Please, please let it be some desert country in the depths of Africa or Australia that she’d never heard of. It would account for the heat.
“You’re in Stygia.”
She rubbed the sweat from her brow, her racing mind trying to understand everything that had occurred. “Where exactly is that?”
“It’s in another sphere, one referred to as the Dark Realm,” Riley said.
“You’re safe with us,” Nicor added.
“Really?Really?” She seared him with a black look. The ass had the nerve to smile. Then what Riley said hit her like a fist to the solar plexus. “Are you both flippin’ crazy!” she yelled. “TheDarkfreakin’Realm? How could you?”
Nicor arched a brow. “Because it’s where your sire resides.”
If she were hot before, now she was utterly cold. A terrifying chill took hold, slithering through her like a fever.Oh, God—
Her thoughts went hazy, she swayed…
* * *
“Kira!”Týr flashed to the churning portal in the ground, but it snapped shut. “No!” he snarled, fear ripping through him. His pyrokinesis sparked to life, flames spurting out of hands. What felt like a tanker slammed into him from behind, and he hit the building wall hard.
“You can’t,” Aethan grunted, seizing him by the biceps. “There are humans around.”
“Get the fuck off me!” A warning.
Aethan didn’t relent. “You can’t lose control now, man. You set that power free, it means your ass gets benched for a helluva long time, leaving Kira to whoever took her.”
The shock and terror on Kira’s face as she was pulled into the ground, cramped his heart. Týr thrust both hands into his hair, shoved away from Aethan and paced, needing to keep moving before his abilities burst free and all hell broke loose.
He could open a portal, but where the hell in the Dark Realm did they go?
“Týr?” Dagan said, his voice low. Only then did he become aware that his old friend stood a foot away from where he’d stopped. “We know what it feels like, having your mate taken. We’ll get her back. But we have to work through this logically.”
Logic? He gave a fuck about that. Then he went motionless, a memory stirring. “Call your demon,” he barked at Aethan.
Frowning, the warrior retrieved his cell and called the demon who’d been his informant for eons. “He’s not answering. I left him a message.” He looked up. “Why?”
“Because the bastard was with her. I saw him.”
“Riley took her?”
“The other fucker did. What difference does it make? They were in this shit together. I will kill him. I should have killed him the first time.”
“It reeks of sulfur here,” Nik said, rising to his feet from where he’d been scanning the sludgy, snow-covered asphalt where the portal had opened up. “Can only be the gateway to the Dark Realm. And you can’t go there—”
“Who’s going to stop me?” Týr cut the Greek a cold stare.
“This needs planning,” Dagan countered.
“Dag’s right,” Aethan reinforced. “We gotta do this by the book. Speak to Michael. If he’s a no-go…well, it leaves us with only one option. I’ll help you find a way to get there and get Kira back. But we need to keep this between us. We can’t have the females knowing what happened here. They’ll freak out and want to come.”
“Not if Jenna already got wind of it,” Dagan muttered.
“Then let’s hope like hell she didn’t have a vision…” Aethan glanced past Týr. “Michael’s here.”
He growled. Aethan shrugged. “Had to let him know what happened. The faster we can deal with this, the better.”
Sure, when the Arc would put a fucking mile-high block in his way.
