Wrath

weakened them at least some, and there weren’t nearly enough to overtake us.

Easy peasy, I thought just as they dove for us.

Not as easy as I expected, though. The sun barely affected these vamps, which meant they were older and, therefore, more experienced. They fought expertly, and it became apparent they’d been sent purposely to kill Amadis. Based on their thoughts, though, they hadn’t expected Tristan or me, and were a little unsure of what to do with us. They knew they couldn’t kill us, but they did their best to not let us get away.

I fought hard, slashing them with my dagger, elbowing them in the jaws, smashing their noses against my knee, and plowing my foot into temples and groins. The dagger did the most damage so I focused on using it, but they kept jumping out of my way. So I blasted lightning at them, then dove in, sending electricity through my dagger as I plunged it into a vamp’s ribs, straight into the heart. He bucked and screamed, and I jumped off, pulling my dagger with me, right before he flashed away.

Another vamp came for me, but I blasted her with electricity followed by Amadis power. Her body seized and convulsed, and I took the opportunity to slash my dagger across her chest and stomach. She fell to her knees, and her hands clawed at my legs. I swiped out again, opening a gash through her cheek. She screamed and disappeared. Tristan’s arm ensnared me, and he blurred us to his motorcycle, while he shot his power at the vamps on Char and Vanessa, and I blasted more Amadis power at anyone I could hit. The Daemoni flew far enough away that Char and Vanessa could scramble for their bike. Vanessa took the driver’s seat and Char hopped on the back, throwing up a shield and cloak around us as we took off.

We sped down the country roads, leaving the newborns behind. Again. This whole conversion thing and building our army was proving to be harder than I expected. Charlotte had been so busy with conversions the last couple of years, I thought it would be easy enough. One here and another two there had kept her and the safe houses busy and nicely full, but they weren’t enough now. Not at the rate the Daemoni were turning Normans. Especially when they kept ambushing us.

We had been cloaked and shielded in the church. How did the Daemoni even know we were there? How did they know to set the trap at that particular location?

Chapter 14

Foul mood didn’t begin to describe how I felt by the time we arrived back at the familiar house in Atlanta. I had to reign in all of my self-control to keep from punching something.

“Aikido?” Tristan asked as I stomped into the kitchen with him right behind me.

I glanced around the room—at the natural gas stove I had rarely ever cooked on but now missed so much, the granite-topped island, the decor that was still in the neutral beiges and browns Mom favored. She’d decorated it, after all, since I hadn’t cared much about what my home looked like at the time. And now here stood Tristan, the one piece that had been missing in those days. And even so, life remained incomplete. Probably always would be. Our lives would always be fu—

“It will help you relax,” Tristan said when I hadn’t replied.

I shrugged off my leather jacket and draped it over the back of a wooden chair at the kitchen table. “Yeah. Sounds good.”

He followed me out the rear door to the backyard. We walked around the pool reflecting the twilight sky and into the grass under the tall oak trees. And I went on the attack.

Tristan took every punch and kick I threw at him, but didn’t do much in the way of fighting back. I danced around him, and my gaze traveled over to the back fence, where two years ago I’d thought I’d seen him standing there watching me—where I had seen him but didn’t believe it—during my last days at this house. Emotions other than anger tried to break through and take over my heart. So I swung harder at Tristan as I reminded myself of why I hadn’t believed it was him at the time. Why he’d been gone so long. Who had held him captive. Who held our son now. Tristan deflected the punches easily. I threw all my force into a roundhouse kick, and he parried it.

“Fight back,” I growled at him, and knowing what I needed, he did. Everything I did became fiercer than the move before it as the fury swelled again, and I embraced it. I took the beating he gave me, and I delivered it right back to him.

“Stop,” he finally said as he grabbed me around the waist from behind, pinning my arms against my body. I squirmed against his hold.

“No.”

“This is supposed to be relaxing, and you’re not relaxing. If anything, you’re getting more worked up.”

“Good. That’s what I need.”

He held me tighter, his breaths lifting his chest against my shoulder blades. “Talk to me. Tell me what’s going on in that head of yours.”

I fell still. “What the hell do you think? I’m pissed at them for taking Dorian, but that’s okay. I need to be. I want to be.”

“It’s more than that. You’ve been harboring anger for weeks.” His cheek pressed against mine, his tangy- sweet scent wafting into my nose and mouth as his breath tickled my lips. “What else, ma lykita? What else is wrong?”

I huffed. “Oh, I don’t know. Let’s see. My protector—the guy who’s like a brother to me—betrayed us. We haven’t made any progress in finding Dorian, probably because they have a cloak on him, which means we’ll never be able to locate him, let alone rescue him because we don’t have a mage strong enough to break through. We’ve converted a whole four people in the last week, which is nothing compared to the number of humans the Daemoni have infected in the Atlanta area alone, but it doesn’t matter because even if we converted three times as many, we still wouldn’t compare and we don’t have a place to put them all!” I inhaled a deep breath before continuing. “Blossom and Jax seem to have something going on, but we don’t get a chance to talk about such normal things, and what’s the point anyway when we’re in the midst of what could become World War III, which will be unlike any war this world has seen? And you and I . . . shit, Tristan. The stone hasn’t worked yet in giving us a daughter, but it’s not like we’ve had much chance to let it work.”

“Ah.” His arms released me only for his hands to clamp on my shoulders and turn me around to face him, and then he pulled me in closer. “I understand.”

I studied his face before falling into his stunning eyes, the gold sparkling beautifully at the moment. My brow furrowed. “You understand what?”

“Everything.” The corners of his lips tipped up in a sexy smirk. “But mostly, I understand exactly what you need.” His head dipped down, and his lips pressed against my neck. “You’re sexually frustrated.”

I snorted. “Possibly. Okay, very much probably. But I think it’s the least of my problems.”

“Maybe.” His mouth opened slightly and his tongue swept over the sensitive spot under my ear. “But it’s one problem I can solve right this very minute.”

I steadied my legs as my knees began to quiver. “Right this minute?”

“Well,” he sucked on my ear lobe, and he may as well have sucked in a very different place, as it had the same effect, “over the next many minutes. Maybe hours, but I don’t think you can last that long.”

I chuckled, the sound husky as my body responded to his hands, which had slid down my arms and fell to my waist, his long fingers sliding under the waistband of my leathers. He grasped my hips and pulled me up against him so my breasts pressed against his hard chest and his erection pressed against my belly. He kissed his way along my jaw until his mouth finally reached mine.

“Unfortunately, under the circumstances, I don’t think you can solve this problem,” I said against his lips. He sucked my bottom one into his mouth, scraping his teeth over it before letting go.

“What circumstances?”

I let out a sigh. “My issues? Too many people here? The whole reason I’m frustrated in the first place?”

His tongue swept out, over my lips, into my mouth. I met it with my own, practically losing myself in the kiss. My mind opened wide.

“What people?” Tristan asked, feeling me inside his head.