almost mortal rate. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
I glanced at it again, then down at Willow. “Only lycan bites can slow a vampire’s healing.”
“Thus adding credence to the theory,” Damien murmured. “She’s clearly not your average mortal.”
“What the hell did they do to her?” I wondered, awed and sickened at the same time.
“A question we should have an answer to momentarily,” my progeny said as my alarms began to blare with an intruder warning. We both looked at the screen to see a car coming our way with four individuals inside.
Damien stood and walked over to zoom in on the panel to reveal Edon behind the wheel. The body thermal image beside it indicated two more lycans sat in the back, and a vampire in the trunk. Jace was obviously the latter—he would have chosen to hide from the sun to conserve his senses—but I wasn’t expecting the former. “Did Edon mention bringing company?”
“Silas and Luna,” Damien replied. “His mates.”
Yeah, I knew who they were. I’d met them briefly last month. “Okay.”
“I’ll stall them while you shower and change,” Damien said.
I shook my head. “No. We’ve already spent time we didn’t have to waste. Let them in now.”
While it went against my instincts to grant entry to a royal and an alpha while in a weakened state, I knew my house better than they did. If they chose to fight me on my turf, they’d pay a hefty price.
Damien seemed ready to argue but smartly chose not to. “At least drink some blood while I go greet them.”
I only partially conceded on that point. “Do they know about Willow?” I asked as I went to retrieve the blood from the warmer in the kitchen.
Each step hurt more than it should, further confirming I’d been in a bad spot when Willow drank from me.
I frowned, concerned by my temporary loss of focus during her transformation. That never should have happened because I should have felt the depletion long before it became a reality.
Had I just been so lost to the sensation and desire to help her that I’d ignored all the signs in my body? If so, that made her far more dangerous than I ever could have anticipated. Because she’d truly brought me to my knees.
Hell, had Damien not been there, she might have even killed me.
I picked up the blood bag as he joined me in the kitchen.
“No. Izzy told Jace we had a problem involving a lycan, and that’s all I allowed him to know as well,” he said, answering my question about what Jace and Edon knew. “I also phrased it in a way that insinuated urgency.”
That was one of his talents—communicating in a manner that stressed importance without giving away the key points.
The sound of a car door slamming out front had me saying, “Then let’s go bring them up to speed.”
22
Ryder
I leaned against the frame of my front door, watching as Edon and Jace walked up the path with Luna and Silas behind them. Jace glanced at the blood bag in my hand and arched a brow as I brought it to my mouth to take a long pull from the contents.
“I’ve had one hell of a night,” I said by way of explanation.
He took in the blood on my sleeve and my rumpled suit. “Looks like it.”
I grunted and pushed off the frame, not allowing them entry yet. The second they were inside, they’d be able to smell Willow—if they couldn’t already—and I wanted answers first.
“Tell me about your breeding camps, Alpha,” I said, addressing Edon. “What happens when you mark a human for termination?”
His obsidian eyes met mine, his dominance palpable as he took my measure. He had a few inches over my six-foot height, and his shoulders were slightly bulkier than mine, but I suspected I’d still best him in a fight, even in my current state. Mostly because I could use his two weaknesses against him—the pair of pups at his back.
“You brought us here to talk about the breeding camps?” He sounded incredulous. “I thought you had a lycan problem.”
“I do, and that might turn to plural—lycans—depending on how you answer my question. So I’ll ask again: What do you do with humans marked for termination?”
“We kill them,” he answered immediately.
“Do you?” I countered, glancing at Damien.
“Is that an immediate sort of thing or a gradual process?” my progeny asked, arching a dark brow.
“How about we not dance around the issue and get straight to the point,” Jace interjected,