Scout crossed his arms over his chest in a challenge.
“Mayo isn’t dairy. It’s primarily eggs. Considering dairy is defined as milk from mammals, and last I checked, chickens are birds…”
Scout growled and grabbed his phone. “How do you know this shit? And holy crap, you’re right. My entire life has been built on a lie.”
“Are we done with this debate?” Aleron asked with a yawn. “Because I fell asleep five minutes ago.”
“We boring you? I’m sure I could go a few rounds in the sparring ring. It would certainly be entertaining. For me, at least.”
“Burn.” Scout laughed. “He’s got you there, Al.”
“Call me Al again and I’ll break your nose.”
“Children, please.” Gideon laughed, and both Scout and Aleron’s heads swiveled to him.
“Let’s get him, Al.”
Aleron snarled but bolted after Gideon. The vampire scrambled up one of the fake walls and began a leaping parkour maneuver that would have been impossible for anyone without his added strength.
Scout attempted to flank him, but Gideon had decades of experience on him. He managed to get behind the young wolf, jerk his pants to his knees, and take off again, all before Aleron had managed to catch up to him.
“It’s weird,” Vice said softly. “It’s like you guys are pack.”
Logan barely managed to conceal his flinch at the word. If Vice noticed, he didn’t comment on Logan’s reaction. “We make a good team.”
“You do. And we certainly appreciate the help. All our focus has been on rogue magic users these days, and, well, let’s just say it sucks.”
No doubt the hellhound put it mildly. The situation in the human realm was precarious at best, and the hellhounds were being stretched to the limits to keep it safe from the sudden surge of magic.
After years of abuse from the Gods and Goddesses, the magic in the human realm had become dangerously unbalanced. The only solution had been to close the realm until the magic had a chance to heal itself from within. It was an elegant answer to the situation at hand for sure, but it left a few major problems.
Creatures from the other realms had been traveling in and out of the human realm for years. Logan didn’t know all the nitty-gritty details—those issues were way above his pay grade—but he did know that when the realm closed, any creature who’d been in the human realm at the time was trapped until the magic healed enough to reopen.
Logan had a sneaking suspicion it would be a very long time before that happened. So while the hellhounds dealt with creatures from other realms, like demons and pixies, the oracle had formed a team to deal with everything else. Even though the oracle’s identity remained a secret, the hellhounds kept a close eye on them and hadn’t found any reason to protest their assistance.
Scout tugged his pants back up and chased after Gideon with a shout of outrage. It would have been more convincing if he wasn’t laughing his ass off at the same time.
“Any clue who this oracle character is?” Vice asked quietly, as if he’d read Logan’s thoughts.
“Not a one.”
And it wasn’t for lack of trying either. When he’d first been contacted by the mysterious person, they hadn’t even given him a name. He’d been the one to start calling them the oracle, and that was after he’d given in to his curiosity and gone on a couple of solo missions.
The oracle was never wrong. If they said there was a problem at a certain location, Logan found one. Usually a shifter behaving badly, which would normally be handled by the hellhounds, but as Vice had pointed out, the hellhounds were spread thin dealing with more magic-based issues.
His earbud crackled, reminding Logan that the oracle could hear everything they said. He glanced up at the cameras tucked into the walls of the warehouse they used as home base. Logan almost waved but didn’t want to alert Vice to the possibility of them being watched.
Before they could continue, Vice glanced down at his arm. The faint spark of purple magic rose from the sigil that marked his calling as a hellhound. “Dammit, and right before the pizza gets here. Isn’t that my luck?”
“I’d say we’ll save you leftovers, but you’ve seen how much Scout eats.”
“Yep. See you later, Logan. Remember, we’re here if you get into something over your head.”
A portal opened behind Vice, and he waved as he stepped through it, disappearing before Logan could assure him they wouldn’t need help. Although the use