The Summer King Bundle 3 Stories - Jennifer L. Armentrout Page 0,69

said quietly. “And I know how badly you want to hunt him down, but you need to stay away from him. I don’t say that because I doubt your skill or determination, but he is deadly and he is dangerous. He is as old as me, Brighton, and I’m positive he hasn’t spent a day fasting.”

A horrible thought occurred to me as his words sunk in. I pulled back. “Did you… did you know it was him?”

“No.” He looked away, his gaze flicking to the rear view mirror as he pushed the SUV into reverse. “I’m not surprised. The bastard is sick and cruel, but I did not know.”

I wasn’t sure if I believed him and I didn’t know how to process that right then. I didn’t even know how to deal with coming face to face with the Ancient who’d ripped into my mother’s throat and torn through my skin while laughing.

“We’re going to have to involve the Order in this.” He eased away from the curb. “With Aric behind the missing younglings and using whatever the hell mortuus is, we’re going to need all hands on deck.”

Hell. I knew what that meant as I shifted my gaze to the window. “I can’t promise you that Miles will listen to me. They don’t think I’m very… useful.”

Caden was quiet for a moment. “What if the information came from Ivy?”

“They would listen. I can call her. Tonight.”

“We also need to go to Tanner.”

“Now?”

Caden clutched the steering wheel as he focused on the narrow street congested with cars and people. “Now. Call Tink. We’ll pick him up.”

I glanced down at myself as I pulled my cellphone out of my clutch. “Do we have, um, time for me to get changed?”

“Yeah, we’ve got time for that.”

Calling Tink and getting off the phone quickly wasn’t exactly an easy endeavor since he had a million and one questions, but I managed to get off and then I called Ivy.

She answered on the second ring. “Hey, Bri, what’s up?”

“Um, a lot. Like a lot.” I started quickly telling her about what had just gone down. “We’re heading over to Hotel Good Fae now to talk to Tanner and Faye.”

“We’re actually a couple of miles outside the city now,” Ivy replied. “We’ll be there shortly after you.” There was a pause. “And I hope we find some time to talk later.”

“About…?”

“You’re going to play coy with me, Bri?” Ivy snorted. “You and I need to talk about how you’ve been working with the Prince.”

“Uh.” I looked over at Caden. He didn’t seem to be paying attention. “Okay?”

“Yeah. Okay. See you in a bit.”

I slipped my phone back into the clutch, unsure of what I was going to tell Ivy when I wasn’t even sure I knew what I was doing—what we were doing.

“Is everything all right?”

I nodded. “Yeah, Ivy and Ren are almost back in the city. They’ll be there. I guess your brother is with them.”

“Perfect.”

And after that, Caden didn’t really speak and even though there was a ton of stuff I wanted to talk about, like everything, right now didn’t seem like the… appropriate time. The curious thing about this trip was the fact that Caden didn’t need to ask directions to my house.

“Do I want to know how you know where I live?” I asked as we pulled up to the curb outside my house.

He slid me a long look as he turned off the ignition.

“All right,” I sighed, opening the door. “Probably don’t want to know.”

Stepping out of the SUV, I crossed the sidewalk and opened the gate. I took one step and Caden was suddenly in front of me. Cursing under my breath, I shook my head. “You’re going to give me a heart attack if you keep doing that.”

Caden didn’t respond to that as he took my face in his hands, cupping my cheeks. He stepped into me as he tilted my head back. My gaze flew to his. “Is… is everything okay?”

Instead of answering, he lowered his mouth to mine, stopping a fraction of an inch from making contact. Was he going to kiss me? My breath caught. His forehead brushed mine and then his lips touched mine.

The kiss….

There was nothing sweet or soft about it, not like most first kisses were. Oh no, this was fierce and powerful, consuming in the intensity. My lips parted as the tip of his tongue touched mine, and the entire world seemed to slip away. When he finally lifted his mouth from