Delilah gently bumped the old woman’s shoulder with her own. “Not sure if you’re paying attention to the conversation we’re having here, but these are very bad men.”
“Oh, I know,” said Hattie with a small wave of her hand. “I do love a bad boy, though. Admit it, we all do.”
Delilah frowned. “Not goddamn executioners, Hattie.”
Xavier raised his hand for silence. “And we have yet another keeper, apparently.”
It would seem so, because a burly male who Wynter also recognized stalked into the clearing. She felt the corners of her eyes tighten. “Cletus,” she bit out.
Xavier’s brows met. “I’m getting the feeling I should loathe Cletus. Why should I loathe him?”
“He likes to take from women what they don’t want to give,” she fudged.
Fort turned to fully face Cletus. “Well?”
“No sign of Wynter anywhere,” replied Cletus. “I told you it’d be a waste of time. The Ancients will be keeping her in their underground city.”
Fort rubbed at his bearded jaw. “Did you find a way to get down there?”
Cletus shook his head. “I’m not even sure where the entrance is.”
Fort’s brother and fellow asshole, Milos, propped his fists on his hips. “We could try and pay off a local to lure her out here to us.”
Fort dismissed that idea with a puff of sound. “They won’t do us any favors. Not for any amount of money. It’s best that we lay low and remain undetected.”
“We don’t have to say we’re from Aeon,” said Milos. “We could claim to be bounty hunters or something.”
“A lot of people here are probably on the run, so I doubt hunters would be welcome in a place like this.” Fort scratched at his head. “Lailah did warn us it wouldn’t be easy to find Wynter, so I don’t think we need to worry that she’ll lose her mind if we return without her. Not as long as we’re successful at mapping out the town as best we can. She said she wants the location of every nook, every cranny, every blind spot.”
Delilah softly cursed. “The Aeons are preparing to invade the town, huh?”
“Looks like it,” said Wynter, listening as Fort barked orders to each of the keepers. “And these bastards are gonna simplify it for them. I can’t say I’m down with that.”
Xavier looked at her, his eyes bright. “Can we kill them?”
“It’s that or let them run back home with information that we don’t want the Aeons to possess so, yeah, we can kill them,” said Wynter.
He flashed her a slow grin and conjured his sword. “Just what I wanted to hear.”
Looking similarly pleased, Hattie and Delilah shifted into their animal forms. The crow settled on top of the monstrous cat, who flexed its iron claws. Both women could also fight with magick, but they preferred using their animal forms since it meant that their senses, reflexes, strength, and speed were enhanced.
Wynter lifted a brow at Anabel. “Are you joining the fight or waiting here?”
A sword materialized in the blonde’s hand, which answered the question.
Wynter called to her own blade and then placed her mouth near Anabel’s ear. “Mary, Mary, please come out,” she quietly sang.
The blonde’s demeanor changed in an instant, switching from nervous to eager as her eyes took on that familiar not-so-sane light.
“No drinking blood,” Wynter told her.
Anabel/Mary nodded, a feral smile splitting her lips. “Understood.”
Conscious that she couldn’t allow her monster free rein right now, Wynter silently assured it that the keepers would die, relieved when it didn’t push for supremacy.
“Fort’s mine,” Wynter told her crew. “Okay … now.” Pumped full of anticipation, she rushed out of the woods with the others at her heels.
Taken off-guard, it took the keepers a moment to react. But, highly trained as they were, they sprung to attention fast and raised their weapons.