Chapter 16
Scotty and Aleka didn’t find Harvester’s blood, but they did find a secret room beneath the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount that might be where her blood drained. As soon as Aleka deciphered the text on the seal, they’d check it out.
Hopefully, she’d do it within the next couple of hours and give Scotty an excuse to leave Amber’s party.
Not that she didn’t love her cousin or wish her the best, but until she and Blade came clean with Mace, Scotty didn’t want to be around either of them. Keeping her mouth shut was too hard, and the moment it opened, stupid shit fell out.
Like, what the hell was up with the lie about making a date with Skoll? Thankfully, Blade had played along, but shit. Why couldn’t she have come up with something less stupid and less…verifiable?
This day would suck. At least Mace had let them know that Eidolon had given him the all-clear to get back to normal life. Which was fantastic, but it also meant that she and Blade needed to tell him the truth, and soon. Maybe after the party.
Scotty pressed her hand to her queasy stomach as she walked across the expansive grounds on her way to the massive backyard.
She could already hear people laughing around the pool and smell a variety of savory meats cooked either in the outdoor wood-fired brick oven, the roasting pit next to it, or the luxury grill area beneath the covered patio.
As the daughter of a Horseman and the niece of three others, she’d grown up with old-world wealth and extravagance.
This, though…she glanced around at the building and the parklike surroundings…
this was Stryke’s construct. He hadn’t acquired his wealth over the course of thousands of years.
He’d made his billions—some estimated as much as a trillion—practically overnight, and then re-invested in his company and property, such as the modern, outrageously tech-appointed compound his brothers and cousins now called home.
Stryke’s new headquarters, a few miles away in downtown Sydney, made this old one appear tiny.
“Scotty!” Amber waved from the poolside chair where she sat with her ever-present sketchbook and a pencil, her sunglasses uselessly perched atop her curly, dark hair.
Since Scotty wasn’t yet ready to see Blade or Mace, she beelined over.
“Amber.” She gave her quirky cousin a hug and pulled up a beach chair. “Happy birthday.”
Tossing her book and pencil aside, Amber sighed. “It’s just a day. I don’t know why people make a big deal of it.”
“You sound like Stryke.”
She laughed. “He and I definitely agree on this.”
Like Stryke, Amber had never liked being the center of attention, rarely even leaving her parents’ keep in Greenland. When she did, it was only to go to places she knew well. Scotty had managed to get her out to lunch a couple of times, but only because they went to quiet cafés in small towns.
“Where are your parents?” Scotty asked. “I didn’t see them when I got here.”
“Over there.” Amber gestured with her chin toward where her parents, Regan and Thanatos, were playing cornhole with their uncle Reseph and aunt Jillian.
“Where’s the baby?” Regan had just given birth to Amber and Logan’s little brother after a difficult pregnancy, and this was his first time out in the world.
“He’s in the carrier.”
Scotty squinted and then nodded. “Oh, right. It’s hard to see with the hellhound in the way.”
Amber reached for her glass of cola. “Cujo is obsessed with him. I told Logan that he and Eva had better hurry up and have a kid so the poor mutt has something to watch over.”
Orphaned as a pup, Cujo had bonded with Logan when he was an infant, and they’d been inseparable ever since.
That was the thing about hellhounds. Either they wanted to eat you, or they wanted to protect you.
There was no in-between. None. If you weren’t someone they loved and adored, you were food. Or worse.
“I just hope they get the chance,” Scotty said, thinking of Eva. Logan had texted everyone this morning to let them know that she’d rallied and was doing so well that they planned to attend the party.
Amber gave a noncommittal nod that Scotty couldn’t read. Her cousin…she knew stuff. No one knew how or why, but she just…knew. And if she didn’t want to disclose something, no amount of pestering, badgering, or pleading could get it out of her.
Scotty didn’t even try.
Amber’s gaze narrowed and grew hot as Talon walked by with his demon Barbie girlfriend, Scorn. No one liked that bitch, but Amber had particularly strong feelings about her. Amber also had particularly strong feelings for Talon, but in a completely different way.
But her glare was hotter than usual today. A flare of heat even brought a tinge of red to her tan cheeks.
“Okay, cuz.” Scotty lowered her voice conspiratorially. “What’s going on?”
Evil Barbie’s head swiveled as if she’d heard them speak, and she shot Amber a malicious smile. Wow. Brazen as fuck.
“I swear I want her dead,” Amber growled, and Scotty blinked in surprise. Amber was the most mild-mannered, timid person she’d ever met. Those words were not something she’d have expected to come out of her mouth. Ever.
“Seriously?”
Amber tore her murderous gaze away from the fallen angel. “She cornered me in the kitchen just before you got here. Said she knows I want Talon. But she was gross and graphic about it. Then she said I probably sit around imagining him between her legs and wishing it was me he was with.”
Anger, searing and hot, shot through Scotty’s veins. “Are you fucking kidding me?”
Amber had inherited her father’s pale-yellow eyes, and right then, they glowed like hot citrines. “She said if I so much as look at him again, she’ll gut me and strangle me with my own intestines.”
“She’s dead.” Scotty glared at Evil Barbie. “I’ll kill her for you.”
“Aw, you’re so sweet,” Amber said. “Have you ever killed a fallen angel?”
“No, but how hard can it be?”
Amber snorted at Scotty’s flippant question. Fallen angels were extremely hard to kill. Not even the Horsemen went up against them if they didn’t have to. And as accomplished a warrior as Scotty was, she was also half human, and a fallen angel might be a little out of her league.
Still, Scotty wouldn’t let this slide. Somehow, Scorn would pay.
She turned back to Amber. “Are you going to tell Talon what she said?”
“No.” Amber wrapped her arms around her knees, closing herself off. “He probably wouldn’t believe me, anyway. Plus, I don’t want him to think I’m lusting after him.”
“But you are.”
Amber’s cheeks flushed a darker red. “Am not.”
“Girl, you can lie all you want, but you’re practically wearing a sign.”
Horror filled Amber’s expression. “You don’t think Talon knows, do you?”
“Nah.” Scotty glanced over at Talon. “Males are oblivious when it comes to shit like that.”
“I hope so.” Amber took a drink of her soda and replaced it on the table. “I’ll die if he finds out.”
“Why?” Scotty watched Talon fetch a beer from a cooler and toss it to his skanky girlfriend. “Maybe he’d feel the same about you if he knew.”
“Yeah, right.” Amber rolled her eyes. “He treats me like I’m his little sister.”
“Well…duh. He’s besties with your brother.
He’s never had a chance to see you as anything but his BFF’s tagalong sis.
Honestly, hon, you’ve never given him any reason to.
” Scotty raked her gaze over Amber and revised her statement.
“Until now. I can’t believe you’re wearing a bikini.
” Normally, Amber was all baggy shorts and tees.
“Do I look stupid?” Amber curled in on herself even tighter. “I didn’t want to wear this. Leilani made me.”
“You look amazing! Lei’s always right when it comes to fashion and girly stuff. You should listen to her.” Scotty reached over and forced her cousin to sit up straight. “Show that shit off, girl. Talon can’t ignore it.”
“He wished me a happy birthday when I got out of the pool, but he didn’t notice my bikini. He didn’t even look.”
Which, Scotty suspected, meant that he had noticed but was trying not to look. So maybe he realized Amber was no longer Logan’s annoying little tagalong sister, but a beautiful, shapely woman ready for all the things that came with being an adult.
Like hot, sweaty sex.
Warmth flushed through Scotty as she remembered her time with Blade. The feel of his sinewy muscles under her palms lingered in her mind, and so did the sounds they’d made. The gasps, the moans, his deep, masculine roar that first time he came.
He’d called out her name.
She shivered with feminine appreciation, and her heart fluttered.
Then it came to an abrupt stop when she saw him crossing the lawn.
Gods, he was perfection. His long, muscular legs, encased in worn jeans, carried him smoothly toward a gathering of people from work.
Like that hussy werewolf, Nikki, who practically drooled as he approached.
In the past, she’d been casual bedmates with both Blade and Mace, but Scotty suspected that she desired way more than casual sex.
That ho-bag totally wanted to land one of them as a mate.
Over Scotty’s dead body. Those males were hers. Not hers in the romantic sense, of course.
Liar.
She swallowed the lump of guilt in her throat. Until Scotty and Blade came clean to Mace, it would remain a lie.
Blade smiled at Nikki and gave her a hug, but as they pulled apart, his gaze shifted somewhere behind her and grew stony.
Scotty tracked his gaze to his brother, Stryke, who was talking with their parents, one arm slung around his pregnant mate, Cyan’s, waist.
Now might be a good time to go over and…and what? Say “Hi” as if nothing had happened between them?
Damn, this sucked. Which was exactly why they’d made their pact. Sex changed things.
We’ll get past this. We will.
We have to.
“Hey.” Amber tapped her on her arm. “You’re being summoned.”