Page 24 of Between Bloode and Death (Between the Shadows #5)

CHAPTER

TWENTY-THREE

Val stared in astonishment at the arrogant, too-sexy-for-his-own-good reaper. “What did you say?”

He shooed her toward Talon. “Give your friend my challenge. So that he may say goodbye properly. Death is everlasting, as we both know.”

“What?” Talon and Val said as one.

“Is it just me? Or are they hard of hearing?” Rolf asked.

“It’s just you,” Riley answered. “And Kraft, not one word.”

Her mate opened his mouth and closed it, not speaking. He looked wolfish the more Val studied him. A lot like Riley, Talon’s berserker friend.

Oh boy. How to get out of this? “You’re joking, right?” she asked Khent.

“I allowed your bird friend to come to our home without molestation. But a challenge to me must be answered. He threatened to destroy everything I care about. Thus he deserves to die.”

The vampires with him nodded.

“I see no issue with this,” Rolf added.

Riley stared at them. “It’s true. You’re all really weird.”

“She means weird in the best way,” Kraft gushed. “Don’t you, my darling puppy?”

Riley made a face at him before grinning. “You’re such an idiot.”

Before Val could take care of Khent’s nonsense, Rolf scowled and said, “Hey. I forgot to ask… You guys were out with Varu and the others looking for the stones. Why are you here?”

Kraft answered, “Varu sent us back to check on something else. He and the others are busy enough, so Riley and I are hanging here. He wants us to talk to Hecate about” —he glanced at Val and Talon— “stuff.”

Rolf nodded. “Oh. Right. Stuff. Gotcha.”

“None of you make a lick of sense.” Khent turned to face Talon once more.

Val had used their inattention to position herself in front of her friend, her arms crossed over her chest.

Khent glared at her. “My pet, I have business with your bird friend.”

“No, you have business with me.”

“Oh, game on.” Rolf rubbed his hands together with glee. “My money is on the human.”

Kraft studied her, looked back at Khent, then nodded. “I say Khent kills the bird but leaves the human alive for a while. He’ll kill her later.”

“No way,” Rolf argued. “He’s going to kill them both, revive Val, then do naughty things to her.” Everyone looked at him. “Oh please. That’s what I’d do. It makes sense.” No one spoke, and he added in a huff, “Am I wrong?”

Val swallowed her fear. She hadn’t come this far in her life to succumb to nerves. Even if she was surrounded by enemies who could kill her in a heartbeat. She put out a silent call to Grizz, leaving Aisha to monitor the house. She also passed along orders to alert the shifters to readiness.

All she had to do now was kill time until Grizz arrived.

“I can’t believe you’re this petty,” she said.

Khent blinked. “Petty?”

“He was worried about me. The same way you’d be worried about Rolf or Kraft.”

Rolf laughed, and even Kraft chuckled.

“Worried? Vampires don’t worry,” Khent said, and it didn’t sound like a boast. “Besides. If you could kill them, weak as you are, I’d commend you. And it would say terrible things about their past patriarchs, to have raised such vulnerable, sickly vampires.”

Now Kraft and Rolf looked ready to tear into Khent. Perfect.

“Weak? I’ll give you weak.” Kraft launched himself at Khent while Rolf cheered him on.

After a few minutes, Riley joined Val and Talon, who, to Val’s concerned eye, looked totally washed out. Something was wrong with him, well, more than usual.

“They do this a lot,” Riley explained. “Hecate’s magic is only good for keeping them from killing each other. A miracle in itself. But they still like fighting each other.” She studied Talon and Val. “You still owe me, Talon.”

“Sue me,” he growled. “I did the best I could under the situation. And I gave you an antidote.”

“You fucking poisoned us!”

“Well, kind of.”

Even Val frowned at him for that. “I told you to blackmail them. Not poison them.”

He waved away her bazillionth I-told-you-so. “Poor judgement, I admit. Look, I didn’t want you guys to die. I wanted you to kill the hell beast. Which you did.”

Riley glowered, and her eyes lit up.

“How was I to know Val only had the antidote for one of you?”

Great. Now Riley was looking at her.

Val held up her hands in surrender. “Hey. The plan wasn’t to poison you. It was to poison the beast. And you were amazing, so I hear. With the hell beast gone and Sebastian Castle dead, that leaves only a troublesome necromancer to kill.”

“Yeah, about that.” Riley stared at her. “Rumor has it you’re a necromancer too. You know, if MEC finds out, they’ll take you in. Probably cap you.”

“What?”

Riley nodded. “Not that I owe you anything, but I don’t agree with killing people just because you don’t like their magic.”

Talon frowned. “Wait. That law is still in effect?”

“But no one really knows what I am,” Val said. “Just Talon, the shifters who are loyal to us, and you guys.”

Riley shrugged. “Thing is, if one vamp knows, they all know. And Duncan, our revenant, is mated to Macy—a member of MEC. She’s their Bloode Witch.”

“Shit. I forgot about that.” Talon rubbed his eyes. “I’m so tired.”

Val heard the truth in his words—tired of living. She rubbed his back. “It’ll be over soon, Talon. I swear. We’ll get him.”

“Him who?” Riley asked.

Talon gave her a summary of Spectre—Vladimir—and why he needed to be stopped.

The berserker looked thoughtful. “Interesting. Someone’s been moving a lot of pieces around the board. All this death and destruction to distract us? Or is it to help the big bad coming?” She stared hard at Val. “What’s your piece in this? Are you and Khent a thing or what?”

“What?” Val choked. “A thing? What kind of thing? A predator/prey thing? An asshole/ helpless human thing? Or maybe a—”

“Master and servant thing,” Khent interrupted, putting himself between her and Talon. “Hands off, bird. Or I’ll pluck every feather from your body.”

“You will not,” Val said before Talon could commit death by vampire. He had a look about him that said he wouldn’t mind, no matter their plans to wait before confronting Vladimir.

“Do you mean to deny what your Better has said?”

Riley sighed. “Oh hell. Not that ‘Better’ crap again.”

Val felt Grizz close by, smiled, and subtly nudged Talon back. “You should bow to me, vampire. Because I am far superior in all matters aligned with death.”

Then she jumped away as Grizz plummeted from the sky, pounding Khent deep into the earth.

All went silent.

Everyone stared at Val in befuddlement.

But when Grizz flew out of the depression in the ground he’d left, she spotted no sign of Khent.

“Ah, now that is a challenge I happily accept,” the reaper growled as he knocked Grizz into and through the house.

Rolf laughed. “Oh yeah! Place your bets, people. Things are finally getting interesting.”