Chapter 25
Chapter twenty-five
Jack
Out of all the years I’d been hunting, I’d never been this nervous. I kept telling myself this was like any other bust. I should be focusing on the fact that Hamish tried to kidnap me. That the other supernaturals in there had literally almost killed me.
Except… the only thing I could think about was Iris.
Quiet, beautiful, statuesque Iris.
It was still hard to believe she was part of this. All this time, she’d been hanging around me, acting like my friend, when she was just thinking about how she could use me to get to my parents.
A sick feeling settled into my stomach when I thought about Xinyi in all this. Part of me hoped and prayed she didn’t know anything about all this.
The other part was telling me not to be so na?ve. Iris was her mistress, there’s no way she didn’t know what she was doing in her spare time.
The thought of it made my heart hurt. I thought I’d made a friend. A real true friend that liked me for me and not my family.
“Hey.” Julian bumped me from where we hid just around the end of the building. “You good?”
“Yeah.” I sucked in a breath and jerked my head once. “Yeah. I’m good.”
“Just remember, we don’t know Iris and Xinyi’s part in all this.” He checked his gun, turning the safety off. “They could be innocent.”
“Or they could be guilty as hell,” I muttered, rubbing my brow. “I know, Julian. I just want to get this over with.”
The comm in my ear crackled, and Tristen’s voice filled my ear. “Everybody in position?”
There was a collective response of yes. Then Tristen addressed me.
“You ready for this, Durand?”
I locked eyes with Julian and then over to Tate and Kyren. I started this mission with no one. Forced to go to the academy for my parents with a mission to take out some rebels dangling over my head. Only to find so much more.
Not only had I found love, but I’d found friendship.
And now, looking back at that friendship, a part of me wished I wasn’t a Durand.
That I’d never come to the academy, because losing the only friends I’d ever made on my own outside of the guild was like cutting a piece of me off. I didn’t know how I’d ever recover.
“Jack? You there?”
I cleared my throat. “Uh, yeah. I’m here. And yes, I’m ready.”
“Okay,” Tristen drew out, clearly wanting to ask more but holding back because of the others on the comm. “Durand and Fawley, you’re going in, in three-two-one. Go! Go! Go!”
Shaking my head at his theatrics, I walked calmly next to Julian with Tate and Kyren bringing up the rear. We didn’t want to go in, guns blazing. That’d give away the game.
Instead, we decided for a more civilized approach — pretend we thought they were open.
Pausing at the front door, Julian locked eyes with me pointedly. I dipped my chin, giving him the go ahead. He pulled open the door and then we were in.
I really thought they’d be inside waiting to jump us at the door the moment we stepped inside. But no one was there.
It felt kind of creepy coming to the club when it was closed. The mood lights were off, and bright fluorescent lights filled area. The music that normally throbbed through the ground and vibrated up your legs was nowhere to be found.
Silence.
Or almost.
A voice came from somewhere further into the club. One I didn’t recognize.
“We don’t want to wait anymore. We grab the girl now.”
We paused around the corner from where they were talking, and I prayed the charms we wore would hold up. It would blow everything if they could smell us before we even got a confirmation on what their plan was.
“Oh,” another voice mocked, “what are you going to do? Just waltz into the Durand mansion and be like, hey, I hate your guts and want you all to die. Do you mind if I steal your daughter away to use as leverage against you? Thanks.”
“She can’t stay in there forever,” the first voice countered, “She’ll come out, eventually.”
“What about that werewolf she was dating?” a male voice with an Australian accent asked. Hamish. “Or maybe the vampire? Can we use them in some way? Iris?”
I sucked in a breath.
The feminine voice I’d come to associate with my friend Iris was hard and full of hatred. “I could lure her out with promises of her men.”
“Like you lured her to the club?” One of the other voices scoffed. “You see how that went.”
Iris hissed. “That was a miscalculation. I didn’t know that Kyren was still stalking her. I thought they had broken up.”
“Clearly not, since he came running in to save her,” Hamish explained. “No, this time, we take no chances. The Durand daughter is the only chance we have to get the council in line. They’re ruining my business. My buyers are starting to complain.”
Another voice scoffed. “Not everyone cares about your skin trade. Some of us have bigger problems.”
“What? You can’t find a meal on your own?” Hamish mocked the other voice. “Poor you, can’t charm or pay your way? So sad. Though, if I had your face, I could see why no one wants you to biting them.”
Then started a series of shouting and bickering back and forth. I exchanged a look with the guys, arching a brow. These were the people who were responsible for my attack? The ones who thought they were going to bring down the council? I could hardly believe it.
This was going to be easier than I thought.
Then Tate sneezed.
“What was that?” Hamish said above the rest, and the group quieted down.
The three of us glared at Tate, who gave a sheepish grin.
“Whoever you are, come out,” Hamish ordered. “Or we’ll drag you out and, believe me, you won’t like the alternative.”
We exchanged another look before I shrugged. Might as well. We’d heard all we needed to know. Staying hidden now was just delaying the inevitable.
Slowly with our hands at our weapons, we walked out from our hiding spot to face the group. While we’d only heard a few of them speak, there were far more than that littered around the VIP section. Even more than the ones that attacked me a few weeks ago.
Thankfully, if Tristen was telling the truth, we had more.
“Ah.” Hamish grinned from his seat in the middle of the group, lounging like he was the king of them all. “Looks like we won’t need to lure her out after all, Iris. Your friend brought herself to us. And what’s this?” He glanced around me. “You brought your boyfriends, too. How nice of you.”
Ignoring Hamish, my eyes found Iris sitting stiffly in a chair off to the side. “Are you really part of this?” I asked, hating how it sounded more like a plea than a question.
“Uh-oh,” that first voice we heard which belonged to the werewolf Kyren had been following, crooned. “Looks like someone’s feelings are hurt.”
The group laughed, except for Hamish and Iris. Her gaze bore into me, a hatred I’d never seen before pouring from her eyes.
“Your family has completely eradicated what it means to be a vampire. A predator of the night. They must be stopped. You were merely…” she drew out, tossing a hand toward me. “Collateral damage.”
I swallowed down the emotion in my throat. “And Xinyi? Does she know about this?”
Iris’ jaw ticked, not answering my question, which was an answer in itself.
“Come now,” Hamish interrupted us. “This doesn’t have to be uncivilized. We’ll even make you a deal.” His gaze slid over me and then my men. “You give us the girl, walk out of here, tell no one, and you get to live. How does that sound?”
I didn’t even look at the others to know that they wouldn’t take his deal. If there was one thing the three of them agreed on, it was keeping me safe. No way they’d give me up to this guy in his tacky suit.
“Fine.”
My head swung to find Kyren staring hardcore at Hamish. “Kyren? Wait, what?”
Hamish threw his head back and laughed. “Oh, this is too priceless. You saved her once from me and now you want to give her back? What game are you playing at?”
Kyren stepped forward, shrugging off Tate’s hands as they tried to grab for him. “No game. I thought I could forgive her for what her family did to my sire,” his dark gaze flicked to me, his jaw tightening, “but I was wrong.”
Hamish hummed, looking us over for a long moment. “Iris, what do you think?”
“I think Kyren has as much reason to want her dead as we do, though,” she moved her attention to Tate, “his wolf may be a problem.”
“He won’t be,” Kyren snapped, baring his fangs at her. “And I want to be the one to kill her.”
That caused a new eruption of arguments to start. Things were getting out of hand. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go. What was Kyren saying? After we’d just… I thought we were good. Did he just want one more chance to make sure I was worth it and then realize I wasn’t?
Panic and anguished filled my chest, squishing all the air from my lungs until I could hardly focus on what was in front of me. I’d never been this overcome with emotion during a mission. Maybe they were right, maybe I should have stayed behind.
Now, not only had Iris betrayed me, but Kyren, too.
Would Tate be next? Would he take Kyren’s side?
Julian’s hand found mine, and he gave it a squeeze.
“Quiet down everyone,” Hamish called over the commotion. “There is plenty of the Durand girl to go around. I think we can be generous with the fact that… Kyren — is it? — brought her to us without us having to make a fuss.”
“You can’t be serious?” The werewolf gaped, his eyes narrowing Kyren. “This guy has tortured and killed our kind. What makes you think we can trust him?”
Kyren suddenly appeared before the wolf, his shadows wrapped around his throat, lifting him off the ground. “I don’t care if you trust me or not. If anyone is killing the Durand bitch, it’s me.”
Movement from the side caught my attention. Iris stood. Her hand lifted. I had a split second to see the gun in her hand and where she was pointing it.
Tate.
Why was she trying to kill Tate?
I didn’t give myself the chance to question it further, I threw myself forward to block the bullet but was yanked back at the last second, a blond-haired figure taking my place.
Bracing myself as I fell to the ground, everything moved in slow motion as I watched him, my friend, my comrade, my lover fall to the ground.
“Julian!”