“If you just need motivation, a blood bond is primal and a vampire will always protect their nest. You’re going to need your bat to do that. Right now, he’s not taking over and letting youconsent, but if Sage is in danger, you’re going to force shift. You’ll be hopeless as fuck because you can’t fly and you don’t know how your new senses work. You and everyone else is going to get slaughtered and Alexios’s prophecy is going to come true,” Darian said.
“No pressure, asshole.”
“Not kissing your arse because you’re a prince and the reincarnation of our sire when I could literally die if you fail, dipshit.”
I grinned. I really liked Darian. I didn’t need fawning and platitudes because of my titles. I needed a reality check, and I got one.
It was imperative I figured this out.
It was like playing whack-a-mole. This new power was handy at figuring out Apep and Lola were trying to kidnap a witch to figure out how to unbind them and then kill her once it was done, but every time we made sure no one could get at the witch with the red aura, it jumped to another witch.
We had a handle on it, though, and I knew Morgana would never let anything happen to her witches. I was learning about covens and they had each other’s backs. When they found out they were a target, they pulled rank around each other and traveled in packs. It would have been impossible to convince one of them to go anywhere alone with anyone who hadn’t been previously vetted.
Which was why I had no idea why I was jerked to the veil and screaming again. Morgana had been reinforcing the binding, but she said even if we could keep all the witches safe, they could still bust through it. The witches were also absolute they’d die before they gave up any witch secrets. I guess one of them did.
I wasn’t blacking out when I screamed anymore, so when I was fully back in my dorm room, I looked to Khalid, who was also present.
“Whoever it was didn’t come to me.”
Lucian was back from his training and had his phone out because he usually did.
“Um. Professor Mykene is with Professor Gefn and wants to know who it was because they didn’t go to Professor Gefn, either.”
“Well, that’s impossible because I don’t scream if someone is eaten by the void. I only scream once they enter the veil and then Khalid or Professor Gefn get sucked there to help them cross.”
Morgana burst into our dorm room with Mazen hot on her heels because basically when I screamed, everyone heard it.
“Who was it? All my witches are accounted for.”
What the fuck? No one else had a red aura except for the witches. Ivar, Ari, and Alexios weren’t far behind them, but Adrian was missing and he’d been attached at the hip since Ari scented him. No one else had a red aura, but Adrian had that weird orange one and he was missing.
“Where is Adrian?” I demanded.
“He’s obsessed with rugby. He got tackled by a vampire, which honestly is expected since they have super speed and now he’s obsessed with never getting tackled by one again. Adrian wanted to stay late and practice and honestly, I think Gerard gets a kick out of taking down gods, so he stayed. He should be back by now, but Adrian and Gerard treat rugby like it’s life or death.”
“Adrian’s aura was weird. It was never red like the witches, but it was different.”
Someone else was barging in my dorm room and this one, I didn’t know. It was a tall, slim, but absolutely stunning, woman with raven hair spilling down her back and bronzed skin. She had no pants on and it looked like she was wearing a man’s shirt. Ivar gripped my arm.
“That’s her. That’s my Valkyrie.”
“She’s Egyptian,” Khalid pointed out.
“It’s a vibe, arsehole.”
“Iman?” Morgana said. “Everyone has been looking for you. We didn’t know if you went wandering or the reincarnation of Apep figured out you weren’t someone’s familiar.”
“Adrian is dead. He died saving me when they figured out Iwasn’ta familiar. I can go where all of you can’t and I was trying to figure out who Apep is in this life. I followed Lola but with the bindings, she’s not meeting with him to kill anyone. I don’t know how they are communicating. I started following the other Egyptian students.
“I realized who was Apep when he walked away from everyone and shifted into a snake, but he sensed me. I could either be Bastet or a familiar, but he knew. He shifted back to chase me because I knew better than to look him in the eye and he had a better chance on legs.
“Adrian saw him chasing me and got involved. I don’t know if it was the adrenaline from almost getting caught, but he must have shattered the bindings. He got Adrian in his gaze and paralyzed him. He snapped Adrian’s neck. I’m sorry. If I hadn’t run that way, Adrian wouldn’t have gotten involved,” Iman said with tears in her eyes.
This was the first time someone I knew here had died and I couldn’t imagine it being Adrian. I knew we needed to know who Apep was, but I just needed a minute. Ari walked overto Iman and wrapped her in an enormous bear hug. Morgana said sometimes, she wanted affection and sometimes, she didn’t want it at all, but she melted into Ari.
“Something isn’t right,” Khalid said. “Sage screamed, but Adrian didn’t come to me or Professor Gefn to help him to Duat.”
“And his aura was never red like he was going to die today. It’s been orange ever since I started seeing them.”
