Hot Blooded

assume it is still in his possession. He’s never understood its worth and thinks I am too partial to it, but I will kill him for the betrayal.”

“He’s over against the far end of the cavern.” I nodded my head in that direction. I hated to break the news to her like this, but there was no good way. “I broke his neck before you were fully healed.

I’m sorry, Naomi, but it needed to be done.”

Naomi stood. “I am not sorry. He broke our kin-bond and he betrayed me in the worst way he could. This would have ensured his death at my hands. He chose his side and he lost.” She flew off to find the cross.

I knelt down by Selene again. My brother and Danny came in close, Rourke right behind me; his heat calmed me. It was good to feel it again. I didn’t want to wait for Naomi, but I couldn’t risk waking Selene without it. If I put my hands on her, there would be a reaction. It might be enough to trigger her to wake.

Naomi’s voice echoed loudly a minute later. “Eamon is not here.”

I jumped up. “What are you talking about? I killed him ten minutes ago.” Had only ten minutes passed? It felt like a lifetime ago.

She flew to the top of the dais, landing on the scattered debris. “He is not here.”

“I broke his neck,” I said, almost accusingly. “Severing the connection is enough for a wolf. He fell to the ground like he was dead.”

“It’s not always enough for a vampire.” Naomi shook her head. “The spinal column must be separated fully from the body. Our bodies are already dead, while your body lives. You require communication to survive; we need no such thing. We can fuse it back together, but cannot live without a head. This information is not widely known, so it is not your fault, Ma Reine, but I must find him. There are tunnels here.”

“Dammit all to hell.” I realized I hadn’t seen or heard from Ray in too long. My face dropped.

“Naomi, he took Ray. He had to have taken him. He needed blood to heal.”

Before she could answer, Selene gave a huge gasp and with one hand ripped the spell dart out of her body, her irises bright red. “Now you all will die.”

Then she popped out of existence.

26

“Oh, my love, did you miss me?” Selene cackled from right behind Rourke, popping back into this plane again exactly like the winged devils had done. I wasn’t familiar with how teleportation worked,

but I knew it was extremely rare and usually connected with the Underworld. Something to do with having one foot in both worlds, because transferring your body mass like that was tricky.

I blinked once and Rourke and Selene were on the ground in front of me, locked in battle.

His body began to morph as I watched, golden fur sprouting along his powerful arms. “You will answer for your deeds,” Rourke yelled, his voice full of malice. “Do you hear me? You will die a final death this time!” Blood poured from Selene’s lips as she grinned up at him. He smashed his fist into her neck just as she dematerialized. Rourke stood, fuming. “She’s going to be hard to catch,” he snarled, “and all I want to do is crush the life out of her.”

Now that we knew she could pop in and out, Selene was going to play with us like a kitten batting a ball.

Energy swirled around the cavern, bouncing off the walls. She was clearly enjoying her new lot in life as an Underworld whore. We all knew she couldn’t die no matter what we did to her now, and I

had a sinking feeling that her final encore had always been to blow the mountain up like she had threatened earlier. Even if she was lost to the explosion, she wouldn’t die.

“We’re going to have to surround her,” I murmured to Rourke. “If we all come at her at the same time we might have a chance.” Tyler and Danny had gone back-to-back, each of them on high alert.

Tyler clutched the pickax once again. “I’ve beaten all her magic so far, so it won’t hold me for long, if at all. If I can get her down without succumbing to her magic, I might be able to keep her in place long enough to do some damage.”

“Jess,” Tyler said. “Danny and I need to shift. There’s no way we can do this without a wolf counterattack. You bring her down; we rip her up.”

“Sounds good to me,” I replied.

They both dropped immediately and began to change into their wolf forms. It wouldn’t take them more than a minute.

“I can hear you,” Selene snapped from above us in an alcove. “You think you can best me by cornering me? Think again.” She twisted her wrist.

The spell hit me fully in the chest.

Her lines entered my body and left just as quickly, but the impact flung me backward. The only thing I registered before I hit the wall was Rourke’s frustrated snarl.

Selene gave a wicked shriek and I watched in horror as she materialized right next to him.

“Rourke! Look out!” I yelled as I scrambled to stand. She touched a single glowing red finger to his torso and he spasmed once and crashed to the ground.

I had to get to her before she popped out of sight again.

This is all you. We sprang in a blur.

My wolf latched on to her neck and I snarled through the canines in my mouth, biting deeply into her, taking great joy in tearing her pristine flesh. She tried to pop away from me, her magic swirling around us, prodding my skin. I caught hold of it, my gold strands winding their way into her magic. I

wove my power through her energy and synched it tight like a noose. “How does it feel now?” I

roared, releasing her neck, blood dripping down my chin.

“You are not stronger than I am,” Selene spat, her mouth already moving; magic quivered at her fingertips. “I will always have my spells.”

“No, you really won’t.” I smashed my fist into Selene’s mouth. Her jaw cracked, stopping her spell in its tracks, blood racing down the side of her face. “You are not going to win this time. You’re reign is over. Do you hear me?”

She spit blood out of her mouth, her jaw completely healed. “Is that so, mongrel?”

The room shook with power.

Sulfur began to seep into the cavern from every corner. I couldn’t pinpoint exactly where it came from. My wolf howled, changing her focus from Selene to the new threat. I kept my hold firmly on

Selene, my magic still keeping us intertwined. “You really did it, didn’t you?” I sneered at her in disgust. “You sold your entire soul to the Underworld. Not just part of it. You were banking on me being stronger than you, that I was going to win, so you sold yourself to the Underworld for help.” My hands slid up and clamped around her neck. “You’re nothing but a fraud, Selene. You deserve to die and go straight to hell. Lucky for you, it’s a very tangible place. I’m sure the Demon Lords have something special in store for you. It’s a shame we won’t be able to witnesses it.”

Selene twisted in my hold, her face hateful. “I win, you wench. Don’t you get it? The price of my soul makes me impossible to defeat. I made the deal of the millennium. Ultimate immortality.

Nothing can best me now, so I can never truly die. The Underworld can’t take me if I can’t die, so they will never have me.”

Incredible power enveloped me. It was dark and smelled like thick, rancid eggs. It pulled at me,

tearing my skin. “What—” I yelled as I was flung backward, like a giant hand had swiped me off my feet. My wolf snapped at the blackness that began to infiltrate our golden protection. I hit the wall and slid to the ground. “No. ” I uttered the single word with all the power I had inside me and the blackness danced back. It came at me again. “I said, NO!” I interlaced the word with the color inside my mind,

bonding my golden strands to my words.

The blackness shrank back and stayed away.

I stood.