She licked her lips.
His eyes flashed.
Then he lowered his head, his hand twisting in her hair, and he kissed her.
* * * *
Paxton slipped back inside the home he shared with his uncle and jogged downstairs, moving through a hidden door to a cement-walled space where three men waited for him. The leaders of the Defenders, as they’d finally chosen to call themselves.
His uncle Santino sat at the head of the table, his white hair and midnight-black eyes revealing his lineage as a purebred demon. “Well?”
Well? His lips were still tingling from kissing the girl of his dreams, and he had a hard-on that might kill him. Were blue balls a real thing? “Everyone is in the loop.” Pax drew out the remaining chair and sat. “Both kings, Talen, and even Bear McDunphy now know almost everything Hope does about Ulric and the ritual, which isn’t enough, frankly. Also, Sam Kyllwood has confirmed to his family that he is the Keeper of the Circle, and as predicted, he’s starting to unravel.”
Charles Fralep, a demon older than even Santino, leaned forward. “Are they aware of the twenty Enhanced females kidnapped last week?”
“I don’t know,” Paxton said. “It would surprise me if they didn’t, but—” His phone buzzed and he looked down to see Zane’s face on the screen. “Hold on.”
Santino leaned back and flipped a switch so Paxton could answer the call without interference. Otherwise, the bunker remained off the radar, which was exactly how they wanted it. He hit the button a couple of times when the light wouldn’t go out. It finally did.
“Hi, Zane,” Pax said easily, as he’d done for years. “What’s up?”
“We have a series of kidnapped Enhanced females from the Utah area, and I’m sending in two squads to rescue them. They’re at a Kurjan holding area—we think. I want you to get some on-the-ground experience since you’re back in town for now. Are you ready?” Zane asked.
“Yeah. I’m ready,” Paxton said, his gaze meeting his uncle’s. If Zane had any idea how much on-the-ground experience he already had, he’d be shocked. As well as seriously pissed off.
Papers rustled across the phone line. “Good. We’re nailing down their location and trying to bring in some locals. Wheels up in thirty minutes. I’ll see you here.” He ended the call.
Paxton clicked off.
Santino reached behind himself and reengaged the security. “That’s good. He trusts you.”
“He has always trusted me,” Paxton said, still feeling the slight weight of Hope sitting on his lap. Torturing him. “I don’t like the idea of lying to him, but I get it. They don’t know what we do, and telling them wouldn’t help anything.”
Fralep patted his flat belly, his white hair in a buzz cut that made his black eyes stand out. “I think we go with the first plan. How close can you get to Sam Kyllwood? Intel says he’s in Grizzly Club country.”
“I could get right next to Sam,” Paxton said. He hadn’t actually been studying butterflies with his uncle for the last few years as everyone thought. He’d done things that still made him sick at night, but war was riding the wind, and such things were necessary. “I still disagree. Killing Sam is the wrong move.” Not to mention that it would destroy Hope, which negated the whole reason he had become a spy or whatever the fuck he was these days.
Henric Jones tapped his long fingers on the table. Unlike the other two, he was a hybrid with more of a vampire look. Brown hair, metallic eyes, broad body. “Sam Kyllwood is well trained and dangerous. You sure you could kill him?”
“Yeah,” Pax said softly. “Most people couldn’t, but he knew me as a kid, and he trusts me. I could get close enough to take him by surprise. But again, killing him is the wrong move.”
Henric shook his head. “Kyllwood is falling apart, and his disintegration could bring Ulric back before we’re ready. Kyllwood was never meant to be the Keeper, and the ritual he undertook was as much of an abomination as the one members of the Seven endured. The rightful Keeper will be chosen by Fate the second Sam Kyllwood goes down.”
“Fate chose Hope in the first place,” Paxton snapped. “When she was just a baby, and she would’ve died from it.”
“Maybe she was supposed to die,” Henric said quietly. When Paxton reared up, he held out a hand to stop him. “Think about it. She’s not natural. There aren’t supposed to be female vampires, and she’s not stronger because of it. She gets human illnesses, as you know. Perhaps her destiny was fulfilled upon her birth and that’s all she had to give. Perhaps by making her both a prophet and the Lock, Fate saw a way to finish her circle.”
Paxton leaned into the male’s face, fury tightening his spine. “I do hope you’re not suggesting we take out Hope.” Sam Kyllwood wasn’t the only one Pax could get to—he knew every entrance and exit to Henric Jones’s house.
“No,” Henric said. “I am not suggesting that. I was merely making an observation and pointing out the fact that Sam Kyllwood isn’t supposed to be the Keeper.”
“Yet, he is,” Uncle Santino murmured. “I’m with Pax. If we take out Sam, then another Keeper will be chosen, and what if that person is a Kurjan? We would have no control or even access at that point. I say the risk of letting Sam try to figure out his problem is less of a risk than killing him. But we will vote.” He gestured toward Paxton. “Thank you for the intel. Go get ready for your op, and I’ll let you know of our decision.”
Pax rose without a word, exiting the room and shutting the door. His heart pounded and his gut hurt. He trudged up the stairs as if he was a thousand years old, pausing when his dog ran toward him at the top. “Hi, buddy.” He leaned down to pet the yellow lab mix. “Things are just getting more complicated.”
The dog wagged his tail happily.
Oh, to be a dog. Life would be so much easier. God, Pax hoped they didn’t vote to murder Hope’s uncle. His lips still tingled from their kiss.
Sam Kyllwood had better get control of his gifts before it was too late.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Sam was just beginning to push open the door to his cabin when Garrett jogged out of the trees. He partially turned. “What?”
“Reports just came in of several Enhanced human females being kidnapped and held in Utah,” Garrett said, his eyes glowing in the dark night. “The Realm and demon nations are on it, so we’re going to hold tight. They don’t need our help. My guess is that if there’s one kidnapping campaign going on, there’ll be another. When we find it, we’ll go. You ready?”
“Always,” Sam said. The Kurjans had been trying to collect Enhanced females for the last few years, and it was like playing whack-a-mole, trying to prevent the campaigns as well as rescue the women. “We need a better approach than we have right now, but I don’t know what it might be.”