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“How is it that she’s bonded to someone other than you again?” Her smirk edges into a complete smile. All the comfort in her image wavers momentarily as the malice in it strikes me.

“I’m not rushing, Mother,” I sigh in exasperation. Why haven’t I eaten her again? Oh yeah, I love her.

“Someone else is rushing. And more will come, you know that,” she warns, wagging a finger at me.

I wonder if that’s really the gesture she used or if this is part of her illusion.

“I don’t care. Honestly, the more people I can get to guard her, the better. My mate is a trouble magnet. It isn’t like she has a limit on how many husbands she can have.”

“You are forgetting that she was raised as aHuman, Benji. They are habitually monogamous.”

“Ridiculous,” I shake my head.

“Yes but try to see it from her point of view. She has a single bond already. Who’s to say she will not simply end her search there?”

My stomach sinks as her words sucker punch me right in the gut.

“You should find this person and ensure they stay dead, pet. I understand that a new bond can help balance the madness of losing another,” she tempts me with a sweet smile.

I roll my eyes, “He’s immortal, Mother. That would be a never-ending uphill climb.”

“An immortal, you say?” She straightens and clasps her hands excitedly. “Perhaps the TGT agent she was housed with? The gunslinger?”

“The very same. As it happens, he’s also the assassin you were looking for. I will say this for Bees, and I hope you take it seriously. He ishers. No touching, no manipulating.”

“Of course,” she gasps in dismay, placing a hand over her chest.

“Don’t hurt yourself by faking it, Mom.” I say dryly.

“Oh posh,” she waves her hand dismissively with a frown. “Even you can admit that cracking open the mystery of him would be intoxicating.”

“I’ll be right back. Can you make sure she’s ok? Feed her? Make her sleep in the nest. My scent will comfort her and -”

“Just go, pet, you’ve become nauseating,” she deadpans and looks around my floor with a curled lip. “I thought I trained those hopeless romantic notions out of you. When was the last time a maid cleaned in here?”

Aaaand I’m out.

Quickly opening a dimensional portal, I step up and directly out onto the front lawn of the TGT house.

Or what’s left of it.

The portal took me to the fence line, thank the Old Ones. Otherwise, I would be in a crater flailing around.

What happened after I left? Oh man, how long would it take an Immortal to come back from becoming ash?

My car.

I don’t bother to contain the baying as rage consumes me.

I shift and begin searching for it in the rubble. I scent it farther down, where the fires still burn, a combination of noxious mage fire with a dash of dragon’s flame. One will make the flames stick like glue, and the other will add to the longevity of the blaze.

If the protect spell worked as promised, the concussive force of the blast won’t have affected it at all. But the combination in this spell is rare and unstable, not something you generally plan for with vehicle insurance.

There it is. Contained in its bubble of protection underneath shards of glass, stone, and ash. It’s settled into the basement level of the manor, wedged there by the protective shield. Whoever set this blast was thorough. It would have set off all the hexes hiding inside and dissipated them simultaneously. Minus the cost of a veritable fortress of a house.

Not my problem.

It pains me to walk away from my first vehicle, but I force myself to do it. I could raise it from its trap down there, but I’m not willing to risk damaging it with more rough handling. I’ll leave that to the experts.