Adare finished inserting knives and guns throughout his clothing, his movements deliberate, his mind calculating, and his chest bursting. Whatever was flowing through him was something new. Something desperate and dark. An image of Grace, her eyes teasing, flashed across his mind.
The sound of her sweet voice echoed in his head.“Do you believe in love?”Those words, asking the bigger question. Was this love?
This desperate, furious, riotous energy nearly ripped him apart. The fact that the Kurjans had her, that she might be frightened or hurt, brought the beast at his core fully to the surface, growling and ready to destroy. A thought caught him and he rushed into the kitchen, dropping to examine the pictures Grace had spread over the table.
Ronan moved in behind him, already dressed in winter camo. “What are you doing?”
“Just looking.” Would he be able to see what she did? He just saw people. Then he found the picture of the woman with the baby, and he picked it up, holding it to the light.
“What?” Ronan asked.
Adare held it higher.Holy shit. How had he missed it? If she wasn’t Bobbi’s sister, who the hell was she? “What do you see? On her neck?”
Ronan leaned in. “Oh. Bite marks. Deep and old. That’s a mating mark.” His voice rose in surprise, and he leaned back. “I can’t believe it.”
The woman was a Kurjan mate. And Adare hadn’t had a clue. He hadn’t focused on the female that day, and he hadn’t gotten any sort of tingle or vibe from her that she was mated. Yet the mark looked very old, so the evidence should have been there. “I’ve never met a Kurjan mate, have you?”
“No,” Ronan breathed. “Whose toddler do you think that is? She’s female, so she’s not Kurjan.” The Kurjans only had males, just like vampires.
“Maybe Bobbi’s?” Adare shook his head. “I know she was human, and by the time I showed up at the restaurant, Brian was gone. I never imagined he could be a Kurjan, because of the sun. But could he have been? That would explain why he left before I got to the restaurant. I would’ve sensed him.”
Ronan nodded. “I guess it makes sense that they’d try to use Grace to lead them to other Keys before taking her. The Kurjans of old wouldn’t have played such games. They weren’t strategic enough.” Ronan had been gone from this world for centuries, so he was still catching up.
“They changed and evolved,” Adare said grimly. Obviously they’d changed more than even he had realized, considering they were no longer burned by the sun. It was a situation he never thought he’d see. The Realm’s advantage in battle situations had just disintegrated faster than the ability to teleport had. “Our lives just became even more dangerous, if that’s possible.”
He’d never once been afraid of giving up his life for the cause. But he wouldn’t give up Grace. Never. He had to find her. She had to be okay. New energy, wild and angry, teemed through his blood, strengthening him.
The sound of vehicles pulling up outside had his head snapping up. He drew his knife and stalked through his doorway and the living room to the porch.
Males jumped out of several vehicles. Quade Kayrs, Ivar Kjeidsen, Logan Kyllwood, and Garrett Kayrs. All wearing winter combat gear and fully loaded with weapons, their expressions determined and strong, their gazes on him. There was understanding and an indescribable loyalty glimmering in their eyes.
His brothers.
The full contingent of the Seven, minus Benny, whom they’d find soon.
He rocked back on his heels as if he’d been punched. Emotions broke free like a torrent from a cracked dam, flooding him.
Ivar reached him first, clapping him on the back in a fierce hug. The Viking felt solid and strong, and Adare knew he’d give the mission all he had. “We’ll get her back, brother. You have my vow.” He moved inside as one by one, his brothers issued the same promise before entering the house.
Quade planted a hand on Adare’s shoulder, his gaze clear and his face hard. “We’ve faced worse, and we’ve won each time. As a force, we’re stronger than this entire world, and your mate is a Key. She has power and protection we can’t even imagine—I know that in my very bones. Trust me, brother.” He nodded and moved on into the house.
Garrett’s hug was strong, and his words few. He was a Kayrs, and he had the power of that entire lineage in every hard muscle. “I’m ready to hunt. We’ll find her.”
Logan was the last one, a newly mated vampire, one with ties to the Realm, the demon nation, and to the Seven. “We’ll do what we need to do, brother.” He wore more knives across his chest than he had pockets. “I have the demon nation looking, and Garrett has the Realm. We’ve reached out to the witches and the shifters, and even though they’re pissed right now, they won’t let the Kurjans take a mate. We will find her, and we’re ready to go the second we get word. She will be all right.”
Adare swallowed, his body settling. They’d come. The second he’d needed them, they’d immediately come, no matter what. That kind of loyalty, that kind of brotherhood, was exactly why and how they were going to win this thing in the end.
His phone buzzed, and he lifted it. “King?”
“Hey, Adare. Emma heard us talking and got an idea. She just returned from testing—”
“Hi, it’s Emma.” The queen’s voice came clearly over the line. “There was a substance I couldn’t identify in Grace’s blood, and I figured it was something to do with being a Key, so my tests went in that direction. But when you were arguing with Dage about how she was tracked to your cabin, I had another idea.”
“Hurry it up, queen,” Adare growled.
“Right. Okay. It was tracking dust. Also known as tracing dust. We’ve dealt with it before in other ops, and this was sophisticated stuff, but that’s what it was. They somehow got it into her blood stream. Probably her lungs, too. Maybe liver.”
Adare stood stock still, anticipation licking through his veins. “Can you track it?”
