Page 7 of Mated
It’s only a partial lie. And theliewas fucking needed.
No one can know that Lilah was changed to vampire. Not yet. And that came down from the powers on high.
But even the European High Council’s orders—to stay silent about Lilah’s change—were cake compared to the stern lecture on killing the man responsible forkillingher. Not that either Marcus or Ruin give a shit.
Granted, I don’t have much respect for the hoity toity arrogant sonsofbitches overseas. But still. Appearances and all …
“You will need to alert the local pack alpha, Tanner.”
I swear under my breath. Gage looks at me where he holds the phone between the six of us. I wave it off.
Fucking shit.
For some reason, I really thought Devon would just run us out of town. And I really don’t like the part of myself that hoped he would.
“Is that going to be a problem?” Marcus asks when I remain silent for too fucking long.
Grimacing, I pretend to hang myself. “No, my lord.” I swing slowly on the imaginary rope. I’d rather hang myself for real than deal with Callus or any of his bullshit. “I’ll just pop on over and sayhi.”
“Good man,” Markus says mildly over the phone, either not picking up on or completely ignoring my sarcasm.
Caine fucking falls out of his chair onto the hospital floor with silent laughter. My eyes roll and Ruin glares at both of us. I point at the demon now twisting from side to side. Ruin ignores me. But Lilah jabs Caine with her boot and motions him to knock the shit off.
The demon complies in silence, erring to the woman he watches even when he doesn’t think someone is watchinghim.
“You have Lock Lake aid if you need it, but try not to anger the locals,” Marcus continues uninterrupted. “The last thing I want to be blamed for is starting a turf war between the shifters and the vampires.”
“Yeah, the fucking Council would execute us both then,” Ruin grumbles. Considering he is on probation for changing Lilah, he has every reason to stay off their Gods-damn radar. But I fucking doubt this is going to help.
Any attack by beastkin is recorded. The beast’s pack, their alpha, their bloodline … Anything to keep from breeding the violence humanity has every reason to fear. And this shit is exactly why that fear even fucking exists.
“Ruin, for the time being, I want you in charge,” Marcus commands.
Gage sags in relief.
I snicker and Caine and Lilah echo me.
Ruin claps the Fae warrior on the shoulder and walks closer. “Of course, my lord.”
Marcus grows silent for a beat of my heart. “If even a hint of Brightex surfaces in this …” he says slowly.
I look at the phone in Gage’s hand as the others fall quiet around us. The tension thrums through the small hall.
Funny thing about killing Lilah’s killer, the fucker had an in with the supernatural drug from Hell. Now we can’t find the supplier of said Hell drug. We are back to fucking square one.Numero-fucking-uno. And it’s even better here the second go-round.
But without another way of locating the cache that should have been on the way to Georgia, we are on high alert for another outbreak of the shit. And after burying too many of our own a few months ago, it’s not something any of us want to fuck with again.
But the chemical scent on the cat was a little too fucking familiar.
Ruin’s dark irises fade under a faint sheen of gold light as he looks to each of us. “We got this, Marcus. Let us do what we do best.”
I peer around at the others with a fist pump. “Go Dream Team!”
Horan scoffs behind me and I flip the angel off with a flourish.
The doors to the OR swish open. I turn, finger still raised.
“Gotta go, Marcus,” Gage says behind me and the phone beeps.
