“What’s wrong?” Delta demands, her grip on Crux’s arm as he slumps over slightly, his hand grippin’ his chest like he’s in the middle of a heart attack.
I feel Flint stumble behind me, and I shove my shoulder beneath his arm to keep him upright. “What the hell is goin’ on?” I ask shrilly, panic stainin’ my voice as I take in the pained faces of Delta’s and my mates.
All at once, the guys seem to come to the same conclusion, their eyes meetin’ as they all give the same reply. “Something broke through the Hellgate.”
34
Our feet pound through the house, our stampede of eight sprintin’ down the stairs and headin’ straight for the front door.
Somethin’ broke through the Hellgate.
“Where’s the attack?” Delta shouts out as we all pour out of the mansion and start runnin’ over the gravel.
“We don’t know!” Jerif calls back. “We have to check all the portals.”
As we race to the side of the mansion, I give up on tryin’ to keep up with their long legs and leap up into the air and take flight.
I call my scythe into my hand and pump my wings hard before I realize I don’t even know where I’m goin’. I know they said their gate is in the cemetery in a mausoleum, but I’m not exactly sure where to go.
In a second, Delta is in the air too. “We’ll go check it out!” she calls down to the guys, her own scythe gripped in her hand.
“Medley, Delta, no!” angry voices shout, the order trailin’ after us as we take off.
“It could be a trap!” Rafferty bellows out, but Delta doesn’t stop, so I follow in her wake as we speed toward the graveyard in the distance.
Rafferty’s warnin’ wraps around me, but I fling it away. If it’s a trap, better to have it sprung without our mates in the middle of it. They’re not the only ones with the need to protect their mates.
Together, Delta and I grip our scythes and fly fast over an expansive array of greenery before we pass trimmed shrubs and a fence that wraps around the perimeter of the graveyard. We fly straight past it, our wings pumpin’ hard, until Delta circles a massive white stone mausoleum.
“This is it?” I call over to her.
She nods. “Yeah, but nothing’s here…” she trails off, her brow furrowed with confusion, and we both realize at the same time that whatever attack they feel, it’s not happenin’ here.
Delta turns on a dime and starts flyin’ back toward the guys, who haven’t even made it to the cemetery yet, and I quickly spin to follow her lead.
We zoom through the sky until we spot our mates runnin’ full out toward us. “It’s not ours,” Delta yells down at her now irate mates.
“Delta, get your ass down here!” Jerif yells, but she ignores him and instead speeds off toward the part of the driveway that’s far enough out that we can shift away.
“Medley Bell, don’t you even think about leaving before we get there,” Alder barks up at me, his eyes lookin’ like darkenin’ whiskey. As much as I only like bein’ bossed around between the sheets, I agree that it would be dumb not to wait for backup before leavin’ for another gate and into who knows what.
Flyin’ past the mansion, Delta lands in the safe zone of the driveway, and I’m right behind her, gravel crunchin’ under my feet as I land.
“We should wait, Delta,” I tell her.
“I know, we will, but if the tables were turned, they’d leave me out if they thought it would protect me. I don’t want them to get a chance to try to leave us behind,” she tells me, and I nod in understandin’.
That night at Delta’s house when we were talkin’, she told me how her demons had been on overprotective mode lately. I understand how that could be annoyin’, especially when she’s been an independent person for so long, but I also understand why they’d be that way too. I know she’s on the same page and that she gets it too, but it doesn’t make any of it easier to deal with.
I flex my wings and make the metal blades on my scythe retract as we wait, and Delta shifts from foot to foot, her bottom lip trapped between her teeth with worry. I haven’t learned how to shift yet, so I’m dependent on the others to be brought along, and just like Delta said, I definitely don’t wanna be left behind. The waitin’ and the not knowin’ if they were okay would kill me, and I don’t want the guys to get it in their heads that they can leave us out.
When our mates come racin’ around the side of the mansion, they’re a sight to witness. If I was a horde of demons tryin’ to break into a place I had no business bein’ and I saw this group comin’ my way, you best believe I’d turn my little ass around and head on home. They are scary.
Jerif, Rafferty, and Alder get to us first. Jerif reaches out and wraps his palm around the back of Delta’s neck like he means to be her leash. “Do not break ahead of us like that. You put yourself at risk!” he snarls.
“We have wings,” she snaps back. “We’re going to use them, and you’re going to have to deal with it.”
He looks like he wants to shoot fire out of his eyes, but Flint, Crux, and Echo skid to a stop beside us just then, and both my mates take my hands with a squeeze. They look upset, riddled with stress, and Alder leans in to brush lips against my ear. “Just tell us next time, okay? We need to all be on the same page.” I nod in understandin’.
“You need to stay
