I rolled my eyes and pulled him close by his face, pressing a lingering kiss against his lips.
“I don’t want to miss out on this.” Hunter’s hands cupped my face, and he slanted his lips over mine, his kiss deep, slow, and devastating.
Heat seared my core, and I desperately wanted to make love to all of them, right here on this bridge.
The moment burned between us, and our matebonds flared with desire—until Dex stiffened.
“I smell him,” Dex whispered. “It must be a charm. Hunter, keep her back!”
“Your father?” Skel asked roughly, and we were all on alert, scanning the bridge and all of our surroundings.
“Yes!” Dex shouted.
Nebula was tucked away in my bag on my shoulder, so I knew he was safe.
Dex’s shadows struck toward his left, snaking around something invisible before a charm was ripped away and tossed into the water below us.
Rod, Dex’s father, appeared out of thin air, but the next second, he was hurling acid at his son out of a jar.
Dex’s face melted before my eyes, his scream piercing through my skull as he stumbled back and barely grabbed the rope on the bridge before toppling into the water below.
“Dex!” I cried out, moving toward him, but he held a hand up to stop me.
“I’ll be fine!” His skin melted down his cheek bones, and my heart felt like it was ripping from the pain that came through the matebonds—two of them.
My gaze snapped to Bram, who jerked, and blood bubbled from his lips. I looked down to see a blade buried in his stomach.
“Where the fuck did that come from?” Skel asked.
Hunter barely caught Bram before helping him to his knees.
“Did you honestly think I came alone? I’m not your only enemy,” Rod hummed before his hand shot out and clamped around my throat, dragging me over the rest of the bridge and toward the edge of the cliff. His hand transformed into his demonic claws, and they pierced my skin, but I didn’t care. I needed to keep my eyes on my mates. “Shhh, it’ll be okay as long as you don’t do anything stupid.”
Hunter, Reed, and Skel tensed, but they didn’t make a move, afraid Rod would rip my throat out if they did.
“Get her away from him!” Dex snarled. “Who the fuck else is here?”
Another man became visible the next moment, another charm hitting the wooden bridge and bouncing down into the lake. The man had red hair and purple eyes. He ripped the blade from Bram’s gut, and it dripped with his blood.
“Nobility must die,” the man screamed, eyes wild as he locked his gaze on Hunter.
“Harry, dude, chill the fuck out,” Rod scolded him. “This isn’t why you came with me, remember?”
Harry Hemlock? This was Bram’s father, and the serial killer being hunted by the council.
“Great. It’s a fucking sperm donor party,”Dex bit out.
Rod buried his face in my hair. “You know, Penny Bones—your mother, you don’t even look like her. Yet…”
I fought the bile rising in my throat, but I couldn’t focus on the crazy demon holding me, not when my mates were wounded, not when?—
Blasts of demonic power rippled through the air.
Reed, Skel, and Hunter’s magic exploded, freezing both Harry and Rod in their tracks before they dropped like rocks in a deep slumber, screaming in terror, before and after. Their skin smelled of burnt flesh from when Hunter’s magic struck them.
“Pandora!” my mates screamed for me.
My magic surged from me, tendrils forcing down Rod’s and Harry’s throats, wrapping around their souls. Their souls were black, dark, and twisted, but I managed to strip them of their magical essence, making them completely powerless.
