“I’m talking to you.” The human pounded the bat in his hand.
“Hold on,” Kraft yelled. “We’re talking here.” He turned back to Orion. “I don’t think Macy would intentionally lie, but she did hide you from Varu before. And her own mate, don’t forget that.”
“I think Duncan knew.”
Kraft’s eyes widened. “He lied to me?”
“Probably.” Because a vampire would do anything for his mate. Yes, they were pretty dysfunctional after a child was born, but before a vampire’s female got pregnant, vampires were the soul of courtesy. Poems had been written about a vampire’s great willingness to appease his mate, written not just by other vampires, but by the magir as a whole.
Orion didn’t want to admit it, but he thought he might really be mating the little sea nymph. Adorable in her pique, gorgeous inside and out, with a pesky tendency to want to be kind and help out strangers. Except for all that niceness, she fit him perfectly, right down to her need to be surrounded by water.
It hadn’t escaped his notice that his entire tribe typically took water-magir to mate. Kaia was his type in so many ways.
And why can’t I forget what she looks like naked?
“That’s it!” A loud boom hit the car, and Orion and Kraft glanced through the front windshield to see the big guy with the bat and his friends pounding on the vehicle. Apparently, they’d found a tire iron and lead pipe to add to the damage.
“I’ll handle this.” Kraft’s eyes flashed red then back to normal too quickly to be noticed.
“Now I feel bad.” Orion huffed. “There’s no challenge out there.”
“Well, there’s no challenge in here,” Kraft snapped back.
“Fuck you.”
“No, fuckyou.” Then, instead of wrapping his hands around Orion’s neck, Kraft jumped from the vehicle and leveled the three humans in seconds.
Orion left the vehicle and glared at the one human who looked to not be breathing. “You broke his neck. Great job.”
“Hey, not my fault they’re so fragile.” Kraft cursed Orion in German before turning to meet the horde of men running from the tiny gym. “And where are these warlocks we’re supposed to spy on?”
Orion looked around and noticed movement from a second floor apartment to the left of the road. “Up there I think.” He saw one of them point at Kraft and say something. So he grabbed one of the downed humans and threw him at the warlock on the second floor, having no patience for witches turned evil.
The female screamed while two of her conspirators yelled at Orion and waved wands.
Kraft laughed as more humans joined the fray. One of the men tried to hit him and lost the use of his left arm for his efforts. But at least this time Kraft didn’t break the limb off. “Wands, really? What is this, Harry Potter?”
Orion would have laughed, but he hadn’t forgotten Kraft’s comment about him being no challenge. He shoved a bulked up female face-first into the concrete before she could stab him. “We finish this, I challenge you. Right here, right now.”
“Yeah? You think you can do something besides pine after a sea creature that spreads her legs for everyone?” Kraft said.
Orion took the insult personally, as the bastard had intended.
Kraft laughed at him. “If you could see your face.”
“You’re a real shit, you know that?”
“I know she’s ruining you, asshole.” Kraft turned as a human shot him. “I’m done with this.” In seconds, he mowed through the humans pouring through the gym and disappeared inside it, with screams, gunshots, and shouts following.
Orion had had enough of the warlocks trying to break him, and the last volley of burning arrows had scorched his favorite shirt and put a hole in his brand new jeans. “That’sit.” He used his anger to rush the building. And rammed it.
He pushed through brick and stone, bursting pipes, and saw a small coven with dead animals and a few dead humans hollowed out and carved with dark symbols he recognized from his time in Abaddon’s hell plane.
“Oh, fuck no.” Orion went to both floors, leaving only two of the senior members alive for Mormo to question. The other nine he killed with prejudice. After knocking out the last two and tying them up with magic-sealing rope, courtesy of Mormo, he shoved them in the trunk then turned to face Kraft.
Who started ahead of him by slamming a rock-hard fist into Orion’s face.
Orion crumpled, his head ringing, and looked up into the dead eyes of his kin.
