Levet reluctantly returned to London with the doulas stone clutched in his hand. Stepping out of the portal, he glanced around the shadowed vault, where Troy was standing guard to ensure nothing could creep through the opening.
At least, he was supposed to be standing guard. Instead, Levet discovered the troll sprawled in a corner, snoring loudly enough to wake the dead. Really. Levet’s tail snapped around his feet as he marched forward. So much for the frivolous creature having his back. This imp would have slept through an entire horde of trolls marching into the lair and through the open portal.
Which meant that he had put not only Levet in danger, but Inga as well.
That was unforgivable.
Halting next to the imp, Levet kicked him in the leg. “Wake up.”
Troy opened his eyes, glaring at Levet. Then, with a sinuous motion, he stretched his arms over his head and yawned.
“Couldn’t you see that I was sleeping?” Troy groused, without apology, as he shoved himself to his feet. “Or at least I was, until you so rudely interrupted my dreams. And they were some very fine dreams. There was this exquisite harpy who held me captive during her breeding season who—”
“Not now,” Levet interrupted, turning to head across the vault. “I have important matters to attend to.”
“How long are you staying in this smelly lair? It’s going to take an eternity to get the fishy smell washed off my skin.”
Levet wrinkled his snout. The imp wasn’t wrong. Dead fish was the sort of stench that tended to linger. And not in a good way. He’d need a good scrubbing to get rid of it.
“Oui, it was not pleasant. I was very stern with Styx,” Levet assured his companion. “He needs to have the lair thoroughly cleaned. Perhaps fumigated.”
Troy laughed. “I’m sure he was delighted to be chastised for his lack of housekeeping skills.”
He should have been, Levet told himself. How could the king know what needed to be done if he wasn’t told? But, as usual, the leech had been utterly ungrateful for Levet’s assistance.
“To be honest, he is a grumpy pants.” Levet shrugged. Styx’s default setting was grumpy, but now he was uber-grumpy. “Still, he has agreed to contact his brothers to discover which one left his amulet behind in the vault.”
Troy strolled to stand next to Levet. “Then what are you doing?”
Levet squatted down, his gaze locked on the footprint. “There is more than one way to pet a cat.”
“To what?” Troy made a sound of impatience. “Never mind. Tell me your plans.”
“I’m going to use one of the artifacts that was collected by Riven to help me track down the owner of this footprint.”
“Really?” Troy knelt beside Levet, his expression suddenly interested. “I’ve studied the collection, but I’ve never been allowed to use them. Which artifact do you have?”
Levet held out his hand to reveal the small pebble balanced on his palm. “The doulas stone.”
“Of all the powerful items, that’s the one you chose?”
“Oui.”
Troy snorted. “It looks like something I shook out of my shoe.”
Levet clicked his tongue. “Appearances are always deceiving when it comes to magic.” He ran a dismissive gaze up and down Troy’s spandex-covered body. “Usually, the flashier the object, the less power it possesses.”
Troy ignored the blatant insult. His arrogance was far too thick to be dented by the jab.
“What does it do?” he instead asked.
Levet forced himself to shake off his annoyance. It was going to take all his concentration to use the unfamiliar power of the stone.
“It will…” He struggled the think of the proper word. “. . . latch onto the essence of a person and lead me to them.”
Troy straightened. “Does it use your magic to make it go?”
“In part.”
“Damn.”
Levet tilted back his head to study Troy’s worried expressions. “What is wrong?”
“Don’t take this wrong, but your magic is like a powder keg that explodes without warning and usually does the maximum amount of damage.”
Levet clicked his tongue. “You are the rudest imp I have ever known.”
Troy shrugged. “Well, it’s nice to be the best.”
Levet turned back to concentrate on the footprint, carefully laying the stone in the center.
“Stand back,” he warned in absent tones.
Troy scurried across the vault. “If you kill me, I’m going to haunt you for the rest of eternity.”
Stuck for the rest of eternity with this imp? Levet shuddered. He’d received many threats over the long centuries. But none of them had ever sent a chill of terror down his spine.
* * * *
Xi leaned against the wall, studying the beautiful, stubborn Were stretched on her narrow bed. She had her arms folded behind her head and her eyes closed, but he knew she wasn’t asleep. There was an energy that hummed around her like a jet engine about to take off. Still, for the past hour, he’d allowed her to pretend.
It wasn’t just because he’d sensed she needed time to gather her composure. He’d poked and prodded until she’d confessed ancient wounds she’d kept buried for centuries. Of course, she wanted some space from his prying. But her silence gave him the opportunity to consider what she’d confessed.
It was one thing to battle against Brigette’s belief that she was impervious to the need for a pack. She’d been alone for a long time, and it would be only natural that she would be wary of letting anyone get close.
But now Xi understood that it was far more complicated than that.
She didn’t push people away because she was scared of being judged for her past. She did it to punish herself.
So how could he convince her that she’d suffered enough?
He wasn’t sure that he knew how. Unlike Viper, or even that ridiculous gargoyle, he wasn’t really a people person. He’d spent long centuries wandering the world alone. Then several more centuries as a Raven. It made him a formidable warrior, but he sucked at social skills.
Dwelling on a way to convince her that it was possible to overcome her grinding sense of guilt, Xi stiffened as Brigette slowly opened her eyes.
“I can feel you staring at me,” she said in dry tone.
Moving forward, Xi perched on the edge of the bed. “What will you do when we’ve defeated Maryam?”
She scooted to a seated position, her back pressed against the cement wall. “You sound very sure that we’ll succeed.”
“I don’t doubt it for a second.”
Her lips twitched. “Arrogant.”
“Confident,” he corrected her. “So what will you do?”
“Return home.” She shrugged. “It’s not like I have anywhere else to go.”
“That’s what I used to think. Until Styx.”
She hesitated, and Xi feared that she would ignore the opening he’d offered her. Then curiosity overcame her reluctance to offer him encouragement.
“Because of your past?” she asked.
Xi nodded, hiding his relief. He hoped that revealing his own journey to redemption, Brigette might see a future that didn’t involve endless penance for her sins.
“Like most newly turned vampires, I was heady with my power,” he admitted.
Brigette rolled her eyes. “As I said. Arrogant.”
“Perhaps,” he conceded. The truth was that he’d been puffed up with conceit. He’d truly believed that he was blessed above all other vampires. A blood-sucking superstar. “At first I didn’t fully understand my unique skills. I knew I could easily hide from others and sneak up on my prey.”
She tilted her head, her hair shimmering like fire despite the darkness that shrouded the room.
“Is it like a damper spell?” she asked.
Xi turned to fully face her, his hip pressed against her thigh. The heat of her skin seared through his jeans. Delicious.
“It’s hard to explain. Just as you can smell the dawn without thinking about it, I can draw my presence deep inside me.”
She arched a brow. “Like a turtle?”
“That’s as good an analogy as any other.” He smiled before his amusement faded. He never discussed the past. Not since he’d become a Raven. What good did it do to dwell on things that couldn’t be changed? But he’d do whatever was necessary to prevent Brigette from spending the rest of eternity alone in her festering village.
“As I gained command over my powers, I realized that I could become virtually invisible,” he continued.
“I knew you were Batman.”
Xi touched the marks on the sides of his head. They weren’t traditional tattoos. Instead, they’d appeared shortly after he’d been turned into a vampire. His sire had claimed they were the souls of his ancestors and that they offered him their protection. He thought it was more likely they were a visible display of his talents.
He could travel through the world as silent and deadly as a snake.
“Not as cool as Batman, but my clan chief often used me to spy on rival clans or to rescue prisoners being held captive,” he told her. “I swiftly earned a place of honor among my people.”
She studied him, the tension easing from her beautiful face as she became lost in his story.
“You make it sound like a bad thing.”
“It only made me cockier.”
“Shocking.”
“My sire warned me that my belief that I was impervious to danger would bite me in the ass.” He shook his head in resignation. His sire had been a unique male. Not only did he take in the children he created, but he’d personally trained them to become warriors for his clan. He’d been as close to a father as a vampire could get. “And he was right.”
Brigette, surprisingly, didn’t take the opportunity to make another dig at his conceit.
“You said you snuck into a rival clan?”
“A stupid stunt. But looking back now, I realize I was manipulated by a traitor.”
“Another vampire?”
Xi clenched his hands. The familiar pain rushed through him as he remembered that fateful night. He’d been strolling through the massive castle that served as their lair, looking for entertainment. When he wasn’t on guard duty, it was all too easy to become bored.
A fatal failing when combined with his oversized ego.
“A beautiful vampire named Emeline,” he forced himself to continue. “She dared me to bring her the crown from the rival clan chief.”
Brigette parted her lips, but whatever she was about to say was forgotten as she was struck by his words.
“Vampire clan chiefs wear a crown?”
Xi shuddered. Anyone who tried to stick a crown on Styx’s head would find himself nailed to a tree and left for the sun.
“Only Drayson,” Xi assured her. “He used to host massive banquets just so he could prance around with his golden crown and fortune in jewels attached to various parts of his body.”
“He sounds…flamboyant.”
“He was an egotistical prick, but he was also a brutal leader with a cunning ambition.” Xi’s jaw tightened. When he was young, he was stupid enough to judge a demon by his appearance. He’d allowed Drayson’s outrageous behavior to lull him into a false sense of security. “I was a fool to underestimate him.”
She studied him with an unreadable expression. “You decided to steal the crown to impress Emeline?”
He jerked, caught off guard. Brigette had never met Emeline or she wouldn’t ask that question.
“No.”
“But you said she dared you.”
“She did. But I had no interest in her.”
Brigette narrowed her eyes. She clearly didn’t believe him. “Even though she was beautiful?”
Xi shuddered. “She was also a cold, humorless bitch who made my flesh crawl from the night she arrived in the lair.”
Brigette’s long lashes lowered over her eyes. Was she trying to hide her emotion? Before he could decide, she was glancing back up at him.
“So why did you do it?” she demanded.
He didn’t want to answer. Not just because the memory of that night still haunted his dreams, but because he was ashamed.
“My bloated pride,” he grudgingly forced himself to admit the truth. “I thought it was a game to pillage objects from various demons. Over the years, I’d stolen treasure chests filled with rubies from a troll chieftain, bags of gold from a band of goblins, and an enchanted sword from the local tribe of wood sprites. My increasing mound of loot impressed my clan and frankly kept me entertained. When Emeline challenged me, it never occurred to me that it was a trap.”
“Were you captured?”
Xi’s fangs ached. He would never forget the moment the silver leash had been snapped around his neck. Or the faces of the bastards who’d tied him behind a horse to drag him miles across the frozen ground. The fact that he’d been denied his revenge only made the memory more difficult to bear.
“Yes.” He managed to keep his lingering fury out of his voice, but nothing could hide the ice that was crawling over the cement walls. It wasn’t hard to determine a vampire’s mood. Ice bad. No ice…well, there’s a chance no one is about to die. “I barely reached the edge of our territory when I was ambushed. And chained to a tree.”
She hesitated, as if debating whether to probe for more details of his capture. Then she shook her head, no doubt sensing that the memory still caused him pain.
“That doesn’t explain how you were responsible for your clan being destroyed.”
“Emeline told my chief that she’d witnessed me being kidnapped. She implied that if they hurried, I could be rescued.” Another layer of ice coated the walls. “My sire sent his warriors to rescue me.”
“Leaving your lair unprotected.”
“Exactly. By the time the warriors realized they’d been lured away, it was too late.” The words threatened to stick in his throat. Possibly because he’d never said them out loud. “They returned to find our lair burned to the ground, along with their mates and our sire. They had no choice but to accept defeat.”
“Did they release you?”
“No. I managed to escape.”
“You didn’t return to your clan?”
He had. After he’d escaped, he’d been forced to find a nearby hovel to hide for the day and heal. But once the sun had set, he’d raced back to the castle. At the time, he had no idea his people had been attacked, not until he’d arrived at a smoldering pile of rubble. Wandering through the wreckage, he’d struggled to imagine what had happened. Finally, one of the warriors who’d managed to survive the battle revealed the brutal truth.
Because of him, the clan had been destroyed.
“They didn’t consider me a member any longer,” he said. “In fact, they insisted I leave. I don’t blame them.”
“I do.” Astonishingly, Brigette reached out to lay a hand over his clenched fist. Heat blasted through him, easing the agonizing ache at the center of his soul. He desperately wanted to grasp her hand and press it to his lips. Or tug her closer so he could wrap her in his arms. Thankfully, he was a skilled hunter. This was the first time she’d initiated a touch, and he wasn’t about to do anything that might cause her to pull away. “It wasn’t your fault,” she continued. “Emeline was the traitor.”
“It was my arrogance that allowed her to so easily dupe me. A better vampire would have ignored her dare. Or recognized her danger to the clan,” Xi insisted.
“Say whatever you want. It wasn’t your fault.”
His lips twitched at her stubborn insistence. He’d ripped open the wounds of his past to prove that the worst sins could be overcome. The last thing he’d expected was to have Brigette lessen the guilt that still gnawed deep inside him.
“You sound like Styx,” he murmured.
“I just know the difference between poor decisions and betrayal.”
“Intent doesn’t matter. The outcome was the same.” He leaned toward her, absorbing her rich musk. The scent was intoxicating. “The past is the past.”
She scowled, but she didn’t argue. And even better, she didn’t pull her hand away. “Did Styx tell you that?” she instead asked.
Xi shoved away the dark memories of his former clan and instead recalled his meeting with Styx. The huge warrior hadn’t been the Anasso yet, but his thunderous power had made him a natural leader. He’d taken in Xi when he’d been lost and broken, keeping him under his wing until Xi was strong enough to stand on his own.
It was a gift that Xi could never fully repay.
“No. He said to get my head out of my ass and start doing something productive with my life,” Xi said dryly.
“That’s when you became one of his Ravens?”
“No, that took much longer.” Xi had pledged his life to Styx centuries ago, but it hadn’t been until the previous Anasso was destroyed that he had asked Xi to become one of his private guards. “Only his most trusted warriors are allowed to join the Ravens.”
She slowly nodded, easily sensing how much it had meant to Xi to be a part of the elite guards.
“So now you have a new clan,” she murmured.
“More importantly, I have a new family. We might be occasionally dysfunctional—”
“Occasionally?”
“Okay, we’re often dysfunctional,” he conceded. He wasn’t so blinded by loyalty that he was immune to the provocations, outrageous dares, and sporadic squabbles between the Ravens. You couldn’t have a group of alpha warriors working together without a few broken bones. And sometimes a cracked skull. “But being a part of Styx’s clan has healed a part of me that I thought had been destroyed forever.”
She turned away, sliding off the bed. Xi would have been disappointed if he hadn’t seen the aching loss that darkened her eyes.
She longed for a family. Even if she refused to admit it, even to herself.
“Most of the demons should be settled for the day,” she said in gruff tones, heading for the door. “Time to return to the hunt.”