Chapter Thirty-One - Sen
Iwant to indulge in the slow moments after sex, but we have no choice but to clean up and quickly dress. We leave the room to find Kai pacing and tugging his braids.
But all that pauses the second he sees Teagan.
“Teagan.” Kai hurries over, faster than a human but still slow for a vampire, and pulls Teagan close, like he’s terrified his little brother will vanish.
A feeling I can relate to.
“Summer’s here?” Teagan asks as we make our way down the hallway. His curls a mess from my fingers running through them, his cheeks flushed from his orgasm. Little wonders impossible to memorise; they can only be experienced.
And I plan to have more of them.
“Not just Summer,” Kai replies.
As we reach the front of the house to find Vidar glaring out the window, arms folded, I know violence is the only way this is going to end.
Luc and Ramy are on either side of our Maker.
Teagan and Kai join Golden further back, Apollo’s forget-me-not tattooed arm slung over Golden’s shoulders.
Bran sits on a side table, watching us all with a calculating, amused expression.
“Want to tell us if your little prophecy predicted this?” I snark as I pass him, making the ancient vampire chuckle low. Like it might’ve been my joke, but I’m the one who doesn’t understand the punchline.
Elio bristles beside Bran, but nods when he spots Teagan, who nods back.
For now, I stand between Luc and Vidar. Out the window is Summer, standing tall between the iron gates, the First Blood Mage Tome hovering beside her. Her obsidian rings glow faintly—not by emanating light, but by swallowing it.
And beside her is a woman with dark hair, shot through with white—Emma.
But it isn’t only Emma and Summer.
“Looks like Summer brought friends,” I grind out.
“We were wondering what she was doing,” Vidar remarks, his rough voice hard. “And now we know.”
Luc’s jaw tics. “She made more blood mages.”
There have to be about twenty of them standing behind Summer. All with black rings, yet none wear as many as she does.
“Not just that,” Elio cuts in. “She’s turned other shadow mages.”
“Her family,” Ramy whispers as if he can’t believe it. I look them over, and realise that Ramy is right. Some have darker or lighter skin, or have curly, wavy, or straight hair, but there is a familiar bone structure to all of them. “She turned her own family.”
“And they all have new spellbooks,” Elio spits, disgusted.
The last time my family fought mages created by the powerful tome Summer holds, they were homeless kids Emma manipulated, and who died in a warehouse fire. Not this time.
“They aren’t as strong as Summer,” Elio says. “It’s obvious. But they’ll still cause trouble.”
I look back at Teagan, his large eyes staring at me with complete trust. A look I’ve only seen on my brothers and Maker, and never to this depth. “We need to get you out of here,” I tell him.
“And Golden,” Luc adds.
Golden sucks in a sharp breath. “Lucero, no—”
Luc is by his mate’s side within a split second. He cups Golden’s face to whisper sweet words of protection and devotion, while Golden clings to Luc’s forearms, shaking his head from side to side.
“I’ll follow Teagan,” Kai announces to Vidar.
My Maker turns to his mate. They share a fierce look, then Vidar gives Kai a single nod.
“That’s all well and good,” Apollo pipes up. “But how are we going to get them out?”
“Ask nicely?” Bran jokes.
“Are you actually on our side?” Elio snaps.
Bran lifts one nonchalant shoulder.
“Elio, ignore him,” I tell the young mage, pulling out my phone to make a call. “Kate, how far away are you?”
“Depends,” she answers, “from the mansion or the creepy cult surrounding it?”
“You certainly have always had good timing.”
“Lucky me,” she deadpans. “What the fuck is going on?”
“Stay right where you are. I’m sending people out to you.”
“Is this for that soulmate of yours?”
I count his lashes, trace his full, small lips. I feel him tug on our bond. I’m not sure which of us he’s trying to reassure, but I do know there isn’t a line I wouldn’t cross for Teagan. “My everything.”
She curses.
“Take them somewhere safe, Kate. Nowhere remote.”
Summer and Emma might be bold, but not even they’d risk drawing the swift, deadly attention of every supernatural leader by exposing themselves to the outside world. So hiding among humans will keep Teagan and the others safe.
Kate has questions, but my no-nonsense detective always knows where her priorities are. “I’ll keep the car running.”
I hang up. Teagan—my brave boy—is scared. Not for himself, however. God, how could I love him more? “Teagan, Golden, Kai—”
“I’m going with them,” Apollo jumps in. He might be a crazy vampire, but I’m glad they’ll have another layer of protection.
“Sen,” Teagan says my name in his quiet rasp, and within four large steps, I’m closing the distance to pull him into my arms.
“You aren’t allowed to do anything stupid, slick,” he whispers, hugging me back.
I want to kiss him, but if I start now, I’ll never stop. “I love you, sweetheart, and the only person who gets my heart is you.”
He nods, and I see it in his unwavering gaze—he doesn’t doubt that I’ll win. I don’t know if I’m worthy of his complete trust, but I’ll make sure not to waste it.
“I have an idea on how to get past the crowd.” Elio looks at Bran. “Can I borrow some blood?”
“When am I not accommodating?”
Elio scoffs. He pulls a flip dagger from the back of his waistband to toss it to Bran, who catches it with ease to slice open his forearm. Bran’s darker-than-normal blood flows like a river into Elio’s cupped palm, swirling like a murky crystal ball before Bran’s skin knits back together.
“I can incapacitate them all,” Elio tells the room. “But they can’t see it coming, or they’ll shield against it.”
“Someone has to distract them,” I supply. “I’ll do it. I want to have a chat with Summer, anyway.”
Teagan’s hold tightens, but he stays silent.
“So Sen distracts Summer,” Ramy says. “Elio knocks those bastards down, then once the others make their escape…”
“Wholesale fucking murder?” Luc growls.
“Wholesale fucking murder,” Vidar agrees.
Slowly, painfully—I release Teagan.
We share a look, and I promise him without words that this isn’t the last time we’ll see each other.
Teagan understands; he’s always heard what goes unsaid.
I stroke his cheek, put on my best charming smile, then turn away from him and move out the door. “Hello, ladies.”
The wind whistles between us, fluttering Summer’s blonde ponytail.
Dark circles are smudged under her intense gaze. Her skin is sallow. She has the energy of someone who’s been awake for days on a diet of coffee and Red Bull.
“I’ve come for one simple thing,” Summer announces. The mages at her back buzz with the same tired, frantic energy.
I tap on my chest. “Oh yes, my heart.”
She shrugs. “Doesn’t have to be yours.”
“Vidar’s?”
“Vidar is Kai’s mate. I don’t want…” she sighs, clenches her fists, then continues, “There’s another vampire with you. Bran. Either his or yours. I don’t care.” Each word is heaved out like it weighs too much, and she’s too exhausted to keep carrying them.
“Teagan is my mate.”
This stops Summer cold, but she soon shakes it off when Emma speaks up. “What is with you lot and finding your mates?” she complains, as if she didn’t already know.
Curious that she didn’t tell Summer.
Summer sends her a whip-sharp look, which Emma ignores.
“Is…” Summer turns back to me, her chapped lips pressed together. “Teagan. Is he okay?”
I raise an eyebrow. “Wouldn’t you know better than anyone if he’s hurt?”
She doesn’t flinch, but I spot a flash of guilt.
“Enough already,” Emma sighs. “This is boring. We’ve come for your heart.” She nods to the shadow-blood mages, who appear to like Emma less than I do.
“Here’s the problem,” I reply with a smirk. “I happen to like where my heart is.”
“Well, shucks,” Emma replies dramatically, propping a fist on her cocked hip. “Does that mean we have to kill you all?”
I grin, my fangs dropping. “Or maybe the other way around.”
Elio steps out.
Emma’s eyes narrow.
“Not this time,” Elio yells.
“Get down!” Emma shouts as Elio throws the murky crystal ball.
Summer drops into her shadow—the others aren’t lucky.
The ball expands like blown glass within seconds, rising high above the mansion to block out the risen moon, tinting the world in a crimson glow.
Then—it shatters.
The mages barely have enough time to scream as blood rains down to coat them in red that hardens the second it touches skin, encasing them in scarlet glass.
Emma slices her wrist, blood streaming upward to follow the path of her hand as she raises it to the sky. Her blood curves into the shape of an umbrella, holding off what was meant to trap her.
Kai runs out of the house, followed by Golden, Teagan, and Apollo. They jump over fallen mages, their glass shells beginning to form webs of cracks as they fight their way out.
Sweat beads on Elio’s forehead. “I…can’t…hold on…!”
“Just a bit longer!” Vidar orders.
Elio lets out a piercing scream.
My gaze shoots to him, only to find a pale hand poking out from his shadow, with an obsidian blade stabbed into his ankle.
Elio falls, bleeding out as Summer’s hand slinks back into the shadows.
The blood glass shatters just as a car speeds off, and I can breathe a sigh of relief, even as Summer crawls out of Emma’s shadow and the other mages begin to stand.
“Hey, look,” Emma singsongs as the blood she was fighting against soaks into her own flow, staining what used to be a bright red into a dark crimson. “Looks like I’ve got ancient vampire blood now, too.”