Wrath

gold.

She looped an arm around each of theirs, then continued her strut toward the police cars, the two officers gladly moving along with her. I couldn’t read her thoughts, and all the cops’ minds had pretty much turned to mush.

“We really don’t want to hurt you,” she said. “That’s not who we are.”

“So you’re . . . you’re,” the first officer who had cut Vanessa stammered. “Shit. What’re they called? The Amadeaus?”

So they knew about us? Who were these county cops in the middle of nowhere?

Bree’s eyes settled on him, full of warmth. “The Amadis.”

“And you’re them?” he asked as his tongue slipped over his lips.

“Oh, I’m not,” Bree said with a mischievous grin.

“Oh, fuck,” whispered a cop from behind one of the cars. “We’re all gonna die.”

The second one’s pants darkened in his crotch area.

They misunderstood Bree, not knowing she could be neither, although she did favor the Amadis greatly. After all, she’d sacrificed herself to serve the Angels.

Were they scared because they knew we weren’t normal humans? Or because they thought we were Daemoni? I couldn’t get anything from their addled brains.

“Please don’t hurt us,” the first cop said. “We’ll do anything. If I could only have a—” Looking as though he had no control over himself, he leaned closer to Bree, his gaze dropped to her lips, and his voice lowered to a whisper. “—a taste.”

Bree let go of the other cop, who sank to his knees at her feet, apparently oblivious to his wet pants. She swiped a finger down the first officer’s cheek as she gazed into his eyes. His expression slackened as he became completely helpless.

“Who put you here?” she cooed.

“I . . . I don’t understand,” he said, his expression pleading for her mercy. A check into his mind told me he wanted more than her mercy—he wanted everything she could give him, and he’d willingly do anything to get it.

“Who told you to put up this roadblock?”

“We heard . . . we heard they move in packs, like gangs. They like danger and often travel by motorcycle.” He swallowed, then licked his lips again, his body leaning ever closer to Bree’s golden form. “The Tail of the Dragon’s always been a good time for their type.”

I focused in on his thoughts more, picking up vague images of Norman biker gangs they’d stopped. Then a stray thought popped into his mind. “Be careful how you handle them. They’re evil and will gladly eat you for breakfast. Or make you one of them.”

The voice belonged to Pastor Rick McCorkle.

They’re okay, I thought for everyone to hear. Of course, Bree couldn’t hear me, though. They’re working for us!

“We’re Amadis,” Tristan said aloud for Bree’s benefit. “We’re the good guys. The ones you work for.”

He returned to his motorcycle and nodded at me to join him. We both mounted, as did the rest of our group.

“See?” Bree said. “We’re all working for the same thing. So you can move your cars and let us go on our way.”

The cop nodded helplessly. Bree let him go, and as she strolled toward us, she gave me a wink. Three of the cops jumped into the driver’s seats of their cars but didn’t have a chance to move them.

Daemoni! I screamed into everyone’s heads as soon as I picked up the mind signatures that popped into my range.

The air swooshed over us as Charlotte threw up a shield and a cloak over everyone in our group. But she’d only been able to protect us. Metal smashed into metal as a white van slammed into the cop cars. Flames erupted from the van’s windows and quickly spread to the cars nearby. Several Daemoni vamps and Weres jumped out of the van, patting out the flames that burned on their clothes. A moment later, the van exploded, shaking the ground under our feet. Shrapnel flew in the air and rained back down. Black smoke rose and spread on the spring breeze, bringing the acrid smell of burning chemicals with it.

They’d used a homemade bomb to decimate the checkpoint.

“That was kick-ass!” one of the Daemoni exclaimed before he blurred over to the car farthest away. “This one’s good. Still alive.”

“This one, too, but barely,” said a female.

“Oh, dear God,” Sheree whispered. “They’re going to turn them.”

“We need to stop them.” Charlotte dismounted her bike.

“Wait. No,” I said. “Let them do their thing. Then we go in, kill the Daemoni, and convert the newborns.”

“Alexis—” Tristan said.

“Fine. So we don’t kill the Daemoni unless there’s no hope. But we can add the new ones to our own army.”

“We’re not going to let them be turned in the first place,” Char said.

“But we need them,” I argued. We needed every soul we could get on our side.

“Our purpose is to protect human souls,” Sheree said as she put a hand on my arm.

I groaned with frustration, mostly with myself. I didn’t have to dig deep to know she was right. I couldn’t believe I’d even suggested it. I’d let desperation cloud my judgment, and that wasn’t good.

“Of course,” I breathed.

Charlotte dropped the shields and cloaks, then crouched into fighting position, her palms out, ready to cast spells.

“I knew I’d smelled stinkin’ Amadis,” one of the Daemoni vampires sneered as she glared at us. “Wondered where you’d gone. Figured you’d cowered out.”

“Leave the innocents alone,” Tristan called out to them as he, Vanessa, and I slowly approached the burning rubble, while the rest of our group stayed back. Well, I thought they all had. A white crocodile meandered up next to me, and a tiger strode next to Tristan, her fangs bared.

The Daemoni blurred at us, as though wanting nothing more than a fight. Maybe that was the real reason they’d shown up, knowing these policemen served the Amadis, so surely there were some around. As far as my mind could find, we were the only ones.

I blasted electricity at a vamp at the same time Tristan hit him with debilitating power. The bloodsucker fell to the ground instantly, and Jax scooped him into his large jaws and shook him like a ragdoll. The female who’d been taunting us swung a punch at me, but I parried it, taking the brunt of the pain in my forearm rather than my head. I flicked my other hand and my dagger slid out of its sheath at my hip and landed in my palm as I clenched my fist. With a quick swipe of my thumb, the blade appeared right before I sliced it across the vamp’s shoulder. Her scream could make a person’s toes curl, but I didn’t let up. I gripped her arm with my left hand and shot Amadis power into her until she fell to her knees and shrieked for mercy.

But something came over me, and all I could see was Dorian’s face. All I could feel was outrage exploding within me, not unlike their homemade bomb.

I grabbed the vampire with my other hand and electricity poured out of my palm directly into her body. Her form lit up with a bluish glow. Then smoke began to rise. Her skin started turning purple, and a saccharine stench filled the air. The sweet smell of Daemoni death.

“Alexis!” Tristan’s arms came from behind me, and his hands wrapped around my wrists and tightened until I could no longer push my powers out. “We don’t kill.”

“They have our son,” I snarled, glaring at the vamp whose hair had fried off as her crispy body twitched at my feet. “Where is he?”

She gave a minute shake of her head.

“WHERE. IS. HE?” I screamed.

“I . . . I don’t know,” she stammered.