Page 51 of Happily Undead in Dark River

I glared at Lucius, but he just grinned back. “Oh, don’t make that face, Beauty. Nico is fine. Probably angrier than a cut snake though,” he pointed at Tex and laughed at his own joke. “He’s making his way here now, your precious Angeline with him. Though, I might just kill her anyway for the way she treated you.”

I shrunk away from the fervent look in his eyes. “Please don’t.”

“I will be seeing you soon, Beauty.”

Then he was gone.

I stood around in shock, my eyes bouncing from Walker to Judge. Walker looked shaken. “We traveled all the way here together. I never once suspected he wasn’t Nico.” He was shaking his head over and over again. Judge growled as he stepped across the ward.

“They’ve been impersonating each other for millennia, don’t take it to heart. They are very good at it. Lucius can only play at being good, though. He always slips eventually.” Judge walked over to me, picking me up so I could wrap my arms and legs around his body and kissed me deeply despite the fact our enemy had just had his tongue in there. If anything, it made him kiss me deeper, as if he was trying to chase any trace of Lucius away.

Finally, he let me slide down his body, and turned to Tex. He kissed him just as deeply, sighing when we were both in arms reach.

“Let’s get this shit over and done with, Brody. I want Raine back in Dark River where I can watch over her.”

Brody nodded, and we moved back through the Pack lands to Nîso. Brody lifted a cellphone to his ear and began talking in hushed tones to whoever was on the other end. The guys spread out around me and I sighed at the rightness. Except…

“Where’s X?”

Walker sighed. “Are you sure about him? I mean, the guy has the mouth of a sailor and the personality of a shark.”

I just smiled. Yeah, I remembered his mouth pretty fondly.

“He’s in the cells beneath the Vampire Nation headquarters. He got a little, uh, verbose about the length of time it was taking them to find an innocent woman innocent. There was a bit of a tirade about how he’d rather be home with his head between your thighs,” Walker grumbled, “and not ‘jerking off a bunch of dusty old pricks’. Direct quote. They wanted to chop off his head, but Nico and Titus managed to talk them into a few days to cool off in the cells instead.”

I couldn't help the grin that spread across my face and Judge laughed. I briefly worried about Nico, enough that I nudged Walker to call him. He dialed the number and handed me the phone.

“Walker! Lucius is impersonating–”

“Hi, Nico. We know,” I interrupted softly. “I was worried about you, though. I thought he might have hurt you or something.”

There was silence on the other end of the phone.

“Lucius is many things, but in his own twisted way, he loves me. He is my twin. But he likes to torture me in other, more inventive ways,” Nico said from behind me, echoing his words down the phone.

I spun on my heel and there was a disheveled looking Nico, easily stepping across the ward into Pack lands. I hung up and handed the phone back to Walker as I ran toward Nico. When I reached him, I hesitated. Lucius had kissed me while pretending to be Nico, but I had never reached that point with the man himself. Nico reached out and ran his fingertips down my cheek. I leaned forward and kissed his lips softly. He let me, his breath escaping on a soft sigh. “You are okay. I can’t tell you how happy I am to see you.”

Fuck it. I launched myself at him, and kissed him. I traced the seam of his lips, begging for entrance and he happily complied. Our tongues battled as we kissed, and it was raw and primal and absolutely perfect. He groaned as his hands sank to my lower back and pulled me closer.

And as much as my mind rebelled at the thought, I couldn’t help but compare his kiss to that of Lucius. I broke off the kiss and stepped away, breathing heavily. Nico’s eyes searched mine, looking for something, but I couldn’t figure out what. I hoped he couldn’t read my thoughts. I hoped none of them could.

I hated Lucius, but he’d set my body on fire, just as much as his twin did.

Chapter Twenty-Five

When I walked into the middle of Nîso flanked by three other vampires and preceded by two shifters, every eye snapped to us. Given that the Alpha was in his tiger form, everyone knew shit was going down. Or maybe it was the fact that Tex was completely naked which was causing a stir because some of the women on the street were openly ogling him. I bared my teeth at them, and zipped to Brody’s house and back with two pairs of pants from the dresser. One for Tex, and one for Brody when he shifted back from the tiger.

Tex laughed as he stepped into the tight jeans that still sat tantalizingly low on his hips. I swear, he didn’t look any less drool-worthy now that he wasn’t naked. I frowned, but I couldn't help but follow his ink down to where he was zipping up his pants.

“Why are you so damn sexy?” I grumbled, and he just grinned. I looked over my shoulder at Judge who was watching Tex just as hungrily.

“Damn, I have missed you two,” he mumbled. I leaned back and kissed him quickly. I’d missed him too.

I spun back around and caught up to Brody. One step behind, that was where I was meant to be as his Mate.

I spied Ghost striding towards us, his face a thundercloud. He signed angrily at Brody, and then he looked at me and signed even more angrily. “Uh oh.”

Brody just pulled the huge angry pale man in for a hug. Ghost still frowned as he stood stiffly in his arms. “Don’t be angry, Brother.” Brody looked over at me. “I might have just skipped out of here without telling anyone but Tex you were missing. He is chastising me like a nagging old housewife. Also, he said you better stop getting your ass injured on his watch otherwise he’s going to give up his life as a Protector because he sucks at it so bad.”

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