Frustrated with his attitude, I called out, “Oh, so you want to die. Cool. Cool. More Rayla time for us then.” Lex growled at me for even mentioning it, but I crossed my arms and cocked a brow to let him know his little display didn’t faze me.
Falcon stepped up, staring at the barrier before continuing. “Look, I don’t know about you all, but I could feel through the bond that Rayla is hesitant to tell her father about all of us. At first, I didn’t really understand, but I think I do now.” He looked at the barrier again, whispering, “I think she wants this job to go well, and if he knew about us, he would pay much more attention to that than getting this done smoothly. So let’s try and cool it.” His eyes flicked to Lex, who groaned out in frustration.
“Fine. But I want you all to know I’m highly against this, and it will feel completely unnatural to me to not touch her, kiss her, and want to be all over her a hundred percent of the time.” If he thought we would fight him on that, he was even crazier than I thought.
Avery patted his back before giving the rest of us ahelp melook. “Duly noted. Now let’s go.”
We all crossed over, and Lex closed the door he made. He led us quietly on the outskirts of the compound to get to the center. We all pulled out our watches, the ones that Falcon had that showed the layout of a location, but, this time, he programmed each of us to have a map per Lex’s specs. He pressed the button on the side, and blue lines showed up, showing us the layout in 3D. “Okay, so in about a hundred meters we are going to hit the outer layer of bushes.” He pointed to each spot. “The truck should already be ready, from what my uncle’s text said, so Falcon, Ax, and Cosmo, you three are to take out the truck as Easton and Manic go to find Kevin in one of these three spots, then Falcon, Ax, and Cosmo will be right behind you to back you up with Kevin.”
He pointed to another section. “This is where most of the Devil clan will be as it’s around lunch time. Even the maids and staff should be there. That is where Rayla, Ternin, Avery, Syris, and I will be to confront the clan and try to win them over or lock them in there. Once all of that is complete, let’s meet here.” He pointed to a small hallway right outside of Vincent’s office. “He doesn’t like to get his hands dirty unless he has to, so he’ll make sure to watch everything from his office.”
“What about security cameras?” Ternin asked, but before Lex could say anything, Falcon responded.
“I’m changing those over now.” With his eyes closed, I felt the shift in Falcon as his air magic surged, and he repeated a rune spell. His eyes glowed as small tendrils of magic escaped him and went off in several directions.
Falcon’s eyes were closed but he said, “The video feed will be going in a loop. They won’t know we’re here.”
“All right, let’s go. Make this as quick as possible. The more time it takes, the more notice we give him that we are coming. Got it?”
Boss Desmond looked at my father in question. “When did we decide that the youngins would be leading this job?” My father sighed as Rayla stomped up to her dad.
“Hey! Old man. Get your head in the game and worry about stupid shit later.”
He glared at her. “When is wondering who my daughter is entertaining for a life partner ‘stupid shit’?”
She ran her hands over her face, frustration bleeding from her, and I was thankful we were not telling her father now. She and Lex had simply flirted, nothing even sexual, and yet, this was how far her father was already taking it. Yep. I was not planning to tell him unless I had to.
I could tell when she had a thought, her eyes turned hard as the smile on her face looked villainess. “Oh, trust me, Dad, I told you that I would never truly entertain any sort of life partner until I found my mate. Remember?”
This seemed to calm him down as he smiled down at her. “Yes. You’re right. Nothing but the best for you. A mate will be the only one you will truly entertain.” The smugness coming off him, towards us, was so palpable that even the other bosses narrowed their eyes at him.
So I guess that whole fighting-for-her-hand thing was a ploy. Now that I had spent time with her, I realized no one would win against my little siren and live to tell the tale. He always meant for her to win and leave us in the dust, but joke’s on him. We were her mates, and he wasn’t getting rid of us so easily. It was that single thought that made handling all his bullshit worth it.
Rayla barked out, “Now, come on. We have work to do.” We all followed her lead and spread out into our groups, nodding to each other before Falcon, Cosmo, and I headed toward the front of the mansion.
It was easy to find, and Lex was right. There was only one demon manning the van at the back, engrossed as he tapped away furiously on his phone. It was like taking candy from an idiot.
I crept up along the left side as Falcon went up the right. Falcon used his air magic to surprise him by throwing his phone from his hands, then I smashed the demon up against the truck, and before they could throw their magic at me, I slashed my claws across his neck. Blood flowed freely, making my wolf go wild for a hunt, and I bit this demon with my blunt, humanoid teeth, ripping away at his neck like I was shifted.
“I disabled the vehicle and rendered it impossible to fix.” I turned toward Falcon, blood flowing from my mouth as I dropped the body. He looked down at the body and then back up to me, scowling.
Falcon flicked his hand, and water skated across my skin, cleaning up the blood and gore before it sliced into the demon's neck, taking seconds to sever the head. “I’m not your fucking dry cleaner.”
I could hear the sass in his voice, which normally would piss me off, but after spending some time with them, that right there was like he was writing me a fucking love poem. “Aww, Falky, thanks for cleaning up my mess for me.” The sneer on my lips made his eyes narrow as his mouth pursed.
“We don’t have time to exchange love gazes. We need to get going. Right, Cosmo?” Falcon’s lifeless face somehow darkened, and I couldn’t help but suppress the chuckle in my throat.
Cosmo let one side of his mouth tip up, only giving me a nod in agreement before shooting in front of us and heading for our next stop.
We followed the map exactly how Lex told us and ran into my dad and Falcon’s dad in the hallway. “Did you find him?” We needed to take care of that mage and do it quickly.
Falcon’s dad had his palms on the door, chanting something as my dad answered, “We saw the little fucker go into here, but its warded, and East is trying to take it down. I have a feeling, though, he’s going to be a little tapped out for a few minutes, so I need you boys to bust in and make a big distraction. Make sure Kevin has all his attention on you. I’ll find my one hit kill shot. Got it?!” We all nodded our heads, ready for what needed to be done.
As soon as the doors swung open, the three of us surged the room and scanned for a brown curly-haired mage. It looked like a large study. An oversized desk at the end of the room, several bookshelves lining both sides, but the weird part was the wall behind the desk was all lit up with rows and rows of jars. Nothing good ever came from having a wall full of jars.
“I see some boys have stumbled into my lair.” A slimy voice came from the left, all three of us turned to see a short, wiry man with thin glasses and an ugly sneer step out from behind one of the bookcases. My claws came out as I envisioned smacking him and ripping that ugly face to shreds.
He chuckled, not seeming the least bit nervous, which had me on edge. “How dare you enter without my permission.” Anger in his face melted into a cruel smile. “But I do find it impressive that you worked your way through my ward.” His eyes traveled between us until he got to Falcon, the condescending smile grew wider as hatred boiled from his eyes. “But I guess that’s to be expected with a Winstale on your side. This must mean that the Syndicate has come.” He put the book in his hands down on the desk. “Took you long enough.”
