Riley turned back to Caster. “Yes, I do have a plan, but you’re not going to like it.”
“Will it get us out?” The impatience in Caster’s voice matched his own.
Riley nodded, his full attention, uncomfortable in its intensity, on Mark. “Give her what she wants.”
Caster moved towards Riley, and Mark could guess his intention. He reached for his shoulder as Riley took a step backward. This overprotective thing was sweet, but Mark was well capable of taking care of himself.
Riley held up his hands. “I didn’t mean it like that.” He turned to Mark, his demeanor calm despite Caster’s threat. “If she thinks she’s getting what she wants, she can let her guard down long enough to give us the chance to fight our way out.”
Caster’s whole body was rigid with the anger he held back, his shoulder rippling under Mark’s touch. “You want to use him as bait?”
Riley shrugged. “His life force.”
Edie’s reverberating gasp drew Mark’s attention to her.
“No.” Adella’s emphatic denial of Riley’s plan brought a healthy dose of concern to the hope growing in him.
“Mother…” Riley started, but his mother shook her head.
“The power it would take to do that is too much,” Edie said, her gaze on Riley. “It would weaken you.”
“Can someone explain this to the rest of us?” Caster asked.
“He intends to separate the wolf in Mark from the human side of him, send the wolf to her, keeping Mark’s human side here.” Edie’s voice rose with each word. “It’s too big a risk.”
“If he’sMagicae Lupus, he should return from the Underworld in one piece.” Riley seemed undeterred.
“Wait, Underworld?” Mark was fine with being bait, but not literal death. What if they were wrong and he wasn’t this magical wolf they kept alluding to? Then he would be dead, and he had too much to live for. It didn’t escape him that a few weeks ago, he’d been tired of this life, ready to journey to the Underworld as soon as his quest for vengeance was satisfied.
“That’s not happening,” Caster said, a dangerous edge in his tone.
“He’s right, Riley,” Adella said. “This is beyond dangerous for both of you.”
Riley shrugged, ignoring the plea in his mother’s voice. “Does anyone have any better ideas?”
“Yes,” Edie said. “We wait for reinforcements. I’m sureMarcus and the Prime Alpha will bring several witches.” She looked at Caster. “You think your father would let this happen?”
Caster shook his head.
She turned to Riley, her tone softening. “And say what you will about your grandmother, but do you think she would let Ethel harm you or your mother?”
The hardness in Riley’s expression was familiar. Mark had seen it on Dean’s face numerous times, and he couldn’t claim to have never worn it himself. It signified the pain of strained family relations.
“We can’t just do nothing.” Damien’s expression matched the impatient simmer of rage he could feel from Caster’s tight coil of shoulder muscle. “We don’t even know how long it will take them to get here.”
The nods from James and Kyle signaled the need for action.
“We are not doing nothing,” The queen said, her tone never losing the indulgent, gentle quality Mark had come to associate with her. “We’re staying alive, conserving our strength for the coming battle.”
The tension radiating off Caster’s body eased a touch, but he didn’t seem ready to relax. Unless he found a witch willing to provide a teleportation spell, it would take time for Dean to gather his forces. There was no question he would be here soon; he wouldn’t be Dean if he didn’t come. Mark didn’t know Marcus, but the reverence his name invoked meant the others, Caster in particular, were confident in his ability to come to their rescue.
He looked at Caster, hating the distance the barrier he’derected to protect his thoughts brought. He wanted to share everything with him, even his deepest fear that the witch would get away again and his vengeance would be denied.
The sunset that the witch’s darkness obscured had brought the night, the natural darkness that would have signified the beginning of the end of his day with Mark. Would he ever find out what the morning would have brought? Caster had envisioned waking cocooned in Mark’s warm embrace. He would have suggested they have breakfast together, where they would talk about nothing, each doing their best to ignore the change in their circumstances.
Instead, it was this. Trapped in a mansion that closed in on him by the minute, unable to do anything about it. Where the fuck was Marcus?
“It feels a little convenient.” Damien’s low voice startled him,and he only restrained himself from jumping. He’d moved to the conference room’s shattered floor-to-ceiling windows, needing to keep an eye on the enemy outside. The Made-Vampires surrounding them had since gone quiet, as if they too waited.