Ivy kept control over their shared body, reining in the beast’s murderous instincts. Tearing apart random cars wouldn’t help to find Hugh and Hope. Instead, she arrowed toward the boundary of the estate.
We hunt, she told her wyvern, picturing the black backs of the hellhounds.
It was clear now that the pack had been deliberately drawing her away from the house while Gaze infiltrated the ball. But she might be able to turn the tables on them, if she moved fast. Her sense of smell was keen as a snake’s, and hellhounds had a very distinctive sulfur-and-wet-dog reek.
Which, she suddenly realized, she could smell right now.
A large canine shape sat in plain sight, right outside the front gates to the estate. It was howling like a wounded wolf, over and over, flames showing in the back of its throat.
She practically fell out of the sky in her haste to land. The hellhound sprang back stiff-legged as she crashed next to it in a spray of gravel. The next instant, she had it by the throat, her jaws pinning it down and her tail poised to strike.
*WHERE ARE THEY?* Ivy snarled telepathically.
The hellhound stared up at her, fiery eyes wide in non-comprehension. Cursing herself, Ivy realized that it hadn’t heard her. Hellhounds were a type of faerie creature, just different enough from mythic shifters that they couldn’t easily communicate mind-to-mind.
Ivy released the hellhound from her jaws, though she kept her stinger arced and ready. The other shifter made no attempt to escape. It just rolled onto its back, whining and showing its belly in an obvious display of submission. There was something gangling and adolescent about its long legs and slightly too-big paws.
Never taking her eyes off the hellhound, Ivy shrank back into her human skin. She jerked her gloves off the instant she had hands again, showing the cringing hellhound the venom glistening on her palms.
“Don’t get any ideas,” she warned. “I can kill you just as easily in this shape. Now shift so that we can talk.”
The coal-black shape shimmered, shrinking down into an ebony-skinned girl, her hair braided into close cornrows. White dust from the gravel marked her black motorbike leathers. Her hands shook as she raised them above her head in surrender, but her full mouth was set in determination.
“You!” Ivy recognized her—it was the girl who’d been watching Hugh’s house, the one Hope had claimed was her friend. “You’re…Betsy?”
“Betty.” The girl’s voice quavered, but her hazel eyes met Ivy’s without flinching. “Though only Hope calls me that. I'm Jezebeth Black. Don’t kill me, I’m here to help you!”
“Like hell you are.” Ivy didn’t lower her hands. “You’re the one who lured Hope into Gaze’s clutches in the first place.”
Betty’s shoulders hunched in her leather jacket. “No, I never meant—I didn’t know he was going to—please, there isn’t time for this! You just have to trust me!”
Acid filled her throat. “Give me one good reason.”
“Hope’s my…that is, I think she’s…“ Betty squirmed, her voice dropping to a reluctant, sullen mutter. “Look, I’m pretty sure Hope’s my mate, okay?”
Ivy stared at her.
Betty glared back, her jaw setting in teenage stubbornness. “Don’t you dare tell her.”
The girl’s clear mortification convinced Ivy more than any fervent declaration of love ever could have. Shifters usually couldn’t recognize their true mates until they were full adults, but there was a hardened maturity in Betty’s direct gaze that Ivy recognized. She’d seen it in the mirror when she’d been seventeen. Betty might be young, but life had clearly made her grow up fast.
Ivy dropped her hands at last, straightening from her combat crouch. Part of her was gibbering in denial—Hope’s seventeen! She can’t have a mate! She’s supposed to be focusing on her studies, not dating!—but there wasn’t time to freak out about that now.
“Okay,” she said. “We’ll uh, talk about that later. Do you know where Gaze is taking Hope and Hugh?”
Betty nodded eagerly, pulling a cellphone out of her pocket. “Gaze doesn’t know about me and Hope. I was real careful to constantly complain about having to hang out with her, so that he wouldn’t suspect the truth. Anyway, I was able to find out his plan, and get a place with the group that was assigned to distract you. He’s taking them back to his most secure location. It’s an old warehouse on the outskirts of London. Here, look.”
Ivy swore under her breath as she studied the map on Betty’s phone. The marked address was a long way from Brighton, and Gaze had the advantage of a head start. Even flying at top speed, there was no way Alpha Team would be able to get there in time.
But no one was faster in the air than a wyvern.
Chapter 21
Hope squirmed as Gaze’s thug slung her over his shoulder. Her legs were paralyzed, but her upper body and core muscles were strong thanks to years of hauling herself around. She managed to get in a solid head-butt, although it left her own ears ringing.
The thug grunted in pain and annoyance, but didn’t pause. “Stop thrashing, kid. You’ll only make things harder on yourself.”
Naturally, this only made Hope redouble her efforts. But with her arms handcuffed behind her back and her mouth gagged, it was difficult to do anything to resist as the Gaze’s henchman carried her after his boss.