“Connor!” I reached for my seat belt, cursing when I fumbled at getting it undone. “Damn it! Wait for me!”
Why did he always have to go running off on his own? Now I knew how Liam and the others felt when I did something similar.
“Finally,” I growled as the seat belt came free. I shouldered open my door and tore through the woods after Connor.
Thank God I always went armed these days. My gun may not have been a deterrent against most spooks, but it had saved my life enough times to warrant carrying it.
I moved through the woods on my property as silently as Nathan, an enforcer friend of mine, had taught me. He would have been proud that I didn’t let panic or desperation compel me to blunder forward in haste, announcing my presence to all and sundry. That I took the time to conceal my presence, ghosting over the ground like a wraith. Or an assassin.
I was nowhere near as quick as Connor or other vampires centuries older than me, but I didn’t have to be. Sometimes all you needed for victory was the element of surprise.
Connor hadn’t left me much of a trail to follow. Rather than bulldoze my way forward blind, I stopped to listen, detecting the sounds of fighting up ahead and to my right.
They were faint. Barely more than a grunt here and the whistle of wind from a blade slicing through the air, but they were enough to give me a direction.
I moved through the woods as silently as before. Only this time with a destination.
It wasn’t long before I came upon Connor fighting three Fae. All dressed in black and carrying blades that contained a golden glow. Evidence of the lethal magic coating their edge.
Connor’s lips peeled back to expose deadly fangs. Bright red liquid ran down one forearm and over his fingers to drip onto the forest floor.
From my vantage, I couldn’t tell if that blood was courtesy of an injury or the result of wounding one of our trespassers.
Connor burst into motion, him and a Fae trading blows as they moved through the trees like a dervish. One of the Fae’s companions, cloaked in magic, crept up behind Connor while the last Fae aimed his bow at my brother.
Connor stepped out of the way of his ambusher, almost blurring as he evaded both assailants.
The last Fae kept him in his sights, magic dancing along the arrow’s length.
I didn’t think, stepping out from my cover, aiming and shooting in one easy motion. The bullet took the Fae with the bow in the shoulder, knocking his aim off. The arrow shot harmlessly into the dark.
The fight ground to a halt as the Fae took in their injured companion.
Connor’s chest heaved as he caught his breath, his blue eyes glowing from the heat of battle. He looked feral as he considered the Fae across from him.
“I wouldn’t,” I warned, shifting my aim to the Fae who’d tried to sneak up on Connor earlier. “Your friend over there should be feeling the effects of that iron bullet right about now. I’d be more than happy to let you experience the same.”
This was one thing the myths had gotten right when it came to spooks. For the Fae, most of them anyway, iron was poison. Oneof the few things that could weaken them, and in some cases, kill.
Of course, that was only if the rest of the bullets in the Judge were also iron.
It was a small deception really. Not even necessitating a lie. There really were other iron bullets in here. One. The last one.
To get to it, I’d have to empty the rest and hope no one shish kabobbed me in the meantime. All the while hoping I’d be able to hit my target a second time. An unlikely event given how fast they moved. They’d gone toe-to-toe with a vampire that was centuries my senior and who also happened to be as deadly as any enforcer. No easy feat.
I was dead if they decided to call my bluff.
“Anyone want to tell me why you’re trespassing on my territory?” I asked.
Connor had calmed down in the moments since I arrived. His expression smoothing out until he was back to the unflappable vampire I knew. His rage tucked away and hidden. But it was still there. Boiling just below the surface.
Something about these Fae had set him off, uncovered a trauma I hadn’t known was there.
The three Fae traded glances before the one who seemed to be the leader, a tall man with lilac colored eyes and skin that looked like mottled bark, stirred. “We’re in pursuit of a fugitive. Step aside.”
Or else. That’s what he really meant.
I adjusted my aim until the gun was pointed squarely at him. “How about this? I shoot you in the head while my brother takes care of your friends.”
