“She has made youweak.Look at you.” Kraft growled, his wolf close to the surface, all that tasty rage burning in his red eyes. “Why, vryko, do you revel in the soft touch of a female when your power is all you have? Your true worth is not in your emotions,” Kraft sneered, “but in your fighting spirit. Varu and Duncan mated, but do you see them getting beaten up? Pathetic? Less than the humans I just crushed with one hand?”
“You caught me by surprise.” Orion knew he shouldn’t have said that the moment it came from his mouth.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Kraft said in a sweet voice. “Should I warn you next time I try to kill you? Who’s the fledgling? I’m less than half your age, yet I could kill you here and now.” He leaned closer, the wolf present and waiting. For what, Orion didn’t know. “And then I’ll go after that pretty morsel in the water. She’ll do whatever I say before I drain her and feed her to my wolf. All that magir blood, so tasty under my tongue.”
Orion lost it and grew larger. He launched himself at Kraft and didn’t back down, barely aware of Kraft laughing with delight. “There you are,” the nachzehrer said.
But he’d threatened Orion’s female, and that could not be allowed to stand. Orion let go of the hold over his deepest rage, needing to make a point Kraft would understand. “She doesnotmake me weak.”
“No,youmake yourself weak,” Kraft yelled to be heard over the sound of an approaching storm. “Take her or not, but stop wallowing in a state that will get you killed, you fuckhead.”
A dark cloud gathered over them from out of nowhere, and shocks of lightning accompanied the deluge of rain that fell from the sky. Orion’s upper chest grew hot, the mark he’d been born with flaring to life.
He looked up at Kraft, the world bathed in blue.
“Yes, yes, there you are,” Kraft repeated in a deep growl more suited to a wolf than a vampire. He howled and shifted into a giant wolf, one bigger than Orion had ever seen him assume.“Let’s have a taste of your power, puny vryko.”
Orion wanted to warn him, but he also wanted to teach Kraft a lesson he would not soon forget. The threat to Kaia hovering, as well as the taunt to the true power inside Orion from that particular voice not quite Kraft’s, made the decision for him.
The bolt of lighting that hit Kraft dead in his heart should have killed him. The crack of that boom killed the electricity all around them for at least a good mile, even as the storm dissipated as if it had never been.
Orion shook his head and pressed a hand to his chest, tracing the familiar burn of the trident, a symbol of the first vryko’s true power. When he looked down at Kraft, he didn’t see the giant wolf but a woozy nachzehrer laughing his fool head off.
“That waswunderbar.” He giggled like a child, and Orion stared at him in concern, spotting the melted soles of his shoes, the scorch marks on his chest, and the smoking tatters of his shirt.
With a sigh, Orion returned to his normal size and lifted Kraft in his arms. He shoved the unsteady vampire into the passenger seat of the dented Land Rover. With the warlocks tied up in the trunk, they’d accomplished what they’d been tasked for the night. And if he didn’t soon get moving, they’d have to deal with MEC, which Mormo had strictly told them to avoid.
On the drive home, he wondered what tonight had been about—Kraft’s challenge, his own feelings about Kaia, and why he kept referring to her in his mind as his mate and not his prey.
She’s not my mate,he continued to tell himself, ignoring the fact that they’d shared thoughts. That he grew way too possessive and angry over a slight directed at her. Or that the thought of Kraft taking a taste of her blood made Orion want to rip his head off and give him the true-death that thought deserved.
I’m not getting mated, not now with all the crap we’re dealing with and living with Mormo and Hecate.He put his foot down on the accelerator.
Kraft giggled again. “Sorry. Can’t help it. That really tickled.”
Orion shot him an incredulous look. “What is wrong with you?”
Kraft groaned. “So much. We don’t have time for that talk tonight.” He squinted at the dash in the vehicle. “Only another hour to sunrise.” He rubbed his chest. “That’s one hell of a punch you’ve got there.”
Orion couldn’t believe he’d let it out, and at his kin no less. He hated to say it, but he owed Kraft an apology. “I’m sorry.”
“I’m not. Finally! It’s good to have you back.”
Orion laughed, relieved—and surprised—he hadn’t done Kraft permanent damage. “You’re an idiot.”
“Yeah, but it’s good to know you’re not the lesser being I thought you were becoming.”
“Fuck you.”
“Didn’t we already have this conversation?” Kraft sat up, still rubbing his chest. “You’re mating the nymph. Go with it or kill her. But you can’t stand in the middle anymore. Not when we need your power to face what comes.” He paused, his voice growing quieter. “The things Varu has are talking.” He glanced behind him at the backseat, reminding Orion of the warlocks in the trunk.
“Huh?”
“You know. The talkingthingsthat sometimes sing,” Kraft snarled.
“Oh, right.” The Bloode Stones.
“They warn of the Darkness. It’s not all the way gone the way we thought it was. You know, when you danced with those goblins.”
