Page 118

Dane

T he car’s impact had Dane staggering backward, but he managed to stay on his feet. A quick glance to the right confirmed Fox had as well, and he was already at the driver’s door, dragging the guy who had to be Robert out of his seat.

Luckily the car hadn’t worked up to highway speeds or they would have been flattened.

Sharp stabs of pain from multiple directions let Dane know his wrist was fucked and he had, at the very least, a few broken ribs. Whatever. Vampire healing would take care of those by the end of the day. Any number of injuries would have been worth it—anything to keep them from taking Colin.

Colin.

Dane could sense him in that car—he would swear he could. Their human. His fear and his relief.

Serena was exiting the passenger’s seat, disheveled but unfortunately unharmed, her eyes wide and pleading. “Oh, thank God! He—he grabbed me. He’s been following me all along. I should have known.”

“She’s lying,” came Colin’s voice from inside the car, surprisingly level. “She’s a fucking monster.”

Dane could have already guessed, but he was so relieved to hear Colin’s voice that he’d paused in his tracks.

His split second of inattention cost him.

Serena had him flat on his back in an instant, her nails clawing at his face. Fuck, those things were sharp. Dane grabbed at her wrists, halting their trajectory before she could get at his eyes. He jammed a knee up to roll them over, but before he could, she was ripped out of his grasp.

He blinked into the sun to make out Luc holding Serena by the neck, shaking her like a wayward pup. His vampire face was back out, and he had Jamie at his side. Apparently those visions didn’t keep the green-haired punk down for long.

Dane didn’t wait to see how they’d fare with her. He leaped off the pavement and ran to the back door of the car, yanking it open. There was Colin, wide-eyed and panting, with blood and tear tracks on his beautiful face.

Dane’s devil was already roiling with rage, but now it screamed inside him. Our mate is INJURED .

But Dane couldn’t let anger get the best of him. He needed to get Colin safe. “C’mon, baby,” he urged, unbuckling his seatbelt. “Out of the car.”

Colin blinked at him. “I can’t run.”

Fuck, were his legs broken? Dane swallowed down a cry. “Then I’ll carry you.”

“No.” Colin shook his head dazedly. “I can’t escape . She compelled me. I keep trying, but it’s like my body won’t move.”

Dane got one arm behind Colin’s back and one under his knees. “Like I said, I’ll carry you.”

“No.” Colin pushed at him, still resistant. “The kid first.”

He tilted his head to the side, and Dane looked over to see—for the first time—that there was a small boy on the opposite side of the back seat. He’d been so focused on Colin it hadn’t even registered. Fuck. Colin would never let him help until the kid was safe, would he?

Dane let out a harsh breath and forced himself to step back from his injured mate. He ran to the other side of the car and hauled the small boy out and into his arms. The kid was completely silent, his eyes shining with unshed tears, but he wasn’t bleeding anywhere that Dane could tell.

Small mercies.

Dane searched around. There. Their neighbor Mrs. Brown was on her porch, in her Bermuda shorts and polo, her mouth hanging open with shock.

Good enough.

Dane let his human face resurface as he ran up, dropping the kid gently at her feet. “Take him inside,” he instructed. “Call the police. Tell them there’s been a kidnapping.”

It wasn’t like the police would hold out all that well against two hostile vamps, but with any luck, by the time they arrived, those two would be secured, and it would only be a matter of some deft compulsion to make the rest of it go away.

Mrs. Brown stared at him, her mouth still agape. “Wha-What’s going on? Dane? Honey?”

Dane looked to the street. The car was stalled in the middle of it, its front bumper crumpled from where he and Fox had stopped it.

Fox had Robert in a headlock, and at some point, Jay and Alexei had arrived, Alexei moving to help Fox in his efforts.

Luc and Jamie were still grappling with Serena by the car.

“Citizens’ arrest. Human traffickers.”

He probably should have just compelled her to begin with, but maybe the dementia was setting in early, because Mrs. Brown nodded as if that made some kind of sense. “Oh. All right.”

She reached a hand down for the kiddo just as Dane heard the telltale sound of a neck snapping. Before he could turn to see who it was, the kid started absolutely wailing , crying like he had eight years’ worth of tears built up inside him.

That was Serena down, then. Her compulsion must have cut off as she lost consciousness. A snapped neck wouldn’t kill her—they’d need complete decapitation for that—but it would keep her down long enough to take her elsewhere and do the job properly.

They weren’t letting these two live; that was for certain.

But if her compulsion had broken…

Dane whirled to see Colin tumbling out of the back seat, barely managing to stay on his feet. Dane was at his side in an instant. “Hey. Hey, you’re okay.” He wasn’t sure which one of them he was reassuring with his useless words. “Where else are you hurt, baby?”

He started patting Colin down, and when he hit Colin’s right arm, Colin hissed. Dane realized for the first time what an awkward angle it was hanging it. Fury threatened to overtake him again, his devil chanting a mess of words about their injured mate. “They broke your arm?”

Colin gave one sharp nod. “Lady’s got anger management issues.” He started looking around frantically. “Where’s Fox? Is he okay?”

“He’s fine,” Dane said in the same moment they heard the sharp crack of another snapped neck. He already knew it was Robert. Fox would never let a slimy coward like that get the drop on him.

Sure enough, Fox was at their side in the next second. Dane blocked him before he could repeat the pat down on Colin. “Broken arm,” he told him. “Cut on his head. Possibly a concussion. We should get him to a hospital.”

Colin glared at him. “I fucking hate hospitals. I’m not going. Not until this is all sorted.”

In the next second, they were surrounded by the other vamps. Dane growled, long and low. It didn’t matter that these guys were all on their side—his devil didn’t like it, all these relative strangers so close. Not when their mate was hurt.

Luckily, Alexei had the sense to hold Jay back before the little vampire could reach out and touch their human. Smart man, that one. “What’s the plan?” he asked.

Jamie spoke up. He had a jagged cut on his face, one that was already closing in front of their eyes.

“The car’s still running. Luc and I can take the bodies back to our property.

We have, um—” He glanced at Colin, who looked back at him calmly.

“We’ve got the tools to manage what needs to be done. ”

“And disposal?” Fox asked gruffly.

Jamie gave him a lopsided grin. “We’re good there too.”

“All right.” Dane let out a breath. “Alexei, can you handle the neighbor? She’ll need some memory adjustments. The boy too. And the cops, for that matter.”

Alexei nodded, his arms still wrapped around Jay, who seemed content enough to be held, although his concerned eyes stayed on Colin. “I’m on it.”

“Alexei has lots of practice evading the authorities,” Jay told them, patting at his mate’s arm.

Dane had no fucking clue what that meant, but he didn’t care.

Everyone dispersed, although not before Jay had reassurance from Colin that he wasn’t going to be dropping dead in the next five minutes.

Dane studied his brutalized mate, his battered body and the blood on his face. They could have taken him from them. They could have killed him.

Five more minutes and they would have been gone.

Dane couldn’t stand it another fucking second.

He dropped to his knees, pressing his face into Colin’s flat stomach.

He inhaled deeply, steadying himself with his scent, before tilting his head up and meeting Colin’s eyes.

“Please,” Dane begged. “Please let us turn you. Let us keep you. I promise we’ll take good care of you, no matter what happens.

You’ll never regret it. We’ll make sure of it. Please .”

“Holy shit.” It was a testament to their combined worry that, for once, Fox wasn’t laughing. “You finally broke him, slayer.”

Colin met Dane’s eyes. Dane tried to put every bit of his love into his gaze.

Because there was no use denying it—Dane loved him.

He loved his bravery, his curiosity. He loved the fact that even though he’d been judged and burned before, he still didn’t give a fuck what other people thought.

That he made his own judgments, made up his own mind.

He was fierce, and he was kind, and he was everything Dane and Fox needed in their lives.

He needed Colin to say yes. He needed it more than he’d ever needed anything.

Colin glanced at Fox, his expression unreadable. “You want this too?”

Fox stepped in close, cupping Colin’s cheek with his hand. “You’re staying with us. Forever. He may be asking, but I’m not. You’re our fucking mate, and we’re keeping you.”

Colin’s answering smile was a thing of beauty. “All right, then. I guess you’re keeping me.”

Dane and Fox brought him to Fox’s bedroom and cleaned the blood off his face, Fox licking his head wound closed, looking like a mama cat with a kitten. The broken arm, they couldn’t do anything for, but it would heal on his own, as he turned—the way Dane’s illness had, so many years ago.

As he watched Colin, surprisingly docile under Fox’s care, Dane’s devil was chanting inside him, Mate. Mate. Mate. He knew Fox’s was doing the same.

They were turning him. Finally. Making him one of them. Making him theirs , even more than he was already.

Just like those two were going to make a child theirs?