Heart of Vengeance (Alice Worth #6) - Lisa Edmonds Page 0,78

her presence.”

“Actually, I was heading back inside to rejoin my friends. If you’ll excuse me?” I said to Charles, who stood between me and the door.

He smiled, his eyes glowing softly. “I would consider it a great honor if you would join me later for a drink. Any friend of Ronan’s is, of course, an even more cherished friend of mine.”

Fresh on the heels of finding out the Charles I knew had influenced me for years, my instincts made me want to get far away from this man. My rational self reminded me this Charles was not the one who’d betrayed me, however, and I didn’t want to insult our host when our things were still locked in one of his storage closets.

“I’ll think about it,” I hedged.

Charles glanced over his shoulder at the back door. “I will need to inform the other members of his band that their colleague has fallen to the hand of justice. A pity you could not have waited until the end of their second set.”

Ronan scowled.

The back door banged open. Lucy emerged, her Guardian seal visible on its chain around her neck. Malcolm and Daisy were right behind her.

Malcolm flitted to my side. “You okay?”

“I’m fine,” I assured him as Daisy trotted over to stand beside me. “I was just a bystander.”

“What the hell is going on out here?” Lucy demanded.

“This was a bounty kill,” Ronan said curtly.

“Show me your credentials and the posting,” Lucy said, her hand half-raised as if reaching for a sword on her back, though there wasn’t one there.

He took a black leather wallet from his jacket and handed it over. While she studied his license, he pulled up something on his phone with the dead man’s picture. She read it over, had him show her the bagged head, and then returned his wallet and phone.

“Thank you for the kill,” she told him. “Looks like it was quick. Better than he deserved.”

“He never should have lived this long.” Ronan’s eyes were glacial blue again. “He should have been dead a year ago.”

“I don’t disagree,” Lucy said. “I don’t know how he eluded justice this long.”

“I think the reason is obvious. The Guardians aren’t doing their job.”

Her expression went flat. “We’re working around the clock, seven days a week. None of the Guardians I know have had a day off in months. There aren’t enough of us to go around.”

“And whose fault is that?” he asked.

“Not mine.” She stepped toe-to-toe with him. “I’ve driven ten thousand miles in three months, bloodied my sword a dozen times this week. Don’t blame me or the League for this, Bounty Hunter. Claim your bounty and move on to the next one. Look at it this way: the status of the League is job security for you.”

She flicked the collar of his leather jacket. He tried to grab her hand, but she was faster and eluded his grip.

“And one more thing,” she added as he glowered. “If you bring up my dead friends one more time, I will make damn sure you regret it.”

Ronan pulled his sword.

For a moment, I thought he intended to attack Lucy. Instead, he turned toward the woods behind the roadhouse. “Incoming.”

Daisy growled.

“Oh, shit,” Malcolm breathed.

A pack of enormous snarling wolves erupted from the trees. Eyes bright gold, ears flattened, and teeth bared, they crossed the distance between us and the tree line in a matter of seconds.

Behind me, the back door to the roadhouse shut with a bang as Charles darted inside. Maybe he was going after a weapon—or maybe he wanted nothing to do with the impending attack. Either way, we were outnumbered three or four to one.

“Stay in this form,” I told my wolf firmly. If she decided to get big, Lucy and Ronan might think she was a threat too. I couldn’t be sure Ronan wasn’t capable of killing Daisy.

In a blink, Lucy reached up behind her head and drew a sword out of thin air. I had no time to think about how the hell she did that because the wolves were on us.

“Go inside,” Lucy snapped at me. Without waiting for an answer, she and Ronan ran ahead to intercept the wolves, swords raised. They fought, moving almost as quickly as dhampirs.

Running away had never been my style, and despite their super-speed and training, she and Ronan were grossly outnumbered. No way in hell I was joining Charles inside.

Malcolm and Daisy flanked me. Daisy tore into two wolves who got past Lucy and Ronan, while