11. Poe #2
Images of Ava screaming projected in my mind’s eye. Her bloodstained face. Her blue eyes lifeless and dull. Her throat torn open and her body ripped to shreds. My heart twisted from the horror of it. My wolf roared with outrage.
“You have until the moon,” she said, seeming to sway and tighten her muscles to keep herself upright. “But make your choice quickly. If I can get to you in a room full of strangers, imagine what she can do in a hotel suite with only a handful of humans and a few measly shifters for protection.”
The woman sank her nails into my arm and pain lanced up my bicep, straight to my heart.
“The clock’s running out.”
“Hey—” A heavy hand landed on my shoulder, and the spell broke. I startled back to the room, turning to shove the foreign touch off me. But I focused on bright gray eyes and a familiar, striking blond.
Lycan.
I was at a royal reception. I was supposed to be searching for threats.
“Hey, it’s just me.” Lycan held up his hands. “Are you okay?”
When I turned back to where the woman had once stood, I found only an empty table. I looked around, trying to figure out where she’d gone, but I didn’t see her. It was like she’d never existed.
“Poe,” Ava said, coming to stand on the other side of me. “What happened?”
“You didn’t see her?” I asked, eyes darting around the ballroom. Was I imagining things? Had I hallucinated the entire conversation?
“See who?” Lycan asked.
“The woman. She was just standing here.” What the fuck happened? Who was she?
“There’s no one here,” Lycan said. “You were staring into space.”
“I can smell her.” Ava took a step closer and inhaled deeply. “Roses and rot and…” She shivered. “Magic.”
I rubbed my eyes, trying to get the memory of Ava’s disemboweled body out of my skull. “She told me…”
You must know she’ll never want you like she wants him. He had you and left you all the same.
My heart twisted, and I bit back the agony in how right she’d been about me.
“She told me to leave you both, that no one’s ever been able to outrun her. She always gets what she wants.”
“Who?” Lycan took a step closer.
“Who do you think?” I trembled and clenched my fists to stop the shaking. “She’s here. She’s been here. And when she touched me…”
“She touched you?” Ava touched my arm as a musky wave of anger poured off her.
“She did something to my head, to my body. She held me frozen while she delivered her threat.” Like death. Like a demon. Like a banshee howling in the middle of the night. “We’re not just dealing with vampires, Lycan. She has a witch. She’s working magic.”
“Forgive the intrusion,” said an attendant from beside us. “If you’ll please make your way to your seats. Dinner will be served shortly.”
“Go,” I said, nodding toward the banquet room. “I’ll keep looking for her.”
“I’m not leaving you like this,” Lycan whispered, stepping closer. I ignored the heat in my chest at the simple gesture. He meant nothing by it.
“You don’t have a choice,” I bit out. “Go. Do what we came here to do.”
“If she got to you, she can get to any of us,” Lycan argued. “Who’s to say she won’t go after Ava next?”
She could barely hold me for the two minutes she had me under.
And if she wanted Ava, she would have gone after her.
So why hadn’t she? She could have used that spell to walk Ava out of here with us none the wiser.
Maybe she couldn’t get close enough with Lycan hovering.
Maybe she thought me the easier target. Maybe she couldn’t hold the spell for longer than a few minutes.
Leave the girl, and you can have the wolf. Stay, and she’ll make you watch.
I stuffed down the horrible visions she’d planted in my head. I’d seen some fucked-up shit in my life, but this…this terrified me. If Evelyn had a witch capable of getting into a shifter’s head, how many more were standing in the room right now?
“No, you’re right,” I said. “We need to go. Now.”
“We can’t run out on the king of Denmark,” Ava murmured.
“I’m not putting your safety above some stupid diplomatic dinner,” Lycan hissed.
Ava twisted her mouth into a thin line, seeming at odds with herself.
“Okay, fine,” she said. “I’ll send my apologies and say I got sick.”
I brought my wrist to my mouth and pressed the mic. “Prepare the limo. We’re headed your way.”
“You got it, boss,” Locust said.
Lycan put his hand on Ava’s lower back to guide her ahead of him, and I squashed the callous heat that built in my gut at the sight, focusing on our surroundings as I followed them through the palace.
Just as we left the reception room and passed by the gardens, I caught a glimpse of a redhead out of the corner of my eye.
At first, I kept moving, but my wolf howled and forced me to look again.
When I did, her features morphed and shifted in a blur, almost like I’d walked through an invisible force field.
And there she was…Evelyn Vane…talking to the crown prince of Denmark like they were old friends.
The prince laughed and leaned closer to whisper something in her ear, but Evelyn’s attention shifted to me.
Her crimson eyes glowed, almost otherworldly in their wrongness, and the foul decay of rotting flesh hit me in the face like a punch, nearly knocking me off my feet. I froze like I’d run into a wall face-first.
She met my gaze, tilted her head to the side, and waved her fingers in a taunting greeting.
“Shit,” I murmured, debating what to do. I had to get Lycan and Ava out of here, but this was an opportunity. I could engage. I could stalk up to her and demand to know what the hell she was doing, maybe rip her heart out in the process.
“Fuck,” Lycan said from next to me. The prince followed Evelyn’s line of sight to us, scowling and whispering to the vampire.
“We need to move,” I said. “Now.”
“She’ll follow us,” Ava said.
The witch’s threat confirmed that. We couldn’t go back to the hotel. We couldn’t go to a different one. If she got to us here, she’d get to us anywhere.
“Let’s go,” Lycan said.
I ushered them out of the palace and into the limo, checking that my gun was loaded as I climbed into the backseat next to Lycan. Locust and Bow were already in the front, and as soon as the door closed, they took off.
“Are you sure that was her?” Ava asked.
“I smelled her as soon as we walked in,” I said. “I just couldn’t find her. She had some disguise on, something to hide her.”
“How is that possible?” Ava asked, glancing between us.
“The woman was a witch,” I said. “She’s been using glamor magic to hide herself, choosing when to make an appearance.”
“What did she tell you?” Ava asked.
“Repeat back to me word for word,” Lycan snarled.
I did, including what she’d said about the hotel being unsafe and her ridiculous demand that I leave.
I wouldn’t do it, of course. It was insulting that she thought I might.
Lycan sat back in his seat and ran his tongue over his canine, a predatory move designed to warn off threats, as his rage echoed down the tiny thread connecting us.
“What does she mean, she’ll give you the wolf?” Ava looked at Lycan. “You?”
Lycan pursed his lips. “It doesn’t work like that.”
“If one witch can get inside Poe’s head and hold him, what can a coven do?” Ava asked.
I shuddered to think of it. “We’ll reach out to the Royal Harlots in Asheville.”
They were a group of powerful witches who had recently formed a sister MC to the Bastards. If anyone could help us, it would be them.
“I don’t get it,” Bow cut in from behind the wheel. “If she’s after Ava, why not attack us? She’s known where we were this whole time.”
“She’s taunting us,” I said, “like a cat. Trying to draw us out. Waiting until we make a mistake.” I spoke from instinct, from what I understood about her so far and what I’d seen in those unsettling red eyes. “For the fun of it.”
It was the only thing that made sense. She had the upper hand tonight.
We didn’t recognize her. We didn’t see her coming.
She could have taken Ava in the midst of the crowd and disappeared before we even realized what happened.
She could have sent her witch after us, but that would ruin the chase, and in her mind, it was more fun if she had us running for our lives before she swooped in for the kill.
Or maybe…maybe I’d been right. Evelyn was waiting for something. The witch had made a passing comment about a half-formed bond, and I pretended like that meant nothing to me. There was no bond, no matter what that insipid witch thought.
“The clock’s running out,” I finished. “She said I had until the full moon.”
“We should head to Bastard territory tonight,” Locust said from the passenger’s seat. “The hotel isn’t safe. We need reinforcements.”
“I agree,” Lycan said.
“Maybe we should cut the trip,” I said. “Go back home.”
“We can’t,” Lycan said. “The full moon is tomorrow. We’re stuck here until after that.”
“I only have three partners,” Ava said. “I can’t come home without all of them. And I need Scott.”
I rubbed my fingers over my tired eyes and sighed, seeing no other choice and knowing we’d be better protected on Bastard territory.
“Okay,” I said, giving Lycan a nod. “We go tonight.”
He reached for his phone, brought it to his ear, and called Kodiak. I shifted my attention to Ava, who fixed her features into a stoic stare before looking out the window to watch the world pass us by.