Chapter 26
Chapter Twenty-Six
Izzy
I’m still lying curled between my men, with my leg thrown over Reid’s lean thigh and Van drawing slow circles across my shoulders with his fingertips. My muscles are languid, and for once, I feel at peace.
Then a cell phone begins to warble across the room, from the pocket of someone’s jeans.
Aiden groans at the familiar ringtone. Reluctantly, he gets up and heads across the room.
“Hello?” he asks cautiously. Then he spins to face us all, his eyes wide. “Hang on, say that again. Everyone’s here. I’m putting you on speaker phone.”
He presses a button, then holds up the phone as we all sit up. My heart’s suddenly beating fast.
“Mom and Dad are safe, first off.” It’s Layla’s voice. “But Abel has been trying to track down the hive you pissed off, little brother. He caught up to the Holden clan and it seems like they’ve got some hostages.”
Great. Innocents trapped between us and the hive. Guilt twists through my gut.
“There’s something weird about the hostages,” she goes on. “I get this powerful...vibe...from them. Kind of like I get from you now, but different.”
Our missing godslayers. Somehow the vamps captured them.
“You’re there?” Aiden demands, his voice full of alarm. “Layla, get away from them.” He rakes his hand through his hair like he’s about to come apart. How could vamps possibly even take the godslayers down?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “We’re just following them now. The hive is on the move with them.”
Aiden hesitates. “Are you safe?”
“Close enough,” she says.
He swears. “Where are you?”
“On the highway, heading north. Just passed exit 38. You know it’s a trap,” Layla warns. “The hive is trying to trap you. I don’t know if you should take the bait--even if you are a god now.” She sounds worried. “You’ve never seen how dangerous vamps can be.”
“You’ve never seen how dangerous I can be,” Aiden assures her.
“Heading north? They’re headed our way,” Wilder says. “We should set up a welcome committee like they had for us on the road.”
“I don’t like this,” Aiden says. “Layla, I want you out of there.”
“Relax, little brother,” she says, before there’s a sudden sound of crashing metal, and she screams.
“Layla?” Aiden’s face is tight with stress, and Reid’s eyes go wide. “Layla? Layla!”
But there’s no one on the line. It’s dead. He cocks his arm back like he wants to throw the phone, but he stops himself.
“We’ll get the weapons and the car,” Reid says, grabbing Aiden’s shoulder as if he can tell Aiden is about to lose it. “We’ll get out there and find her. Help them.”
“I’m sure she’s right, it's a trap. What if she’s part of the trap, though?” Wilder says.
“I love you, man,” Van tells him, “so don’t make me punch you in the face.”
Wilder glances around us all. I think when he sees the looks of fierce possessiveness on Aiden and Reid’s faces, he knows he’s said the wrong damn thing.
He raises his hands and his eyebrows at once, like he’s surrendering.
And I’m glad he does, because the tension between them eases, if only by a little bit.
“So we just get there as fast as we can and hope we can take them on?” Reid asks, but his face is pale as he speaks.
“There’s got to be a better plan,” I say, my hands bunching into fists.
“Let’s see if the godslayers can stop being dickheads long enough to rescue their friends,” Van says. “It would make sense if we all teamed up.”
It would! But I’m a little surprised it’s a plan Van is willing to consider. I bet because he knows what it’d do to Reid and Aiden if they lost their sister again. Just the thought of it makes my stomach twist; they couldn’t lose her again.
“Why don’t you let me go talk to the other godslayers alone,” I say.
“Why?” Van says, but it sounds like he wants to say, no way in hell. “Don’t trust my approach?”
“I think it’s the best way to save her.” My gaze locks with his. “Please. Trust me that I can do this.”
“She’s right that whenever we all go toe-to-toe, there’s more testosterone than talking,” Reid admits. “But I don’t like those guys being anywhere near Izzy.”
“How about you go talk to them, but we’ll be watching over you?” Wilder says, frowning.
Very slowly, Van nods. And the other guys get that look on their faces, the one that says they aren’t happy with this idea, but they’ll do it. For me.
The guys spring into action, getting ready, and once I get dressed, I head down to the godslayers’ apartment, the guys following at a distance, and knock on the door.
The door opens to their angry faces.
“I think the vamps have your friends,” I say. “Are you going to help us rescue them, or give the gods all the glory?”
I know they don’t trust me. I’m trying to speak their language--even if it makes me sound like a jerk. I wince internally.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Lucas crosses his arms over his chest, sounding lost.
“Your friends,” I say. “Jessica. Clancy. Finn. When’s the last time you saw them?”
“They went to try to help your asses after hearing you were in trouble with the vamps,” he says. “Fucking idiots.”
“Well, they never found us,” I say. “Call them. I think they’re in trouble.”
He scoffs. “They’re godslayers. Vamps aren’t any trouble for them.”
One of the other guys pulls out his phone and calls. From his face, no one picks up but he shrugs. “They’re probably sleeping together. Again.”
“We were warned that some vamps had kidnapped some people described as godslayers. I really think they’re in trouble,” I say, emphasizing each word.
“Let me make this clear.” Trevor, the giant blond with a manbun, shoulders past the other guys to face me. “I hate the bloodsuckers, but I trust them a whole lot more than I trust some damn gods. So we’ll go find our friends if they need help but we aren’t going to do a damn thing for you.”
My jaw tenses. But these dicks are never going to see sense.
“Fine,” I say. “Keep telling yourselves you’re the good guys. You’re just a bunch of arrogant dickheads who can’t even step up and protect your own kind.”
As soon as I think it, Loki does it; little dicks sprout from the foreheads of all the guys.
I take a step back, staring at the guys with a mix of horror and amusement, as they frown and begin to turn toward each other, sensing something wrong.
When they turn their heads, the miniscule little dicks--the size of vienna sausages--flop around.
I turn on my heel and head for my guys as I hear them roar in anger behind me. I raise my hand, turning off Loki’s magic, even though I think those guys deserve to be permanently emblazoned with their true identities. I don’t need to leave even angrier godslayers behind me.
Within a few steps, I start running. Layla. I tried, but there’s no time to waste. We’ve got to get to Layla and find out how she’s doing, and then we have to rescue Jessica and the others. Us against the vamp hive.
Wilder and Reid are waiting for me.
“We could tell that wasn’t going to happen,” Reid says, the three of us moving swiftly together. “Van and Aiden went to get the car.”
When we head outside, we find Beth arguing with the guys.
“You can’t leave,” she warns them. “The rules--you are already on thin ice after what happened with the buildings--”
“It was my fault,” Wilder tells her. “I let the god take me over.”
“Noah!” Van scolds him. We were supposed to keep that to ourselves so no one would target him.
Wilder shrugs like it doesn’t even matter.
“I’m better now,” he promises her. “But if someone’s got to burn for it, then let it be me.
They’re all innocent. Something happened to Aiden and Reid’s sister, and we think it’s the same vamps who took Jessica and some of the other godslayers.
We've got to help them--whatever it costs any of us.”
Beth hesitates, staring at him.
Then suddenly, she says, “All right. We can take my car since it’s right here on campus. But I’m driving.”
The five of us all stare at her.
“But you’re--we’re not bringing you into danger,” Reid says.
We’ve got our car stashed off campus. That’s what we need to get to, even though it will take us time.
Which makes it tempting when Beth pulls her keys out of her pocket and tosses them in the air.
“You think I’m just a little old lady who can bake cookies, don’t you?” she demands. “You think they’d let just anyone watch over the five of you?”
“You’ve been spying on us all along,” Wilder says.
She just flashes him a smile. “Such a bright boy. You coming or not?”
The five of us trade glances, but she’s already heading toward the SUV parked at the side of the house. It’ll take us a hell of a lot longer to escape campus and hike on back to where our car is hidden.
Here goes nothing.
The five of us follow her.