failed,” Ronan said simply, his eco-friendly chair squeaking as he leaned his impressive bulk back. The hybrid crossed muscled arms, looking just as deadly as the entire Kayrs vampire family was known to be, even with the recent cut to his black hair, which made him look more like a businessperson for this mission.
Ivar flushed, and his damaged skin ached. It was rare for a vampire-demon hybrid to scar, and when it happened, it hurt. Most of his burns had healed, but his neck and larynx still retained their rough texture. The inside of his throat was ribbed and uneven and annoying. Maybe hell wanted to stay with him as long as it could. “I made a mistake.” One of many. When would he return to a thinking being instead of one propelled by survival instinct? He’d been trying so hard.
Ronan nodded, his mouth in a pinched line, which only accented the ones by his eyes. “She’s going to be more difficult to get to now.”
Ivar nodded. Taking him by surprise, a lightness caught in his chest. Nowhere near what humor had felt like years ago, but something different from pain and guilt. “She is smarter than I’d thought. Better thinking on her feet, anyway.” He’d studied Dr. Promise Williams for months while he regained his sanity—somewhat—and she was obviously intelligent. But he hadn’t expected her to ram her vehicle into a police cruiser. “She is in danger and needs to be locked down.”
Ronan pinched the bridge of his nose. “We have got to quit kidnapping people,” he muttered.
Ivar shrugged. “I don’t know. It worked out well for you.” Ronan had kidnapped a neurologist he’d ended up mating and adoring like a puppy that had found its place. “Where is your mate?” She was a doctor—maybe she could stem the blood Ivar still felt dripping beneath his dark T-shirt.
“Back computer room with her sister, researching that list of human physicists most likely to be targeted next,” Ronan said.
“Promise Williams is next,” Ivar said flatly. A couple of her academic papers had held cautions about messing with the universe, which might cause him problems. But there had been something about her. A tingling that had attacked him right before she’d tried to kill him. “And she’s Enhanced.” It had been the first time any of them had been close enough to her to sense her gifts, whatever they might be.
“Ah, fuck.” Ronan shook his head. “I’d say the Kurjans wouldn’t kill her if she’s Enhanced, but now we know better.” Their enemy, another immortal species, needed Enhanced human females as mates just like the vampires did.
“The Kurjans have lost their minds,” Ivar muttered. The woman who’d been buried earlier that day had been Enhanced, and the Kurjans had torn her apart. Or rather, their Cyst faction, their religious soldiers, had done so. Ivar’s duty began to yank him in opposite directions once again. “We have to get to her before they do.”
“She might not have been on their radar until now,” Ronan said.
Ivar’s chest heated. “Bullshit. She’s one of the best in her field, maybe the best, and she’s next. We will get to her first.” When he’d seen the crime pictures after the Kurjans had finished with Dr. Victory Rashad, even he had felt sickened. And he’d suffered through more hell worlds than he could count. They often blurred together in his nightmares. “This is as important to you as it is to me. This is our only way to save Quade. He’s your blood brother.”
Ronan sighed, the sound tortured. “So are you. Blood and bone, brother.”
Ivar slowly nodded. Seven of them, all vampire-demon hybrids, had been bonded together in a ceremony of blood and bone that went beyond mere genetics or ancestry. “We have to free Quade, and I’m done waiting. I have a feeling this woman will get us what we need.” The obsession to free Quade from a bubble world dimensions away pricked beneath his skin like live wires. His leg trembled, and he slapped a hand on his thigh to stop it. Calm. Stay calm, damn it. Desperation was the only emotion, the only feeling, he could truly identify these days. So he held on to it with both hands.
An elevator door in the distance dinged, and power immediately swam through the oxygen.
Ivar started to rise, and Ronan shook his head. “Logan and Garrett are finally back. Stay for their debriefing.”
It was about time the two youngest members of the Seven returned from their missions. Ivar