Page 59 of Wrath

“No stabbing,” Lupe growled.

“A little stabbing,” Ryland countered quietly.

“No. Fucking. Stabbing.”

“We should get this meeting started,” Z said, and cleared her throat to garner our attention.

Lupe cast Ryland one last pointed look before claiming the seat opposite Z. Since Stefan already sat to the right of her, I chose the seat to the left, settling myself in and turning my attention to the map.

“Stefan, how far away is Aaliyah’s army, according to your spies?” Z asked.

Stefan straightened nearly imperceptibly, the fawning man from before replaced by a stone-cold warrior.

“At the rate they’re traveling, they’ll reach the capital in just under a day,” he answered.

As he spoke, the flap to the tent pulled back, and five nightmares stepped inside. Two were mages, one was a vampire, one was a shifter, and one was a genie. They all claimed the empty seats around the table.

Stefan turned to them briefly. “Z, allow me to introduce you to my lieutenants. The mages are Bri and Zander.” He pointed toa tiny, waif-like redhead and then a muscular, bald man beside her. “The vampire is Kelsey.” This was directed at a middle-aged blonde with a very, very pregnant belly. “The shifter Jolene. She’s also one of our best healers.”

The older woman blushed and ducked her head.

“And the genie is Matthias.”

The final man was the oldest of the group by far, appearing to be in his late sixties or early seventies. His hair was already completely gray, and prominent wrinkles framed the skin around his violet eyes.

Z leveled a shrewd gaze around the table, studying each of the newcomers intently. I wondered if she was thinking about our conversation in the van.

After a long moment, Z nodded stiffly and said, “Thank you all for joining us.”

The mage introduced us as Bri offered a hesitant smile.

“Thank you for giving the humans a fighting chance.” At Z’s look of disbelief, Bri blushed and ducked her head, her red hair streaming forward to obscure her face from view. “I married a human woman. In secret, of course.”

“Is she here?” Z asked hesitantly, and Bri looked up, her smile widening, turning more genuine.

“She is! But she’s with the kids right now.” Bri gestured towards where the playground was. “She works at the school here.”

“Now, before you ask, let me make it clear that all of us have a reason for being here.” Matthias’s voice sounded gruff. Raspy, almost. “We all have a human…or multiple humans…that we care about. We don’t want to see them killed, hurt, or enslaved.”

“The way the humans are treated is disgusting,” Zander added.

Despite being the largest of the group, he spoke softly, contemplatively.

Z once again glanced over the faces present, gauging their sincerity, before she nodded once. “All right.”

She steepled her hands together and leaned forward slightly. Stefan’s eyes immediately dipped to the cleavage revealed…before immediately snapping upright when Lupe began to growl.

Z, oblivious, continued. “So what do we know about these creatures? Does anyone have any idea of what they are?”

Kelsey, the pregnant vampire, shook her head. “I’ve pored over all of the texts we have and can’t find a single match.”

“If it’s like any of the other monsters we fought, it might not be in any book,” Lupe pointed out. “Most of them have been extinct for centuries.”

Kelsey stood and moved towards a bookshelf near the back wall of the tent. It took her only a second to find the book she was looking for.

“This is a bestiary written over two hundred years ago.” She carefully lowered the heavy tome onto the table. “There are hundreds, if not thousands, of creatures in this book—most of which I’ve never heard of. I started going through the book but have yet to find a match.”

Lupe’s eyes gleamed with hunger. If I didn’t know that Z was his entire world, I would think he was seconds away from leaping over the table and confessing his undying love to the book on the table.

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