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WE SURFACED NEXT TO the highway where Alex had been kidnapped by Tyson Jabari. I almost smacked myself in the forehead when I realized I’d left my duffle bag behind.
Freya released my hand and took a couple of seconds to compose herself. “It’s disconcerting to travel beneath the ground like that,” she murmured. I figured she’d been enlisted to join the war to take down the demons a few years before I’d been born. Most vamps had been too bamboozled by my parents to remember much about it.
“Can you go back to Denver and get my duffle bag?” I asked my zombie. Epsilon’s response was to squirm out of my pocket and drop to the ground.
“How can that zombie understand you?” the vampire asked.
“My little sister made some of her minions smarter than usual. She gave us all our own personal helpers.”
“I sensed that Alex was powerful,” Freya said in a disturbed tone. “Yet your mother surpasses any necromancer I’ve met before.”
“My mom used you in the war against the demons?” I asked.
She nodded and crossed her arms as if she was cold. Vamps weren’t bothered by the temperature like the living were, so it had to be for comfort. “Everything changed after that fateful night,” she said quietly as Epsilon returned with my duffle bag.
I left it sitting on the ground, but bent to pick the mouse up. “What changed?” I asked curiously, tucking my zombie back into my pocket.
“Lexi Levine and her husband weakened my kind,” Freya said with a scowl. “We were once the most feared hunters on this world. Now, we must feed from animals and we aren’t allowed to kill them for our own survival.”
“You can’t kill humans either,” I said, wondering why she hadn’t included them.
“I’m not a hunter of humans,” she said in distaste. “I’ve never fed on their blood.”
“How is that possible?” I asked in confusion.
“My master raised her fledglings to drink from animals. She’d seen too many of our kind eradicated by angry mobs to risk hunting them.”
“How old are you?” I asked curiously.
“I don’t know the exact year I was born,” she replied, staring back into the past. “But I belonged to a Norse chieftain. He used to take me with him during his raids on other villages.” Her tone sounded slightly bleak at her explanation. “My people are known as Vikings now.”
My mouth dropped open and I recalled a flippant remark I’d made to Alex and Yas when they’d told us about meeting the ancient master vampire. I’d said that maybe she was a Viking and I’d been accurate. “That means you could be over fifteen hundred years old!” I realized, going by what Aunt Ava had told us about the Vikings she’d seen so long ago.
She nodded in agreement. “As I said, you are a mere babe compared to me.”
“Why did the chieftain take you with him during his raids?” I asked.
She turned to me and her face was utterly expressionless. “He and his men needed someone to bed during their journey.”
I blanched when I realized she must have been used horribly by the long dead men. Rage boiled inside me and I stepped forward to take her hand. She didn’t flinch away, but I felt her tense up. “No one will ever abuse you like that again,” I vowed.
“You will protect me, young wolfling?” she asked in amusement.
“With my life,” I said and placed a kiss on her cold fingers.
Giving an exasperated shake of her head, she tugged her hand free. “You must give up your fantasy that I’m your mate,” she said sternly. “If we weren’t compelled to get along by your parents, we would have fought to the death as soon as we’d laid eyes on each other.”
“I don’t think so,” I denied with a smirk. “Killing you is the last thing I want to do.”
She rolled her eyes at my suggestive tone, then gestured around us. “Is this where Killion was last seen?”
“Yeah,” I replied, then picked my duffle bag up and slung it over my shoulder. “He ambushed my sister and a few others from the squad here.”
“How?” she asked, noting the signs of the accident that had been cleared away.
“One of the vamps stole a car and jammed the accelerator down with a stick,” I explained. “It careened across the highway and smashed into another vehicle. Killion and his nest waited for our zombies to take the injured humans to a hospital, then attacked. They couldn’t kill my team, but it was just a distraction so they could kidnap Alex.”
“They didn’t manage to take your sister from you?”
I shook my head. “An alpha werewolf got to her instead. Killion and his nest fled when they realized she was gone. We managed to get Alex back and haven’t seen Killion since.”
“How long ago was this?”
“It happened over two months ago.”
“He’ll be long gone from here,” Freya said in disappointment. “He could be anywhere by now.”
“I have an idea of how we might be able to find him,” I said. “But we need to find some of his DNA.”
“You intend to find him with a tracking spell?” she surmised.
“Exactly,” I agreed, glad she was as intelligent as she was beautiful. I wasn’t sure how Liam was going to react when he found out my true mate was a vampire. I was even less sure of how she was going to fit in with the team. She could only be awake at night and was forced to sleep during the day. I figured we would work it out after we’d tracked Killion down and chopped his head off.
“Do you know any witches?” she asked as we began scouring the area.
“I know a few wiccans, but we can’t involve any of them in this. We’ll have to find someone else to help us.”
“You realize the chances of us finding any of Killion’s hair is almost impossible after so much time has passed,” she pointed out.
“I’ve already searched the other places he’s been and had no luck,” I replied. “This is our last chance to find something useful.”
“Then let’s not waste any more time,” she said and we spread out to search.
Epsilon scanned the ground with me as we scoured the area. He knew what Killion looked like, thanks to his link to Alex and the zombies who’d seen the master vampire. We were looking for ash blond hair, which was fairly distinctive.
Dawn was nearing when Freya whistled shrilly to get my attention. She was on the far side of the highway from me. Epsilon took us to her and we appeared a few feet away. “Did you find something?” I asked eagerly.
“Two strands of hair,” she replied, holding them on her palm. They were the right color, but his scent had faded from them long ago.
“We make a good team,” I said with a grin.
“I found them without your help,” she pointed out.
“Yeah, but you wouldn’t have known where to look without me.”
Unable to argue with my logic, she lifted an eyebrow. “What now, wise young wolf?” she asked sardonically.
“Now we need to get you to a hotel room before the sun rises. I’ll search for a wiccan while you’re sleeping.”
“Will you watch over me while I slumber?” she asked.
I picked up on the worry that she tried to hide. “You don’t know me, so I don’t expect you to trust me,” I said. “But I wasn’t lying when I said I would protect you with my life.”
She searched my eyes for a lie, then nodded grudgingly. “I will trust you, Nickolas Levine-Garrett.”
I cheered on the inside, but managed to contain my jubilance. The fact that an ancient master vampire was willing to trust her mortal enemy was miraculous. The only reason I could think why she would trust me was that she really was meant to be my mate. Whether she liked it or not, she was just as attracted to me as I was to her.
