"Maybe not to you, but my chest says otherwise." I roll my shoulders.
His eyes flash, and his voice turns to venom. "I should've killed you the night we met. Taken her like I planned."
"Oh, big words from a man whose precious second-in-commandstabbedhis beloved. Guess love isn't the only thing you can't keep under control."
He flinches. Good.
I step forward. "Anyway, spare me the speeches. How do we catch her?"
"We start by finding the people she hid," Asher cuts in.
"Screw the people," I snap. "If she gets too far, we lose her. And Mr. Destiny over here will start getting twitchy about his 'holy duty.'"
Asher rounds on me, cold and sharp. "The more blood she spills, the harder it'll be to bring her back without breaking her. Donna was clear—there's a line. And once she crosses it, there's no coming back."
"She's been like this for, what, a few hours? Not centuries," I growl. "We've got time."
"But she's not just a vampire," Darius says. "She's a nymph. For her, death isn't just an act—it's a wound. And that wound will deepen with every soul she takes."
So now they're aligned.
Fuckingperfect.
The satyr and the soldier. Team Empathy.
While I stand here, heart bleeding out for a girl who emptied a round into my chest and didn't flinch.
I cross my arms, eyes locked on the blackened wreckage of the garden. "So what's the plan, gentlemen? Save the townsfolk, form a prayer circle, kumbaya her back from the brink? Or are we done pretending this ends in anything but blood?"
Darius ignores the jab and turns to Asher like I'm not there. "He's right about one thing—we can't let her disappear. If she spirals, the damage could be catastrophic."
Well, look at that. Agreement from the goat king.
"She's not just any dark nymph," he continues, calm but grim. "She was forged from nature, bound to two vampires. That fusion is unstable. Unprecedented. The harm she could cause… it's unknowable." He pauses, eyes narrowing. "I've eliminated others before. One brought down an entire region's harvests in Greece. Famine lasted for a decade."
My jaw tightens.
"So screw the scavenger hunt she sent us on," I say, ready to move. "Let's catch our wife."
Asher's already pulling out his phone. "I'll alert the others. Set them to search for the victims. We'll take point on finding her." Then, glancing at Darius, "Can you get your people involved? It'll go faster if we cover more ground."
Darius doesn't answer right away. His expression hardens. "No. I'm breaking every code I was meant to uphold. If my people find out, they'll turn. The few Icouldtrust, you've killed."
His gaze slides to me.
I meet it unflinching. "Yeah, well they tried to kill me first."
Asher cuts through, his tone sharp. "Enough. We're on the same side now. And on the clock. No more bickering until she's back."
"Sir, yes, sir," I mutter, giving him a lazy salute. My voice is dry, but my insides are bleeding.
Because under all the snark and heat, there's a truth I can't shake.
What if she meant it?
What if every word she said was real?
I shove the thought down. Doesn't matter. We focus. We move.
