“I heard what Saint said,” Sammy pressed. “It sounds like you’re outnumbered. Is it really a good idea to leave someone behind?”
That was the fear talking, and while he had sympathy, he didn’t have time to indulge it. “You understand this isn’t up for debate, right?”
Sammy lowered his head, and his shoulders fell forward as he rounded in on himself. “Yeah, I know.”
When he started to turn away, Dominic caught him by the elbow and whirled him back around, gripping his jaw firmly butgently to force his head up. “I’m not dismissing your concern,” he clarified. “One extra body isn’t going to change much, though.”
“But—”
“It’s a risk I’m comfortable with. Leaving you here alone isn’t.” A heavy sigh billowed from his lips when Sammy’s eyes misted with a glossy sheen that reflected the overhead lights. “Stay inside the house,” he said, his tone softer now. “I’ll be back before sunrise.”
“Promise?”
Instead of agreeing to a promise he didn’t know if he could keep, he kissed his mate hard on the mouth, then pulled away. “Try to get some rest.”
Without waiting for a response, he strode out of the room, his eyes fixed straight ahead as he made his way down the hall. The weight of Sammy’s stare followed him, pressing down on him, and it took everything he had to keep moving forward.
Looking back felt like admitting his mate had good reason to be worried.
Outside, he pushed thoughts of Sammy to the back of his mind and locked his feelings away in a dark corner of his heart before joining his pack. Right then, he wasn’t a mate or a protector. He couldn’t be.
Until he’d finished the job, he was a wolf, a mystic, and an alpha. Nothing more. Nothing less.
“Saint.”
His brother nodded and stretched his arm out in front of him. Kennedy and Thierry did the same, placing their hands on top of his. A heartbeat passed, then with barely a disturbance of the air, all three disappeared.
“Ready?”
Dressed in a pair of loose-fitting cargo pants and a black sports bra, Chapel looked more like an extra in a nineties musicvideo than someone about to battle a bunch of bloodsuckers. Well, except for the multiple blades strapped to her body, their polished metal gleaming in the security lighting.
While the rest of them opted to limit the amount of exposed skin available in a fight, Chapel said the tight leathers and long-sleeved shirts they preferred felt too restrictive. In fact, her only real concession had been to pull her hair back and secure it at her crown to form a wild halo of thick curls.
Dominic grunted, a brief warning before clapping his hand on her shoulder and initiating the jump.
Magic surged, warm and electric beneath his skin. For a moment, his entire body felt leaden before instantly morphing into a sense of weightlessness. The world dimmed, blackened, and when it swam back into focus, he found himself in a clearing surrounded by towering evergreens.
Joining the rest of their team, he did a perfunctory scan, his gaze sweeping the darkness of the forest floor where the moonlight couldn’t reach. All seemed still—a little too still—likely the result of the local wildlife reacting to their presence.
It was a warm night in southern Georgia, the air thick with moisture that clung to everything. Only a light breeze managed to penetrate the dense tree cover, carrying with it the scent of pine needles and distant seawater.
“Move out.”
While they had traveled hundreds of miles, they had done so in a matter of seconds, and as such, he saw no reason to waste time with greetings or niceties.
Saint took the lead, flanked by two shaggy-coated wolves—one black, one silver, and both standing over three feet tall at the withers. The other two sentries, also in their shifted forms, fell in behind the group and fanned out, keeping downwind as they weaved through the trees.
The rest of them moved as a unit, swift but cautious, passing through the forest like shadows. They met no resistance, magical or otherwise, and they reached the old manor a few minutes later.
Regrouping along the tree line at the top of the hill, they stuck to the darkness as they stared down at the house below. It sprawled across the yellowed grass as if it had grown straight up from the ground, the illusion made more pronounced by the ivy that snaked up the walls toward the roof. Chipped and weathered, the boards gleamed pale against the dark sky, and every window glowed with careless confidence.
The vampires inside weren’t trying to hide.
“Can you see the wards?” Chapel asked.
Dominic nodded. Not clearly, but he detected a faint distortion of the air near one of the windows. He could sense them, though, faint vibrations that surrounded the place, but they felt fragile. Not what he would expect from protection runes or more advanced magic.
“Barrier spell?”