“Why not?” Adare snarled.
Her legs wobbled. “You’re messing with forces you barely understand,” Mercy said quietly. “The arrogance that prompted you to move dimensions from their natural locations is beyond comprehension. The science involved is way beyond the physics we understand.”
“Bullshit,” Adare muttered.
Ivar studied her. “There is a lot about the physics of the ritual we’ve never figured out. Are you telling me the Fae know more than we do?”
“Definitely,” Logan said easily. “Apparently they all can teleport…some even to other dimensions. They can actually stop and stay in those places.” His heated body was warming her right through the shirt. “They have tracking dust that can coat a person. In fact, their tactical equipment is damn impressive.”
Mercy kept the wind from blowing up her shirt and tried to tug her other hand free, to no avail. The marking on his palm heated her knuckles and zinged up her arm, through her chest, and down her entire torso. “Those are secrets,” she muttered.
“Not anymore,” he returned. “You try to kidnap a guy, and all bets are off in the secrets department.”
Well, that did seem fair. She sighed. “Would you be willing to talk to my people about the Seven and your rituals?” For the first time in too long, hope took hold in her. What if they all just worked together?
“I will,” Ivar said soberly, looking for the moment like one of those pillaging Vikings she’d read about so long ago.
Logan shook his head. “I’m going.”
“No,” Ivar said, firming his jaw with its five-o’clock shadow. “You’re not one of the Seven yet, so if this gets dicey, they might just try to take you out. I have the best grasp of the physics involved, and I’ve been teleporting for nearly a thousand years, so I should go.”
Logan released Mercy’s hand and held up his palm. “This says that I go.”
“Ah, shit,” Adare muttered. “Not another one.”
What did that mean?
Ivar dropped his chin. “I swear to God, I’ve had enough with complications. Why doesn’t the world go as I plan?” He jerked his head. “Adare?”
“On it.” Adare lunged for Logan in a full-on tackle, hitting hard, with the sound of two trees colliding. Then they disappeared.
Ivar smiled at Mercy. “So. Anything I should know before I take you back to Scotland?”
Chapter 17
Logan was already swinging when Adare dropped his ass at the edge of a familiar lake in Washington state.
Adare jumped back and out of range. “You might want to put on some clothes before you fight me,” he said mildly, his brogue as rough as any purebred demon’s voice.
“She can’t go back by herself,” Logan snapped, setting his stance in the sand.
“What’s going on?” Garrett Kayrs jogged up on a stone path, sweat pooling across his bare chest and soaking his dark shorts. His thick hair was wet around his head, and his face was red. Too red.
Logan studied his best friend. “Are you supposed to be out jogging?”
Garrett came to a stop, bending over to breathe heavily. “Sure. Why not?”
“Because you survived the ritual just a week ago. Barely,” Logan said as the change in Garrett’s back caught his eye. The ritual fused impenetrable steel with the ribs and torso of each member of the Seven, and their backs showed the dark fusing, looking like a weird shield with ribs. Garrett’s screams during the ritual still echoed in Logan’s nightmares. “Take it easy.”
“I’m a vampire.” Garrett straightened up, his sizzling gray eyes somber. “There’s no time to take it easy when the Kurjans are making a move on single Enhanced women across the globe.”
Fucking Kurjans. “Are we on mission?” Logan asked, feeling torn in two. He couldn’t let Garrett go alone, but he had to get back and make sure Mercy was safe, and he had to find his brother.
Adare sighed heavily. “We are on mission and stop worrying about your lady. The Viking is a fierce fighter, and if there’s danger, he’ll bring her here. Trust your new brothers, Logan. If you don’t, you’ll never survive the Seven ritual.”
Garrett lifted one eyebrow. “Your lady? How did it go with the Key?”
Logan winced. “Not as smoothly as I would’ve hoped.” In fact, he needed to call Zane and get the demon nation involved. “She’s a fairy, her people hate the Seven enough to want us dead, and they’ve taken Sam. I have to let Zane know.”
