Midnight Truth (Shifter Island #4) - Leia Stone Page 0,40

it into my dear friend. His soul appeared then, hovering just over the bed as a white translucent figure, and with a yank, he fell back into his body.

My palm and fingers tingled, and I smiled.

“Oh. My. Mage,” Noble gasped.

‘Nai?’ Rage’s voice was filled with awe, and I felt his arm slide around my waist.

Justice coughed, and my eyes widened as he grabbed my wrist.

“Dude,” Justice said, his lips pulling upward as his gaze jumped from me to Rage. “Tell your mate to stop feeling me up.”

This time, when tears pricked my eyes, they were filled with joy and relief. I pulled my hand free from Justice’s and shook my finger at him. “Don’t you ever do that again, you hear?”

His eyes widened, and he nodded, “Yes, ma’am,” but there was nothing serious in his expression or voice when he spoke.

Then I sank back into Rage and asked, “What the hell happened?”

Rage led me into his room where he slipped into the attached bathroom to take a quick shower and wash off the blood.

I pulled on a pair of his sweatpants and a soft t-shirt that smelled like him and then climbed up on his bed. Sitting there, I bopped my leg nervously as the scene with Justice played over and over in my mind. There was so much blood. So. Much. Blood. And what the mage did he mean when he said blood mages were vampires? The first day I’d met the Midnight brothers, hadn’t one of them said some of the vampire royalty lived in the cliffs, but after the Mage Wars, the vampires were mostly extinct? Were they back? How many were there?

A billow of steam escaped the bathroom, followed by Rage. He wore a low-slung pair of sweatpants; a few droplets of water trailed down his chiseled chest.

Yum.

Blood what? My thoughts frizzled. Completely.

“We haven’t had a lot of time to talk lately,” Rage sighed. “After you went with your grandfather to High Mage Island, some of my guards were attacked by blood mages, what you would call vampires. It turns out Kalama is one of them. Surlama was too.”

My jaw dropped, and suddenly, all I could see was the mental image of Justice’s shredded chest. “All that blood…” Wait… “Surlama was a blood mage? You mean, she wanted all that blood because she … fed off of it?”

I shivered at the thought of Surlama drinking my blood.

Rage perched on the edge of the bed and nodded. “Apparently, they integrated into mage society near Dark Row. They were living under our noses for years.”

“What happened with Justice? It’s the middle of the day. I thought vampires only came out when it’s dark?” I breathed, my mind reeling. Because why couldn’t we have vampire problems too? On top of everything else? And what self-respecting vampire attacked in broad daylight?

“There’s a lot of rumors about blood mages, but they’re definitely not limited by the sun. Unfortunately.” Rage rubbed the back of his neck, dropping his chin to his chest as agony marred his face. “I sent Justice to lead a team and explore the area I thought they might be in—and he stumbled across a blood mage den…” He blew out a long, slow breath. “It was like sending him into the jaws of hell. Nai, there were dozens of them. Dozens.”

Dozens!

I winced. “Where? Here on Shifter Island?”

He shook his head. “No. North of Dark Row. We’ve been helping the lower mages organize themselves on the mainland while the fat-cat high mages sit in their castles.” Rage’s expression hardened. “And what are they doing? Nothing.”

I frowned. “That makes no sense.”

“And yet, the mages have been occupying way too much of my time—and it almost cost Justice his life.”

“It wasn’t your fault,” I rushed to say. “I didn’t even know blood mages existed two minutes ago, much less how powerful they are. Declan did a crappy job of preparing you for this.” Shaking my head, I tried to make a mental note to ask Gramps why the high mages deferred the lower mage problems to the wolves.

Raising my gaze, it caught on Rage’s washboard abs.

Those were very nice.

Reaching out, I tucked my fingers into his waistband and pulled him toward me.

Rage caught my hand and moaned. “Nai.”

“Hey,” I said, tugging him closer. “Justice is fine. All’s well that ends well, right?”

He nodded. “Speaking of ending well…” He brought my hand to his lips. “I don’t like this arrangement. I miss you all day. Ten minutes isn’t nearly enough. You’re my