Page 164 of His Retribution

"Hush your mouth!" I whisper-shout. "I am here to help and you damn well know why. Don't even try to pull the alpha male card with me mister, you five are in hot fucking water!"

He snorts again, shakes his enormous head, then stomps his foreleg into the ground.

"You bet your ass I'm telling Casey! I'm snitching on all of you jerk-faces the minute we get home!"

Milos has the nerve to give me a little growl so I let go of Zan's hand and step in front of him. "You keep this shit up and I'll make sure every last one of your mates withhold sex for at least a week!" I narrow my eyes. "So don't test me, buster, ‘cause us females gotta stick together and you bet your ass they'll be just as pissed as I am that you went to war without backup!"

"You can understand him?" Zan asks the back of my head. "Understand them in their dragon form?"

I turn slightly with a grin. "I am fae, remember? Animals are part of my gig."

He grins with a shake of his head but it falls almost immediately as another wave of vampires run our way.

Zan gets in front of me again, with Milos in front of both of us, but I'm fucking done playing games.

So just before Zan can grab my hand, I duck around him and start running toward the only open area by the mine.

"Cora!" Zan is already chasing me but I don't stop.

Instead I gear up, free my mind, open my heart, and channel as much power as possible to hopefully light up like a damn fireworks display.

"Here goes nothing." I plant my feet firm, tip my head and reach toward the sky. I visualize my parents, draw from their strength, tap into our bond and the immense power that resides there. My whole body starts to tingle, starts to charge, and when the vampires are so close I can practically feel them breathing down my neck, I fucking explode.

Electric blue light ten times brighter than sun shoots from my body and though no one else can, I see through it all. I watch those vampires detonate, some of them literally exploding into bloody chunks, others catching fire with white flames just like they would if they were exposed to the actual sun. Within a fraction of a second I completely wipe out all the New Ones that were outside and unintentionally knock Zan and all the dragons on their asses in the process.

I sway a little as my light dims but doesn't fade, my body a bit achy and head spinning a touch.

"That was a big one," I mumble to no one because Zan is still trying to get to his feet and the dragons are mostly on their backs.

A surge in my adrenaline, adrenaline coupled with so much rage it makes my stomach churn and races up my spine, and I know without even having to ask that it's from Havok.

Gathering myself a little more, I turn and start to stagger toward the mine, a simple five, maybe ten feet separating me from my mate.

And right before I'm about to walk in, Zan grabs me from behind.

"Wait," he almost groans at me. "Let me go first."

And since I'm sort of lightheaded, I do.

There are remnants of bodies just inside the mouth of the mine, six total that must have been nailed by my light before they had a chance to exit. Beyond them by a few feet is another trail of bodies but they are very obviously not casualties of my light.

No, these assholes have had their hearts ripped out and I can only assume that would be the work of my lovey.

I will be washing his hands in bleach when we get home, no doubt about that.

The tunnel is rather long, starts to grow steep the deeper we go, and when Havok's morbid trail of breadcrumbs abruptly stops where all light but mine ends, I grab the back of Zan's pants and move closer.

"Stillpeachy, my gem?"

"Shut it, Zan, or else I'll give you a wedgie."

His chuckle rumbles around us, echoes much louder than I'm comfortable with. "Even if you weren't glowing like a soft lantern in the middle of the night, I'd still be able to see for any possible threat."

"You have night vision like Havok?"

"I do. It's more effective than the dragon’s, but not quite as perfect as your mate’s. We would be fine no matter what."

I roll my eyes even though I know he can't see it. "Clearly we have different definitions offinebecause if we were actually fine we'd be back home eating a carton of ice cream while we talked about my parents. Then I'd be really fine when I went back to my house to crawl in bed with my mate where we'd—"