“That’s my cue to go,” Hermes said. “You should take her.”
“I’ve got her, Jono,” Emma said.
She settled on the cold cement floor beside the immortal and gathered Kennedy into her arms. The muffled moan Kennedy let out had Jono clenching his hands into fists. He got to his feet, aware of Hermes’ eyes on him.
“I think you’ll make this fight interesting after all,” Hermes said right before he pulled out Patrick’s dagger from his inner jacket pocket and tossed it to the mage.
“Jono isn’t yours,” Patrick warned. He caught the dagger and strapped it to his right thigh with quick fingers.
“Keep telling yourself that, Pattycakes.”
Between one blink and the next, Hermes disappeared, sliding through the veil as only an immortal could. Quetzalcoatl remained where he stood, leaning against an iron support beam.
“Not going to join him?” Jono asked.
“The arrogance you mortals carry means you miss what is right in front of you. They will see me as they want, not as I am,” Quetzalcoatl said.
“That’s some holier than thou bullshit right there,” Patrick said as he strode over to the door and yanked it open. “The fuck are you doing here, Estelle? Are youspyingon us?”
Jono closed the distance between them, coming to stand beside Patrick as they faced down Estelle, Youssef, Nicholas, and half a dozen other god pack werewolves on the other side of the threshold. Estelle’s expression was carved from ice, bright amber eyes taking them in.
“I understand you breached vampire territory last night, breaking our treaty yet again. We are here to discuss your transgression,” Estelle said.
“How about no?” Patrick replied snidely.
Jono hooked his fingers around the collar of Patrick’s leather jacket, hauling him backward. “Let them in. I want them to see what their bargaining has done to those they were supposed to protect.”
Patrick scowled, shrugging out of Jono’s grip. “I don’t got any say if they’re allowed in here, but sure, try to cross over.”
Jono swept his arm through the air in an exaggerated manner, holding on to his rage with everything he had. Estelle lifted her chin high and stepped inside. Youssef followed, as did Nicholas, but the werewolves they’d brought to use as muscle and intimidation were denied entrance in a rather brutal way. The first one who tried to cross the threshold was picked up and thrown across the alley by an invisible force. He slammed into the opposite building hard enough to dent the wall.
“Watch my car,” Patrick yelled, sounding irritated.
“I don’t appreciate your treatment of my pack,” Youssef snarled, a hint of claws replacing his fingernails. “Let them pass.”
Patrick smiled, looking a bit demented with his taped-up nose, healing bruises, and messy ginger hair he hadn’t bothered to tame. “I’m not the one keeping them out. What lives here is. If you’re too fucking stupid to recognize that threat, you deserve everything coming your way.”
The door swung shut on its own. Jono eyed it before deciding it wasn’t worth freaking out over. Instead, he turned to face Estelle and Youssef. “You lot got some explaining to do.”
“In no world do we owe you anything,” Estelle said.
“Yeah?” Jono pointed at where Emma sat with Kennedy in her arms. “That so? Could think of loads you owe Kennedy. You remember Kennedy, right, Estelle? Werelion you sold off to Tremaine?”
Estelle’s gaze cut their way, lingering on Quetzalcoatl in his DEA uniform and the badge prominently displayed on his hip. He watched them with an intensity that even Jono found hard to shake off.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Sure you don’t,” Patrick scoffed, already walking back to Emma. “Get your ass over here so we can refresh your memory.”
Nicholas looked like he wanted to confront Patrick, but either Quetzalcoatl’s presence or Carmen’s sudden arrival kept him rooted where he stood.
“You wolves are playing a game you’re going to lose,” Carmen said as she came down the stairs with Naheed trailing behind her.
Carmen wore the same Kevlar-lined motorcycle bodysuit from last night, her black curls spilling over her shoulders and down her back. As she descended, the glamour she wore like a second skin peeled away, revealing her true form—dark red pupils in the center of inhuman eyes, the twisted horns of her kind, and the push of desire that never seemed to bother Jono.
She was lethal and gorgeous, and as first impressions went, terrifying in a way that all demons were, no matter their status. Jono could hear the faintest uptick in Estelle’s heartbeat, and he took that as a win.
“She won’t bite,” Jono said casually. “Not like her master.”
