Vawn, Kaziel, and Aeron made up theArswyd gan drindod— terror by a trinity. In battle, they were invincible.
Especially when they were backed by Zavid—one of the highest-level warrior demons. A shapeshifter by birth, he could assume any shape he wanted.
But his favorite was that of a black hellhound.
Yeah, Caleb kept company with a scary bunch of friends.
And she loved every one of them. Kody made sure to hug each of them in turn. Then she turned to Caleb, as one of his crew was notably missing. “Where’s Xev?”
“Making sure something doesn’t eat Nick.”
That made sense. As Nick’s great-grandfather, Xev had a vested interest in keeping Nick safe.
“Can we call him back?”
Caleb frowned. “Why would we do that? It’s so quiet when he’s gone.” He passed a sarcastic stare to the group.
Kody laughed, knowing Xev was the quietest one of them. Even Caleb talked more. “You’re awful.”
“That’s what they tell me.” Pulling out his phone, he called Xev.
“Something up?”
She smiled at the sound of Xev’s voice over the speaker. Until then, she’d forgotten how much she’d missed all of them.
“Yeah.” Caleb scanned her body with a smirk. “Little bit of something just came in. I think you’re going to want to see this for yourself.”
“Is it important?”
“Probably more important than what you’re currently doing, Grandpa. So stop licking your butt and get over here.”
Kody bit her lip at Caleb’s reference to the fact that Xev usually watched Nick while Xev was in the body of a housecat.
“I hate you so much, Malphas.”
“Mutual.” Caleb hung up.
Kody tsked at him. “Is that any way to speak to your brother?”
“It’s the only way to speak to my brother. Besides”—Caleb jerked his chin behind her—“he started it.”
She turned to see Xev standing behind her. Her heart stopped as she saw him, and tears again stung her eyes. Even taller than Nick, he was a massive beast. With long black hair that reminded her of her uncle, Acheron, he had eyes like a kaleidoscope that was made up of blues and browns, and tinged with green.
No one had eyes like his.
He seized her in a fierce hug. “What are you doing here?”
Kody reveled in the warmth of that embrace. Long ago, Xev had sacrificed everything for the ones he loved, and that heart showed in everything he did. “I came back to help all of you.”
Caleb frowned. “Help us do what? It’s been really calm here lately.”
She stepped away from Xev. “It won’t be. We have to stop Cyprian. He’s still mucking up the timeline.” Cyprian was the highest form of demon—their leader, the Malachai.
Born in the future, he’d traveled back in time and killed Kody. His intent was clear—he wanted to alienate Nick from all his friends and turn him into an even scarier Malachai than he was destined to be.
The more power Nick had, the stronger Cyprian would be when he killed Nick and assumed his power. Grossly self-serving and terrifying to them, as his number one means of isolating Nick was by destroying every last member of their team.
They all exchanged nervous glances.
