“Or what, asshole?” Worry for Orion twisted into a comforting rage Kraft could handle.
“Or I’ll eat your heart while you watch.” Khent’s smile looked icy. And maybe a little intimidating, Kraft refused to admit aloud. “Don’t worry. I’ll make sure to reanimate you along with my other pets. We’ll be best of friends then, Kraft. Like you and the ignorant vryko, the one you’re missing so much that you’re close to crying.”
“Oh no he didn’t.” Rolf sat cross-legged on the ground next to the lycan, a captive audience, and propped his elbows on his knees, his chin in his hands. “Watch this. Kraft’s going to go for his throat.”
Without missing a beat, the lycan said, “Twenty says the bigger one wins. He smells like victory.”
Khent showed sharp fangs and claws and darted for Kraft.
Kraft met him strike for strike, but his anxiety over Orion’s absence didn’t lessen. It continued to fester, though punching Khent in the face did give him a sense of peace he’d been sorely missing.
Hurry, back, Orion. Or I just might kill these dickheads in your absence.
CHAPTER
FOUR
Thursday, 2:03 a.m.
Kaia loved where she lived. Her contract with the repository paid her well enough to live (with roommates) in a house on the water, so she would have had no problem slipping into Lake Washington from her dock, pleased with the cloud cover masking her movements.
Unfortunately, she had no idea what she might find on her mother’s island in Puget Sound, so she made the twenty minute drive from her house to Olympic Beach. Using a borrowed camouflage charm so as not to be seen, she slid into the water—jeans, sweater, and undergarments minus anything on her feet or hands—and let herself be immersed in her home away from home.
As a sea nymph, Kaia’s magic bonded her with one of the prime elements, so that her ability to swim and breathe underwater happened naturally, no gills necessary. She took what she needed from the water through her pores, and her eyes turned into bright blue beacons allowing her to see, equipped with nictitating membranes to allow her to mask that light from predators when the need arose.
If she wanted, she could shift her feet into fins and grow the webbing between her fingers. Though tonight, she decided to enjoy the rush of moving fast, undulating through the dark water with her arms by her sides, jetting at speeds greater than most motorboats would handle at full throttle.
Though her mother thought she’d hidden the island from everyone with her magic, Kaia had always been able to see the strands of her mother’s power, though she’d kept that knowledge to herself. Sabine was neurotic enough about being stronger and better than everyone. Having her quiet, feeble daughter able to trail her no matter where she went would have thrown Sabine beyond incensed into murderous.
And Kaia refused to consider what her mother might actually do to a young nymph perceived as competition to the White Sea Witch.
So she kept her odd ability to herself while following the lure of her mom’s magic. What told others to keep away or influenced their absence had the opposite effect on her.
As she moved, she passed a few mermaids, one a friend she knew from her favorite coffee shop downtown. She waved while avoiding a pair of annoying mermen she always seemed to run into near the island. Most merfolk didn’t like clothing, and these particular guys seemed to have a problem that she didn’t swim around with her boobs hanging out.
She ignored them and a few shapeshifter seals and bypassed the “keep out” wards, ignoring the aquatic life warning her away as well. Instead, she mimicked her mother’s magic, which allowed her easy passage to the island.
Named Belyy Zamok, which in Russian meant “White Castle,” the island existed in a pocket dimension. The dark magic left over from the sorcerer who’d created it had faded enough not to be overwhelming. Sabine had supposedly found it a year ago and claimed she’d fallen in love with the white keep, the stone so bright it always looked as if caught in moonlight.
Kaia cautiously approached, alert for more wards and magic traps. Sabine’s home in Magnolia had them all over the lawn and in the trees.
The last time Kaia had visited the island, she’d found traps all the way out on the beaches before extending into the tree line. But now, she sensed a vibrating need to go away, and she realized her mother had tuned this particular magic to Kaia, no doubt in response to Kaia freeing her ex-boyfriend from sure death.
Again, she mimicked her mother’s magic and passed over the shore and into the trees surrounding the castle.
She forced the water from her clothes as she moved and dried quickly. Fortunately, the snow had stopped early that morning, leaving behind a sheen of ice that had melted that afternoon under cloudy skies. The cold seeped in, especially through her feet and hands, but that couldn’t be helped. The connection of bare feet to the ground allowed her to pass as her mother and to feel the magical constructs and beings foreign to Belyy Zamok.
Namely—three lycans.
And a vampire.
Kaia stopped in her tracks. Lycans she could understand. Powerful and protective of pack, they could be made to serve her mother with little effort. Sabine might ignore the fact that she had a touch of sea nymph in their shared history, but her sexual appetite couldn’t be ignored. Three males to slake her lusts made sense.
But a vampire? Everyone knew not to mess with blood-drinkers. They were the apex predators of the magir world. Heck, of every world, rumored to even thumb their noses at gods.
Who did that and lived?
The closest Kaia had ever gotten to a vampire had been spotting one roaming the neighborhood from her protected house, where she’d been cozy with a book and a cup of cocoa. She’d immediately told her roommates, who’d tracked him down and reported him to his patriarch. Apparently, MEC had some sway with the upir clan in Seattle because the upir hadn’t returned to Lake City since, and that had been over six months ago.
What the heck did her mother need with a vampire? Did she intend him as a sacrifice to some demon in order to restore her youth? She’d tried and failed to sacrifice Kaia’s ex eight weeks ago. Had the woman not learned her lesson? Or was she after something more nefarious, like world domination?
Kaia crossed her eyes, annoyed with her mother all over again. Now she had to pray she could liberate the lycans and somehow get the vampire not to kill her while freeing him as well.
Unless he’d willingly sought a union with her mother.
Whoa. That brought her up short. Why assume her mother had outsmarted a vampire? Weren’t they invincible except for sunlight? Maybe he wanted to drink from the White Sea Witch. Stranger things had happened.
Oh boy. That puts a whole new twist on things.
Instinct said she should leave and get Macy and her new vampire mate to handle this. But she couldn’t always run to her sister when things got tough. Heck, she was twenty-four already. As Macy often joked, time to cut the cord.
Steeling her resolve and knowing that worst case, she could hide in her mother’s magic around the castle or lose the vampire in the water, Kaia trudged on. Before she closed in on the castle’s grand front entrance, she pushed more of her mother’s power through her, and as she watched, she grew. Her limbs stretched, and hands and feet grew larger, the nails longer and colored a pale pink. She imagined her face had aged as well, her hair no longer a dark black but a long white mane, while her mother’s eyes would shine with a preternatural blue.