There was only one path ahead, so we took it. Bracing for the pain I ran with them on my bad foot toward my impending doom, aka the ambush. I focused only on the possibility of seeing my mom again because nothing else mattered, so I hardened myself for what I had to do.
It was going to work. It was going to work. It had to work.
A million things could go wrong, but I had to trust my instincts, and everything inside me screamed that this was what I had to do.
Four men with power bands rushed out a dark opening on the far wall when they heard us coming.
“Surrender yourself!” One of them boomed, sending weak waves of energy to sweep over us.
Nothing happened.
“Is that supposed to be compulsion?” I snorted. “The real ability didn’t do anything to me; what the hell makes you think your little toy watch would?”
My immunity to it took him by surprise, and fear seized their expressions when the fire licked up my fingers. The other two urgently lifted their glowing bands toward me—I assumed, trying to block our powers.
It didn’t work anymore.
The revelation André, Dante, and Hannes were about to have when I shut them up to escape from theDark Onewas true. Now that our mate bond was complete their fake powers couldn’t get to me.
My mates made me stronger.
Forgetting about my injury, I lunged toward the first one and scissor-kicked him, his head blowing back before I landed on him, pressing my flaming hand to his chest.
Standing, I held myself against the wall. It was clear to me that whatever healing my body had left to do was taking longer given how vicious the venom had been. As I glanced down at the torn part of my boot, I could see the edges of raw flesh through it.
It is what it is…
Rocks crumbled all around us when Hannes slammed two of them against the cave walls, ripping the power bands from their wrists, arms and all.
He hadn’t even shifted to the Beast.
The men’s screams swiftly cut off when Hannes finished them.
André’s light blade swung towards the last one as he staggered, trying to escape back into the cave. The sharp light sliced him in two, the pieces crumpling to the floor. Limping, I ignored the pain and ran my way into the cave with my two mates flanking me.
The dim space was large and bursting with Vampiri inside, along with three asshole shifters—Ryker and two more, but darkness partially hid them from me, not letting me see their full faces.
Was that all that was left of his pack?
By a swift count, I realized that about fifty cult followers surrounded us, definitely outnumbering us.
Welcome to my ambush…
Stupid smirks spread over all of their faces, thinking we had fallen into their trap.
“Welcome,” Françoys, the Punisher of the Martel Dynasty spoke, walking out of what appeared to be a second alcove in the back. “I have to say, we didn’t expect so many of you to accept our invitation, but I appreciate that you kept it interesting.”
He didn’t expect so many of us, but he sure brought enough crawlers just in case. I guessed they were expendable, so it hadn’t cost them anything. No one mourned roaches.
“We are going to have to teach you proper manners,” Hannes answered, perfectly composed. “Just so you know what an invitation is supposed to look like.”
Françoys bitterly chuckled, playing along, and I used the distraction to gather all the information I could about the dim space.
I immediately noticed my mother wasn’t anywhere near us, not that I could see, but there was a large part of the space that was shrouded in darkness. The alcove in the far back, where he’d been when we arrived.
Using my enhanced hybrid gaze, I let my vision extend toward the alcove while André said something sardonic.
The silhouette of what appeared to be a statue of some sort rested against the end of the hollow space. There was a post or a tree trunk behind the statue too, though I couldn’t guess why, and two more people near it. There wasn’t an ounce of light back there, so I couldn’t see their faces but that would have to do.
