I needed to end this. I needed to find my mom, kill Ironshot and get the hell out of there. I took a step toward the stairs, but Ronan grabbed my arm, stopping me.
“Where are you going, love?” He eyed me.
“You know what I’m doing,” I replied through clenched teeth.
“Love, we need to go. I promise you’ll get your vengeance, but not today. Please. Let’s get out of here. Together.”
He was pleading with me as if it were for my own good but I could see how tired he actually was. He’d survived for months on nothing more than water and very little food. He’d just slaughtered a bunch of casters. He was wiped out. Ronan was a badass but even badasses had their limit and he was reaching his.
“Okay,” I told him and turned my ear toward the stairs, listening and still hearing no one alive in the house but us. “Don’t read too much into this,” I then said and wrapped my arm around his waist, and carried him with vampire speed up the stairs, through the house, and out the front door. I was waiting for someone to stop us but there was no one around. Not a single soul, just as I’d heard. When we reached the sidewalk, I kept my arm around his waist and he put his around my shoulders as we quickly walked away from Ironshot’s house of horrors.
We walked a couple of blocks before turning down a deep alley. I looked back out onto the street, realizing I was back in Boston, of all places. My gaze shifted to Ronan, who was looking down at me and I smiled, but he didn’t smile back. He looked around cautiously, as if he were waiting for someone to drag us back. It was like they let us go. Ironshot always had a reason for the things he did and I had no doubt he let us go for a reason. It was way too easy. Opening a portal, we stepped out of the dingy Boston alley and into the lush green grass of the California mansion’s backyard.
* * *
“Oh shit! Emelia? Is that you?”
Camille was one of the supes training on the lawn. When she realized it was me, she ran toward me, nearly knocking Ronan and me down in the process.
“Go! Get Xander and Matias!” she shouted to one of the other supes. My heart skipped a beat and I immediately looked up and around for them, but then Ronan’s legs began to give out and he started to fall.
“Ronan!” I shrugged out of Camille’s hold and rushed him over to a nearby chair, lowering him into it.
“I’m fine, lass. I just need to rest, I swear.” He sagged into the chair and I knew he wasn’t fine. He looked exhausted.
Next thing I knew, I was swept up in Matias’ arms and held tight against his chest. His nose went to my neck, breathing me in. “You’re okay,” he murmured against my throat. “We couldn’t find you. I couldn’t find you…”
“Emi!” Xan pulled me from Matias’ grasp and picked me up. “Is it really you?”
“It’s me. I’m fine, I promise.”
My words came out as a whisper, the emotion thick in my throat. I was home. I made it home. I tried to wiggle free so I could look at him but he just pulled me in closer.
“Honey, I will tell you everything, but I need you to put me down. Please.”
Xan reluctantly lowered me to my feet and let me back away, but he wouldn’t let me go. I looked up at him and saw what my kidnapping had done to him and Matias. Dark circles were prominent under Xan’s eyes as if he’d barely slept, and both men had a look of ferocious desperation about them.
I touched Matias’ face and he closed his eyes at my touch. I turned back to Xander and touched his face with my other hand. He clenched his jaw then kissed my palm quickly before holding it in place on his face. My men. I missed them so much and I’d put them through hell with my disappearance.
“Millie…”
Xander and Matias both cut their eyes to Ronan, who was still sitting in the chair and looking a little uncomfortable with the affection I was showing them.
“Is that where you were? You went looking for him?” Xander was angry. He thought I left to find Ronan without telling anyone.
“No, I was kidnapped,” I snapped at him. “I’d never leave either one of you like that.” Xan and Matias’ expressions turned deadly at my procolation.
“Oh hell, Emelia!” Dev wrapped me in a hug pulling me away from all my mates. “Don’t you ever do that to any of us again or I swear, I’ll kill you.”
“I’ll try my best, Dev.”
He sat me down and I could see he suffered while I was gone as well. He’d just lost his boyfriend in the most horrific way and then I disappeared without a clue. No one knew if I was dead or alive.
“I’m so sorry,” I told them all. “I will tell you everything, I promise. I just need to take care of one thing first. Has anyone seen Alec?”
Most of the supes who lived in the house were outside and surrounding us by that point. They looked around at each other, confused at my question until one person spoke up.
“He told me he was going for a swim,” a vampire named Victor said.
Nodding my thanks, I kissed each of my mates, including an exhausted Ronan and teleported to the doorway of the indoor pool area. I didn’t have to look for long to find Alec. I could see his dark head sticking up out of the pool as he had a woman pushed up against the wall. I could feel the flirting all the way across the room and I rolled my eyes,
