Seven Hells.
Muscle defined every inch of his enormous body. His thick fur coat glistened almost blindingly beneath the sun. I had expected it to be blue. But it was the purest white. The only blue remained in Hadrian’s eyes and the small licks of blue flame that rippled randomly through his fur.
Something dark flashed across the arena windows. I glanced over, finding Rune gazing outside at us, her shadow tail coiling quickly behind her. Her desire shot through our connection.
Wonderful. My Soulhound was about to fall in love with his. I’d never be rid of him.
Aspen handed me back my sword as he clutched his shoulder. But it must not hurt terribly with that smirk on his face.
“Want to compare Soulhounds?”
“Compare or bet on?” I challenged. “Hadrian was unkillable before. With flesh and organs, he’s susceptible to pain and death now. And if you die, he dies. They honor us by not only choosing us, but giving up their invincibility to be bonded.”
Aspen’s smirk sobered. A silent conversation passed between him and Hadrian, then Aspen bowed again.
Voices pulled my attention away from the pair. The Nightmare patrol was finally back. They trudged up the hill, looking muddy but unscathed.
“Run into trouble, Damion?” I asked their leader when they reached us.
He tilted his head like he needed to think about it. “Uh, no.”
“Then what was the holdup?” I demanded.
His squad blinked like they were having difficulty keeping their eyes open.
“We were tired,” Terra said, stumbling closer to Aspen and the doors behind him. Three others followed her. Igor passed Aspen as if he planned to escape debrief and go straight to sleep.
“We’re not done, Igor,” I barked.
He stopped, head falling forward and shoulders slumping. Mudsmeared the back of his neck and caked his face like the rest of the Nightmares.
I turned back to Damion.
“We—” Damion blinked and frowned at the ground. “Ran…” He shook his head and reached up to massage his temples.
The hairs on my arms stood on end.
I’d seen this before with Vanessa. I thought she had been drunk. But they weren’t drunk. Their heads had been tampered with.
“Into—”
I reached for Aspen.
My shadows speared out right after Igor luscelered.
He closed the short distance between him and Aspen. His teeth found Aspen’s neck.
Hadrian snarled.
I unsheathed my sword, but Igor was already engulfed in flames. There one second and gone the next.
Aspen’s blue Seraphim Glory continued to flicker over his skin as he touched the two bloody rows of serrated teeth marks at his neck.
Chapter
Forty-Nine
Ronen
