Beneath the Dust (Force of Nature #4) - Amber Lynn Natusch Page 0,44

so.”

Not surprisingly, nobody said a word.

“You are now one of us,” Drake said, taking my hand. “Just as your father would have wanted.”

I swallowed back my tears. “Do you think…he would have been proud of me?”

Drake forced a sad smile. “Prouder than you can imagine.”

Jase and Dean broke through the circle to join us, much to the warlocks’ chagrin. Apparently, that was frowned upon, and the boys were quickly made aware of that fact. While they bickered, my phone buzzed in my pocket. I gave Liam a look that begged him not to let the boys start too much trouble, and I stepped away to answer the call.

“Hey—”

“Where are you?” Knox said, cutting me off. “I’ve been calling you for the last five minutes.”

“Sorry, I couldn’t answer until now. I’m with Jase and Dean at the war—”

“What the fuck happened?” he asked, panic thick in his tone.

“What do you—”

“I was meeting with Sherry, and suddenly Beatrice came flying in, eyes wide as fucking saucers, rambling about you being in danger. Apparently, her life debt ties her to you.”

I took a deep breath, then told him about the meeting with the warlocks and the golems’ ambush. I didn’t want to out Liam’s involvement, but I knew there was no way around it, so I blurted out that he had popped up out of nowhere and saved me.

I was met with total silence.

“This is the part where you freak out like an overbearing ass, then I call you out on it, and you apologize—and do that thing with my neck that I love, if you were actually here—”

“Piper,” he said, his voice low and tight and full of pain.

“I’m okay, Knox. Really. Liam saved me. He’s a total badass, but you already knew that. He reminds me of you. Did you know he could still travel through Faerie?”

More silence. “Does Merc know yet?”

“No. We kinda just got it all sorted out. I haven’t had a chance to talk to him. P.S., I’ve been jumped into the warlock anti-coven, so that’s a plus…I think.”

I heard Knox talking to someone in the background before he returned to our call.

“I’m finishing up here now. I’ll meet you at home—preferably without any excitement between now and then.”

“Okay…”

“I love you, Piper.”

The phone went dead before I could tell him I loved him, too.

***

The expected fallout came the moment we returned. Merc was livid, and a livid Merc was one hell of a storm to weather. His anger wasn’t directed at me, of course, but I found myself between him and his intended targets, including his brothers, on multiple occasions. He blamed them for me being in a situation that had allowed the golems to attack. It took at least four attempts to convince him otherwise.

“Merc,” I said, reaching up to grab his face. It was a bold move, and one that took a lot of deep breathing to keep the scary memories at bay, but I did it anyway. I wouldn’t let him make any more reckless decisions in that state. He’d already killed his father; he’d never forgive himself if he killed his brothers, too. “Like I said, it wasn’t their fault. It was a beautifully timed set of circumstances that led to my ambush. And really, it could have happened with them right at my side. Those things are practically unstoppable, and once they have you, your power is all but useless. I could feel them swallowing mine the deeper in I went.”

The sound that escaped him made me question whether I was making things better or worse.

I heard the familiar cadence of Knox’s footsteps heading down the concrete hall toward Liam’s cell. Jase had had the forethought to ghost us directly there when we’d entered the house. We’d had just enough time to lock Liam up before Merc and his wave of anger had descended upon us.

Hopefully, Knox had cooled off a bit on his way home, or he was going to prove less than helpful.

“Merc!” he called right before he came into view.

The vampire king turned his narrowed eyes to the alpha. “It seems you left out a few details during our phone call,” Merc said. “Tell me, how is it you knew of this, anyway?”

“The witch with the life debt to Piper warned me. I called Piper until she finally answered.”

“How very interesting…”

He didn’t sound interested at all. He sounded pissed.

“Listen,” I said, releasing my hold on him, “I’m fine. The boys are fine. We did what we went to the warlocks