Page 43 of Blood Moon
“Fuck you all,” I said, half relieved and half pissed my guys pulled off some tactic, leaving me in the dark on it.
“Baby,” Cole said.
“Fuck you,” I said sternly. “Make sure Aria is safe, and bring her back if you know that’s a good move. Other than that, I’m with Zac on this one. That was a shitty move, and you all know it.”
“Last minute,” Logan held his hands up. “We couldn’t have you in on it if Alexi was going for the dagger that she busted her ass to get.”
“Fuck.” I rubbed my forehead. “Now, I feel like a total bitch.”
“Don’t,” Zac said. “She fucking hates you if that makes you feel good about yourself?”
“God, ex-girlfriend,” I rolled my eyes.
“He was mine before you, little human,” Alexi said, pulling into my view. “I’m sure he’d take me back, especially after what I promised him tonight in our old room.”
“You up for feeding and fucking her?” I asked Zac.
Zac’s cheeky grin made my insides turn. “I’m up for tasting you and only you. Alexi’s watered-down, old news as far as I’m concerned. So,” he pulled me up and into his arms as everyone vanished in a whirlwind with the Fae Queen, “we having makeup sex or not?”
Shit. I didn’t need to go off fucking Zac right now. I needed to know what was going on with Aria, and how she’d react to seeing her father, Val, and Cole when they showed up. Alas, here I was, falling and melting in Zac’s arms and under my vampire’s bronze-eyed spell—needing him and feeling that he needed my blood and body even more.
Damn it, we better not fuck this all up. None of us.
23
Ifelt like I was thrown into a daze after Cole, Zane, and Val left with Esmeralda, the Fae Queen, to go lock up Enzo’s twins so we could use them as leverage in pulling the psycho vamp onto our team in a war I wasn’t sure we would ever be ready for.
I’d had some weird glimpse that Enzo was the reason behind my daughter being taken to that school—that realm—and now, we had an idea of how to work Enzo onto our side, but I was not feeling any power like I had before.
I sat around the enormous dining room table that was filled with vampires and shifters, ignoring all their laughs and stories of past times with the Banners and the shifters speaking of Zane being one of the most powerful alphas they’d encountered. I could give a shit less about past times. I knew what the future had in store for us.
With Aria having grown to a teen at warp speed after siphoning our powers, I felt a void rip within me that hurt more than when I felt the loss of Nakia and Bren for the first time. My emotions transitioned to something I never wanted to say out loud or even admit to myself. I shook my head and stood from the table, having barely eaten.
“Babe?” Braden questioned me as he, Logan, and Zac stood in curiosity at my unexpected behavior.
“I need to get out of here,” I said, locking eyes with Braden. “Where’s our room?”
I had no idea if we even had a room, given all the shifters and vamps who were showing up out of nowhere. I guess they were all getting filled in on a possible alliance with Enzo and the battle with evil sooner than later. It was easy to see they were all hyped up about the Banners finally meeting their longtime enemy, Enzo, and then learning that the rumors were true about the diabolical battle that awaited all of us.
This shit was starting to overwhelm me on top of the fact that I wasn’t going with the Fae Queen tomeetthis teenage version of my daughter.
“Come on.” Logan took my hand while the other two vamps followed us upstairs. “You need to stop worrying, Ellie,” he said softly.
“I just need a break,” I answered. “I’m not into listening to old stories while I know that Cole and Zane are putting their lives at stake with that Fae Queen.”
We walked into a massive room, and it wasn’t the room I’d stayed in when I first met the Banners. This was a gigantic suite that sprawled across the back of the house. It was on the third floor instead of the second, and I could swear this was a house of its own up here.
“What the hell, you guys?” I looked around the large living room that was surrounded by windows that overlooked the forest that lined the back of the estate.
“Yeah, so this is an entire floor of its own,” Zac said, walking ahead of me. “It’s the same size as the first floor and where our private apartments are. It’s where we’ve always retreated when the house was filled with vamps. That’s pretty much the only time we ever come up here.”
“It’s probably the most peace you’ll find until we put things into motion when we get back,” Braden said, pulling me into his arms. “I’m going to go act like I’m mingling with the others. We need ears and eyes on them while you’re here.”
“Are you worried they’ll turn on us like that Caiden guy did?” I asked him.
“I’m worried that they’re all going to start figuring out that an exceptional human Life Blood is with us and try and act on instincts,” he said. “These vamps have only heard legends about Life Bloods. They’ve only heard of stories that the Banners would one day find a source to help them defeat Enzo. Your blood scent may be concealed from them, but they aren’t stupid either.”
“Jesus.” I gripped the sides of my head, “Will you be okay out there?”
