Urian?He projected his thoughts out to his son.Are you in position?
Yes. We have all of the exits covered.
Where are you?
The back lawn. Why? Is something going wrong?
No, I just want to make sure we can get to them.
They’re ours, Solren. Relax.
I willaftershe’s dead.
Urian cursed atthe madness in his skull that was giving him a migraine. It was bad enough to have the human souls in his head screaming at him all the time. Now his father was a raging lunatic while he silently shouted orders at everyone as he sought to micromanage every single nanobit of this night.
Not to mention, Trates was so terrified of making a mistake that his current adrenaline level was running at scared Chihuahua on steroids with double espresso shots every ten and a half seconds.
Factor in all the other Daimons on the property who were shitting their pants and …
No wonder he kept getting nosebleeds.
“Are you all right, baby?”
He melted as Phoebe placed her soft hand to his forehead. “No. I’m a dumb sonofabitch for letting you talk me into this.”
She rose up on her tiptoes to kiss his lips. “It’s the only way. My sister would never trust you without me. And I don’t want to risk a Dark-Hunter killing you.”
Funny, he didn’t want to riskher,at all. “He lays one hand on you and so help me—”
“Shh—” She placed her fingers over his lips to silence his protests. “We have to hurry, right?”
He hated whenever she used his words against him. Phoebe was the most potent weapon the universe had ever devised to lay him low. And honestly? He was hoping to delay long enough that they might screw up and capture her sister, kill the bitch, and he wouldn’t have to risk his wife.Thatwould suit him fine.
Better Cassandra die than Phoebe, and if the curse ended in the process …
Even fucking better.
“Urian,” Phoebe said calmly, “we’re not moving forward.”
He growled low in his throat. “All right.” Hating himself for the fact that this had disaster written all over it and he was actually participating in something he knew was stupid, risky, and against every survival instinct he possessed, he took her to the one place he hadn’t told his father about.
The boathouse.
Of all the exits for the house that he’d found, Urian figured this was the most likely escape route. For four people, it would have the most cover and be the quietest means to get past an enemy without being seen. Especially one who kept carpet bombing them.
Besides, who would expect a boat? And what were the odds that your enemy would just happen to have a boat on them to pursue you with?
Yeah, a boat escape made the most sense. Plus the bastard was a Viking. Taking off on water would be his first thought. Not the thought of a normal well-adjusted modern person, but for a Viking raider …
Boat.
So here they were.
Urian pressed Phoebe back into the shadows. “You wait here and don’t move. Let me secure the perimeter.”
“Aye, sir.” She gave him a mock salute.
Rolling his eyes, he headed for the back door.
