“I know.” Her voice was flat. “I spoke to Roger more times today than a non-shifter really wants to.”
Steve chuckled, and spears of agony drilled into his left side. The chuckles turned to coughs, creating more spears of pain.
“Are you okay?” The voice was light. Musical. Extremely pleasing.
He opened his eyes to see Charity in the seat in front of him, exhaustion dragging at her features and dark circles under her eyes. Something within him snapped to attention, and a protectiveness he hadn’t expected stole over him. He struggled to sit up a little straighter within her kind eyes. A leader’s eyes, looking after her people.
Royalty.
The thought came out of nowhere, and nothing in him rebelled against it. Another first. What was the world coming to?
“Yeah. I’ll heal up right quick. It’s just shitty in the meantime,” he said, much softer than he’d intended.
She analyzed him for another moment before facing front again. The pressure of her notice gone, he melted back down into the seat. Eyes beat into the side of his face.
Reagan was looking at him with a smirk.
“What?” he asked.
A knowing gleam lit her eyes. She’d caught that little show, just then, of him accepting someone else’s dominance. Someone who wasn’t pack, no less.
He shrugged, and the movement made him wince. “Sometimes you just gotta ride the waves and see what happens.”
“I mean…you know what’ll happen. You’ll hit the beach or drown,” Andy muttered.
“Exactly,” Steve replied.
“So if the way is blocked, why are we heading there?” Devon asked. “We don’t have time for you to play capture the demon.”
Reagan huffed out a laugh. “You’re much more fun than Roger, I’ll give you that. And I’ll play that game once you’re in the Realm, don’t you worry. But the elf won’t be a problem by the time you get through the portal. Penny is on the job.”
“Ah. The little witch.” Steve grinned. “She still with the Rogue Natural?”
“You need to get laid, bud,” Reagan murmured.
“Always.”
“And yes,” Reagan said. “Right now, actually. Emery knows how to fool the elves—so much so that he was kicked out of the Realm for it—and Penny knows how to make anything Emery does better. You’ll be good to go.”
“Roger knows about this?” Devon asked Reagan, turning in his seat to look at her. He was suspicious. As well he should be. This was a ludicrously half-baked plan. Steve thought about sitting up straighter to be a part of the discussion. Instead, he just looked on from his slouched position.
“Yes.” Her tone was flat and eyes serious. “Roger gave Darius a list of Charity’s symptoms. Darius, being an incredible nerd when it comes to trivia, did some calculations. He doesn’t think we should risk taking a longer route. He thinks the shorter the better. And then he clammed up, because he decided his involvement was getting dangerously close to stepping on Vlad’s toes. He’s freaked out Vlad will…return the favor. Regardless, one thing is very clear—if we want Charity to live, we need to get through this portal, and we need to get through it now.”
“I felt okay this last time, though,” Charity said, her voice weak. “I was in control. Except for the hallucination before the battle started.”
Reagan laughed as Devon whipped around to study Charity.
“Fantastic,” Reagan said. “I always manage to find magical nut jobs.” She wasn’t being sarcastic—she was the queen of magical nut jobs. “You look like shit, though. I don’t know crap about your magic, but I know magical poisoning when I see it. You need to get to your people.”
“If they even are my people,” Charity muttered.
“Okay, here we go,” Reagan said as the linebacker slowed the van. She pushed into the empty space between Devon and the door. “Given how fast the vampires split when I came on scene at that fleabag hotel, we’ll either face a shitload of them right now or none at all.”
“Is that because you’re…with a vampire who has a deal with Vlad?” Charity asked, her suspicion obvious. Steve chuckled again; he couldn’t help it. This situation was such a clusterfuck that it was comical.
The linebacker had stopped in nearly the place they’d parked before, well away from the portal site, hidden behind a line of trees beside the road.
“The creatures at that hotel weren’t Vlad’s,” Reagan said, and the smile wilted from Steve’s face.Chapter ElevenDevon watched Reagan’s face for signs of lying. Her bonded partner was a vampire—an elder to boot—and everyone knew not to trust vampires.
“What do you mean they weren’t his?” Charity asked.
“I recognized one of them as Vlad’s,” Devon said.
“Yeah. So did I. I’m wondering if he knows he’s got a traitor on his hands.” Reagan chewed her lip. “Regardless, the rest were not. I know his upper-tier minions, and those weren’t them. He doesn’t trust easily, especially not with something as valuable as Charity.”