by her mate, Conall MacLennan, Alpha of Pack MacLennan, the last werewolf pack in Scotland.
Fionn could be pissed off that he’d missed the opportunity to capture a woman as powerful as Thea to open the gates to Faerie, but she’d killed Eirik for him. Not that Fionn was incapable of killing Eirik. It was just that he owed the vampire for helping him escape Faerie in the first fucking place.
As the vampire gradually depleted the fae children, however, Fionn knew he’d have to take out his old ally.
Thea saved him from that.
Still, now there were only three fae left. Three keys to the gate of Faerie.
And the psychic woman was one of them. Moreover, he and Bran had concluded that she was searching for the others. To warn them? To connect with them? He had no idea. He didn’t care.
All he cared about was that she’d lead him straight to the fae.
Except tonight.
Upon arriving in Zagreb, he’d felt the girl immediately and had followed her essence to a club fifteen minutes north of his hotel. He’d expected to feel another fae there. Yet, not only did the girl slip through his fingers, he hadn’t found another fae energy.
But he’d felt something from that bartender.
Stretching his neck from side to side to work out the tension, Fionn took a beat before admitting, “I lost her. She sensed me coming and is masking her energy.”
Bran sighed. “Ah, bollocks. What now?”
Fionn thought on the bartender. As he’d moved through the nightclub, he’d felt … something. A magnetic pull toward the circular bar in the center of the old building.
That’s when he saw her.
Staring at him in awe.
That was nothing new. Humans often reacted to Fionn that way. At once terrified but drawn to him. The woman had strained against the bar, as if fighting the compulsion to come to him.
Fionn had sensed … something. Not fae, but something. A whisper of energy around her. At first he’d dismissed it, but after searching that club, he’d found no other that could possibly be the reason for his psychic to be there.
His psychic could have been at the nightclub to dance, but Fionn didn’t think so. Two days ago, Fionn had been on his way to Barcelona to retrieve an important artifact that was stolen from him. However, Bran had called to tell him a bank in Zagreb had reported someone had broken into their vault. No one had been hurt and the cameras showed what looked like a blur moving through the secure chamber.
Fionn would have suspected a vampire or even a wolf, except the safe in question was melted open. Bran had hacked the Croatian police’s computer system and sent Fionn the photographs. There was a handprint melted into the safe.
A witch or warlock might be able to use a heat spell to do such a thing, but they were ultimately human and unable to move with the kind of speed recorded on camera.
Evidence pointed to fae.
Despite the urgency of taking back what had been stolen, Fionn couldn’t turn down the opportunity to find one of the fae. Upon landing in Zagreb, he knew right away it was his elusive little psychic. And if she was willing to stick around the city after robbing a bank, then she was sticking around for something important.
Like another of her kind.
The bartender prodded at Fionn. Facts told him the answer was no, but his instincts said otherwise. “There was a woman … there was something about her energy that suggests she’s more than human. I discounted her at first, but after searching the club and the surrounding streets, I found nothing else that would warrant the psychic’s interest.”
“So, what’s the plan?”
“I’ll return to the club tomorrow evening for the bartender.”
“The psychic can’t mask her energy forever. It takes up too much magic. She’ll exhaust herself.”
“Then we can only hope she reveals herself while I’m still here.”
“And An Breitheamh?”
Fionn cursed under his breath. “It will just have to wait.”
“Or you could set someone else on the task of retrieving it.”
He shook his head. “It’s too important.”
“Your control freakery might be the end of you, Fionn.”
“Immortal,” he reminded his only confidant.
“Ah, right, keep forgetting about that. Don’t know how. Must be your modesty.”
Ignoring Bran’s sarcasm, Fionn exhaled heavily. “Anything else to report?”
“There was a murder in Zagreb two nights ago. It sounds like the work of a vampire.”
Bloody brilliant. Just what he needed. Vampires, in general, fed for survival. But like any species, there were always those few