Page 8 of Dante
“I should be surprised, but I’m not.” Master Edison sighed. “But it’s not been a day. Your pack has been gone for three weeks now.”
We all froze. “Three weeks?” Augustus asked quietly.
“Yeah, I was going to mention that. That was one of the things Brice has been going off on me about.” Atticus came over and punched me in the shoulder. “And I’m not dense. You try concentrating with the love of your life yelling at you absolute nonsense in your mind while you’re trying to get a word in, or carry on a conversation with your packmates.”
“Where did you say Damien and Warwick were supposed to be?” Alpha Sergei asked.
We all glanced at each other and shrugged. “We entered the Nexus in New Mexico. It felt like we were in there for all of fifteen minutes at the most. We opened a portal, thinking we’d exit in New Mexico,” Atticus said. “We’re here instead.”
“Very well. Let’s get back to the council,” Master Edison said. “We’ll worry about our missing hellhounds once we get there.”
Master Edison, Alpha Sergei, and the three demons all disappeared, leaving the three of us here. We glanced at one another, shrugged, and followed. We arrived back at the council, just outside the front door, but Master Edison and Alpha Sergei were nowhere to be found.
“I guess we’re just to go inside,” Augustus said. “Should we try and find the others? We heard something moving through the Nexus in the Atacama Desert. Should we go back and enter there?”
“If they don’t contact us soon, I say yes,” Atticus said. “First, let’s go see what Master Edison suggests. We have no way of knowing that who or whatever we heard was them. It could have been someone else completely, and the last thing I really want to do right now is run into a not-so-friendly hellhound.”
We didn’t get a chance to swipe our badges at the door—Alpha Sergei opened it for us. “Your packmates are here. They arrived while we were in Chile. They are not alone.”
We quickly entered the building, waving to both Slater and Spencer at the front desk. “What time is it?” I asked, pulling out my phone. “It says 10:48, but I don’t think that’s right.”
“We need to discuss that and more,” Alpha Sergei said. “It is just before six in the evening here.”
I glanced at my phone again. What was going on with that? It usually updated to the correct time when we changed time zones.
We followed Alpha Sergei into conference room three, and I was honestly surprised at how full it already was.
“How is it that we’re the last ones to arrive when we left the Nexus first?” Augustus asked.
“I’m not sure,” I said. I moved to stand against the wall beside Atticus, who was staring at Damien.
Warwick joined us and leaned close. “We were in some serious Twilight Zone shit while we were gone.”
I looked at my packmate, a bit confused. Actually, I was a lot confused. “I’m sure that will be explained. Tell me who Damien’s new friends are,” I said as I nodded toward the other side of the room. I was actually very surprised that not only were two new hellhounds inside the council building, but the three demons that we’d caught.
“Damien called the one Titus. He seemed as if he knew him quite well. The other one said his name was Azar.” Warwick gave me a look that was easy to understand.
“They’re our missing hellhounds,” I whispered.
“It would seem so, yes.”
“What?” Augustus said as he leaned around me. “I was half listening.”
“If you all would give us just a few moments, we’ll do a quick briefing, and then everyone can be on their way,” Alpha Sergei said. He turned to the hellhounds that were standing with Damien. “What are your names?”
“I’m Titus,” the one standing closest to Damien said.
“And I’m Azar, Alpha,” the other said.
“How long have you been in the Nexus?” Alpha Sergei asked.
They looked at one another before they redirected their attention back to Alpha Sergei. “We do not know. We were banished here to the shifter realm quite some time ago,” Titus said. “I was in Damien’s pack in our realm all that time ago and was banished not long after he was.”
Azar shrugged. “I cannot tell you how long I’ve been here. Not nearly as long as Titus has. As for how we got into the Nexus, we do not know, Alpha. A portal opened, and we were then suddenly in it.”
“Do either of you know where you were when the portal opened?”
“Sorry, no,” Titus said.
