Chapter 22 Rune #2
“What are you doing? She’s one of us,” Tye hissed at them.
I didn’t look, just shot my hand out. My paralytic venom burst through my skin, a concentrated excretion. The incoming vampire’s face hit my hand.
He seized mid-stride, muscles locking. He toppled to the ground.
“What...are you?” Tye sputtered, backing away from me.
Behind us, someone roared, “Mikael, get out of here!”
“Damn it,” Jesper hissed over the comms. “He’s gone. Focus on containment of the cultists!”
It didn’t take long for us to do so.
With enforcers in the room alongside Cassie, Bradley, Dimitri, and I, the cultists didn’t stand a chance. One by one, they went down. They were paralyzed, restrained, unconscious, or dead.
Kyle lifted Zara into his arms, her head lolling against his shoulder.
“Heartbeat’s better,” Koa said quietly. “She’ll live. Take her to the infirmary.”
“Go now,” Jesper told Kyle. “Rune, stick with Cassie. Dimitri, I want Tye breathing.”
“I have this prick,” Dimitri snarled.
When I turned, Tye was on his knees, Dimitri’s arm locked around his throat in a calm, efficient chokehold. “No!” he hissed, struggling against Dimitri’s iron grip. “You don’t understand! Mikael needs—”
He cut off with a strangled sound as Dimitri tightened the hold just a fraction.
“You’re too panicked,” Dimitri said mildly, crimson eyes glinting. His fangs were down and bloody. “You’ll hyperventilate at this rate, and that would be inconvenient for us.”
I walked over, grabbing the glamoured ring and pulling it off. I tossed it to Cassie, and she put it in her belt. My appearance shifted back into place.
Tye stared at me as if he’d just realized he’d been played. “You’re…not…a...vampire,” he rasped.
“Very perceptive,” I said sweetly, flashing my larger fangs at him. “I’m a basilisk, actually.”
His gaze whipped to the visible marks on my body, where the necklines and cuffs of my dress didn’t cover my mate’s visible brandings.
Drecken’s crest on one shoulder. Zuko’s bite to the side of my throat.
Slater’s chaos mark curling over my other shoulder beneath the strap.
Koa’s phoenix mark glowing faintly visible on the side of my neck.
Dimitri’s mark on the other side of my throat.
His lip curled. “You are mated. To multiple species.”
“Fuck yes, she is!” Slater’s voice echoed from the entrance, edged with laughter. He sauntered in with Zuko at his side, both of them dressed in the dark academy-issued suits.
“She’s all ours,” Zuko purred.
Tye’s face twisted in something between rage and disgust. “You…you pretended. You let me hit on you—”
“Hit on me?” I snorted. “Yeah, I didn’t let that happen. I tolerated it. Barely. I was seconds away from murdering you the entire night.”
His eyes flashed a darker red. He lunged at me despite Dimitri’s hold.
Dimitri shifted his grip with inhuman speed, slamming him back to his knees, forearm digging hard enough into his throat to cut the motion short. “Don’t try to hurt my mate.”
I stepped in close enough to touch him. He tried to bite, but I was faster than he was. I slapped him, trickling my paralytic venom through his skin.
His muscles locked with a jolt.
Dimitri let him drop on the blood-covered stone.
“Let’s make this productive.” I crouched in front of him, meeting his eyes, and I slapped him across the face again, this time administering a truth potion.
Zuko ambled closer, hands in his pockets, tattoos shifting lazily over his skin. “You know I can make him tell the truth,” he pouted. “If House of Torment would let me, but now I have no reason to break out my kit.”
“Tragic, toxin,” I said. “I’ll make it up to you later.”
“I’m holding you to that.” Zuko smirked as Rhyse moved closer.
Tye’s pupils dilated and shrank.
My venom flooded his system, softening the lines of his face just slightly.
“Name,” Rhyse said. “And rank in the Cult of the Blood Moon.”
“Tye Kingston,” he whispered. “Last tier. Ritual assistant. Pure bloodline, but my parents weren’t chosen as cultists.” Bitterness curdled his voice. “Mikael saw potential in me.”
“And what does Mikael want?” Jesper asked, stepping into my line of sight. His presence hit me hard. He’d wiped the worst of the blood off his hands, but it still clung faintly to his knuckles. It shouldn’t have been so hot. “Beyond the obvious culling and genocide.”
Tye’s jaw clenched, but my venom made his answer spill out anyway. “He wants a new world. A world where vampires don’t have to negotiate for blood. Where the soil is stained red with the blood of the weak. It’s our right.”
“Fantabulous. He’s unoriginal and dramatic.” Slater rolled his eyes.
“Textbook cult member,” Zuko sighed.
“Contacts,” Rhyse said. “Who else is working with Mikael? Humans? Other species?”
Tye’s mouth twisted. “He’s spoken with one group of humans.
The Whettlocks. He says they’re useful. Tools.
That once their ‘cleanse’ is done, they’ll fall just as easily as the rest. They share information and targets.
They want conflict, and Mikael is using them to create a divide and take advantage. ”
A chill slid down my spine. “The Human Resistance Network worked with him?”
“Yes. They only share information,” he said.
“And Zara?” Jesper asked, nodding toward the altar. “The kelpie woman. How’d you get her here?”
“We didn’t.” Tye’s eyes rolled slightly as he fought the effects. “She came on her own. We just invited her to a party.” His lips curled. “She didn’t ask enough questions.”
“You tricked her?” Dimitri’s brows raised. “So, you lie to women about liking them and then kill them?”
“That’s Mikael’s tactic.” Tye’s gaze found mine again. “I did like you, though. I thought Mikael would approve. That he’d see I chose well. Strong blood. Old blood. You would have had a place with us.”
“She already has a place,” Slater interjected. “With us. Not you weird vampires.”
“Hey,” Dimitri protested. “I’m a vampire.”
“Yeah.” Slater grinned. “But you’re not a weird purist.”
“Valid.” Dimitri inclined his head in agreement.
Jesper’s mouth thinned. “We’re done here. Tye, you’re under arrest by order of the Supernatural Council. You’ll be processed as a domestic terrorist and cult operative, and if you’re very lucky, you’ll live long enough for Zuko and Rhyse to get bored with you.”
Tye choked. “You’ll never stop Mikael. He moves with the moon!”
We ignored him as Jesse and Tobias grabbed him and hauled him out.
Jesper turned to me and pressed his palm against my cheek. “You did well, honey drop.” He leaned in and pressed a quick kiss to my lips. “You held, Rune. You kept your cover. You saved Zara’s life without compromising the mission. I’m proud of you.”
My throat tightened. “I wanted to move sooner.”
“But you didn’t,” Cassie replied, stepping up on my other side, eyes bright. “That’s what makes an excellent operative.”
The rest of the squad moved around us, binding cultists, securing the chamber, and searching for more evidence.
Jesper’s gaze swept over the room once more, then he straightened.
“Mentees are dismissed for the night,” he called out. “We reconvene tomorrow at HQ for a full debrief. Tye goes into secure transit. April, Tobias, you are staying with us.”
“I would like to stay as well,” Dimitri requested quietly. “My parents were here. They are in the Cult of the Blood Moon. I may have intel you’ll need.”
Jesper studied him for a beat, then nodded. “Stay. The rest of you, out. Go rest.”
Slater slung an arm around my shoulders immediately. “You know we must look rough if even the dragon says it’s bedtime.”
Dimitri squeezed my hand once before letting go. “I’ll be back soon,” he murmured, lips brushing my temple.
“Be safe,” I whispered back.
Love caressed our bond.
Koa caught my other hand as he leaned down to kiss my forehead. The bond pulsed between us. “I have to go home,” he said. “Dad’s still readjusting, and Mom and Sora want me there tonight. But I want time with you. Just us. Maybe tomorrow?”
“Yes, tomorrow,” I promised him. “Go. Be with your family tonight, reboot.”
“You’re my family, too, little vixen.” His smile made my heart swell. Then, he shifted and left in a flash of feathers and flame.
Zuko appeared on my other side, eyes alight. “Come to my room tonight,” he said without preamble. “Play Faeweaver with me.”
I blinked. “Right now?”
“Yeah.” He shrugged. “I want to teach you to play. Besides...” His gaze skimmed over me. “You promised you’d make it up to me.”
“I did say that,” I murmured, heat flaring in my lower abdomen.
Slater perked up. “Do I get to come, too?”
Zuko arched a brow. “Sure. You can make her tea.”
Slater clutched his chest dramatically. “Using me for my domestic skills. How rude!”
“You like it,” Zuko said.
“I do love spoiling my venom baby.” He threw an arm around my shoulders as we left the estate and headed back to the academy.
Slater wandered into the kitchen in House of Torment and brewed me a poisoned tea like he had been doing it our whole life.
I watched him, and Zuko never stopped watching me.
“Poisoned tea for my venom baby.” Slater handed me the finished tea with a bow.
“Thanks, Havoc baby.” I took the teacup from him and inhaled the rich scent. “Smells good.”
“You smell good,” he fired back.
“Let’s go.” Zuko tugged me into his room, and Slater shut the door behind us.
He walked over to a low table with an intricate board laid out on it.
It was Faeweaver. I’d watched my dads play it with Mom, but I’d never learned it or even given it a second glance.
“The board is so pretty,” I murmured, sitting down and inspecting it.
The pieces were miniature manifestations shaped like the different fae elements: flickering flames, cold ice crystals, coiled serpents made of moss and stone, and wisps of wind that were somehow visible.
Each set was colored differently—one in shimmering gold and the other in glittering silver.
Zuko’s voice brushed my ear as he came up behind me. “It looks pretty, but it plays cruel.”
“Like you, then.”