”

“Anna, fucking tell me—”

She disappears after that, and I swallow down a litany of curses, as I strain that much harder to keep my wolf under my skin. You’d think a wolf would have no trouble tracking his mate, but there’s nothing cosmic guiding me in this moment.

Zuela grips his sword tighter, eyes intently on me.

“I’ll stab you if you turn wolf,” he reminds me. “But when we hit the ground, I’ll stab anyone at your back. She’s a Simpleton pup. The more I see of her, the more I realize who she is and what’s really going on here. I can’t let that poor girl look to have more spine than I do in front of a legion of our people, who don’t understand what’s going on. There will be more of that than the ones who see it for what it is.”

“Glad it’s the perfect political maneuver for you,” Talbot rattles out.

Zuela glares over at him.

“If you’re looking for nobility, you’ll find it on the battlefield where I left it over a thousand years ago. Serve my time, feel the weight of my responsibility, and then do it better. I’ll sit and take it on the chin when you judge me after you’ve paid those dues,” Zuela inserts.

“I’ve been a rogue beta. Our betas get very little respect, even though we manage our people without the backing of an alpha House. We get along just fine, because we’re mostly lovers. However, there are plenty of battlefields I’ve stepped foot on,” Talbot fires back. “I’ve paid more dues than you’ll understand, because I look twenty-four. I’m not twenty-four.”

He gives Zuela a tight smile, and Zuela shrugs.

“You’ve never done battle with Idun. You only think you know what battle is. In a hundred years, you’ll question all everything you thought you knew about yourself.”

“You know what battle with Idun is like when she’s playing cat-and-mouse and mostly gets her way,” I tell Zuela, drawing his attention to me. “She meant to leave him casted and sealed away. We caught a fortunate break in finding him at all.”

Zuela’s jaw grinds, and he looks away, running a hand through his salt-and-pepper hair.

“She’s planning to bury us all,” he finally says on a loud breath.

“Unless you pledge yourself to her and stand with her against us,” I guess, staring down at Vance, wondering if he really is hearing all this.

“So what’s the plan?” Talbot asks, looking to the two alphas in flesh.

“The plan was to weaken her for two or more centuries by watering down her tales of superiority,” Zuela says.

“Now the only plan is to lose as few people as possible,” I answer, shutting my eyes.

“All because your sweet girlfriend can’t help but pick a fight with the bitch,” Zuela says. “I like the girl, but she never had any right to interfere with alpha business.”

Now she’ll learn the lesson the hard way, because we’ll never be able to save them all.

We may not even be able to save ourselves.

Chapter 34

DAMIEN

Lightning strikes outside, while Violet smiles and then frowns in her illusion-induced coma.

The shoes on her feet are an illusion, but the rubber is good enough, as Arion finishes closing the salt circle around her.

Cursing, he slings the bag of salt to the corner of the safehouse, and then runs a hand through his dark, wet hair.

I’ve got nothing to say. As of right now, it’s possible Idun is killing every single person in the fucking town.

“When she finds us—”

“If she finds us,” I cut in, amending his wording.

He cuts his eyes to me. “When she finds us, you take Violet and disappear. Stay gone until we’re all alive again.”

“We can live life on the lam. Let the world spin into chaos, and let the monsters destroy everything without us keeping them in check. That should keep Idun busy,” I interject, since we’re talking nonsensical strategy and all.

“Vance is locked inside his own silver. Emit’s family will be the most loyal to us. However, he has several cousins who will turn—”

“Doesn’t matter at this point, Damien. You go and keep Violet safe. Marta set her up for failure by never teaching her the way of our world, and for making her think her monster was something far fiercer than it is in reality.”

He bends next to her, and gently strokes her cheek.

“I knew it was too good to be true. She couldn’t separate personal from business, and got caught up in her instinct once Vance was threatened. She’s a young monster, who has been fortunate enough to never lose before. It gives her too much arrogance and courage.”