There were ten of them…and only one of her.

The owner of the phone gave her a hard look before he nodded. “She’s the Puppet who was in the alley with ‘em before King-K showed up. She walked out with King-K, our boys didn’t.”

She shook her head. King-K? These punks really did have respect issues. But issues aside, she needed to diffuse this situation as fast as possible. “Look, whatever you think you might know, is wrong. I wasn’t a Puppet in the alley,” she motioned to the cell phone in Shaggy’s hand, “or when that picture was taken. I was just like everyone else in the world.”

Shaggy tossed the phone back to Frank then shook the hair from his eyes. “Well you ain’t like everyone else now, are ya? You wanna tell me what happened to my friends?”

She arched a brow. Was it a trick question? “They died.”

“Why?” he asked as the circle tightened behind him.

The goblin in her belly shifted as the one emotion she didn’t particularly care for churned hot in her stomach. Only now her fear twisted into a haze of sickened anger. “Because your idiot friends were stupid enough to fight in an alley, in plain sight of a human while Lord Kerestyan watched.”

“Oh, bitch thinks ‘cause she’s a Puppet now she knows a thing or two.” He tipped his head back and laughed before sniffing at her again. “Smells old to me. What happened? Did he take pity on your trashy little ass and pump you fulla his blood?” He looked her up and down then grinned in a leering way that made her skin crawl. “Or’d you make his dead dick hard and get yo’ sweet ass pumped fulla somethin’ else?” The circle finished his sentence with a round of unified laughter.

Logan didn’t even flinch when a taller blond pushed his large body into the foot of space between her and Shaggy. He stood in front of her, his blue eyes dulled by a distance she knew all too well herself.

She stood still as he forcefully palmed her breasts and rubbed his cracked lips over her left earlobe. “There ain’t no rules against havin’ some fun with a Puppet. Did your Massa tell you that?” He traced the slimy tip of his tongue around the curve of her ear before he slid it inside. “I’ll put it in every hole you got, and pop one every time you scream.”

Logan relaxed as an image of him being added to the writhing wall in Stefan’s chamber flashed in her mind. While she didn’t have that option readily available, she’d settle for one of her own making.

Mind the Veil. She smiled as a familiar vibration shook the column behind her and the pop and squeal of air brakes drowned out the group’s amused laughter. “You promise?” she asked as she reached down and grabbed the crotch of his baggy jeans. “Tell me something, do you take as good as you give?”

He raised his head and stared at her, his eyes half glazed. “I only take.”

She closed her free hand around his right biceps as the tunnel to her left filled with light. Three. “That’s good.” Two. “Because I only give.” One.

With every shred of strength she possessed, fueled even more by the powerful blood coursing through her veins, Logan tightened her grip and threw him into the side of the passing train. He slammed into two of the vampires who’d closed the circle on that side, taking them with him as he flew back into the windows hard enough to crack the glass.

She immediately turned right and bolted for the stairs leading up to the street, but ran headfirst into a wall of snarling vampires. Fists and boots came from all directions. Pain exploded behind her eyes in a brilliant flash of white light that surged through her limbs. Frigid concrete bit into her face as they wrestled her to the ground. The heat and taste of her own blood coated her lips.

Blinded by pain, she refused to give in. She punched and kicked as the cold bodies twisted around her. Scratched every inch of skin she could get her hands on, screamed as loud as her lungs would allow, until her mouth filled with a coppery flavor she knew all too well.

Logan squeezed her eyes closed as a heavy boot cracked against her temple. When she felt all the weight lift off her, she rolled onto her side and let out a spiteful, gurgled laugh.

The odds hadn’t been in her favor from the beginning, but there weren’t many times in her life when they had.

Why should now be any different?

“The Lord takes one of mine,” Shaggy growled close to her ear, “I take one of his.” She winced as his hand closed around her face, his cold fingers digging deep into her cheeks. He lifted her head up. “You shoulda played nice, Bitch.” She coughed and sputtered when he slammed her head back against the concrete. “You shoulda played nice.”

Nelek’s don’t play nice… Her own laughter was the last sound Logan heard before the darkness claimed her.

Chapter 22

Kerestyan sat in his black leather chair, eyes glued to the ornate French doors of his meeting home, waiting for them to open again. With only two minutes left before the Grandfather clock in the hall chimed in the arrival of Midnight, Logan was nowhere to be seen.

Neither were Lawrence, nor Craig and his pack for that matter.

A tingle slipped down his Ancient spine as he shifted and nearly a hundred pairs of youthful eyes followed the movement in unison. His concern and anticipation hung heavy in the air, reflected in the way each Fledgling peered up at him as though they were a scolded puppy, waiting for the rolled up newspaper to drop.

If his sister removed Logan from the city without telling him, she’d taste the full fury of his displeasure from the back of his hand.

Kerestyan surged to his feet as a tall, thin figure appeared outside the frosted glass of the doors. His heart clenched of its own accord, filling his ears with a very slow, natural rhythm he hadn’t heard or felt since the day he died. He stared straight ahead, tension tightening every muscle as the silver handles turned.

The figure had to be Logan. There was no one else it could be.

With no small amount of force, the doors burst open and Raze charged into the foyer. Worry etched deep into her features, she inclined her head toward his personal office. “Now,” she mouthed. She flicked her wrist, opening the door without touching it.

Kerestyan’s entire body went numb as he strode across the room and through the doorway behind her. “What’s wrong?” His fangs broke free before he could finish the question. When she slammed the door closed without answering, and then her golden Paladin barrier flared around him, his beast pushed to the surface. “What’s wrong?” The roar was deafening, even in his own ears.

“Craig has Logan.”

The white-hot flash of rage he felt as her words formed was nothing compared the abrupt and painful seize of his slowly beating heart. Scarlet flames licked the ceiling. Thick bands of obsidian shadow swallowed the floor.

He slammed his fists against the glittering barrier; roaring again as the animal inside him took complete control. He threw his head back as razor sharp scales pushed through his skin, stinging with the fury of a thousand poisoned arrows. The cracking of bone and muscle filled his ears as his wings tried to form but were confined by the barrier. Blinding agony twisted down his spine as the space around him grew smaller.

“Holy shit!” A familiar voice boomed in the distance. “What the hell happened? Did you put him…drop that damn thing! He can’t shift in there!”

“I can’t let him shift in here! He’ll kill everyone!”

“Drop the fucking barrier, NOW!”

Kerestyan felt his beast hesitate as the barrier dissolved and two powerful arms wrapped around him like a vice. “Come back, Kerestyan. Whatever it is, we’ll fix it. I’ll fix it. I promise you.” It was the desperate, pleading tone of his brother’s voice that lightened the crimson haze all around him.

He pushed out of Odin’s hold and closed his eyes as he struggled with the beast inside him. He had to regain control, needed to focus all the rage burning in his blood. Slowly, his half formed wings retracted and the scales sank back into his skin. His bones, which had distended and dislocated, ached as if he’d died all over again.

“Would somebody tell me what happened?” Odin yelled.

“Craig has Logan,” Kerestyan growled. He closed his eyes and forced his beast down again as the words reverberated in his mind. He should have killed the Fledgling when he had the chance. Should have rent the flesh from his bones and created his own wall of displeasure.

“Raze,” Odin barked. “He needs to be healed. It’ll take too much blood for him to do it on his own. Then he really will go out there and eat all those kids.”

She laughed, but her voice was strained. “Oh, I am so going to meet my maker for this.”

Kerestyan stiffened as her warm hands pushed under his shirt and slid up to rest on his bare chest. She no more than splayed her fingers before a warm sensation rushed through his body, sizzling in his blood. His beast shrank back instantly, recoiling from the righteous magic burning under her fingertips.

“Wow! That was fast.”

Kerestyan opened his eyes and glared down at the Paladin. “Where is she, Raze?”