But she’s out here at four in the morning.
“Didn’t see that one coming,” Hawke lifted his brows. “Time to upgrade the glamour for modern tech.”
“Let’s take her to Benedict,” Lachlan suggested, holstering his weapon.
“Good idea. If she’s telling the truth, we’ll just wipe her memory, and if she’s not, we’ll kill her.” Hawke shrugged.
“We don’t kill females.” To hell with the rules, Hawke was right. We’d just wipe her memories.
“Technically she’s a woman, not a female,” Hawke muttered.
A quick glance told me exactly what Lachlan thought about that suggestion.
“Chill the fuck out, Highlander. I get the point,” Hawke snapped.
“Alek! For fuck’s sake!” Valor screamed, her voice going hoarse. “I know she’s been taken, and I know where she is!”
That did it. I walked straight through the glamour to the soundtrack of Lachlan cursing under his breath.
Valor’s eyes flew wide as we came into view, the three of us side by side. She took one look at Hawke and stumbled backward, bumping into her car’s hood, but damn if she didn’t lift her chin. “It’s true.”
“You’re the one out here screaming for me. Why don’t you tell me what’s true,” I retorted. “Now tell me where my wife is.”
Valor swallowed. “Promise not to kill me?”
At least she had the good sense to negotiate terms.
Lachlan scoffed. “Lass, you came looking for us, not the other way around.”
“Fuck this. Hawke, drive her car up, Lachlan—” I started.
“On it,” he replied, already marching toward Valor. “Dining room,” he said over his shoulder before palming the back of her neck and dematerializing, taking Valor with him.
I wended out before he’d completely faded, and materialized at the head of the table a second before Lachlan appeared with Valor. There was zero chance in hell I was taking her to the war room, and the formal portion of the estate had too many wagging tongues, so the residence it was.
“Sit,” Lachlan pointed to a chair and whipped out his phone. “Dining room. Now.”
Valor sat, taking in her surroundings with a thorough glance and tucking her hair behind her ears.
Benedict walked through the door a few seconds later.
“Where is she?” I immediately demanded an answer now that Benedict was here.
“It’s not that simple,” she hedged, her gaze darting to Benedict. “But I can take you to where she is.”
“She’s telling the truth.” Benedict crossed his arms and leaned back against the wall.
“We don’t have much time,” Lachlan noted, nodding toward the window. December meant longer nights, but we only had a few hours at most before the sun would incinerate us.
“We can get her out before sunrise.” Valor’s brow furrowed. “At least, I think we can.”
Every pair of eyes in the room narrowed in on the human.
“What would you know about sunrise?” I asked, my voice low and dangerous.
“Enough.” Valor quirked a brow. “You have to trust me.”
“No offense, lass, but you showed up at our door hours after Alek’s wife went missing, so trust isn’t a cheap commodity, especially saying things like enough.” Lachlan tilted his head at her.
“And I didn’t have to haul my ass out to the middle of nowhere and risk my life with a bunch of fangers, but I want to save my friend, so how’s that for cheap?” she fired back.
The highlander cracked a smile, then ran the tip of his tongue over his fangs.
Valor sucked in a breath and turned to me. “I won’t tell anyone where you are. I swear to God. I didn’t tell anyone when you popped in and whisked her off that night, did I?”
I blinked. Impossible. “How do you—”
“Remember?” she challenged. “You can’t glamour me.”
“Like Lyric,” Benedict muttered as Julian walked through the door, Hawke on his heels.
“No. I’m not supernatural…or whatever you call yourselves.” She shook her head.
“It’s Night Thistle,” Julian said, looking me straight in the eyes. “My lord—”
Valor gasped. “It’s true? You’re the king?”
“Impossible,” I said to Julian, ignoring the human. “Night Thistle hasn’t been grown for hundreds of—”
“He’s right,” Valor interrupted, earning all of our attention. “I drink it in my tea every morning. It’s why you couldn’t glamour me that night.”
“It fucks with our powers,” Hawke growled accusingly.
It was in the atomizer, hiding Ransom and Lyric’s scents in the library, and in big enough doses… “The bullet,” I said quietly.
Lachlan’s eyes flew wide. “That shit can kill us in big enough doses!”
She nodded as her eyes watered. “Concentrated doses. I know. That’s why I’m here.”
“It’s a fucking trap,” Lachlan seethed, getting in her face. “You’re the damned bait, aren’t you?”
“I am no such thing!” she snapped back at him, rising to her feet and getting back in his face. “I’m dead if they find out I’m here!”
“She’s not lying,” Benedict noted.
“Alek, you have to believe me. I love Lyric like a sister, and I know she loves you. I just don’t want anything to happen to her, and I know them. They’ll hurt her.”
“Who has her?” Now my fangs were lengthening, ready to rip into my enemies to keep that from happening.
Valor’s lip trembled, the first real sign of fear I’d seen on her face since she’d shown up. “I didn’t know what they were going to do. I swear. I was always told we were the watchers, but they just got so fanatical—”
“Who. Has. Her?” I roared each word, shaking the crystals in the chandelier above us.
“I’ll guarantee your life if you help us get her back, lass,” Lachlan vowed, earning an eyebrow raise from Hawke.
“And you can’t break your word, can you?” she challenged.
“No. We can’t. Not once we take the vow of our Order,” Lachlan confirmed quietly.
She didn’t just know where we were or what we were. This woman knew about the vows warriors took when they joined the Assassin’s Guard.
“Who has Lyric?” I was too busy trying to contain my rage to give any outward reaction. She knew our lore. They’ll hurt her. The fuck they would. I’d tear every limb from their bodies with my hands if they’d taken the precaution of Night Thistle to protect their minds. How the fuck had they gotten it? And who were they?
Valor’s gaze darted from Lachlan’s to mine. “My family.”
“Your what?” Hawke stalked forward, and Lachlan stepped between them with a shake of his head.
“I’ll help you get her back,” she promised. “I’ll take you there right now, but…” She looked around the room. “I hope you have a lot more men because you’re going to need an army.”